Sen. Specter (R-PA), is now a (D-PA). I am sure you have heard the news and much of the analysis. Whether this move is ultimately good for the Democrats depends upon whether Specter moves his politics to the left. If he does, and he is able to win re-election as a Dem., it will be a big net positive. If he is not able to retain his seat in 2010 in the general election and a Republican wins, (most likely Pat Toomey who is very conservative), then clearly that is a net negative.
I suspect that if Specter wants to win a primary election as a Dem, he is going to have to significantly change his voting record, and now that we all now know that he is a calculating political operator, no one should be surprised is he makes a strong move to the left.
But all that will become clear in the future. What liberal pundits should be shouting from their soapboxes right now is what this defection really shows about the state of the Republican Party. No progressive commentator or politician should miss this golden moment to shine a clear, bright light into the ugly soul of the Republican establishment and electorate.
Yet, I do not hear much about this. Kos did highlight this messaging opportunity, but even MSNBC tonight did not focus on it. Specter said it himself - the chances of him winning his Republican primary next year were ‘bleak’. Someone who has spent his entire political career as a Republican has a better chance of winning a Democrat primary than a Republican one. Amazing.
And why is that? Again, Specter nails it, saying the Republicans have gone too far to the right, become too extreme. They would rather have ideological purity than win general elections. A solid, if occasionally independent, conservative cannot win his own party’s primary because he is not ideologically pure enough. That says it all.
Whatever you may think of Arlen Specter and this party switch, it clearly demonstrates the small-minded, intolerant quality of today’s Republican Party. If the Republicans continue to alienate independent voices, they will forever doom themselves to minor status. It may in fact become obsolete, perhaps creating the room for an upstart Libertarian Party to take its place.
But that is not the message of the moment. Right now progressives should (more…)