Central Illinois Problems
Oct. 13th, 2013 12:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedsitter23I passed through central Illinois a couple of times this summer and this is what is going on.
I wasn't going to make a big deal of it since it is hard to shut up the local idiots (I generally expect Boehner, Ted Cruz and the rest to at least act like grown-ups. I know, I know), so this is not an indictment of all Republicans by any means, but this is the exact thing that the GOP needs to figure out if it is going to be the party of inclusiveness.
Erika Harold is a Harvard-trained lawyer. She (as the name implies) is female and black and a Republican, and while this would be a great 'face of the new GOP' story, she is (was?) running in a primary for a state seat.
She is also a former Miss America.
Which means the local party chairman welcomed her to the party by telling a Conservative website ""Now, Miss Queen is being used like a street walker and her pimps are the DEMOCRAT PARTY and RINO REPUBLICANS,"
Even more charmingly, Chairman Allen stated she would lose and end up "working for some law firm that needs to meet their quota for minority hires."
Delightful.
As you may guess, Mr. Allen has since stepped down.
While I don't believe all Republicans think that if an African-American woman shows up in their party that she must be a plant by the Democrats, it is a problem they have.
As is the Tea Party problem.
And by that i mean eating their own.
2004's What's the Matter with Kansas detailed the death of moderate Republicans as Conservatives took over the party. This was followed by the rise of the Tea Party rising up to try and bring down party stalwarts like Orrin Hatch.
People like Hatch would have served in Congress for decades without any Democrat challenge. Their only competition came from within. The Tea Party started making its mark within the last two election cycles.
Inevitably, those Tea Partiers are now finding out you can't be a demagogue and serve the People and are now 'Not Tea party enough'.
Adam Kinzinger was elected with the help of Sarah Palin to the strong Republican central Illinois area (the land of Robert Michel)
Now Kinzinger is being primaried- the verb that means that he has been targeted by the Tea Party to have someone to try and beat him in the primary election. Votes on Syria and the Military Cliff means the guy so loved last election is now a "“established Republican sweetheart" per his opponent, the local tea party chairman. While Kinzinger maintains the GOP can make gains by welcoming younger voters and minorities, by not “going on cable TV all the time and yelling and screaming” and by accepting that it’s a big party and “we’re not going to agree on everything.”
I wasn't going to make a big deal of it since it is hard to shut up the local idiots (I generally expect Boehner, Ted Cruz and the rest to at least act like grown-ups. I know, I know), so this is not an indictment of all Republicans by any means, but this is the exact thing that the GOP needs to figure out if it is going to be the party of inclusiveness.
Erika Harold is a Harvard-trained lawyer. She (as the name implies) is female and black and a Republican, and while this would be a great 'face of the new GOP' story, she is (was?) running in a primary for a state seat.
She is also a former Miss America.
Which means the local party chairman welcomed her to the party by telling a Conservative website ""Now, Miss Queen is being used like a street walker and her pimps are the DEMOCRAT PARTY and RINO REPUBLICANS,"
Even more charmingly, Chairman Allen stated she would lose and end up "working for some law firm that needs to meet their quota for minority hires."
Delightful.
As you may guess, Mr. Allen has since stepped down.
While I don't believe all Republicans think that if an African-American woman shows up in their party that she must be a plant by the Democrats, it is a problem they have.
As is the Tea Party problem.
And by that i mean eating their own.
2004's What's the Matter with Kansas detailed the death of moderate Republicans as Conservatives took over the party. This was followed by the rise of the Tea Party rising up to try and bring down party stalwarts like Orrin Hatch.
People like Hatch would have served in Congress for decades without any Democrat challenge. Their only competition came from within. The Tea Party started making its mark within the last two election cycles.
Inevitably, those Tea Partiers are now finding out you can't be a demagogue and serve the People and are now 'Not Tea party enough'.
Adam Kinzinger was elected with the help of Sarah Palin to the strong Republican central Illinois area (the land of Robert Michel)
Now Kinzinger is being primaried- the verb that means that he has been targeted by the Tea Party to have someone to try and beat him in the primary election. Votes on Syria and the Military Cliff means the guy so loved last election is now a "“established Republican sweetheart" per his opponent, the local tea party chairman. While Kinzinger maintains the GOP can make gains by welcoming younger voters and minorities, by not “going on cable TV all the time and yelling and screaming” and by accepting that it’s a big party and “we’re not going to agree on everything.”
