The 'ol Specter Switch-a-roo

Now that Arlen Specter has officially joined the Democratic Party and, assuming Al Franken is seated, given the Democrats a filibuster proof 60 seat majority in the Senate, there have been two reactions coming out of the Republican party.

1. "Good riddance" (seen from most of the hard-liners)
2. Introspect on a diminishing Republican brand (seen from mainly the moderates)

I think the reality is that Specter did this for mainly self-preservation issues (which he hasn't tried to entirely hide), being that he was facing low polling numbers against a tough further-right challenger in Pat Toomey. I can respect Specter (how's that for an anagram?) for at least being partly honest in explaining his pragmatic reasoning for the switch, and I would hope most people would realize it doesn't say as much about the diminishing Republican party as some would like it to.

However, the reality is that the continued push of the most outspoken Republicans (i.e. Limbaugh, Bachmann, Hannity, DeMint) for the party to move further to the right and their readiness to chastise any sense of moderation within the party is causing a lot of voters to move towards a more Indepedent stance. They did give Specter a nice little excuse to go along with his real reason for switching parties.


I am still trying to decide how I feel about Specter making the switch. I have a generally positive view of the man, and I am glad he seems willing to work with the Democrats to get things done (unlike the majority of the Republican party who have served as obstructionists). At the same time, I worry about the implication of having the Executive and Legislative branches both having untethered control by the Democratic party. Checks and balances are the key to a functioning democracy, and although there is sure to be some debate within the Democratic party, the reality is they have the votes to get things through along party lines. Although, as of the last 10 years, I have deeply disagreed with many of the stances and decisions made by Republicans in power and the sometimes exclusionary vibe they give off to a lot of people in this country, I think one-party rule is extremely dangerous to our country. We need a healthy two-party system (I would actually like to see more than two parties, but I'll leave that for another time) in order to make sure we don't swing too far to either side. I truly hope that the Republican party can recognize that their platform is no longer acceptable to enough moderates and Independents in order for them to be competitive nationally (a recent poll suggested only 21% of Americans self-identify themselves as Republicans) and come back into the fold of mainstream America. Either that, or another party needs to step up and take their place.