A glimmer of hope

[lapislzi]

I live in a very red corner of blue NY.In the next town, the tea party had a stranglehold on local government. In my town, tea party challengers primaried the Republican incumbents. Moderate Republicans (or what passes for them in these parts) challenged the tea partiers in the town next door. Basically these Republican primary elections will determine the composition of local government for the next four years.

The incumbent tea partiers in the town next door were soundly defeated. In my town, the moderate incumbents squeaked by with a small margin of victory. It's a small but significant defeat for the tea party, which has been convulsing local Republican caucuses for the past few years. The Republican party is either going to implode or expel the tea party malcontents, who will then be scrambling for third party lines.

These Republicans are smart enough to know that they have to hold the center if they want to continue to run our towns, and that extremists are not doing them any favors with their inflammatory rhetoric (mostly concerning immigration and taxes).

Fact is, taxes keep our towns running, the streets plowed, and the garbage picked up. And it makes far more sense to add immigrants to the tax rolls rather than stigmatize and deport them (which, let's face it, costs money). And the police have far better things to do then to follow folks around and ticket them for loitering.

Not exactly good news for Democrats, who are invisible, but this is the realpolitik of politics at the local level. And this is where we, as Democrats, can make a real difference.