Specter: The GOP’s moved “far to the right” since Reagan
posted at 9:00 pm on May 3, 2009 by Allahpundit
Well, no, it really hasn’t, as InstaGlenn noted a few days ago. It’s the country that’s drifted left, foremost on social issues. The “far to the right” nonsense comes near the end of the first clip; the second has Benedict Arlen reminding us that purging moderates does carry a price for conservatives. I get a sense from some of our readers that losing, say, Collins or Snowe wouldn’t hurt at all because they’re utterly indistinguishable from Democrats — i.e. they’ve already left the party in principle. That’s a convenient fiction: You may get only half a loaf from them but half a loaf’s better than none, especially on judicial appointments.
Don’t look now, but between Tom Ridge making noise about taking up the moderate banner against Toomey and Joe Sestak loudly questioning Specter’s Democratic bona fides, we end up with not one but two primary shootouts in Pennsylvania.
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The day I care what this moron has to say is the day Rosie O’Donnell becomes Playmate of the Year.
Metro on May 3, 2009 at 10:56 PM
Agreed. I just hope that if they give us another RINO, that the true conservatives will vote en masse against them. Third party or whatever it takes to get the message thru the GOP’s head.
The problem is that too many people abandon their principles out of fear and will vote for the lesser of two evils. They know this! And they apparently intend to keep playing us until we refuse to play their game. I played that game for the last time in 2008.
I mean, really, if you’re going to die, do you want the quick death or the slow, painful way?
PrincipledPilgrim on May 3, 2009 at 10:57 PM
I guess the headline was really true:
“We’re all Socialists Now.”
PrincipledPilgrim on May 3, 2009 at 10:59 PM
You sir, are very astute. I can tell you that in Upstate NY and most of Pennsylvania-where I do business-it is the economic issues (and the War in Iraq, which people see as wasteful in terms of both American lives and American money) that have gravely injured the Republican brand-not social issues.
I can’t tell you the number of people in this area who are cynical about the Republican Party because of economic issues (Party of the Rich) and because of the war. On the other hand, I’ve yet to have someone tell me they would like to vote for the Republicans, but “that damn gay marriage thing keeps getting in the way”.
People who believe that the Republicans are hurt by their stands on social issues in places like Pennsylvania, Upstate NY, Michigan, Ohio, are the ones who are out of touch. And with apologies to AP, they are usually denizens of NYC or the Beltway, who probably haven’t spent an hour in Buffalo, Utica, Grand Rapids, Dayton, or Altoona in their entire lives.
Dreadnought on May 3, 2009 at 11:00 PM
Not if it’s a loaf of crap.
Jim Treacher on May 3, 2009 at 11:01 PM
Last week Greta had Rick Santorum on discussing S.P.E.C.T.R.E. and what I got from Rick, and had concluded on my own a while back, was Arlen is not a moderate. He has been and always will be, a Democrat, and a liberal one at that.
All this chatter about the party going too Conservative, or too far to the Right is sheer baloney. If the party had gone so far to the Right, then why is it they seem so confident in throwing the Base under the bus? Does anyone remember what those in the GOP did to Sarah Palin? Dittos to Rush Limbaugh! For over ten years Rush has been telling them how to win elections, and they are tone deaf! Speaking of Rush, as he says, “Anyone read a book titled, “Great Moderates In History”? NOT!
The Establishment, Country Club Blue Bloods are horrified at the tea parties, and they, along with the mod squad RINOS, fear anything remotely colored Christian or a social Conservative. In many ways, social conservatives are less likely to compromise on fiscal conservatism, and therefore these past eight years have been less than anything close to the Right of any GOP issues. It all comes down to flat out principles; does anyone in the GOP have any?
And the cherry on the top is the Base is FED UP with being told we have to be more tolerant. B.S.! We have been tolerant and we will always be tolerant. However, playing to the minority and disregarding the voices of the people is not a qualifier for being tolerant! That is just arrogance! On any social issue from gay marriage to abortion; the majority of the American people support the Right side of the GOP. So what is it about social Conservatives that is so screwy to people like Arlen, Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney, Bobby Jindal, John McCain and Eric Cantor? Just what in the Sam Hill does the GOP need to “redefine” or “re-brand”? These men seem a tad lost on what the American public thinks. Good luck on the insanity tour guys!
I second Laura Ingraham on Wallace’s show today, and all those here who have said the Dems got all their power by shutting out the moderates and Conservatives in their party and have gone totally LEFT. And as most of us know their LEFT is not just mild socialism; it is flat out FASCISM.
