I can remember a time when a Republican winning a statewide race for public office in Tennessee was about as likely as a Democrat winning a statewide race for public office in Tennessee today. In other words, the pendulum has swung so far to the right here in the Volunteer State that it's completely out of sight, and still moving rightward...
Case in point: the Democratic Party pooh-bahs have decided to disavow their own Senate candidate in this year's election. Senator Bob Corker is running for reelection to Congress from Chattanooga, and a lot of Tennesseans would like to see him replaced. They remember the way Corker blasted labor union leaders and GM executives during the Senate hearings on the automobile industry bailout, all the while working to bring a non-union Volkswagon plant to his hometown of Chattanooga. But because Corker's a multi-millionaire with unlimited funds at his disposal and a huge campaign war chest to use in the general election in November, no credible opponent could be found to run for the Democratic nomination.
Seven Democrats lined up to run for the right to face Corker in the election, but none of them had the name recognition to be a serious challenge for Corker in the general election. So most Democratic primary voters went into the voting booth uninformed on their choices for the Senate primary race, and many of them apparently just voted for the name at the top of the page: Mark Clayton.
So Clayton won the Democratic nomination and will face Corker in November. Who the hell is Mark Clayton? Well, if you Google the name you'll probably get a wide receiver for the Miami Dolphins. It's not that Mark Clayton. Wish it were...
"Our" Mark Clayton is the unpaid vice president for a group calling itself Public Advocate of the United States, a group the Southern Poverty Law Center calls an "anti-gay hate group."
Wonderful. The Democratic Party in Tennessee is so pathetically disorganized that it is now publicly disavowing its own candidate for a statewide Senate race. And yet I get half a dozen emails and a few phone calls from the state's Democratic Party on a daily basis urging me to send them my hard earned cash.
They need my money for this?
3 comments:
Squat...I was SOOOOOO fucking disgusted when I heard that story about Clayton. I did NOT vote for him, I am proud to say. Voting for the name at the top of the list when you don't know any of the candidates is just retarded. Everyone knows the "random pick" in a multiple choice question is always "C." LOL
Seriously though...I am shaking my head in wonderment at how something this stupid could happen. But, then I wake up and realize that our little TN world is merely a microcosm for the greater STUPID American populace that lets this kind of shit happen all of the time.
What's more dangerous than an idiot with a gun? A fucktard with a vote.
Reck, the amazing thing to me is how quickly (relatively speaking) this state went from reliably Democratic to Red State Republican. Back in the late 60's the Republican party didn't even FIELD A CANDIDATE IN THE GUBENATORIAL CAMPAIGN. It's was a lost cause for the GOP so they didn't waste their money, choosing instead to back Howard Baker in a Senate run. He won. The state began to switch teams after that election, and Nixon's southern strategy worked.
Other than Al Gore, we've sent Repubs to DC every election... with very few exceptions. TN did vote for Clinton/Gore both elections, but failed to carry the state for Gore against W. Cost him the election.
Squat: during the late fifties there was a turnover of segregation from Democrat to Republican. When the Democrats (Lyndon Johnson) proposed an anti segregation platform at the Democratic convention southern racist walked out of the convention and formed the Dixicrat Party. When that failed there was a big move of southern, Christian, racist from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party.
the Ol'Buzzard
Post a Comment