(Promoted by Colorado Pols)
KNUS' Steve Kelley put some good questions to GOP Rep. Kathleen Conti Friday:
Steve Kelley: What's the state of affairs of the Republican Party of Colorado?
Kathleen Conti: Well, the Republican Party is—you know, we have just a strong chasm. You know, there’s those on the far right. And there’s those on the not-so-far right. And it seems to me sometimes that our chasm is a little bit wider than those on the Democratic side….
Kelley: Is the Republican Party [as Peter Boyles says] an ugly baby right now in Colorado?
Conti: I certainly hope not….
Conti raises a good question, and Kelley should get into it with her on a future show. Which party in Colorado has a wider chasm?
Conti is the Republicans' Minority Caucus Chair in the State House, so she knows what she's talking about. Her party consists of a sharply divided "far right" and "not-so-far right." Those in the center and left-leaning are so scant as to be irrelevant.
Democrats, as Conti points out, are different, aren't they? They're mostly in the center with a straggler on the not-so-far-left.
The Dems are centrists on immigration (ASSET, driver's licenses), abortion (pro-choice), renewable energy (efficiency and moderate mandates), gun safety (common-sense background checks), gay rights (civil unions, marriage), sex ed (yes), voter registration (convenience with secure voting), taxation (when necessary), etc., etc., etc. (Here's a nice visual representation of some of these.)
The Colorado GOP comes down just as Conti said, on the far-right and not-so-far-right, with a wide and vocal chasm running down the middle.
A hatchet might be a better word for what separates the two right wings of the GOP but, like I said, Conti is in leadership, so she knows her caucus. So let it be "chasm."
In any event, you can't make much of a list of issues where the Democrats are on the far left and not-so-far-left. and Republicans are in the middle.
As someone who wants the Dems to move left, I wish you could. But face it, you can't. It's a centrist/right party.
And "hatchet" doesn't come to mind when you think of most of the Democrats' disagreements.
Kelley (who's now on KNUS 710 AM from 1 to 4 p.m.) should ask Conti to tell us her thinking on the "chasm" (and the hatchet) in more detail, including an explanation of where she stands on the chasm scale.
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It's hard even in worst-case examples to see the same level of disconnect between factions on the Democratic side of the fence. Bernie Sanders vs. Joe Manchin is a more congenial relationship than any I can think of between factions on the right.
The GOP doesn't have a far-right vs. not-so-far-right problem, it has a far-right problem. If tomorrow all of the state's GOP representatives were far-right, half of them would suddenly be too moderate. Eventually, as Bill Cosby noted decades ago, it will be down to just two people – and one of them will decide that the other isn't all that great, either. Nothing fatal, mind you; just put them somewhere else – on an island where they won't bother anyone.
Conti is my Rep. and she is a complete nitwit. Her ignorance knows no bounds. Shortly after she was so unfortunately elected (they actually spent a million and a half on a little old HD race to take it back from the first Dem to win it in 35 years and the first to win re-election in it ever, Joe Rice) I spoke to her and, in response to her explaining how the country was being hurt by sky high taxes, especially on on the top brackets who are the job creators, mentioned that, in fact, taxes on the highest brackets were much lower than in the past, had been much higher under Reagan and that Reagan had presided over tax raises during his tenure.
She assured me I must be mistaken. She knew taxes were going up, not down and knew that they couldn't possibly have been higher under Reagan and that he couldn't possibly have raised taxes. After all, the rightie spin was all about about sky rocketing taxes so it must be true and Reagan was, well, Reagan. It simply didn't compute and she apparently had no factual knowledge of recent history or any history. She never responded to me concerning the helpful links I e-mailed her.
Or as Eric Cantor's aid shouted off-camera during a 60 Minutes interview where the tax-raisin' Reagan factoid was mentioned "That's not true!"
Latest polling has national GOP favorability at 35% and unfavorables at 51%
From Huffpo: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/23/republican-party-voters_n_3639918.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
My advice to the GOP is keep on diggin' — it's bound to work out eventually 🙂