Glued to my television last night, I, like probably millions of other Canadians, watched as the blue states and red states were tallied until President Barack Obama defeated former Governor Mitt Romney.
Last night and over the course of the American election campaign, I could not help but think of the similarities between the missed opportunities of the Republican Party in this election and Danielle Smith‘s Wildrose Party in Alberta’s recent provincial election.
Admittedly, the comparison is not perfect, but as someone who has immersed himself in Alberta politics and, for the past few months, American politics, I could not help but notice some similarities.
Both parties likely had opportunities for significant electoral gains, yet both suffered or were seen to have suffered electorally because of the extreme elements of their electoral coalitions.
Just as the “bozo eruptions” made by Reverends Allan Hunsperger and Ron Leech drove moderate Alberta voters away from Ms. Smith’s party earlier this year, the cruel and mean-spirited “rape” comments made by extreme right-wing Tea Party Republicans Todd Akin in Missouri and Richard Murdock in Indiana appear to have driven moderate voters away from the Republican Party. As some pundits have suggested, the American bozo eruptions may have cost the Republicans the opportunity to win back states that they narrowly lost to the Democrats in 2006.
It was promising to see that moderate American voters rejected this type of politics. It was also promising to see American voters support ballot initiatives to legalize same-sex marriage in a handful of states, turning the tide back against years of electoral attacks on marriage equality. In Wisconsin, Democrat Tammy Baldwin became the first openly gay Senator, which is made more exciting because her sexual orientation does not appear to have even be an issue during the election campaign.
For those of you who did not have the energy to stay awake into the early hours of the morning to listen to President Obama’s victory speech, you can watch it in the video below.
If only our political leaders could work up an ounce of President Obama’s charisma and powerful speaking skills, Canadian politics could be so much more inspiring.
12 replies on “Alberta Conservatives can relate to Tea Party “bozos eruptions.””
Dave;
Your blog post about how Alberta Conservatives can relate to the Tea Party “bozos eruptions” is in my opinion right on.
To be fair all parties have these kinds of blow ups. Just that 2012 seems to have produced the most breathtaking and laughable ones on both sides of the boarder.
Wade
Funny enough I was thinking the same thing during the US election. I was also thinking “I wonder if it will sink in with a certain new Alberta Conservative party?” What I find very interesting is that if you look at the vocal supporters of this party on Social Media like Twitter you wonder if this represents the base of the party. If you also look into whom they follow and who follows them it is a wellspring of US Right Wing Tea Party geniuses like Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and every FOXNews pundit. The odd thing is they wear that affiliation like a badge of honour.
When I look at recent victories like Barak Obama and to some degree our own Naheed Nenshi, it strikes me that extremism is on the outs, intelligence like facts science and math actually matter to voters, and that by and by we tend to be centrists.
They can have their Right Wing, Bible Thumping Extremists, and Good Ole Boy ways. Me, I’ll take common sense.
I wonder whether the comparison goes deeper. Every party DOES have bozo eruptions. But they may be particular damaging to parties that seem:
* To have, at heart, a more radical right agenda than they admit in their official communications and rhetoric.
* To be manufacturing a message they think the public wants to hear rather than honestly articulating a core set of beliefs.
AND/OR
* Being shills for powerful economic interests that are using the party as a tool for their own advantage.
When the above obtain — as with the Republicans, I’d say — the bozo eruptions seem to articulate a real truth about the party, or remind us that we don’t know what the truth of the party is.
If Romney wasn’t Mormon he probably would’ve posted John McCain numbers and won. Now the stage is set for a hard right victory in 2016 because moderates like Mitt and McCain can’t win.
Jeff, I am pretty sure that is the best example I have ever seen of learning the wrong lesson.
I’m both amused and irritated by conservatives who feel Romney lost because he wasn’t “hard right” enough.
Uhm. The complete loss of the black vote, the hispanic vote and the woman vote – wasn’t because Romney was too “right”.
But I think, Dave – you make a valid point. “Conservatives” have to come to grips with the cognitive dissonance of a point of view which demands the hand of government be removed from “THEIR” shoulder even as it seek to place that some hand on “YOURS”.
ie) We can no longer seek to assert freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and freedom of opportunity – while seek to restrict the freedom of others to marry who, and how, they want to, and to insert ourselves in the decision of women, their doctors, and THEIR God.
(Though it would have been really nice for the media to have pointed out the anti-gay, anti-abortion types in Alison Redford’s caucus, even as she hypocritially attacked Danielle Smith)
Oh. And David Kotsibie. I’m a Wild Rose supporter and donor. (Pro-choice, pro-gay marriage.. believe it or not)
It should also be noted that in both elections, the leaders failed to strongly denounce the bozos’ outbursts. Likely because they were courting those kinds of people as their base.
You also get a sense that both the Tea Party Republicans and Tea Party-wing of Wildrose have bought into their own hype.
The analysis is good especially when it shows elections are won on little stuff. The
US economy is going over a cliff cause the electorate likes “free stuff”. I find it unfortunate that the economic situation in the US partly brought on by Obama hurts the very people who vote for him. I really shake my head. Like the US the PC won cause they promised a lot and now the fiscal picture looks pretty bleak.
Comparison yes. And in both cases we cannot forget that the majority of the media was on the PC and Obamas side.
And In both cases, negative ads do work!
I find that people that blame the “media” for their own parties misfortunes are usually those that give the “media” more credit than it deserves. In this day and age we have more information at our own fingertips than ever before. I can do enough research in 15 minutes on an issue with a discerning Google search to get a broad perspective on any issue. But some simply rely on a spouting talking head our a morning tabloid paper headline for their information. To blame the media is to simply blame a lazy electorate.
Glad you find out all the info on a subject. Wish everyone did! That is exactly why the media can bias thoughts.
And yes I do study a great deal behind politics, and economics. I do not rely on talking heads – just for the record