So much for common ground

In Governing Magazine. Alan Ehrenhalt slices and dices America’s inexorable drift toward right wing extremism dispassionately and completely.

RIVALS ON THE RIGHT

What we're seeing is moderate Republicans being picked off by organized conservative opposition.

Halfway through the 2006 primary season, it's pretty clear that something unusual is happening: Lots of state legislators are losing their bids for renomination -17 of them in the "Pennsylvania massacre" in May, for example, and 11 more on June 6. The total for the year so far is over 40. With two dozen primaries still to come, it's possible the ranks of the rejected could grow to nearly 100 before the general election takes place.

Some perspective is in order. While those 40 or so incumbents were losing this spring, well over a thousand were winning, most of them with either token opposition or no opposition at all. It's not as if legislators are dropping like flies. Still, 40 defeats in just a couple of months is a strikingly high number. The only time you expect to see that is in a redistricting year, when large numbers of House and Senate members are thrown into new constituencies or are forced to run against each other. Otherwise, barring age-related decline, ethical misconduct or an unforgivable political blunder, legislators almost never lose primaries.

So why are they losing them this year? One explanation comes to mind right away: It's an uprising against the political status quo. Voters are in a throw-the-rascals-out frame of mind, one might argue, and they aren't waiting until November to express it.

But while that sounds plausible enough, the numbers don't really bear it out. A broad-based anti-incumbent tide should strike both parties in reasonably equal measure, and this one isn't doing that. Democrats have gotten off relatively lightly. Of the legislators defeated so far, three-quarters have been Republicans. That sounds like too much of a tilt to be coincidental.

In fact, it's not coincidental at all. What we're seeing is moderate Republicans being picked off by organized conservative opposition.

In other words, what we are seeing is the ugly face of the lunatic fringe. Taking whole chapters from the Bush/Rove “Divide and Conquer” playbook, the right wing has decided that enough is enough. They want things their way and will quite literally do anything to win. From outing a covert CIA agent in Washington DC, to buying elections in North Carolina, the polarizing right wing wants to destroy government as quickly as possible. Compromise and moderation are for wimps. As Richard Morgan learned in May, if you work with Democrats, you are the enemy.

Yesterday, I wondered out loud whether it might make sense for progressives to look for common ground with people like John Hood, hoping against hope that the sane on the right might rise up against the anti-democratic zealots in control of the Republican party. But after 24 hours of soul-searching - and nary a peep from the Puppets - it’s clear that my hope was delusional. For all their Libertarian bullshit, Pope’s Puppets are just another toxic brand of right wing extremism.

The N&O explored this angle briefly many moons ago, and they mentioned Under the Dome that the hearing would take place in August. I'd like to see them really dig in to discuss the implications of a polarized electorate.