Morrison exposes California Republican Assembly
Despite calls by Republican Party leaders asking why we can’t just “all get along”, there are forces within the Republican Party which would rather be right than be in power. Of course, their version of “right” is not that of the Republican Party as a whole, nor even close to a majority of the electorate. Patt Morrison documents the destruction the California Republican Assembly has caused for the State’s GOP:
If minoxidil sells well in California, it’s because Republicans are always tearing their hair out, wailing that its candidates “can’t even beat Boxer.” Barbara Boxer, who California Republicans have made into their Hillary Clinton, has bested every candidate the GOP has thrown at her, partly because most of them are further right than she is left.
The capper came in 2002, when all eight Republican candidates lost every single statewide office to Democrats, which hadn’t happened since Chester Arthur was president. Matters were so wretched that George W. Bush — hardly a squishy moderate — sent out an apparatchik to try to hose down the CRA.
And that “R,” as in Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Calif.)? The CRA would tell you darkly that it means RINO — Republican In Name Only. Schwarzenegger probably would not be governor today if he’d had to run in a regular primary, where his pro-choice, pro-gay rights, I-sure-did-inhale record would have sunk him. A direct-to-voters recall campaign was the only way Schwarzenegger could bypass the long knives of the CRA.
In May, the California Republican Assembly got involved in the Redondo Beach Mayor’s race, where two Republicans were on the ballot. They were offended that groups like the Log Cabin PAC and Victory fund gave money to Mike Gin–a member of LCR. The head of the CRA later asked in the Los Angeles Times, “Why would they do that? They obviously have an agenda.”
Riiiight. Just because you’re gay, you support some mythical monolithic gay agenda. That’s the kind of intellectual totalitarianism I would expect to hear from the self-appointed leadership of the gay community! Luckily, the voters rejected the CRA–let’s hope they always do.
Blindly Fighting for the Right to Lose [LA Times]