Most countries currently, or in history, who have political parties mirroring each other are weak countries. I love our British cousins, but they are a prime example of what happens when the Conservative party follows advice exactly like the advice Arlen is vomiting. Daniel Hannan was just all over the place telling us NOT to go down this road both as a nation, and in many ways as a Conservative party.
Lastly, for the next few months we are still America, I am going to fight for the freedom to take back the GOP and to take back this nation. I will not surrender to the likes of Arlen Specter, or any of those who have trashed the Base of our party for the past eight years. THEY CAN KISS MY GRITS!!!!!!!
freeus on May 3, 2009 at 11:08 PM
You’ve both nailed it!
PrincipledPilgrim on May 3, 2009 at 11:10 PM
Make that 118-1.
Jaibones on May 3, 2009 at 11:17 PM
What is wrong with them? Too much time in Washington. Not enough time in the private sector, that’s what!
Funny that all these “big names” attracted less than 100 people when we’ve had hundreds of thousands of tea partiers. Maybe they need to come and LISTEN instead of flapping their jaws.
PrincipledPilgrim on May 3, 2009 at 11:17 PM
Go home Arlen, at long last, just leave and go home.
GarandFan on May 3, 2009 at 11:24 PM
Umm….could you put the (D) after Spector’s name from now on?
Just so we could give what he says the proper weight. Thank you.
Rocks on May 3, 2009 at 11:27 PM
arlen doesn’t mean the gop as in republicans nationwide.
he means the gop in the club he blongs to – the us senate – which is less moderate than it was,
and he means the gop in PA – which is fed up with him.
the national gop which nominated mccain is not to the right of the gop which nominated reagan.
reliapundit on May 3, 2009 at 11:27 PM
Ah. Arlen has realized his new friends don’t like him any more than his old friends.
So sad, too bad.
Mew
acat on May 3, 2009 at 11:31 PM
So let me get this straight. Eight years of GW and lets be honest as much as I respect Bush he is a big government republican. So after eight years of big government republican rule our problem is we are drifting to the right too far? Hmmmm that dog just dont hunt im sorry you lib traitor!
What I think is the libs are terrified of a resurgent of true conservatism. Thats what i think and if the republicans fall for this crap move to the center they will lose the base and continue to lose elections.
HoosierCon on May 3, 2009 at 11:40 PM
Bush 43 and Romney standout. Further left you’ve got McCain but arguably within moderate.
So there are moderates in the Republican Party, and we’ve even given them leadership positions. It hasn’t worked out well…but I can see the arguments for them being there.
But we now have liberal Republicans trying to call the shots…and I have had it with them. They got what they wanted with McCain and it didn’t work…at all. If we cannot learn from the history of even 6 months ago we might as well just become Democrats.
18-1 on May 3, 2009 at 11:43 PM
What he said…. You may be able to polish a turd, but you can’t put gold doubloons on the ends of it and call it a gold brick.
liquidflorian on May 3, 2009 at 11:56 PM
Really? Let’s see when Obama shoves through a marxist in black robes. See how much of a fight Snowe and Collins puts up.
BTW That so-called “half a loaf” didnt reduce that pork bill in half, did it?
Elric66 on May 3, 2009 at 11:59 PM
Out of Touch? How about a prediction:
Everyone will support tax cuts for the rich when they are earning $3,000 an hour and their Ford Focus is being repo-ed
since The One’s high speed printing presses and programs like cap and trade have run electric bills to $10,000 a month. And they will love capitalism when regulations and taxes have smothered production while the NEA and the UAW are paid off with tax dollars.
I hope that self preservation kicks in for The One and his cohorts before they truly destroy the nation. Although a positive will be the sucking force that will take all the demorons and Arlen down with them.
IlikedAUH2O on May 4, 2009 at 12:20 AM
Hmmmm… I’m about where I was years ago.
Everybody else must have moved….
ElRonaldo on May 4, 2009 at 12:24 AM
Watching Meet the Press made me almost ill. Listening to that boob act like he was doing the country a favor by being a Senator eventhough his party hated him and every stupid position he has taken in the last 4 years.
Speedwagon82 on May 4, 2009 at 12:32 AM
Specter left the Republican Party for his own selfish purposes, he wasnt “purged.”
EscapeVelocity on May 4, 2009 at 12:49 AM
I’m not buying this whole notion that the country is drifting left. Sorry.
Looking at Rasmussen’s front page as it currently stands:
42% say Obama’s supreme court pick will be too liberal, actually higher than the folks who say it’ll be just right.
60% lack confidence in policymaker’s decisions.
66% say Chrysler bankruptcy is better than bailout.
