So while we banter back and forth about the "progressiveness" or effectiveness of President Obama, Senator Reid, Speaker Pelosi and the dozens of other Democrats who didn't do this or that thing enough over the past year and a half...
The opposition is banking on our not showing up. And, they are banking on winning with a core group of voters that are so far off to the right, that we haven't seen people like this since the Dixiecrats in the 1950's. Seriously.
And they say they want to take their country back. Just what does that mean, exactly?
This is what I'm talking about. Did you see this Quote of the Day on Political Wire (http://www.politicalwire.com/archives/2010/09/29/bonus_quote_of_the_day.html)? This is the Republican candidate for Governor from the great - and previously pretty mellow - state of Maine. I mean, if the worst you can do is Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, then how radical can your Republicans be? Apparently, pretty radical. Since when does the Governor of any state tell any other elected official (let alone the President) to "Go to Hell?"
Is this really about health care, lower taxes, big government, or insert-your-favorite-conservative-social/cultural-cause-here? HELL NO, it's not!
Listen to what these people - these Republicans - are saying: In primary after primary, when they win they exude a big, joyful smile and say "We want our country back!"
When I went to vote in my primary in Rhode Island, I was accosted by a "Tea Party" Republican running for the nomination to the State House. I told him I was a Democrat, but he didn't care, he just kept right on going. He said, "Don't you want to take your country back?"
I told him that we already did that in 2008. Honestly.
My point, folks, is that these people have no respect at all for Democrats, the President, and for that matter anybody who doesn't think like them, look like them, worship like them, etc. To say they are culturally extreme is an understatement. These are bigots, pure and simple.
I know it's obvious to all of us - hell, the media is piled high with examples of it - you just need to be one of those that pays attention. They don't want an intellectual debate on the size and direction of government.
They want their country back all right, because they cannot handle the idea that the President is a smart non-white person. They cannot handle the idea that their are Muslims in this country (or Jews, or Catholics, or Hindus, for that matter) who are free to worship just like they are.
They are the people that have bought into every crackpot conspiracy that any joker throws about about President Obama, his citizenship, his religion, Health Care Reform, climate change - you name it. They are a small, loud, dedicated and extremely frightened minority.
Governmentally incompetent, they will gladly jettison one constitutional amendment (like the 1st or the 14th), but worship the purity of another one (like the 2nd). Unlike the Rovian Republicans, they are intellectually honest - to a fault - but thankfully, at least, that helps us with how extreme they really are. And that makes them incredibly dangerous. Think about what happens of Jim DeMint really does put a hold on every piece of legislation in the Senate, and the majority does not find a way to stop him - because they agree with him.
Now would be a good time to fight in this campaign, don't you think?
It's not that the Democrats are a slightly better alternative. It's truly that we(and democracy) are the only alternative.