On the Right: It's About Growing a Spine

Sign at a Tea Party rally.

I'm beginning to believe that the wack-o Republicans on the Tea Party end of the scale are not so much to blame for our mess as are Republicans like Dave Nutter, who is running to win a seat in the Virginia Senate. He has served in the House until now.

I've known Dave for some years, like him and respect him. I have very little in common with him politically because he he rests in a spot I thought was as far to the right as people could get up until recently. But Dave's a tax and spend liberal to this neo-right nutty bunch, personified in this race by a guy named Tripp Godsey, who is following the absolutist line of the Teas.

Problem here is that Dave is apologizing for some of the few good votes he has made in the General Assembly and promising not to do it again. The Teas win whether Godsey wins or not in this case. In effect, they wind up with two candidates in this race and we're seeing it all over the place. Moderate candidates--moderate in this climate but still wildly to the right, let's clarify--are becoming the people who are changing their views and the tiny group of far, far right Republicans are pulling all the strings. That's what's happened all over the country. Even the Democrats are moving wildly to the right out in fear of this emperor with no clothes.

This will not be good for any of us. Godsey (in a story here) says pretty directly that he opposes state funding of education, that he wants kids to be able to pick their schools (can you imagine the empty buildings on one end of town and the overstuffed school on the other?), that he doesn't want the trucking industry to pay taxes that are equal to those of others using our roads (although one truck does more damage than 16 cars), that he is far more opposed to killing regulation of business and industry than actually helping to create jobs. And here's Dave saying, "Oh, OK, I got that wrong, but I won't next time."

That line of reasoning simply feeds these people and makes them stronger than they have any reason or right to be. Somebody grow a damn spine, for chrissakes!


(Photo: huffingtonpost.com, shot by Jesse Russell)