There's this old joke about the Army. The sergeant lines up the troops and explains there is a dangerous mission planned. He needs a volunteer. He says he is looking for one person, and asks who wants to volunteer to step forward. The entire line steps backwards except one guy.
The sergeant then goes over to him, thanks him for his courage and takes him off. He didn't move, the rest of the line did.
This is the conundrum facing Mitt Romney. He never moved on his position. Everybody else did.
The Republican Party took a sharp turn to the right and he never moved. The result is he is out there by himself. His only option is to start steering right as fast as he can. The problem is, once the line has moved, every time he moves, the line is one more step to the right of him and he can't seem to get in line.
The question I have is who are the Republican Party and who are the independents? I have read that Independent is the fastest growing form of registration for elections. Where are they coming form? Are they disenfranchised Republicans? Democrats? Or are they new voters who can't identify with either party?
Romney is running to the right to get back in line. If the Independents are running to the middle because they can't identify with a party that wants to rape rape victims, Romney and the Independents are running in the opposite direction.
Elections are won by putting your message in the sweet spot of the electorate. Elections are won in the middle. 2010 was an anomaly. It was fueled by hatred of a black man getting elected president and enabled by the paltry turn out that characterizes mid-term elections. The depth of the hatred of a significant portion of the Republican Party continues to be reflected in their belief that Barack Obama is a Muslim.
If you combine this belief with so many state legislatures writing laws to restrict voting rights and attacking women, you have the answer as to who the Republican Party is. They have become a collection of angry white men.
The country took the Tea Party for a test drive and they have rejected that model. The country, I hope, has swung back to government by the middle.
If you look at the history of the Republican Party, every time they lose in the presidential election, they run to the right in the next election. That being said, it seems pretty logical that the country will reject the radical extremism that has become the Republican Party.
Then I see a poll that has Obama and Santorum in a statistical tie in Pennsylvania. That scares me far more than a nuclear Iran ever will. If Santorum can take Pennsylvania, he will be the next president. He can hurt all of us far more than Iran ever can.
