The Left-Right Coalition?

Recently, it seems that there have been more bills where Conservative Republicans and Liberal Democrats are voting together opposite the "mainstream" politicos.  For instance, for today's Patriot Act and Medicinal Marijuana votes, conservative representatives Butch Otter, Roscoe Bartlett, and Ron Paul, among others, were voting with the Progressive Caucus people (Kucinich, Sanders, et al.).  With the George W. Bush wing of the Republican party and the DLC wing of the Democratic party increasingly fighting against their fringes, could there be a realignment of party basis in Washington?

Currently, the main divisions in parties are on social issues "Guns, God, and Gays", especially abortion, and taxes.  However, especially after 9/11, there seems to be a real divide between the "We need to do all we can to protect people" people and "We need to respect civil liberties" people.  As these are the "true liberals" (not Zellocrats) and "true conservatives" (not Leach/Chafee/etc.) working "together" almost, maybe there will be a party that for a while will be against the Washington status quo.

My prediction:  Before the 2008 elections, there will be a major shift in the parties as we know them today.  My guess is that the right-wing (Libertarians, not Christian Theocrats) of the Republican Party will break to the Democrats, and the right-wing (DLC-ers like Bayh and Lieberman) of the Democratic Party will break to the Republicans.  Also, as has already started, the Republicans will be the party of big government programs, though the Democrats will still have to figure out how to pay for them.  Social issues will be a lot less of a wedge than they are now.

•  Both edges of the GOP

  peeled on the medical marijuana vote. Leach and Nancy Johnson, for instance.

  by ben masel on Thu Jul 08, 2004 at 09:37:28 PM PDT

•  Maybe

  a 3rd party will form in the middle and sweep.

  by banjon on Thu Jul 08, 2004 at 09:45:30 PM PDT

•  The libertarians

  were originally part of the democratic base. Due to our current crop of moronic leaders we've managed to chase them to the right. Libertarians dont trust government, believe strongly in the constitution and individual liberty. Something we used to stand for before  we sold out to the feinsteins , schumers, and the rest of the control-freak authoritarians who are quite certain they know whats best for "the masses".

  by cdreid on Thu Jul 08, 2004 at 10:28:34 PM PDT

•  not likely...

  that either Bayh or Lieberman will bolt.  Both are too entrenched in the Dem party.  Christ, Bayh's dad -- Birch Bayh -- would probably disown Evan if he did that.

  The real left-right coalition is the Nader assholes helping to re-elect Bush.

  by joydivision350125 on Thu Jul 08, 2004 at 11:34:07 PM PDT

•  There's been a lot of talk

  about a coming split in the Republican Party.

  I have a dear friend who is a lifelong Republican who ceased all active involvement a few years ago because the people in charge are, in his opinion, not conservative, but radical.

  It's not useful for us to refer to Tom DeLay as a conservative. He reallly isn't.

  A textbook conservative doesn't want things to change much. He also doesn't want the government mucking about in his personal business, whether it's his sex life or what books he checks out from the library.

  I think the current GOP, working as it is according to the Texas model, is in danger of alienating much of its rank-and-file. They're taking far-out fringe stands. And they're also behaving like thugs in the running of our government.

  I think there's a lesson here for Naderites and other lefty types. If you govern on the fringe, you incite disgust.

  by hamletta on Fri Jul 09, 2004 at 12:53:48 AM PDT