The Republican infighting has begun. The really right wing elements of their party are attacking the moderates, focusing on Arlen Specter. Their attacking Specter because he is set to head up the Judiciary committee, and will therefore have influence on the appointment of Supreme Court Justices.
Now I do not like Specter. I am from Pennsylvania, and I want him out of office because he has a done a number of things I disagree with, but as far as Republicans go I tend to agree with his general views more than most. If the religious right feels that someone who I may occasionally agree with is so incredibly awful, they must hate actual progressives.
Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Lincoln Chafee, they are all being attacked as too moderate. I can see why Jeffords left the Republicans. The fact that Arlen Specter is being given the Chairmanship of the Judiciary committee is not a guaranteed thing. Basically committee chairs are determined by majority in such a way that all the committee chairs end up being from the majority party. Past that the parties determine their policies internally. The Republicans have seniority mechanism with term limits. What does that mean? It means that other Republican Senators, under pressure, could withhold their votes (its actually not so public, but essentially if a majority of Republicans did not want him to have the seat he would not). They could also offer him a seat on some other committee, but I doubt he would take it willingly.
Personally, I hope he gets it, is the best thing for us. He believes in keeping the court balanced, which is the best we can hope for in the present. But the way I see it either the moderate Republican senators will be alienated, or the religious right will be. It will be interesting to watch this play out.
What can I say, we had are ass handed to us. We lost seats in both houses of Congress, and Bush won the presidency, both in the popular vote, and the electoral vote. People are ranting about electronic voting problems, and voter intimidation. I am pretty sure both happened, they always do, but the honest truth is that we just lost, and looking for excuses and scapegoats is a waste of time.
I come from a fairly political family. My brother has been both a politician and a political strategist. During this campaign cycle I stuffed envelopes, made phone calls, put literature on doorsteps, wrote data mining software for a get out the vote effort. I gave $3500 to various candidates. I won’t detail whom, suffice it to say, they were all Democrats, and they all lost. I wasn’t alone. Democrats showed record volunteerism and donations. We rivaled the Republicans in fundraising, which is something that was impossible according to all conventional wisdom. We should but be proud of what we accomplished. But we still lost…
What am I trying to say here? Am I discouraged? Yes. Am I depressed? Yes, Am I tired? Yes. Am I going to take a few days to relax and lick my wounds? Yes. Am I going to give up? NO!
We started something. We started a reformation, and revitalization of the Democratic Party. We started to turn it into a modern, progressive party. It will take time, and effort, and maybe some more lost elections. But we need to do it. Both of the major parties have major endemic problems that have to be addressed, and we are addressing ours. Every time we lose it delays our progress, and increases the burden we will have to bear, but one day we will be victorious, and we will bear that burden, and we will turn America into the kind of country and culture we want it to be.
It may take years, or decades, but until then I will be giving my time and money to candidates who represent my ideals, and who want to remake America into a progressive culture that welcomes all who can contribute. We may have lost this battle, but the campaign is far from over, and I will be dead and rotting before I give up the fight.