Who's On First

On a recent TV talk show a poll of Tea Party voters was cited in which a substantial majority, in excess of two thirds, consisted of traditional Republican voters who shared the social values associated with that party’s right wing.  One of the panelists pointed out that, by any name, this was essentially the Republican base. Both major parties have bases that almost always vote for their candidates. The difference is in the right wingers’ excess enthusiasm, fanaticism to this admittedly jaundiced eye. This gives the Republicans a big edge.

It is most evident in mid-term elections in which the turnout is lighter than when the presidency is at stake. Congressional elections in 1946, 1994 and recently in 2010, which resulted in Republican landslides, are cases in point. True, the reverse happened in 2006. But that was after six years of the George W. Bush presidency. Truman and Clinton had only been in office for two years and were reelected two years later.  Obama’s test is yet to come.

My thinking is that this enthusiasm gap has something to do with diversified interests on the left contrasted with those on the relatively homogenized right. People whose interests involve the environment, reproductive choice, financial regulations, labor rights and civil liberties may see eye to eye on most of these issues. But not to the degree of those who are indifferent to civil liberties, advocate religion in public life and hate gun control, gays, abortion and government in any form, unless they need it.  Throw in a president who isn’t “one of them” and it’s no contest.

The extreme right tends to be better focused on its benefit to Republicans than the left is to Democrats. Tea Party influence clearly led to the current GOP super House majority. On the other hand the actions of Civil Rights and Vietnam War protestors in the 1960s resulted in the election of Richard Nixon.

  

People on the far right seem to have more adrenalin than their adversaries on the left. This may lead to what can charitably be called more adventuresome actions which, on occasion, can become a bit chancy. If worst comes to worst they can always fall back on what has become a Republican battle cry since Watergate. It has no place in a court of law, but has worked with some success in the court of public opinion. “They all do it.”