Only 56% say they “somewhat approve” of Obama’s performance so far.
Aside from the occasional blip, there’s really not a lot of polling data that indicates to me that we’re moving farther and farther left.
I think really, a lot of us are just bummed by the election, our candidates, and who we ultimately ended up with. We’ve projected our worst fears onto a lot of the nation, when in reality I think the decision to elect who we ended up with was a lot more superficial than we probably realize.
Just because we ended up with a fresh-faced, charismatic President doesn’t mean everyone’s drifting left.
12thMonkey on May 4, 2009 at 12:51 AM
Its pretty clear that the country is drifting left on social issues.
Its a truism that the Right won the economic war, and the New Left won the culture war.
Political correctness is running wild!
EscapeVelocity on May 4, 2009 at 1:04 AM
I’m deciding that my own protest against the labels is starting to become reality.
It’s just not so easy anymore to be This or That.
That doesn’t mean anything.
Bill Clinton actually articulated what needs to happen….less devisiveness, more connection….and I think that means less party identification.
Then, vote on whatever issues really are the most important to you, personally. Tougher than just logging in on a party.
But it’s actually more authentic in terms of citizen participation.
Your deal is abortion? Great! Find your Right-to-Life candidate.
Not that? Budget issues get you going? Fine! Find fiscal conservatives.
Labor bugs you? Fine! Vote for EFCA supporters.
I think the day and age of partisan politics is over.
AnninCA on May 4, 2009 at 2:51 AM
Spector left the Democratic Party in 1968 for the same reason … fear of losing a primary nomination.
The Dems refered to him as Specter the Defector back then.
Kristopher on May 4, 2009 at 2:55 AM
Escaped, I must be the only person around who feels optimistic.
I think the United States is about to enter a merging period.
The issues that divide us are simply not that big. This is nothing like our past, when slavery divided us, for example.
By comparison, we’re petty.
AnninCA on May 4, 2009 at 3:00 AM
Very well said.
Did Arlen have any advice on what kind of rope Republicans should use to hang ourselves en masse? It sounds to me like he did, just not in as many words.
Cylor on May 4, 2009 at 3:02 AM
I wish the GOP had moved to the right since Reagan.
.
We need to form our own entertainment industry. One that makes chick flicks about living with the pain of having had an abortion, and action movies with multidimensional conservative heroes.
darktood on May 4, 2009 at 3:27 AM
It means you have voted for someone who does not represent you. That is not a convenient fiction
It is not a fiction that Specter, while still in office, has turned his judicial appointment vote over to the Democrats. That is not half a loaf.
The nature of half a loaf politicans is to ignore your needs for theirs. At the point a politican knows you will vote for him despite the fact you disagree with his positions. he no longer has to consider your wishes.
Specter jumped parties precisely because his primary electorate had had enough half loaves and was going to bolt. Like all blackmailers, if not paid their demands, they will carry out their threats.
It would have been better if the half a loaf folk had taken their losses sooner
A single termite can do a lot of structural damage
entagor on May 4, 2009 at 3:38 AM
All this talk about left or right misses the point. If you compare current opinion polls with those of the Reagan era you will find what people want hasn’t changed all that much. The reason for the apparent ideological shift is no shift at all. We as a nation are looking for a leader. Give us leaders who are strong, articulate and stand for something, anything, and we as an electorate will follow them just about anywhere.
Reagan was all of those and then some. He knew who he was and wasn’t afraid to say it and more importantly do it.
Bush 41 didn’t stand when he should have on taxes and was judged weak.
Clinton’s weakness was that he really only stood for himself.
Bush 43 was somewhat strong but couldn’t articulate it.
Obama can articulate it when he has TOTUS but his policies require he be in campaign mode all the time because his strength is lacking. This works in the short run but will quickly grow old.
Obama has to move fast if he wants to implement his far left agenda and he knows it. Once the luster of his newness wears off, he will need to use fear and intmidation to get what he wants. We, who follow this closely, are already seeing this with GM, Chrysler, the banks, etc. but the vast majority of the public are not watching…yet.
The rise of most of history’s famous dicatators came in this same way. Oh, and they too had the press on their side…
“You may fool all the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.” -Lincoln
GrayDog on May 4, 2009 at 5:44 AM
Like I said.
Spuck Fecter
5u93rm4n on May 4, 2009 at 6:27 AM
Arlen, you’re a socialist, shut up and go away you loser.
