The Pernicious Hand of Jerry Mander 0
Noah Feldman in the Charlotte Observer.
But the outcome is clear: Safe Republican districts gave us the tea party.
Freed from chasing the median national voter, tea party representatives could move far to the right without fear of being voted out of office. The motivated voters who showed up for primaries pushed out more moderate Republicans still playing the old game.
The disastrous consequence for Republicans is a self- perpetuating party-within-a-party that doesn’t care if it makes the wider party unelectable nationally. Tea party supporters think they are fighting for the Republican soul, and they are: If they win, they will drive the party so far from the median voter that a Republican president will become unimaginable.
Read the rest.
