The reports of cannibalism are greatly exaggerated.
What is this? I talk about two factions in the party disagreeing, and suddenly our friends across the aisle are reporting that a GOP party implosion is impending and threatening to let the party registration change cards fly?
Don't get your hopes up yet.
We might seem dysfunctional at times. We may squabble. We may call each other names like RINO, and Wing-nut. We may publicly brawl in the media. We may abuse each other in ways that seem really not very nice. Why? Because we're like family. A big family with all the quirks and personalities that you might find in any large extended family.
Believe me, we're not eating our own. I've seen examples of that cold indifference, when people are tossed to the wolves. And I've experienced it. It's not very nice.
This stuff lately? This is nothing. If anything, we're squabbling at the dinner table right now. Everybody is still communicating, because we realize we have to. People are talking about what destination they want the party to "drive to." Didn't you ever take a trip in the car, and disagreed about the route to reach your destination? Or have a Thanksgiving dinner with too many relatives?
Reagan invoked? I't's like saying "you'd never talk in front of your grandfather like that if he were still around."
The MAINstream group is stamping their foot that they want a bigger place at the table. The conservative group is pounding the table telling them to shaddup and go eat down the street with the Dems if they don't like what they have.
But notice, we still haven't gone much beyond about 30 or 40 people who are speaking up on this whole thing and causing the ruckus. There's about 1000 or so active party participants who haven't said a word. There's over 235,000 registered Republicans in South Dakota who have yet to voice an opinion on all of this.
No matter what, in the end the majority is still going to rule. He (or she) who has the votes, wins. Don't like the direction of the party? You have to convince an organization as monolithic as any other group of it's size to turn down a different road.
It's what you might consider a safety feature to prevent flights of whimsey from derailing everyone. You can't move a large organization overnight. You have to convince the majority of a better way. And if the movement to change direction fizzles out, maybe it really isn't a better way. If the idea is good enough, people will flock to it, and the shift will eventually happen.
So while they're busy carping at the table, I'm going to do my own thing. I'm going to try to snag the wishbone from the turkey. And make a run on the white meat.
Don't get your hopes up yet.
We might seem dysfunctional at times. We may squabble. We may call each other names like RINO, and Wing-nut. We may publicly brawl in the media. We may abuse each other in ways that seem really not very nice. Why? Because we're like family. A big family with all the quirks and personalities that you might find in any large extended family.
Believe me, we're not eating our own. I've seen examples of that cold indifference, when people are tossed to the wolves. And I've experienced it. It's not very nice.
This stuff lately? This is nothing. If anything, we're squabbling at the dinner table right now. Everybody is still communicating, because we realize we have to. People are talking about what destination they want the party to "drive to." Didn't you ever take a trip in the car, and disagreed about the route to reach your destination? Or have a Thanksgiving dinner with too many relatives?
Reagan invoked? I't's like saying "you'd never talk in front of your grandfather like that if he were still around."
The MAINstream group is stamping their foot that they want a bigger place at the table. The conservative group is pounding the table telling them to shaddup and go eat down the street with the Dems if they don't like what they have.
But notice, we still haven't gone much beyond about 30 or 40 people who are speaking up on this whole thing and causing the ruckus. There's about 1000 or so active party participants who haven't said a word. There's over 235,000 registered Republicans in South Dakota who have yet to voice an opinion on all of this.
No matter what, in the end the majority is still going to rule. He (or she) who has the votes, wins. Don't like the direction of the party? You have to convince an organization as monolithic as any other group of it's size to turn down a different road.
It's what you might consider a safety feature to prevent flights of whimsey from derailing everyone. You can't move a large organization overnight. You have to convince the majority of a better way. And if the movement to change direction fizzles out, maybe it really isn't a better way. If the idea is good enough, people will flock to it, and the shift will eventually happen.
So while they're busy carping at the table, I'm going to do my own thing. I'm going to try to snag the wishbone from the turkey. And make a run on the white meat.
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