EUUUUUWWWWWWWWWWW! I need to clean coffee off my monitor now…
dogsoldier on May 4, 2009 at 6:44 AM
You’ve nailed it well, IMO.
petefrt on May 4, 2009 at 7:10 AM
The man has no shame:
From Memeorandum:
petefrt on May 4, 2009 at 7:16 AM
This guy is all wrong.
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1212/abortion-gun-control-opinion-gender-gap
—>>>>
Jamson64 on May 4, 2009 at 7:18 AM
100% correct. Both sides are desperate for heroes and real leaders, and have been for a long time. Enough that we are perhaps too quick to seize on them when we think we’ve found them.
This enables the wrong people to do terrible damage before they’re found out. It will also — hopefully — enable the right person to accomplish something great, if only they will stand up and lead.
Cylor on May 4, 2009 at 7:56 AM
I think the GOP has gone quite left. But speaking from Specter’s leftist position, of course you’d think they were far right.
RWLA on May 4, 2009 at 8:21 AM
The day I care what this moron has to say is the day Rosie O’Donnell becomes Playmate of the Year.
Metro
Well said but my imagination is vomiting.
SKYFOX on May 4, 2009 at 8:22 AM
Specter’s sympathies lie with ceding SC judicial decisions to the international measure of justice. You don’t hear him refer to the Constitution as the arbiter of justice.
Furthermore, his sympathies lie with federal monetary solutions to social programs. Specter’s vote victories have come largely from urban areas in the state that rely on the federal trough.
Specter’s non-support of Bork was the first nail in Specter’s coffin. His vote on the porkulus bill finished the job off. He himself did not seem to be aware of its stealth provisions for rationed health care.
His cheap shot re Kemp’s death is a refusal to admit that, as members of the elite body of legislators, both men had/have access to treatments that would never be allowable to the general population under a federal health-care system.
I think that Specter fears the intimations of his own mortality in the wings. His motives are selfish.
Furthermore, Specter did not support Santorum’s rebid for the senate seat in any but a perfunctory way. Large doses of Dem money put Casey Jr. into that lost seat, just as it did to put Stesak in.
It’s time for Specter to retire to the Netherlands, where he would feel more at home at The Hague.
onlineanalyst on May 4, 2009 at 8:36 AM
Where has Spector shown himself to be all that much more liberal than Romney or McCain?
ernesto on May 4, 2009 at 9:23 AM
I’m officially completely disgusted by this idiot. First he says that he wanted to keep his job, and that he refused to subject his 29 yr career to those GOP primary voters. (Read: I was going to lose, so I jumped ship!) Then, when pushed on this, he says it was more about politics. It was more an issue of principle. What principle? Well, when he voted for the stimulus his ratings dropped 30 points with Republicans, which meant his principles were more in tune with Democrats because they favored the stimulus.
So, he basically denied it being about his career then went on to admit it was, in fact, about his career? My popularity dropped with group A, so I defected to group B. Somehow, he thinks that is standing on his principles!
TheBlueSite on May 4, 2009 at 9:28 AM
Somebody check this guy’s meds.
kens on May 4, 2009 at 10:06 AM
McCain is pro-life for one thing. He also voted against the Stimulus package, which “fiscally conservative” Spector just couldn’t bring himself to do. I highly doubt Romney would have voted for the Stimulus either.
I think McCain gets a bit of a bad rap from conservatives. I’m not crazy about him either, but he’s at least a bit better than they give him credit. And I think the persistent rumors that he was going to jump to the Democrats were disinformation put out by the Democratic Party to sow division. There’s never been a single shread of real evidence, and it would have been political suicide for him, unlike Spector.
Dreadnought on May 4, 2009 at 1:07 PM
No, what’s the “convenient fiction” is that these people are the ONLY people available to vote for in the first place. I don’t take your premise at all. It’s a fact that the very people they are advocating these pols are in agreement with or equal to their political philosophy, i.e. RINOs, Moderates, Libertarians, or Centrist. They’re the ones who’ll take conservatives money and trash a Toomey then turn around and say they can only spend conservatives money on a RINO like Arlen to win. SLAM THE DOOR. Your premise sucks.
Sultry Beauty on May 4, 2009 at 3:50 PM
McCain gets a lifetime 81 (%) rating from ACU, but a 63 last year while running for President.
Specter is a liberal 44/42.
Russ Feingold, a doctrinaire leftist, gets a 12/24.
Snowe got a 12 last year to Feingold’s 24. Moderate? Moderate what, socialist?
Collins was barely better at 20% conservative in 2008 – to the left of Feingold (which I didn’t think was possible), and both Snowe and Collins are less than 50% conservative for their careers, which qualifies them as liberals.
Jaibones on May 4, 2009 at 4:54 PM
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