I have a new link and icon on the upper right hand corner of this webpage. It links to a site called Electoral-vote.com. I found this site during the 2004 Presidential election and it attempted to project the electoral vote for President by looking at several polls by state. The site is run by a blogger known as the Votemaster, he is also a professor of Computer Science living overseas. The votemaster resurrected his site this year to track the Senate Balance and Elections. The icon on the right is his current prediction of the 2007 Senate make-up.
The votemaster also will write his take on the current events regarding the election and he had a very interesting quote today when looking at the National Republican Committee spending funds during primaries on moderate candidates when there are more conservative candidates vying for the nomination. The votemaster so succinctly put it like this:
"With Republicans, power trumps ideology."
He makes an excellent point. The GOP is more about consolidating and preserving power than promoting it's core ideology. Case in point. Pick up a pen and write down the top 2 legislative priorities of the GOP...what do they campaign on? Here is my guess of what you wrote down:
- National Security
- Social Issues (Gay Marriage, Flag Burning, Abortion)
Now if you think of what the party has delivered legislatively, without the broad support of Democrats, does anything really hit those two priorities.
- National Security: The Patriot Act passed with a great deal of Democratic support in a knee jerk reaction to the 9/11 attacks and was extended again with a lot of Democrats again (looking to avoid the "soft on security" issue). The Iraqi War, again a lot of Democrats in the post 9/11 "get tough" frame of mind. Military tribunals not going to pass. The new NSA wiretapping bill is also not going anywhere fast. Even the President's choice as UN Ambassador, John Bolton, looks like he won't get to keep his job when his recess appointment ends.
- Social Issues: Abortion limitations - Not even talked about. Stem Cell Research - Not legislated but limited by Executive Order. Flag Burning Amendment - Dead. Federal Marriage Amendment - Dead. Wormer - Dead. Neidemeyer - Dead. Marmalarde - DEAD! (that's a movie quote Mom).
Do you know what the GOP has delivered? Economic/tax changes, the priorities of the old republican party. We have a lower income tax rate, lower capital gains rates, big corporate loopholes and giveaways - Unprecedented growth in wealth for the wealthiest people in the country. it appears to me the social conservatism is just a ruse to consolidate and perpetuate power to deliver what the GOP really wants...less business regulation. But for some reason those red state guppies continue to drink from the well. Wake up you nuts, if the party can't deliver all your social legislation with the presidency, 55 votes in the Senate and 232 in the House, then you will never get it passed. Quit living in denial.
It has to be the answer to the age old question - why in the world to moderate Republicans like Lincoln Chafee, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins continue to call themselves Republicans when the party's priorities are so conservative. It is because they party is really about power and those three help consolidate that power and still get what they want. They are very relevant to the party even if it appears the opposite on the surface.
Let's hope the votemaster is right and the Senate sees a dramatic shift in power.
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