Earlier this month, the South Florida-based Southeast Broward Republican Club held an event at a gun range where targets included silhouettes of Muslim stereotypes and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL). At the gathering, Wasserman Schultz’s GOP competitor fired at a full-body silhouette with ‘DWS’ written next to its head.” The South Florida Sun Sentinel reports that the Republican activist Ed Napolitano, who was in charge of the club, has resigned from all his party positions, saying he was “pushed to quit”:
While he’s stepping away from the party, Napolitano said today he’s not ending his political activism. “I’m not going to be going away. You’re still going to see me around.”
He expressed frustration with Republican Party leadership, which he said doesn’t stand by and defend volunteer Republican activists – like himself – when they’re attacked.
“The leadership in the Republican Party is lacking in courage, and they do not stand by their people,” Napolitano said. “We’re volunteers. We volunteer our time and we volunteer our money. They’re there to facilitate us. We’re not there to facilitate them. They act like we’re their servants.”
The Florida Republican Party says it didn’t call on Napolitano to resign. Although Napolitano has apologized to Wasserman Schultz for the incident, Lowry has not.
What's your opinion? Is that just good clean fun for the boys at the shooting range? Is that a fairly common practice, putting images on the targets the way people often do with dart boards?
What do you think about Napolitano reaction? Do you think there's a growing discontent among moderate Republicans? Do you think as the polarization of the parties continues, more Republicans are lost than Democrats converted?
What about the future of the Republican Party. Here's what one commenter, Lux, had to say:
I’m making my prediction now…
2012 – Obama Repeat.. Repubs make their worst showing ever..
2016 – Democrats win easily.. the distance between them and the GOP largely increased by the first very strong showing of an independent — I predict a third party receiving 18% of the popular vote..
2020 – In a heated race – An independent wins the election.. the GOP reduced to a category we now reserve for the libertarian/Green parties – a ‘wasted vote’
Please leave a comment.
Lux is an idiot, though his position is unsurprising.
ReplyDeleteI've seen MANY liberals who seem to think it'd be wonderful if this country was under 1 party rule all the time.
Wasn't it not too long ago that Karl Rove was predicting a "permanent Republican majority? How did that prediction turn out?
ReplyDeleteI suspect that a prediction that has been wrong more often than most others is "This time will be different."
The problem with both of the parties is that there is no platform--they are just political clubs rather than parties.
ReplyDeleteThe Democrats have both houses and the White House and they still can't get anything done. Why? Because they are a group of people with D's beside their name that have differing views and differing platforms.
The Republicans are really bad off. The leadership thinks people will vote for people with funny little R's beside their name no matter what and they are wrong.
Moderates will vote for either party because they are mostly spineless and are just looking for whatever is quick and easy. The Republicans think they can win in a pissing contest of moderates. Sometimes they can, sometimes they can't. In 2008 they could not.
While the politicians have left their platforms and gravitated towards the middle, the real conservatives and liberals each still follow their platforms with passion. Both parties consider these people to be "fringe" while the bulk of their core voters are moderate. That is not true. Their "fringe" elements are the core and the moderates are sheep that wonder towards the grain bucket. Sometimes one party presents a bigger, prettier grain bucket and they come running and bleating. Meanwhile the true conservatives and liberals sit on the sides of the corral and watch in disbelief.
True liberals will not vote for a moderate like John McCain, Mitt Romney, or any of the other turd polishers that the Republicans offer. And guess what? The true conservatives won't either and there are far more true conservatives than there are true liberals.
The Republican party just needs to remember that they have a platform and if their candidates follow it, they can keep enough of their core with them to win. If they continue this moderate reach-arounds-in-the-aisle crap, they will break apart and conservatives will take their votes elsewhere. The hotly contested New York race is a prime example. The GOP is spending more against a conservative candidate then they are against the democrat. I hope we see that in 2010 across the nation. That may be the only thing that wakes them up.
If that was a picture of the president, the secret service would be taking that as a serious threat to his life, any public figure in office weather it is the president or a REP or Senator, needs to be protected from idiots like this guy at the shooting range, This great democracy allows those people to be voted out of office if you don't like there politics but to outright be violently offensive, is a direct threat to there lives, no matter how small the threat.
ReplyDeleteRight you are, Les/Lori. Thanks for coming by.
ReplyDelete