The news on election day may have been good on the national level, but in many blue states it was not so good, at least for Republicans. In Massachusetts in particular, we may as well call it: the Republican Party is as good as dead.
The slim GOP minority in the State House is even slimmer today; Heck, the entire GOP caucus could fit in my living room. We are effectively a one-party state, apart from the Governor and a few, scattered elected officials. Why did we get here and where do we go from here?
Now, to be sure, it’s not all gloom and doom. In fact, the implosion of the Mass. GOP has allowed that rarest of all creatures to actually sprout here in liberal Massachusetts: pro-life, conservative Democrats. Yes, there are a few of them out there, although most are not as pro-life or conservative as I’d like. Still, in the People’s Republic, it’s not bad. Yet, I don’t think it’s good enough. A single-party system is bad for any government. Two or even more parties is much better, if only because it keeps the party in power honest and jams up the wheels of government just enough that they can’t muck about in the lives of ordinary citizens.
So how did we get here? Part of the problem is that there no foundation for building up any opposition party, Republican or otherwise. That’s because most Massachusetts cities and towns have open elections, i.e. they do not offer nominees of parties, but anyone who can get on the ballot. Most often, that means that the party with the strongest local apparatus has most of the nominees and thus most city council, selectman, and mayoral elections feature Democrats running against Democrats. What that does to the GOP and other parties is prevent them from building up a local party system and forming candidates who have experience running political campaigns and who have built up a following of people who have cast votes for them. Thus, in elections for state and federal office, the GOP puts up candidates who have never run for office before against seasoned incumbents. It’s like leading lambs to the slaughter.
Does the Constitution Party have a presense in Massachusetts?
I am surprised that the Democrats have not tried to “redistrict” the Republican Party out of existence in the State legislature—at least in the State Senate where the Republicans have only 6 out of 40 seats (15%) and the districts are large enough for “creative” Gerrymandering. See how the Democrats Gerrymandered the Congressional districts the last time around.
I’m pretty sure the Constitution Party in this state is no more than a few dozen people at this point, although Phil Lawler ran for the Senate in 2000 under their banner.
You know the difficulties of running under a third party. It is an oddity of US politics that this is still a 2 party system, however hard others have tried to change it. So you should understand the futility of going under anything but the Democratic or Republican party.
Your boss had the advantage of running as virtually the only prolife candidate in the race, and the publicity of a certain conservative Catholic magazine to back his attempt. Result: he was virtually ignored. Even prolifers ignored him.
Moreover, working under the Constitution Party’s banner does not address ANY of the systemic problems you described. If anything, working with an even more obscure party makes the problems of lack of experience, political machinery, local talent and figures even worse. In other words, it’s futile talking about a third party.
We’d probably have better luck getting the entire state GOP leadership fired and starting afresh, as you say. But under the GOP umbrella.
Heck forget just MA we need a viable third party for the whole country one that we as Catholics can feel good about backing and not just a lesser of two evils type thing. Any contenders out there for ‘08 to beat Hillary?
Without a unifying mission (think Goldwater, Reagan, GW Bush) Republican minorities are content to get a little patronage and know their place
It’s only when there’s a Democratic disaster that a Republican has a chance. Here in New York we had strike twice: Cuomo & Dinkins replaced by Pataki & Guiliani
Is there a perception that a disaster has taken place in Massachusetts?
Yes. Supporters of marriage lost seats. Romney will split for D.C. All is lost here.