So I attended the Rabun County Democratic Party fundraiser on Saturday. They had wanted it put on our community calender to drum up interest, but I told them that political parties don't get community calender attention, but that I would cover their fundraiser, both as a preview, and aftewards.
Anyhow, the main speaker was Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker. He was a good speaker... but what caught my attention was several of the local speakers who kicked off, including the Vice-Chair of the party, who led off with some very aggressively partisan jokes, largely against National Republican targets, including Bush, Delay, and Frist. Another referred to the governor and the republican majority in the state legislature as a gang...
Not that this in anyway suprised me. And I've been to Republican events and they aren't any gentler.
What struck me was the envelope the Attorney General recieved before hand from a very well known Rabun County businessman (by proxy, he was not himself there, but I overheard his first name, and I only know one person by that name in Rabun County who is a big time political contributor, but I will add that as a caveat.)
I happen to know that said contributor is a major supporter of Governor Perdue.
My point here is that the patricians, the power brokers, the people who are big time, know the truth. Which is that party hardly matters. At the end of the day, the issue for political parties are not ideals, they are interested in remaining in power. Take for instance the charges against Delay. Quite irrespective of whether he did it or not, that doesn't concern real Democrats. (i.e those with power), what concerns them, is that the senate rules state that he cannot hold a leadership position during the investigation. It's a political manuever, a feint.
Those in office are more alike, than they are different. But they generate the appearance of difference, to demonize the opposite party, to motivate their base to re-elect them.
The problem is that the regular people, the plebians, don't get it. And the "leaders" in this country have done such a good job of demonizing each other's base, that democrats and republicans in many places will barely associate with each other anymore. That doesn't do anything good for the country, because what will happen, what is happening now, is that the bases are now pushing the elites. Those in power can now hardly compromise and wheel, and deal with each other, without infuriating those who elected them for dealing with the "infidels."
It reminds me of the episode of the HBO' special Rome, where a street brawl breaks out among the plebians turning what was a simple political gesture by the Senate into civil war. One day our leaders could find the same result. They are simply being "clever". And their followers call for blood...
