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Thursday, January 6, 2011

Lyndon Johnson

The Republicans should allow some of the tea partiers into leadership roles.
That statement is based on the Lyndon Johnson maxim about caucus radicals:
“It is better to have them inside the tent pissin’ out,
than it is to have them outside the tent pissin’ in.”
.

6 comments:

  1. Wouldn't this apply to the Dems as well?

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  2. Sure and they have their (left)wingers in leadership positions, for example Nancy Pelosi.

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  3. Actually, I meant to ask if Lyndon's rule would extend to the Dems including some tea partiers in their leadership roles.

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  4. Not unless the tea partiers start to dominate the field. My liberal friends speak of them with total contempt.

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  5. Contempt aside, Lyndon’s rule still implies that Dems should include factions from the far right and Repubs should include representation from the far left. Or a similar axiom states that you should keep your friends close but, keep your enemies closer.

    Amazingly, in a few short sentences, we have managed to parse and place Repubs, Dems, liberals, far right, far left and tea partiers around the political landscape for purposes of making our separate points.

    Note that I listed tea partiers and far right separately. That was intentional.

    One last thought. I agree that, for the most part, liberals look at the tea partiers with total contempt. Mad is the most common adjective that I hear applied o the partiers. People get over “mad” fairly quickly. I think the partiers (I am not saying rightly or wrongly) are scared and scared sticks around until the source goes away.

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  6. Well I think that the days of both parties spanning the spectrum from left to right are over, at least for awhile.

    I agree with you that scared is a better descriptor of the TPs than mad.

    I would also agree that they range further on the political spectrum. Anywhere from far right to at least the center. I expect you can find a few lefties among them.

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