Sunday, December 14, 2008

The Increasingly Delusional Virginia GOP

As a one time Republican, the increasing insanity of the Republican Party particularly here in the Old Dominion is getting harder and harder to fathom. One cannot help but wonder what drugs or strong Kool-Aid is being imbibe by the party base. The party has suffered repeated losses of late but rather than moderate and acknowledge the state's changing demographics, the Republican Party of Virginia ("RPV")retreats increasingly to the far right alienating even more voters. Pam's House Blend has a good recap of the bat shittery to use her term of what's going on within the RPV. Here are a few highlights:
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In case the RPV didn't notice, the Democrats carried the state and added a new U.S senator during this month's election. White conservative voters are a shrinking part of the electorate. Republicans can get 100% of the conservative white vote, but it wouldn't be enough to win state or nation-wide. So, what is the RPV's plan to build a coalition that will make them competitive? Move further to the right!
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So, let me make sure I understand this strategy. The party just lost the state to a democratic presidential candidate for the first time since 1964, the state has changed from red to blue, they just lost the other U.S. senate seat to a Democrat, they lost control of the state senate, and have a 7 seat lead in the house of delegates, and they want to move even further to the right. This illogical thinking is what is driving people like me and others away from this party in droves. What should the party do?
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The first thing they should do is to get rid of their racist chairman, Jeff Frederick. Last month he compared Senator Obama to Osama bin Laden, saying, "
they both have friends that bombed the Pentagon." Which of course is not true. Frederick has yet to apologize for his ignorant remarks...Not one person in leadership from RPV called him to task on this insidious comment.
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As long as the RPV continues to inject race into their campaigns, require conservative litmus tests for participation, and ignore the changing demographics of the state, they are destined to continue losing seats and elections.
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I would further add that besides abandoning the politics of racism, the RVP needs to dump its Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell element and likewise stop listening to profession homophobes such as Victoria Cobb at The Family Foundation.

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