The Democrats are in trouble. The economy still isn't booming, and an NBC poll shows that only 53 percent of Americans support President Obama's healthcare reform policies. And we haven't exactly seen the "change" we were promised. Luckily, it seems the Republican Party has developed pity for the Democrats and has nominated some extremist candidates for the upcoming midterm elections. It turns out these candidates may be difficult for the public to elect.
John McCain and Sarah Palin started the phenomenon back in 2008. McCain, a moderate Republican, nominated a far-right wing conservative as his running mate. Polls showed that this wasn't the smartest move. And although McCain's numbers initially skyrocketed after the announcement of Palin at the Republican National Convention, her popularity soon dropped once people became more familiar with her positions on important issues - and when she so famously claimed she could see Russia from her house. Just after her nomination in September 2008, 59 percent of likely voters thought favorably of Palin. By the end of October, however, this number dropped to 46 percent. She was even more unpopular among women voters: Palin's popularity among women fell 21 points in less than two months. Even McCain's daughter, Meghan McCain, has voiced some harsh criticism of Palin. She admitted in her book, Dirty Sexy Politics, and in an interview with Jon Stewart that she was hoping for the much more moderate Sen. Joe Lieberman to become her father's running mate. In fact, Meghan McCain even admitted to crying when she found out that Palin was the vice presidential nominee. The younger McCain, like the rest of the country, had no idea who Palin was and hoped she did not have "any skeletons in the closet."
And now Palin has become the face of the new Tea Party, a popular conservative movement gaining a fair amount of political ground. Christine O'Donnell, Rand Paul, Sharron Angle, Ken Buck and Joe Miller are just some of the recent Republican nominees for Congress backed by the Tea Party movement. But the extreme views of the Tea Party and these candidates on issues such as abortion (not even in cases of rape or incest) don't jive with the ideals of the general American public. A CBS News Poll found that only 19 percent of Americans support the Tea Party, as opposed to the 63 percent that do not support the party.
A candidate who garners the support of only 19 percent of Americans is going to have trouble winning a seat in Congress. The moderate Republicans are unhappy and many of the Republicans defeated by Tea Party candidates are planning to run as write-ins. For example, Lisa Murkowski, who was defeated by Joe Miller in Alaska, is planning to continue her campaign as a write-in candidate, which will undoubtedly complicate issues for the Republican Party. Like in the special election in New York's 23rd district last year, splitting the votes between two Republicans leaves room for the Democrat to win the seat with less than 50 percent of the vote. Even Karl Rove bristled at the idea of O'Donnell winning a senate seat in Delaware, calling her "nutty" and stating, "I'm for the Republican, but I gotta tell ya ... this is not a race we're going to be able to win."
Prominent Republicans such as Colin Powell, Meghan McCain, Michael Bloomberg and Rove are speaking out against the Tea Party in favor of a more moderate Republican Party. In her book, McCain argues, "I am not saying we should abandon the core ideals that the Republican Party was built on. I am saying it is time to remember them." She, along with many other moderate Republicans, believes it is past time to band together and form a cohesive Republican Party that "makes room for all Republicans" - moderates and extremists alike. Doing so would create a more unified party against the Democrats rather than against one another.
The nomination of these Tea Party candidates in the primaries may pave the way for Democrats to win some unexpected seats in the upcoming election. With extreme conservatives pitted against more moderate candidates, Democrats just might prevail - even with two Republicans splitting the Republican vote against one Democrat. Rove believes that many of these Tea Party candidates are unelectable, stating, "It does conservatives little good to support candidates who, at the end of the day, while they may be conservative in their public statements, do not evince the characteristics of rectitude, and truthfulness, and sincerity, and character that the voters are looking for." For once in my life, I might actually agree with Karl Rove. Scary.
Claire Shotwell is an associate editor for The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at c.shotwell@cavalierdaily.com.
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