The Political Spectrum

There is no person that I want to see defeated this November (or, preferably sooner) more than Lincoln Chafee (RINO-RI). Today he solidified his position as the king of all RINO's by saying he will be voting against Samuel Alito's confirmation. He softened his position by also stating that he will vote for cloture. But the damage is already done.

The NRSC, meanwhile, continues to fund this worthless Republican's re-election efforts, running ads critical of his primary opponent Steve Laffey. The NRSC's sell-out is indefensible. Last time around we witnessed the establishment defeat Pat Toomey and his efforts to oust Arlen Specter, and now the GOP establishment is repeating its error, and in the interests of someone who is even further to Specter's left. At some point the Republican party will have to learn that it cannot merely rely on the moonbattery of the left or the complete incompetence of the Democratic party leadership in order to win elections. Its habit of supporting gutless wimps like Chafee and its insistence on upholding the status quo in elevating Roy Blunt to the majority leader position are all elements of a party in serious decline. Heaven help us that it yet remains the more palatable of the two options out there.

I think multi-party (meaning more than two) systems are generally bad for democratic government, but I'm not sure how longer we can maintain the two-party system when this is the best we can do.

Update: Oddly enough, Publius at Legal Fiction - inspired in part by my calling him Machiavellian - poses a question that touches on this very subject:

I’d really like my conservative readers to answer this simple question – what is the argument in favor of the GOP these days? What’s the affirmative case? Is there any reason other than that Democrats would be worse?

I did note in the comments that there were still Republicans that I like very much, and that I will gladly be pulling the lever for Michael Steele this November. But, as I have just written, I do fear the alternative more than I support the current party.

I'd also admit to not fully suscribing to the litany of bad that Publius lists. For example, I am not as pessimistic on the war front (though I of course acknowledge that things have been far from perfect). I also think the "unitary executive" bit is somewhat misleading. But there's no denying that we've come a long way from the Revolution of 1994, and Richard Lowry and the gang at National Review have explored that in the latest issue. Something does need to change.