With less than two weeks before the election, I need to
vent. Indiana’s Democratic Party is just plain stupid.
There, I said it. It’s really stupid. They simply refuse to
nominate an actual, true to life liberal to run for Senate. Instead, it’s one
milquetoast moderate after another. Hoosiers consistently have to choose
between a Republican is proud of his political perspective and a Democrat who
barely has one.
The biggest national political story
this morning is Richard Mourdock’s insane soliloquy about rape, abortion and
the will of God. Mourdock has gone the way of Todd Akin, Joe Walsh and the far
right wing of the Republican Party in making explicit their previously
subterranean desire for their vision of a 1950s fantasy America to be “inflicted”
upon 21st society. Specifically women.
Yet, the Indiana Democrats can’t take full advantage of this
opening because their own Senate candidate Joe Donnelly is also opposed to
abortion rights and, in many other respects, is a retread of the same watered
down elephant in donkey’s clothing. It’s the style candidate Hoosier Dems have
tried over and over again. Eventually, Evan Bayh developed some liberal bona fides but Donnelly has hewn closely
to the Brad Ellsworth playbook of accepting conservative orthodoxy. The strategy seems to be simple: say
conservative things while smiling instead of sneering.
Obviously there are some important differences between
Donnelly and Mourdock and I plan to vote for Donnelly. I also have hope that if
Donnelly were elected he would discover the value of leaning left in the
Senate. What’s sad today is that had Donnelly been willing to make the leftward
move sooner, his election would be a fait
accomplit and Mourdock would be on the way to the next John Birch Society
meeting. As it is, Mourdock may well
weather this storm. Cause after all, who wants milquetoast?
FDO
The WhoDeannyPod 