Portland Parks Held Hostage by Occupy

Portland Parks Held Hostage by Occupy
DAY 152

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Moderate Cornilles Crushed; Conservative to Run Next Time?

And if so, who?

Posted by Victoria Taft, 11am - 3pm KPAM 860 at 09:58

4 comments:

  1. (Sigh) -- it won't matter who runs. In Oregon, conservatism as a winning ideology is dead west of the cascades (AKA Where the Voters Live) -- Washington too for that matter, and the call for "more conservatism" is not a rallying cry so much as a death rattle.

    Imagine for a moment that the political leanings of Oregonians fall along a bell curve, and the further toward the edges one goes, the fewer voters there will be. Insisting upon more ideologically conservative candidates therefore becomes political suicide in Oregon. The more you push right, the more voters you'll lose. It's a simple equation. Do you really expect to win elections by appealing to fewer and fewer voters? Perhaps pure, unadulterated conservatism will win in Mississippi or Idaho, but in Oregon -- no chance.

    Oregon's Republican Party stopped being a serious contender statewide when it embraced the oppressive social agenda of the hard-right. The long, slow decline has just about reached bottom when it can't muster a victory given the circumstances in the first district. Worst yet, not only can it not muster a win, it's barely competitive. I mean, not even 40%? Embarrassing.

    Until the GOP in Oregon returns to its moderate roots -- its Tom McCall, Mark Hatfield senses -- it's doomed to failure after failure. I'd argue that had Chris Dudley stated that he'd never support any attempt to end women's access to abortion services, and would support same-sex marriage, he'd been elected. Of course, saying those thing might also mean he'd never have been nominated in the first place.

    I'm a progressive, liberal, Portland Democrat (who was also raised in the most conservative part of the state), but I'm also not so ideological that I don't recognize that every political party needs a healthy opposition to keep it in check. But both parties must accept that if it listens solely to its most extreme members it risks irrelevance. The GOP must embrace its inner, moderate pragmatist.

    Calling for more conservatism is simply shortsighted and ill-advised if your goal is to win elections -- remember, Antonio is correct: past is prologue.

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  2. Worse James, is the polarization both parties have done to the country. It is so bad that we may never recover.

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  3. Cornilles a moderate? That should be your first clue to why the Repugs can't win a State wide election! He's a moderate like I'm a penguin....tried to run as one(much like Chris Dudley)to try and attract Independent voters. Oregonians just aren't that ignorant and saw through the facade for what Rob really is...Tea Party Conservative who would vote in lockstep with the Republicans.

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  4. Hi james,

    I grew up in Portland too and have been a working class, pro choice democrat since 1968. I was tempted to copy your post with only substituting democrat for republican. : )

    Your right about the cascadia area, but is that because of the oppressive hard right social agenda or that, since there has been no effective opposition to progressives in this state for a generation, its the bliss of ignorance. What you have in the 1st CD and much of the state is a structure put into place by a single party that has controlled the education system, the governorship, and the judiciary for almost 40 years.

    It's always interesting to read the Oregonian with nearly a constant stream of articles on the failure of government to perform effectively at almost every level while the editorial page cheer leads almost every idea proposed with only the flimsiest of evidence from advocates. Portland's double digit U6 unemplyment rate is not even a subject of discussion at city hall or in the media. What, aren't we half way through our 3rd ten year plan to end homelessness? Is it too much to ask for some results for our expenditures?

    Tomorrow no doubt, it will describe some of the details of the 2011 City of Portland fiscal report released today including the nuggets that the City took on another 253 million dollars in debt and pays 316 million dollars a year in debt service on what it owes. So where will the money for Milwaukie light rail and our part of the CRC come from. This from a city with a population of less than 600,000 people that doesn't have the money to pave the streets, build it's schools, educate more than half of its students, or adequately treat its mentally ill. Maybe you have more faith in the resilience of Portland's food cart, tattoo parlor, second hand clothing store economy than I do.

    Just yesterday, the Oregonian reported the first initial public offering of stock by an Oregon business in 7 years.......7 years. That says everything you have to know about economic policy in this state under democrats. You can search high and low and nary a Wall Streeter in sight though there are plenty of Blue 1% folks.

    Not in my wildest dreams would I ever have thought that the mayor of my city would join in with and encourage a mob to take over the streets of this town for the better part of 5 weeks and claim he did it to protect free speech. What other group in this city could get away with that? Now that's an oppressive social agenda.

    Remember the heady days a mere 10 years ago when Basic Rights Oregon only wanted what happened between consenting adults in the bedroom was no one's business? Now, you can't escape the agenda of a tiny percentage of the population that has become interwoven in virtually evertrhing including elenmentary schools. Who is imposing their values on whom? Who advocates the suppression of traditional values by the few or the one?

    Just yesterday, the Oregonianian reported that since PERS has promised 8% return to it's memebers, contributions from employers, i.e. tax payers will go up 30% over last year.

    Since when is it a mainstream value in the 1st CD to spend $150 million dollars on a bridge project that doesn't even have an approved plan? Is asking for even an attempt at fiscal responsibility too hard right for democrats?

    Tom McCall told people, visit Oregon but don't stay.....a message not acceptable to democrats who embrace tens of thousands of the 3rd world's poorest and least educated people for no apparent reason other than it makes them feel better about themselves.

    Answer me this question, when will democrats embrace their moderate roots and eschew the far left agenda it has now? Perhaps that is part of the cause of all this polarization we see.

    Susan Bonamicci was not asked about any of those issues. She promised to be independent of her party...well we see what her record is this November.

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