"I'm the next generation! You better watch out!"
I don't understand the California Republican Party or the national GOP for that matter. I really don't.
This has nothing to do with the fact that the Republican Party used to contain more moderates and reasonable conservatives now is controlled by obstructionist, elitist right-wing and Tea Party crazies.
This has to do with the fact that now Republican Congressional Candidate Carl DeMaio is running against freshman Democratic Congressman Scott Peters in California's 52nd Congressional District as a more liberal/moderate Republican while pretty much every other new GOP candidate in all races in Congress is nuts or an extreme ideologue. Yes, DeMaio, if I take him at his word for who he is, is a more socially liberal Republican and according to what he says, he really is the next generation of the Republican Party.
http://news.yahoo.com/...
DeMaio, 38, doesn’t fit the mold of a traditional Republican. His election could make him the only openly gay GOP member of Congress. (Just two openly gay Republicans have ever served in the House.) DeMaio's views on same-sex marriage and abortion are also at odds with the party platform.
But DeMaio says he’s not interested in making social issues central to his campaign. While open about his beliefs, his run is focused on government accountability and pocketbook-issue reform instead of relitigating the culture wars.
“We ought to take those divisive issues, particularly the social issues, and set them off to the side,” DeMaio told Yahoo News in an interview. “It’s not appropriate for the government to be making decisions for people in their private lives. Instead, we should demand that we look beyond labels to embrace common sense ideas on financial reform and holding these government programs accountable.”
DeMaio's policy views — economically conservative and socially liberal — place him in a libertarian wing of the Republican Party, one that seems to be growing in popularity among young voters. But he's reluctant to put himself in any category.
Sure, the socially liberal and fiscally conservative views place DeMaio in the libertarian wing but they also put him at odds with just about 85% of Republicans in Congress (no, make that 95%). In fact, we could make the argument that DeMaio is even a moderate Republican because he focuses on "getting things done," as he mentions in this video:
However, doesn't DeMaio realize that he will NOT be able to work with ANY of the Republicans in Congress at the rate which they are currently running the Legislative Branch? There's simply no chance at that, none. ZILCH. He'll have to be Mr. Smooth or even better than House Speaker John Boehner at getting the Tea Party Republicans to stop being ideologues and get back to work. DeMaio may be used to the San Diego scene but in Washington D.C., it's a whole different ball game.
DeMaio could work with the Democrats, except then he'd get chastised by most Republicans and Tea Party people for compromising and would become former moderate Republican Steve LaTourette (who represented Ohio's 14th Congressional District until 2013). LaTourette, in case some of you don't know, was considered a more bipartisan Republican in Congress in Ohio but according to him, he kept getting whip lashed for cooperating with Democrats. I don't see how DeMaio wouldn't get the same whip lashing considering how he says he'll be a Congressman very much like LaTourette (maybe different personality though).
Crazy enough, the GOP party establishment is backing DeMaio all the way, including the NRCC and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy who is a California Republican Congressman:
http://news.yahoo.com/...
Despite his potential of being a maverick if he makes it to Congress, DeMaio is not a fringe candidate. He has early support from the party establishment — the National Republican Congressional Committee, the official party group responsible for electing Republicans to the House, is backing him full force. In July, California Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the third-ranking House Republican, hosted a fundraiser for him in Washington. The invitation branded DeMaio as a “New Generation Republican.”
Furthermore:
http://news.yahoo.com/...
Given his background, DeMaio seems like just the type of candidate that the soul-searching Republican Party is looking for.
“I actually think that we are going to make headway in the Republican Party on these issues in the coming years,” DeMaio told Yahoo News. “It is going to be a totally different thrust for the Republican Party.”
I can't believe the Republican Party is FINALLY soul-searching these days. Seriously, it took for Mitt Romney to lose to President Barack Obama in 2012 for the GOP to actually start soul-searching?
No, the party should have done soul searching back in 1992 when Bill Clinton beat President George H.W. Bush, in 1996 when Bill Clinton beat Senator Bob Dole to win his 2nd re-election term, in 2006 when they had lost dearly to the Democratic Party in the midterm elections and in 2008 when Barack Obama was elected President of the United States and the GOP lost even more seats in the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
So if Carl DeMaio is the candidate that the soul-searching Republican Party is looking for, well, then that means the party will have to go being less of grid-locking party via Mitch McConnell, John Boehner and Eric Cantor and back to where it used to be during Bob Dole's days. That means then the GOP will have to disregard the Tea Party, the religious conservatives and deal with more pragmatic Republicans. They'll also have to reach out to those moderate Republicans and reasonable conservative Republicans whom the Tea Party Republicans launched primary challenges in 2010 and 2012.
So bottom line: The GOP is an enigma of a party.
By the way, on a side note, I do recognize Carl DeMaio is gay and I think it's a refreshing thing that the Republican Party establishment is supporting a gay Republican for Congress in 2014.
But let's face it: Will DeMaio believe in the same trickled down economics as many other Republicans nowadays believe in? Is he a Ronald Reagan worshiper like most of the others in the GOP are?
Same test can be applied to those who are Black, Hispanic, Filipino or even Indian and Republicans: Are you trickled-down economics believers?
Nevertheless, since Scott DeMaio is challenging a Democratic incumbent Congressman who previously won the CA-52 election in November by beating then-Rep. Brian Bilbray, Scott Peters, I think it's probably best at this point to support Peters for re-election.
The necessary links are below for you to get involved and donate for Scott Peters' re-election campaign:
Scott Peters for Congress:
http://www.scottpeters.com/
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