TEMPEST IN TAMPA

Some of us remember the Thriller in Manila in Oct 1975. It was the third and final match to decide who would be world boxing champion. I think we have something happening in Florida in a few days that will be the media equivalent of that fight. The Republican National Convention will fight the final round to decide who will control the Republican Party. In one corner, we have the Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor, Reinsurance Priebus, Todd Akins often referred to as the Tea Party; the radicals. They represent the “power at any cost” branch of the party: Karl Rove types. They are willing to hit below the belt to win an election. Winning is every thing even if you have to lie, be unfair, or take positions they really do not believe or support personal and religious issues that really should not be any of the governments business: voter suppression, voter picture ID, anti-immigration, guns for everyone, anti-abortion, anti gay-marriage, anti-welfare. In the small “c” wing of the Republican Party, which are the economic conservatives, we have the old party standbys, the Reaganites; voodoo economics, deregulate, hate government, cut taxes until you starve the government, tax the poor and give it to the rich, pro military-industrial complex, etc. This is branch that most observers identify as the honorable members of the party; the ones that the word ‘conservative’ defines.

It is going to be as if two hate groups are fighting for power. A small group of “young guns” have changed the political rhetoric from using the logic of putting forward their ideas for the voters to choose to basing politics on emotions; hating the opposing force. They have practiced on punching bags, which they call Democrats but are now using the same techniques on each other. Going into the fight, it appears that the Tea Party is the favorite to win. They have forced their small “c” candidate, Mitt Romney, to pick Paul Ryan as his running mate; a huge victory for them. They have appointed Bob McDonald to chair the writing of the party platform, which he filled with radical church directed stances.

The Tea Party used the two general conservative party strategies refined by Rove during the George W. Bush administration. They used it to corrupt representative government. The first is, even if elected by one vote, they take uncompromising control. Second, appoint a man chairman (I know it should be chairperson to be politically correct but we are talking about the Republican Party) of all committees who believes the “radical way” you do, and control the committee so that the other members do no count. It worked to disembowel all the regulator committees such as the SEC, EPA, OSHA, Supreme Court of the United States among many, many others so why not corrupt their own convention with the same technique. Who can forget the cries of Shame! Shame! Shame! of the people of Wisconsin or the fiasco of Federal Judge appointments. Or, the way they run the House of Representatives to trash our economy in hopes of electing one of their own, or have you already forgotten how angry Tea Party types were with Romney’s appointment that is until they forced his to appointed Ryan to control him.

I think the Tempest in Tampa will be a very interesting fight to watch but only if you know what the fight is all about, which is who is going to control the big “C” Party.