The Bar
By Mitch Berg
If every Republican candidate stated as good a case for conservative Republican politics as Louisiana state legislator Elbert Guillory, the GOP would have 3:1 majorities in Congress and all legislatures – maybe 3:2 in New York and California.
Republicans – take note.
June 19th, 2013 at 1:12 pm
I was listening to a Jackson Mississippi radio station (on line) this past Sunday morning. Broadcasts of the services of two black churches (one in Vicksburg, one in Jackson).
It was very different than what you hear from northern (or national) liberal activists. There was no Republican vs Democrat mentioned. And no blaming outside forces for the problems in the black community. Nothing like you hear in Obama’s chruch in Chicago. But a very stark picture was given. One paster spoke out stongly against gay marriage (and other non-traditional values). Both talked about the incredibly high single rate of parent households. The drugs. The overall destruction of the black family.
If you want solutions, you want people like these pastors and Mr Guillory. Instead of telling everyone that they are victims and deserve free stuff from the gov’t, they see what the roots of the problem really are and want to solve that.
June 19th, 2013 at 6:16 pm
Behind all my hyperbole, and yes, hatred, of leftists lies this message.
June 19th, 2013 at 9:11 pm
Ironically, it might do the Republicans a lot of good, long term, if in the many states they control they stopped gerrymandering districts, and if they adopted open primaries like California. The short term gains that gerrymandering has produced are serving to make the party ever more unelectable as the resulting candidates appeal only to party members, an ever shrinking minority. Pragmatic centrist Republicans do very well in most of the US in local and state government. Those pragmatic centrists have done what the federal party (and the Roves of the world) has asked and created safe seats and closed primaries which nominate lunatic idealogue candidates. Improving the intraparty democracy would help to keep out the lunatic fringe.
June 19th, 2013 at 9:36 pm
Emery, in 2010 the GOP retook congress in a mind-bending blow out, unprecedented in modern times.
If you don’t remember that, it’s probably because the pragmatic centrists don’t talk about it much. It wasn’t their victory.
Open primaries are crap because they don’t let the party pick its candidates. In CA a move is on for the D’s to vote for liberal republicans in some districts. If 53% of the voters choose a liberal for both the D & R ticket, you’ll have a liberal lock on the election that cannot be broken.
June 19th, 2013 at 10:27 pm
/[Open Primaries]…. don’t let the party pick its candidates/
If by “party” you mean base, I think you’re beginning to catch on.
June 20th, 2013 at 11:37 am
Emery, we have political parties for a reason. If you take the idea of open primaries to its logical end, you have all parties representing the wishes of 51%, and none of the parties representing the 49%. Parties disappear.
How much diversity among elected candidates do you see in polities where there are open primaries?
In California there are about 4 democrat voters for every three Republican voters. In CA, Dems control both senate seats, have greater than a 2:1 advantage in US house seats, and the Democrats have the governorship, and veto proof majorities in both state houses.
June 20th, 2013 at 2:58 pm
“In California there are about 4 democrat voters for every three Republican voters. In CA, Dems control both senate seats, have greater than a 2:1 advantage in US house seats, and the Democrats have the governorship, and veto proof majorities in both state houses.”
IOW, it’s a feature, not a bug.