Right Wing Fringe Meme

[marked50]

Was listening to MSNBC and one of the quests was labeling the recent Boehner/McConnell picks for the Catfood Commission Redux as the "Right Wing Fringe". It occurred to me that that is just flat out wrong. These people are not the "fringe". They are the Mainstream of the Republicans. If there are any reasonable/moderate Republicans they are the fringe. When people say these crazies are the fringe they confuse those who aren't aware (most of the public) that there are alot of reasonable Republicans around and they can go back to sleep. It is wrong for pundits to label these peoples as fringe anymore. They are not. This is an uphill battle to uncloak the obvious.

[TheWraith]

1. Actually, the real fringe isn't allowed on the committee...

...since one of the prerequisites is that you voted for the deal. So it's predominantly going to be center-leaning types, not the far left or far right.

[marked50]

5. Kyl- Center?

John Kyl is not any Center type. None of these folks can be considered moderate. The point is just that. Labeling them fringe is just a deception. They are representative of what "all" republicans have become

[Ruby the Liberal]

7. Double Plus Untrue

Toomey voted against it.

[Luminous Animal]

2. I do not believe that there are many reasonable Republicans left. While the Tea Party fringe

are rabid reactionaries, the rest of the Republicans are right-wing radicals.

There are only a few center-Republicans left in both government and media. The rest hopped on the Gingrich crazy train.

[udbcrzy2]

3. They act like they are afraid of them n/t

[leveymg]

4. Whatever comes out of this is going to stink like it crawled into the weeds and died.

When the sun comes up all we'll see are the swarm of flies.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

6. It's a matter of a party's center of gravity

Every party is made up of a broad swath of people who subscribe to its platform but in varying angles and intensity. The GOP is not the Tea party but the TP is the GOP. If the GOP wants to be viable and attract sufficient numbers it has to appeal to the TP because if they stay home or vote 3rd party the GOP gets gutted. So, the GOP drifts further right because that is where their center of gravity is located.

That's why I keep saying we need to be as tenacious as the TP even if that means primary challenges to long-time democratic office holders or chancing a lost election-cycle or two. If we keep compromising policies just to hold offices then those we elect will compromise as well. We need to eb steadfast enough to threaten them with electoral loss so as to shift their center of political gravity.

It isn't the polar ends that are fringe, it is the independent voter that drifts back and forth. We're caught in an ideological "clash of civilizations" and we need to "have-it out" so to speak so we can see which side deserves to prevail. But these half-measures between the 2 poles is dragging out the debate. We need all or nothing, winner take all, elections.

[marked50]

8. The point of this post is

that labeling these Republicans as "fringe" leads to an acceptance by the population that there are non-crazy republicans and they are not like these "fringe" types. Not so. They are the Republicans and people need to understand that. They are not fringe anymore. The center of crazy is still crazy.