Saturday, November 3, 2012

Charlotte Observer Lectures Republicans on Their "Extreme" Views



What is that I smell?  Could it be desperation?  Is it panic?  Could it be the pontifications of a Charlotte Observer associate editor?
Peter St. Onge once again feels compelled to lecture Republicans and the Tea Partiers about their extreme views.  He believes we need to become more “mainstream” more “moderate.”  Basically, he wants us to become more like him and his progressive minions.  And if we don’t change our ways, Romney could lose the election. 

Today’s Republican leaders, though, gave into the worst among them. Frustration with big government may have launched the tea party in 2009, but the movement flung open the doors to all anger, even that which previously lived on the fringe. Offensiveness went mainstream, and instead of imagining the long-term consequences that might bring, Republicans leapt at the short-term energy. They joined the crowds demonizing Obama. They entertained questions about his birthplace. Joe Wilson yelled “You lie!”
So fearful are some Republicans of the far right that when a stage full of GOP candidates for president was famously asked last year if they’d increase taxes one dollar in exchange for $10 of spending cuts, not one dared raise a hand. Moderate Mitt Romney was among them, of course, and he’s since invited people to dinner with birther Donald Trump and told rich fundraisers what they wanted to hear about 47 percent of Americans. His lurch back to the center was bound to set eyes rolling.

If Romney loses this remarkably close election Tuesday, some Republicans will insist it was because he wasn’t conservative enough. But Romney already had the votes to the right. The ones he lost this election included moderates repulsed at the thought of aligning themselves with what his party has become. Maybe the best thing that can happen for them – for all of us – is for extremism to lose, and for hate not to be – as it never should – a winning strategy
I just want to thank Mr. St. Onge for his faux concerns.  As for hate not being a winning strategy, maybe he should address his leftist rag of a paper.   An example is the above cartoon which was published in the Charlotte Observer.  The only thing missing is the noose.



No comments: