Subject: What's Wrong in Kansas?

http://www.buzzflash.com/mailbag/06/06/mai06148.html

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Subject: What's Wrong in Kansas?

Very interesting political developments in Kansas, and it has me intrigued.

Within the last few weeks or so, as I understand three GOP elected legislators have ditched the Republican Party and are allying themselves with the Democratic Party. They are also running on the ticket against their former cohorts. Very interesting.

What's up with this?????

Lisa Johnson
Milwaukee, WI

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could this be a new neo con ploy? change from Repug to Dem - in name only making them neo con moles?

Granted, they will be somewhat conservative Dems, but they are totally fed up with the state of the Kansas GOP and the fundie far right wing faction that took it over. So fed up that they left their own party.

This is totally positive news for Kansas and the country.

There was another article on a rt wing Christian on the school board this morning in the KC Star.

The Kansas repug party has just been hijacked by religious fanatics. Even though moderate repugs can get elected, a lot of them don't want to be associated with the likes of Phill Kline and the state BOE members. I'm hoping this signals a trend at least towards the middle in Kansas- it probably won't trend as far left as I'd like, but it would still be a huge improvement from where we've been for the past few years.

It does make me a bit nervous just on its face but you are right. They could stay in the Republican party and get elected. I think the stark contrast provided by the hijacking of the fundamentalist right and the very conservative Democrats here has cause a lot of soul searching and the switch seems heartfelt not just political. Sometimes I just have to laugh at the knee jerking about our "liberal" Democrats here. Time for people to think rather than react, this may help with that.

We will never be far enough to the left for me but I will live with that. I am hoping as they get elected that Democrats will have enough influence to swing things a bit farther left, that would be enough to cause a lot of people to pay attention and see that many many of them really are Democrats but have been afraid to admit it.

Here, the best we can do is moderate Dems, for the most part.

But, as far as switching to get elected, Republicans would never have to do that here.

All they have to do is be like Brownback, and pretend to be Christian. Just like his supporters do.

as people get sick and tired of the fundamentalist right wing they could easily get elected as moderate Republicans. I think that time may be here. Still they switched. I think it was Morrison who said that he realized that the Democrats were the party for the people.

Hard to say what way it is, be fundies and win or return to common sense and values and be elected. Either way they switched parties because they realized the problems the Republican party is causing on this track. Until the rid themselves of the likes of Shallenberger they will be bad for the state.

I honestly don't think Sam gets elected simply because of this "values". I think it goes into a deeper sense of him being one of them as far as his farm background. It will be interesting to see if that has worn thin as he becomes more and more removed.

In Britain and New Zealand, business interests realized they couldn't always win with the open conservatives, so they put moles in the party structure of Labor. In New Zealand, it was so successful, a Labor government started to dismantle their social programs, and the real Labor people were forced to start a new party. In Great Britain, Labor has produced...Tony Blair.

Here I think it has already peaked with the DLC. They can win where people like republican ideas, but most Democrats recognize them for the corporate stooges they are.

There is nothing wrong with being business friendly, but I object to pols and candidates who are business owned, and put corporate interests first even when it hurts Americans, as they did with the War in Iraq, the Bankruptcy Bill, and numerous other inexcusable acts.

n/t

Discussing party switching in Kansas - and elsewhere - with social critic and author Thomas Frank (What's the Matter with Kansas, How Conservatives Won the Heart of America).

Listen here:
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200606/20060615.html

all say that the Republican party left them. In two cases (Paul Morrison who is running for attorney general, and Cindy Neighbor, who is running for the Kansas state house) they've been elected as Republicans and the argument could be made in both cases that they're better off running as Democrats rather than facing a bitter primary fight as Republicans.

In 2002 Cindy Neighbor defeated a right-wing incumbent for the Kansas House. In 2004 that right-winger fought back and defeated Cindy. Both of these were in the primary, and in both years there was no Democrat running for that seat. Cindy (who's husband is a recently retired airline pilot who, according to Cindy, thinks she should have been a Democrat all along) has been amazed and pleased at how welcoming the Democrats have been. She was at a major party function in Topeka in March and told us that Republicans never have that much fun.

Paul Morrison, who's been the District Attorney of Johnson and is an old-fashioned "tough on crime" kind of guy. He's been elected and re-elected as DA for a number of terms now, ever since Dennis Moore, currently Congressman from this part of Kansas, decided to return to private practice and about two years later decided to run for Congress. Paul likewise is amazed and pleased at how welcoming the Democrats are.

We are a nice bunch of people.

The third party-switcher is Mark Parkinson, who has switched parties to run for Lt. Governor of our Fair State. He has served in the Kansas House and Senate and was Republican Party Chair recently.

What's really important to understand about Kansas is that there are two Republican parties here, a moderate wing and the Right-wing branch. It's the latter that's somewhat more in control. The two sides battle it out frequently, and it's a major reason why school funding is so contentious, among other things.

It appears the political parties are nothing more than a useful shell game of power really. The ultimate hand of power stays within the corporate privileged white male system.

nt

They see what their party has turned into something very unAmerican. I personally wish they would form a new party and leave our party alone. In the short run it could make the Republican Party ineffectual because really only 30% of the population are really hardcore corporist, neo-con, extreme right wingers.

If this happens then the overbloated Democratic Party is really going to have to split into two parties with different ideals. It looks like it's going to be a bumpy ride.