Politics & Current Events
vlagrl29
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Huntsman Backs Marriage Equality
Here is the link to the article
One of my FB friends posted this today. It reminded my of the post below regarding the GOP needing to "evolve". I always liked Huntsman.
Re: Huntsman Backs Marriage Equality
He had the audacity during primary season to say that evolution and global warming were real things. And now this? Scandalous!
Though I wonder if him serving as an ambassador for the Obama admin immediately beforehand might have put some people off. I'd think it sort of closes or limits certain lines of attack.
I like Huntsman a lot. I would love to see him on the federal stage again, but the party is going to have to swing pretty far back towards center for him to be a realistic presidential contender, I'd guess.
I liked Huntsman too, and that probably explains why the GOP rejected him so completely.
Yes, but the Tea Party.
Huntsman was pretty much the only legitimate candidate who never was ahead in the primary polling. Heck, even The Donald was nominally in the lead at one point in the very, very early stages. The current Republican Party hates moderates.
Man, some truck parked next to me yesterday that had a Tea Party sticker AND a NY Yankees sticker. It took a lot of effort not to leave my shopping cart strategically where it would roll into his vehicle.
;P
I have irrational optimism that the Tea Party/radical social right will fracture the GOP into... well, a radical right and a moderate right. A Republican party that wasn't bogged down by being medieval socially could really be a force to be reckoned with.
Wouldn't that be nice?! But it's not going to happen if the gop wants to win a general election. I don't have the stats but I think gop thinktanks already ran the numbers on this and they probably need that radical right to give them the numbers they need to win. They are in a precarious situation.
I would imagine that fiscally moderate democrats and independents outnumber the super social right. That would be the danger to the left of a de-radicalized GOP. And then the left would have to come more center to compensate, and then we could have a moderate government capable of compromise...
*wistful sigh*
I really liked Huntsman, and I think Republicans like him could help save the party - if they would let him. Problem is, they won't.
I remember Romney eviscerating him because he worked in the Obama administration. Huntsman responded with a very reasonable, "My country called on me and I answered," or something similar. Yet, the majority of Republicans seemed to agree with Romney - how dare a Republican do anything except try to tank the Obama administration!
I think candidate Huntsman would be forced to conform on other issues, and his moderate views would be overshadowed.
The trouble with trying to appeal to moderates is while most political extremists generally share the same views, moderates tend to be moderate in a lot of different ways. There are libertarians who favor freedom for individuals and businesses to do what they please, damn the consequences. There are old school Catholics who believe in Social Welfare but really don't care for gays (and in some cases, Women's rights). A lot of Latinos and Asians don't fit neatly into a political box, but those two populations look for very different things when it comes to political candidates.
In hindsight, it's pretty impressive that H Ross Perot was able to build such a huge following from the political middle, especially considering just how moderate George HW Bush was in comparison to today's republican party. However the Perot example shows the dilema moderate voters often face. In voting for Perot, moderate conservatives handed the Presidency to Bill Clinton, even when GHW Bush was probably their second choice. Still, it's discouraging that there aren't more moderately conservative Republicans like Scott Brown and Olympia Snowe running around to temper the party.
your post here has pretty much made me realize I'm moderate