The Republicans Are Triangulating The Party Right Into The Ground

28 Jul, 2006 by John Hawkins

Print this article Font size -16+

These comments from Mike Castle about a minimum wage hike give you a lot of insight into what’s wrong with the GOP’s thinking in a nutshell:

“Whether people like it or not, we need to go ahead with it,” said Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., who supports the idea. “There’s a general agreement among Republicans (opposing the raise) that “maybe we don’t like it much, but we need to move forward with it just for political reasons.”

So the GOP is going to vote for a policy that they don’t support, that their base doesn’t support, that they don’t believe is good for America, for political reasons, despite the fact that there is great hue and cry for raising the minimum wage.

This is exactly the sort of thing that frustrates the base and convinces the American people that we have a bunch of spineless jellyfish up on Capitol Hill who don’t stand for anything except getting reelected.

Sure, there may be times when a politician has to give in on an issue because of political necessity, but we’ve gotten to the point where the GOP caves on so many minimally important issues that we’re pushing through more of the Democratic agenda, than the Republican agenda, in a lot of areas.

You know what the most ironic thing is about that sort of attitude? If the Republicans in Washington spent less time trying to protect their cushy jobs and spent more time pleasing Republicans by doing the right thing for the country, the base would be highly motivated right now. That means instead of losing seats in November, the GOP would be expanding its majority. It’s exactly this kind of “Castle Mentality” that’s killing the GOP politically right now.