Eliot Spitzer Quotes
I have long said there are three distinct groups under the GOP's tent: theological warriors, who want to impose their social views on the rest of society; Tea Party zealots, who say with a straight face that they want the government to get out of their Medicare; and remnants of the pro-business moderates.
Spitzer, Eliot. "The Republican Party's Three-Headed Monster." The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed Inc., 2012.
In 2010 there was a very conservative populist movement that not only took a very right wing position for traditional Republicans, but attracted many of the racists, Nazis, and extreme fringe movements that embarrassed many of the Tea Party members who, because it was a movement and not a disciplined party hierarchy, claimed that they could not be responsible for the hateful signs and slogans of a minority of people who would show up at a Tea Party rally. At the same time, the Tea Party endorsed some candidates who were not very well vetted and were so extreme or quirky (one had been into witchcraft) that orthodox Republicans didn’t want to be associated with them. The moderate Republicans especially were placed in an awkward position as some of the Tea Party candidates unseated incumbent Republicans in primary elections and then some made very weak candidates in the general elections while others were more successful. Palin, already at the populist and quirky wing of the Republican Party warned and threatened the moderates.
The Evangelicals and other social conservatives had much more influence over the Republican candidate since without the social conservatives voting in large numbers for the Republican Presidential candidate, at the time, it would be hard to win the general election, but Democrats had won without them. However, at the time, the social conservatives had a virtual veto over the Republican candidate selection.
The Republicans had lost the 1960 Presidential election narrowly with the moderate wing of the party in control. Goldwater argued that to win, the appeal must be much more conservative and that what characterized the campaign with the right wing of the party in control. This time, the Republicans were trounced by one of the largest margins in history.
The Tea Party, having had little success at the polls, tended to pick one element of government with most members and friends bashing that element blindly, like the blind-folded children at a Piñata Party. In this case it was the Export Import Bank that enabled over 250,000 jobs last year. The Tea Party which is always complaining about government spending, surprised most observers when they attacked the Export-Import Bank. It is one of the very few government agencies that costs the taxpayer nothing. As a matter of fact, it actually produces a profit for the taxpayer and reduces the deficit. See {640781}.
Eliot Laurence Spitzer is an American politician, attorney, educator, and real estate developer. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 54th Governor of New York from 2007 until his resignation in 2008.
