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Tea parties, health care riots don’t help Republican cause

I’ve been taking the position in recent days that 2010 can be a pretty good year for Republicans if they stick to the issues and let the political cycle do its work. Unfortunately, a lot of people—not necessarily Republicans—can’t seem to wait. Their frustration is understandable, but it isn’t doing them or the conservative cause any good.

A case in point are angry confrontations at Congressional recess meetings, especially on the health care issue. I’ve written elsewhere that the protesters have plenty to be concerned about, and defended them from charges of racism and worse. Many of the points that they are making, about the cost of legislation, its potential interference with the patient-doctor relationship and so forth are unquestionably reasonable.

But it’s one thing to ask your elected representative tough questions, and quite another to go looking for a fight. Yelling and screaming like people who are afraid of losing their Viagra coverage is not likely to convince many swing voters. Remarks of the no-socialism-and-hands-off-my-Medicare variety, if perhaps apocryphal, feed the sense that Republicans  are at best ill-prepared and at worst the pawns of cynical special interests.

The 1960s left turned to street theater when it became apparent that it lacked the votes to win real-world elections. The irony of the tea party mentality is that it encourages irrational tactics at precisely the moment when conservative arguments are beginning to carry the day. The way for Republicans to come back is to make their arguments, support sober candidates like Pat Meehan, Damian Dachowski and, yes, Pat Toomey, and let the facts speak for themselves.

If you want to watch a fight, there’s always the Versus network.

August 10, 2009 at 7:04 am

--Michael Livingston

Tags: Damian Dachowski, health care, Pat Toomey, Patrick Meehan

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