Partisans Come to the aid of your Parties

Democrats and Republicans have dedicated partisans that believe in their party's' platform. This is common and even correct. By my reading the Republicans are poised to make a comeback this fall. Whether that includes winning back either house of Congress is too early to say. They can also sabotage their own future by then, but that is the way it looks now.

My personal belief is that both parties are populated by leaders that are clueless and destructive. Most of the reason for the rebirth of the Republicans is the stupidity and arrogance of the Democrats. Democrats will sink themselves at some point. If it is not this year it can't be far away. My biggest reason for this is they don't have anyone in their party telling them when they are wrong. The Republican Party is known by some as the stupid party. Their resurgence has little to do with things they have done, but mostly over reach by the Democrats.

For the years leading up the 2006 Democrat victories the partisans in the Republican Party were telling them that they were spending too much money, and they had lost sight of what their party platform was. Today the Democratic leadership is made up of left wing activists (Pelosi, Reid, etc). Their members are telling them that they are on the wrong course and they are ignoring it. As a country we need both parties to be listening to their party members. They have come to believe for good reason that they will pay no price for not listening to their members. Until leadership gets voted out they simply won't listen. Just changing the party in power also won't help. The leadership will just become a minority party instead of a majority party. The leadership will still be safe. It will be the first and second term members that get thrown out. Only by throwing out the entrenched leaders of both parties will anything change.

So now which party has the members effectively telling them the correct things? I believe it is the Republicans. Talk radio plays a big part of that. Throughout the immigration debate Talk radio hosts were telling them daily they were alienating their voters. The voices ranged from reasonable and reflective to extreme and nasty. This will always be the case. Right now Democrats are telling their leaders they are on the wrong track by staying home from the ballot box. They are listening to the extreme leftists such as George Soros and Keith Olbermann. They are not listening to the independents and moderate Democrats. They do that at their own peril. This fall will tell a lot about that. It sounds like the Democratic leadership is determined not to moderate. If that is true even a growing economy won't be enough to save them. The voters are in a particularly impatient mood right now which makes them motivated to vote. If that continues to the fall they won't have a good election. It could still change. If the economy continues to improve and unemployment comes down they may buy themselves some time. Even if that does happen though I believe the time will come when both parties will have to pay the price. The longer both Parties do whatever they want the closer that day will be.

I am somewhat in between on this. If I had to classify myself I am a libertarian. Yes that is a small 'l' libertarian. I think most people in the Libertarian party are not serious thinkers. That leaves me with no real party to align with. I tend to vote Republican but rarely feel good about it. With that reason I am rooting for the Republicans to get serious about small government principles and truly putting out policies that reflect that, BUT I am not holding my breath.