"How to Save the Republican Party"

[Papewaio]

By Australian standards Democrats are right wing and Republicans are far right. Tea Party are so right they should have a mad hatter or someone with a nifty moustache leading the group.

None of them are moderate by our standards. And I bet if a list of middle Americans drew up a list of what they wanted from their ideal party the voters list would be far more in line with each other and more moderate then the two main parties representing them.

Problem is when two teams are so close in alignment that they are chasing the same demographic poll motivated voting blocks, the bits to differentiate on are hyper inflated, magnified and either vaunted or demonised depending if it is part of the parties platform or part of the other team.

Australian politics seems far more tame in comparison. We have a female agnostic, unmarried Prime Minister Gillard who lives with her defacto husband (who is a hair dresser). The opposition leader Abbot is a die hard Catholic who as the Health Minister blocked reasonable access to abortion (486) drugs. However even Abbot seems more left wing then Obama. We do have several more minor parties and independents make a far larger impact, particularly in the current minority government.

IMDHO I'd vote for Nick Xenophon after this weekend's fallout with Malaysia...

Anyhow back to USA politics. From an outsiders point of view it seems too much religion and character assassination making it far to polarised for the voter while back of house the special interest groups smooth over the differences and make sure the end result is the same... for themselves.