The Purge Is Not Over For Republicans

In the 2010 Republican primaries, we saw a purge of what some people considered to be moderates in the party.   Actually, many of those purged were classical old-time conservatives, but that is not good enough for the teabagger wing of the party.   They want their politicians to be John Bircher radicals -- people so far to the extreme right that they would scare conservatives like Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan.

This actually didn't work out too well for the Republican Party in 2010.   They lost several races they should have won because the candidates they nominated were just too extreme for American voters (such as the senate candidates in Nevada, Delaware, Colorado, Washington and Connecticut).   The truth is that conservatives could have won in those states (with the possible exception of Connecticut), but the fringe extremists nominated couldn't.

Now someone with half a brain would look at that and figure the Republicans had learned their lesson, but most teabaggers don't have even that much brain power.   They seem convinced that the way to victory is to drive their party as far to the right as humanly possible.   They are already talking about what Republicans to run out of office (and possibly out of the party) in the 2012 election primaries.

Erick Erickson of the right-wing extremist blog Red State has already composed the first teabagger list of Republican targets for 2012.   Here are the Republicans he has nominated for primary defeat:

John Barasso (WY)
Scott Brown (MA)
Bob Corker (TN)
John Ensign (NV)
Orrin Hatch (UT)
Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX)
Jon Kyl (AZ)
Richard Lugar (IN)
Olympia Snowe (ME)
Roger Wicker (MS)


Now I can understand how the teabaggers might not like Olympia Snowe (Maine) and Scott Brown (Massachusetts), although those two are as probably as conservative as they can be and still be elected in their respective states.   But there is a Texan on the list -- Kay Bailey Hutchison.   As a Texan, I can assure you that there's nothing moderate about Hutchison (or any other Texas Republican elected official for that matter).

I think the teabaggers are so proud of their power within the Republican Party that they are now beginning to eat their own.   This is a good thing for Democrats, because no matter how much I wish Americans would veer sharply to the left, the fact is that the majority of Americans like their politics in the middle of the road.   It is the exception rather than the rule when Americans vote for extremists of either the left or the right.

I hope the Republicans continue to purge all moderates (if there are any left) and classical conservatives from their party.   The further to the right the party goes, the less Americans will want to vote for them.   And if they go too far, they will be able to use the logo pictured above because they will be courting extinction.