Mother Davis rubs an arthritic sore spot in her right hand as she notes,
Parker Griffith was a Democratic U.S. Representative from Alabama who switched to the Republican Party when his political allegiances there became inconvenient to his career. Griffith already had a consistent record of voting in Congress as if he were a Republican, so the party switch had to do more with labels than with policy changes.
Griffith didn’t want to be associated with progressives, and as a Southerner, he could long play the game of right wing politics. But, when Democrats took control of Congress and Barack Obama became President, Griffith panicked. He didn’t want voters to see him as associated with that, so he went to Republican Party leaders and said he would be their servant if only they would support his re-election.
Sure, sure, the GOP told Griffith. But yesterday, in Alabama’s congressional primary elections, Parker Griffith lost the Republican nomination to challenger Mo Brooks. Griffith only got 33 percent of the vote.
Griffith’s loss ought to serve as a lesson to Blue Dog Democrats who think that they can play the game of taking progressive voters for granted while grabbing Republican votes by voting in favor of right wing GOP legislation. The ploy doesn’t work very well, because most Republican voters these days won’t be pleased by any but the most extreme politicians.
Shaking the pain out,
Mother Davis
Parker was a DINO (Democrat In Name Only) to begin with, so when he switched sides last year, it was without ceremony or hand-wringing. Which makes his loss in the primaries all the more enjoyable.
If all these incumbents think that all they have to do is appeal to the extreme ends of the political spectrum, they’d better think again. Just as the tea-party candidates are starting to unravel before our eyes, these guys are watching their careers finish with a fury because one minute you’ll be everyone’s darling, then the next everyone’s pariah. These people will eat their young if they feel it helps their cause.
Learn this phrase: If you try to please everyone, you end pleasing no one.
He’s like a lot of politicians – only there to further his career, his interests and put money in his pocket, all else is window dressing.
i don’t see politics solving any of our corporate-funded problems any time soon, so i think elections are now a complete waste of time. Humanity is driving itself into a bottleneck situation via rapacious consumption of resources, greed, and non-stewardship of our environment (the planet). Nothing politicians can or will do in the short term will have any meaningful effect on the amelioration of the long-term damage we’ve caused and out of balance climate we’ll be enduring for quite a while.