But Why Does That Race Matter to Me?

In response to yesterday’s post shining the light on some of the insanity coming from the far right and tea party (Do We Really Want the Insane Right to Gain Control?), a reader emailed to ask why craziness in another state should matter if her Republican Congressional candidate wasn’t a crazy tea party candidate. The response is simple.

If enough Republicans win elections on November 2, they may become the majority party and gain control of the House of Representatives, Senate, statehouses, and governorships across the country. If that happens, do we honestly expect the newly elected crazy tea party candidates to simply become quiet team players content to sit in the back row and do what party leadership tells them to? Will they be content to allow moderate Republicans (if there are any…) to set the legislative agenda? Of course not. Republicans in Congress and the States will be hard pressed not to act on tea party initiatives. In fact, some of those tea party folks could find themselves in leadership positions!

If tea party candidates are elected, we are likely to see either a severe lurch to the right by the Republican party as a whole or a splintering of the party that could lead to some very ugly situations as moderate Republicans find themselves marginalized. We’re likely to see “investigations” into the White House and more “birther” nonsense as violent rhetoric, race-baiting, and xenophobia become the a norm.

Finally, if the Republicans do take control, many will conclude that the strategies of obstructionism, race-baiting, conspiracy mongering, and other similar strategies worked and those methodologies may become the new political norm, as well.

And if we think that this election season has been ugly, just remember that this is just a mid-term election. I suspect that the 2012 election will make this year seem tame by comparison. Unless, of course, sanity prevails on November 2. Then we might all be able to take a giant step back from the brink of the abyss.