Teabagger Logic Fails Me

Conservative republicans are claiming that the democratic victory in NY-23 is proof of increasing strength of the GOP brand.

That's a tough pill to swallow.

By throwing support behind teabagger hero Doug Hoffman, who claims his reason for entering the race was that he was angry and fed-up, the party believes it scored big by forcing out the more moderate GOP candidate. That's good for party cleansing if you're participating in the Russian revolution of the early 1900s, but lousy if you're trying win elections in 2009 New York state, United States of America.

This strategy was so effective that the democrats were able to win a seat that had been in republican hands since the US Civil War. Perhaps by teabagger fringe sees their goal as returning to their roots by driving in reverse until they get back to the place from whence they came.

Hoffman's message, spurred along by the likes of Glenn Beck, Tim Pawlenty, Sarah Palin, and other who believe a hard right turn will get this country back on track, landed with a resounding thud among the majority of voters who look beyond the faux outrage created and nurtured by Fox News, Matt Drudge, and your local coterie of wingnuttery and seek an approach that appears likely to deal with today's reality of a stinky economy, lousy health care, two wars, and a financial system out of control.

Screeching racist epithets while drowning government in a bathtub isn't a viable solution for most folks. At some point, actual ideas need to be loaded into the cannons and fired in the general direction of what ails us. When your ammunition continually results in a cartoonish "BANG!" flag drooping from the end of the muzzle, no amount of demagoguery will hide the flaccid nature of teabagger solutions.

The tip of DIck Armey's spear is looking a little Cialis-challenged, don't you think?

So the logic of narrowing your core constituency to rabid believers seems antithetical to the "big tent" concept of winning elections by appealing to a broad segment of voters. If your fan base also happens to be the majority of the population, you're solid, but as NY-23 demonstrates, support can be loud and boisterous without being numerically significant.

If the GOP believes that this approach will gain them seats in the midterm elections and in 2012, I just might need to donate to their efforts. As James Carville famously noted, if you see a republican thrashing around in the water, throw that son-of-a-bitch an anvil.

Image via Wikimedia Commons