Chuck Schumer touts electoral reform as a means to stifle the Tea Party
New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer admits the influence of the Tea Party is “undeniable” and he is not happy about it at all.
“They’ve won elections, stymied Democratic priorities and taken a sledgehammer to programs that are important to tens of millions of Americans,” he complained.
As such he has come up with a means to silence the Tea Party–electoral reforms:
Among other recommendations, Schumer suggested an IRS crackdown on funding for tea party groups. “We have to look at electoral reform,” he said.
“Our very electoral structure has been rigged to favor tea party candidates in Republican primaries, even when the district or the state may not be that red.”
Schumer said “the tea party machine” has a particularly strong influence on Republican primaries, partly because the far right turns out to vote; and partly because of gerrymandering — “where Republicans have learned to capture state legislatures and then use innovative technology to draw districts where a Democrat could never be elected.
“Hence, the Republican House member only has to look over his right shoulder and moves much further to the right than the average voter in his or her district would want.”
He is apparently supportive of using the IRS to monetarily hurt the Tea Party and he has a radical idea for the primaries in order to lessen the influence of the Tea Party:
Schumer said one way to “lessen the grip of the tea party on the electoral process” is to have a primary where voters of every party can vote, leading the top two vote-getters, regardless of their party affiliation, into a run-off.
“This would prevent a hard-right candidate from gaining office with only 22 percent of the vote. It would force the most extreme candidates in Republican districts to move closer to the middle to pick up more moderate Republicans and independents in order to be one of the top two vote-getters and enter the run off,” he added.
Yeah, that worked real well for John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, didn’t it? In fact the election of 1796 led to the passage of the twelve amendment which ensured that the president and vice-president positions would be held by the same party to prevent the intrigue which happened during John Adams’s presidency. While this is on a primary level and not on a general election level it really is not all that different, is it?
Chuck Schumer is now advocating regulations which would stifle his political opponents and I cannot think of anything less democratic than that, can you?
Like it or not Chuckie, the Tea Party does represent a portion of the voting public and they have a right to be heard regardless of what you think about them. If the Tea Party nominates a candidate which is out of line with mainstream America they will be defeated; we saw this with Christine O’Donnell and others, but Chuck Schumer does not want to even take the chance that his radical policies might be opposed because in some instances they have won, so he is not willing to give the opposition the opportunity to oppose him. Again, how democratic is this position?
The left loves to claim the right is in favor of voter suppression but what is this if it is not another form of voter suppression?
America's Watchtower 
Reblogged this on Brittius.com.
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Thank you.
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You’re welcome.
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We have to break the stranglehold of control these political parties have on our election process and our government.
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Yes we do, they control everything and have fixed it in order to make it harder for outsiders to challenge them. Schumer and Rove are on the same side of this issue and that tells us al we need to know.
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Uh Huh, and in the last election Obama won Illinois by winning only 24 of the 102 counties. And Chuckie over looks what happened in Illinois in the last gerrymandering. My District was redrawn so that the seat that had been held by a Republican for ever was given over to Obama favorite Tammy Duckworth. But hey its right when it works for the Dems.
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Yeah, Chuckie isn’t interested in that because he would say the Democrats better represent the people so the people won in that case. Hypocrisy!
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And he doesn’t even have to apologize for his inflammatory rhetoric.
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Nope, of course not!
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“Chuck Schumer is now advocating regulations which would stifle his political opponents and I cannot think of anything less democratic than that, can you?”
That is exactly the point, Steve. The Left does not want an opposition party, at all!
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No they don’t and Chuckie has a plan to stifle it once and for all.
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Reblogged this on Cold Dead Hands Days and commented:
Fuck this pig….
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Thank you.
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Chuck the Schmuck would be happy in a brown uniform terrorizing any group that opposes his elitist group think. How quickly some idiots forget history. Apparently he does not remember Nazi Germany or Stalin’s Russia – how convenient. I guess the Gestapo and KGB were OK!
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Speaking of Gestapo, Boehner recently used that term while talking about ways to deal with every “jackass” that walks through the door of the Congress. We can imagine he was talking about the Tea Party.
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I thought Democrats opposed voter suppression? He was against it before he was for it I guess.
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Only certain voter suppression…..
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How soon before he sends us to the camps for reeducation
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I thought you already had a room booked next to all of ours, Bunker?!?
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Gee, we should have a great time!
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At least I will be among friends!
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