The Democrats' Shadow Party

by Tom DeLay - November 5th, 2008 - Washington Times

American politics as we know it ended the day Mr. Obama refused public funds for his presidential bid and unleashed a billion-dollar political giant. National campaigns will now operate not as individual operations designed to elect a single man, but as a cohesive, all-encompassing movement, well funded and certainly prepared for a political coup. In 2012, Mr. Obama -- whether as an incumbent or a seasoned veteran challenger -- will no doubt raise more than $1 billion for his campaign conglomerate. And that's not wrong. It's impressive -- and intimidating.

There are some extremely interesting questions in this article. Tom Delay is totally in favor of one of the key single issue groups in what he is proposing as the answer to the mammoth Obama Shadow Party. That group is known as the pro-life group. They are intolerant of even minor deviation from their agenda, which is not the elimination of abortion, but acceptance of their dogmatic demand that everyone agree life begins at conception.

It is interesting that the self proclaimed percentages of the American populace at this point is 21% Liberal-Progressive, 44% Moderate-Libertarian and 34% Conservative. Conservatives are so focused on the Liberal-Progressive versus Conservative battle that they continue to ignore the huge Moderate-Libertarian advantage in support. It is that group which has no party to identify with and which both the existing parties try to woo with pretense at agreement on some issues, only at election time.

Both major parties have issues on which they agree with this group in the middle. Yet neither party has really dealt with the reality of its dominant size. Some call us a center-right country. This is only true to the extent that the right is significantly larger than the left. However a more honest assessment is that we are a confused country of moderates who really don't have an ideology they believe or espouse. After 40 years of brainwashing by a politicized public school system, I don't know if we can even have a discussion about the key issue of totalitarian versus libertarian with these moderates.

This article by Tom Delay does not allow for that discussion to even start. Who is going to fund this new Conservative Shadow Party Delay proposes? Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and George Soros ... and almost all of the other super rich ... have already chosen the corporate socialism of the left. There are few super rich who really identify as conservatives or moderates. Most Republicans, rich and middle class, refuse to open their wallets to people even when they agree with them. What chance is there they will open their wallets to fund a movement that many of the moderate-libertarian members have never even thought about? Delay is deluding himself.