Don't let the door... well, you know the rest
I've a running argument with lots of folks over the past couple of years about dysfunction in the political system and how much is the effect of the two-party system. It's one of the reasons I've been following the primary season a little more closely this year, and one of the reasons I feel compelled to comment on a primary in Indiana that I otherwise wouldn't mention.
Six-term senator Richard Lugar of Indiana lost the Republican primary to Dan Mourdock (who I know little about save that there's a random U in his last name and he ran hard to the right of Lugar). So another teabagger beat another "moderate" Republican (what they call moderate now simply means "non-insane conservative"). But the thing is lots of people (especially Dick Lugar) act like this is a bad thing. I mean, in the narrow sense it is, because another lunatic now has an even chance of being a U.S. Senator, even though he wouldn't be the craziest senator by far. But in the broader sense, I don't think it's a bad thing at all.
Dick Lugar has been in the senate since the Ford Administration. He served with three senators born in the nineteenth century (and Strom Thurmond who was born on Noah's Ark during the Flood), one of whom voted on Social Security. Also, he's 80 years old. I'm going to say he's not fit or qualified to do his job anymore, but I am saying that after 36 years in the senate, it's not a bad thing for him to have to justify to his party's voters why he's still there. And he couldn't. Faced with a real challenge instead of a pro-forma coronation for the first time in a generation, he spit the bit. Observers said he ran one of the worst campaigns in memory and got trounced for his trouble. Well, good. That means it was time for him to go. And now that he's gone, maybe his replacement will remember that his job isn't phony statesmanship, but serving the interests of the people of Indiana. Or maybe not. But at least it seems like the system worked for once.
Six-term senator Richard Lugar of Indiana lost the Republican primary to Dan Mourdock (who I know little about save that there's a random U in his last name and he ran hard to the right of Lugar). So another teabagger beat another "moderate" Republican (what they call moderate now simply means "non-insane conservative"). But the thing is lots of people (especially Dick Lugar) act like this is a bad thing. I mean, in the narrow sense it is, because another lunatic now has an even chance of being a U.S. Senator, even though he wouldn't be the craziest senator by far. But in the broader sense, I don't think it's a bad thing at all.
Dick Lugar has been in the senate since the Ford Administration. He served with three senators born in the nineteenth century (and Strom Thurmond who was born on Noah's Ark during the Flood), one of whom voted on Social Security. Also, he's 80 years old. I'm going to say he's not fit or qualified to do his job anymore, but I am saying that after 36 years in the senate, it's not a bad thing for him to have to justify to his party's voters why he's still there. And he couldn't. Faced with a real challenge instead of a pro-forma coronation for the first time in a generation, he spit the bit. Observers said he ran one of the worst campaigns in memory and got trounced for his trouble. Well, good. That means it was time for him to go. And now that he's gone, maybe his replacement will remember that his job isn't phony statesmanship, but serving the interests of the people of Indiana. Or maybe not. But at least it seems like the system worked for once.