By Richard Andrew
Most Democrats seem to think the Republican Party, for the most part, is finished as a political power in America. They might want to dig a little deeper into what makes these conservatives do the things that they feel will regain them the power they lost in the last election. For that matter, since Obama was elected.
At first glance, we are lead to believe that the Republican Party, including the “ultra-conservative Tea Party,” are all talk when it comes to their belief in smaller Federal Government. As one looks deeper into that concept, it appears that there is more to it than meets the eye. We find out the Republicans are more interested in the power that can be had by getting state governors and their legislatures elected to the Party.
According to Steven Malanga, a writer for the City Journal, wrote this year, “Since Obama first took office in 2008, Republicans have picked up a net nine governorships, bringing their total to 30 states.” There are 24 of these states that have strong Republican governors and majorities in their legislatures. In opposition, the Democrats have just 12 states where they control the state legislatures and have managed to keep a Democrat in the governors’ mansions. With those kind of numbers, the Dems are finding it almost impossible to keep up.
Change is being made at the state level. Republicans have been changing the political culture of America. They have been going state by state with disregard to Federal Policy altogether. It is essential to understand that this Republican blueprint is taking a political hold of the country in a very efficient yet disarming manner. It is a cultural movement.
To see what the Republicans have actually accomplished after acquiring this new-found power, we only need to look at the recent moves by Texas, North Carolina, Minnesota, Ohio, and Florida, to name a few. These governors, with the aid of their republican majority state legislatures, have promoted strong cultural change. They have attacked the law of the land with impunity. Abortion laws concerning women’s health, voting rights laws concerning who one is to vote for and if one is allowed to vote, has been successfully weakened. Abortion clinics are being closed and voter IDs are being issued along with voter purges. Recently, ex-governor of Florida and possible presidential hopeful of 2016, Jeb Bush, has been spearheading the Republican Party’s latest attack on Public Schools.
It may be the eleventh hour for the Democrats or even too late, to do something to change this insidious momentum of state-loving conservatives. Democrats need to take back governorships and state legislatures. Unless the Dems recognize this Republican methodology, they could lose it all.
Richard Andrew is a contributor to Ring of Fire.
