There’s no way Grandpa’s Olde Party is actually attempting to connect with the voters on the issues, instead of pushing their agenda on the masses… is there? Jon Fleischman is going to have a conservative coronary when he reads about this! The LA Times is reporting that an offshoot of a Republican group, ‘The New Majority,’ is focusing on, with both the encouragement and ire of different factions of the party, recruiting statewide candidates that represent the majority of voters in California, or as I like to call them, Centrists, or Moderates. Many are even called DTS! Remember that Dems, when Republicans say things like this:
Hudson noted that a number of the Republican group’s board members also belong to the New Majority, which was founded primarily by Orange County executives who for years have tried to nudge the party away from social conservatives and their emphasis on issues such as abortion and gun rights.
Also, many members of the new group have close ties to Schwarzenegger, who has complained that the state Republican party is “dying at the box office” because it remains too ideologically conservative on issues including healthcare and global warming.
Since Bush took office in 2000 the Democrats have been a defeated and divided party. Liberal was a dirty word. What happened in 2006 when the voters turned the tables in Congress? Arguably, not a whole lot due their not winning a workable majority, and so we’ve all consequently realized that voting in a Democratic Congress is only the first step in the process of correcting Bush’s atrocious mistakes, both foreign and domestic. What’s been accomplished is not reform, but a stalemate, the stoppage of momentum, only the beginning of the revolution, much like how Newt Gingrich’s ‘Contract With America’ disrupted Bill’s Clinton’s agenda, which then in turn gave way to unilateral Neo-Conservative control of America and her resources.
Fast Forward to today. For months, I’ve been calling for Democratic leaders to make the necessary compromises to get the peoples’ work done and perhaps even put to rest many of our issues . Let’s start with abortion. Roe v. Wade has been the law of the land for 35 years, so if you don’t agree with abortion, don’t get one. Yes, there should be safeguards on the procedure, especially late-term bans, and so on the other side of the coin, the 2nd Amendment is the law of the land as well, but again, for the sake of a civilized society, minimal regulation is certainly in order.
So seriously, the notoriously closed-minded Republican Party is open to compromise, but here in OC where those with an (R) next to their name outnumber us, their reputation is exploited to perpetuate a party war that benefits no one, and even contributed in part to the rise of the recent ‘blog war’ between our sister site ‘The Orange Juice,’ and ‘The Liberal OC.’ It seems to me we’re all fighting about whether or not we should work together. With the Republicans staking some claim in the centrist portion of the political spectrum, the Democrats must either choose to join them or abandon the mainstream. After an ‘error’ of right-wing fanaticism, the last thing I want to see is a far-left definition of liberty.
But the truth of the matter is that even politics itself, largely a topic previously dedicated to late night AM radio and newspaper editorial columns targeted at old-guard armchair pundits, is going mainstream. People are engaged, and they’re sick of the partisan two party system. It’s all fun and games until someone starts a ‘war!’ Nothing like dissent to drive up civic participation!
Now is the time to close this dark chapter on the American story; ‘Tricky Dick,’ ‘Slick Wlly;’ why doesn’t that bumbling Commando-In-Chief Bush have a goofy nickname anyway? No matter, his time is done. But ‘New Majority,’ post-partisans, whatever you call us (on either side of the aisle), we are here and we’re focusing on fixing the country, not elections.
I honestly doubt the whole state will ever go red, but more red could mean more stalemate, and really, who wants that? So like many Californians, I’m happy with purple – the new mainstream.
SMS
