Wednesday, September 29, 2010

The Circle of Life - The Rise and Fall of Republicans?

Democrats are about to suffer a political beating of Biblical proportions. Republicans are going to take at least one of the houses of Congress back and they'll be riding a wave of new found popularity. How did this happen and can it be sustained?

How it happened is easy. A variety of different people rallied around a few core principals and saw the Republican party as a vehicle to drive the agenda. Those principals are that government should be less costly and smaller in size and in scope. They want less regulation and low taxes and the want adherence to the Constitution. If the newbies in Washington DC next year were to focus on those and work hard to advance the cause everything would be hunky dory. But here is perhaps a more likely scenario.

Republicans will begin talking amongst themselves, setting the agenda and discover that not all gun rights advocates are also pro-life. They'll learn that not all pro-lifers are church going, God fearing Christians. They'll find out that not all church going, God fearing Christians oppose gay marriage. They'll find out that not all gay marriage opponents are NRA members. You get the idea. They'll soon begin squabbling amongst themselves over these and other issues (most of which aren't legitimate concerns of the government anyway) and the dreams of balanced budgets, limited government and fiscal sanity will fade away. At the same time, Democrats will find three or four things that they can agree on long enough to win some elections. The circle of politics goes on.

I sincerely hope that I'm as wrong as wrong can be on this one. But I'm not.

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