Personally, I'm not an ideologue. I am however, a firm believer in the Buckley Principle: nominate the most conservative guy (or gal) who can win. Going down with flags flying has no appeal to me. Sadly, the extremes of both parties don't feel that way. Particularly in the House. Since so few of 'em are in competitive races they tend to hew to the outer edges of their parties. Natually, the port siders will deny that, asserting that it's only the conservatives who are fringy. So when New Yorkers elect a Sandanista mayor, what then?
You pick any controversial issue facing Americans and generally the most extreme voices and positions are the ones we hear. Most of us are in the middle somewhere. And most of us don't donate to pressure groups. Or march. H*ll, most of us don't even vote!
Although I revered Barry Goldwater as a great conservative and great man, he represented a break from traditional Republicanism. And New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller represented the "go along to get along" Republicans. The slogan was "A choice, not an echo." The MSM treated this man as if he were some sort of fascist. H*ll, Daniel Schorr even described Goldwater as visiting "Hitler's old stomping grounds" in Bavaria.
So now we have the Tea Party, another manifestation of "movement" conservatives. And there's nothing new about what they stand for or the Democrats' (or the MSM's) response to them. To my knowledge, TP types haven't advocated any violence nor engaged in any. The only violence at a TP event came when SEIU thugs beat the crap out of a black guy. Yet the shrieking in the media about the TP is deafening. They aren't my cup of tea, primarily because they've engineering the nomination of candidates who blew winnable races. But they're essentially harmless and represent nothing startlingly new. Yes, occasionally some TP type will say something manifestly stupid, which results in a torrent of smears by the left. "Why, that's extreme, and has no place in American political discourse" Blah, blah, blah. Yet these same people ignored, or have forgotten, or participated in demonstrations calling for George W. Bush's execution, hanging, beheading etc.
Certainly everybody is in the business of raising money and awareness, so the "excesses" of the Obama administration help the TP bottom line. And the "excesses" of the TP help bring in the money for the other side. This is as American as apple pie. Nothing new here. And any claims to the contrary are just spin.
