A Problem of Shrinkage

[Xiahou]

Anybody who wants to debate creationism is encouraged to start another thread. I'm still interested to hear opinions about (a) whether we are in danger of becoming a one-party state, and (b) if not, why not.

Personally, I'm all for letting Democrats have absolute control. The sooner they get to screw things up, the sooner people can get disgusted with them and the sooner we can be rid of them. I'd rather have people like Specter or Snowe in office as Democrats than Republicans.

Being "moderate" and not having any driving principles behind them is what got the GOP thrown out of power. They came to power with the Contract with America and were helped by the complacency of the Democrats at the time. However, with disappointing speed, members of the GOP quickly abandoned their principles and became more interested in pandering and feathering their own nests than in following up on the principles that got them the majority in the first place. An unfortunate side-effect of the "contract" was that the most principled members of the GOP left office by self-limiting their terms in office as they all supposedly agreed to (see Pat Toomey).

In 1998, Toomey ran for the 15th District seat being vacated by incumbent Paul McHale against state Senator and future Allentown Mayor Roy C. Afflerbach. Toomey successfully flipped the seat from the Democratic McHale and won by an unexpectedly wide ten-point margin. He may have been helped by Governor Tom Ridge's landslide reelection victory.

Toomey was reelected two more times by relatively comfortable margins. While the 15th has historically been a Democratic district, it has a fairly strong tinge of social conservatism.

Toomey did not run for reelection to his House seat in 2004, fulfilling a pledge that he had signed in 1998 to only serve three terms.[3]

As I bemoaned during the Bush years, people like the RSC- the true Republican conservatives, were dismissed and even mocked by the party establishment, jokingly referring to them as the "minority" party since, according to them, that's what the party would become if their principles were put into legislation. Well, the RSC clearly didn't get it's way- and guess what happened?

I fully expect that after a number of years, the pendulum will again swing the other way and the GOP will be back in power again on a platform of limited government.... sadly, it's also just as likely that they'll quickly betray those principles again too. History repeats itself....