Not Liking Where the Two Political Parties Are Headed

I'm not going to lie. I consider myself to be rather liberal. However, I appreciate diversity in opinion. In the Democratic Party, I want there to be far left liberals, along with moderates and what are termed "Blue Dogs". On the Republican side, I want to see far righties, moderates and liberals. However, in recent years, I've seen liberals and even moderates eroding from the GOP. Colin Powell, Chuck Hagel, Arlen Specter, Mike Castle, Lincoln Chaffe, Charlie Crist, etc. were all once members of the Republican Party and have either been voted out, retired or switched parties. John McCain was once known as a "Maverick," because he was. Even members of right-wing talk radio, like Rush Limbaugh, were not very fond of him, because he was unafraid to speak out against the party, to reach across the aisle, to dissent against a GOP-led bill, etc. However, as could be seen in his bid for the presidency in 2008, he had to move further to the right. The Republican Party has now become the party of right, further right and furthest right, with maybe a couple exceptions (Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins and perhaps Scott Brown).

The Democratic Party may be headed in a similar direction. The "Blue Dogs" were hurt the most on Tuesday night, while those seen as Progressives won the majority of their bids for re-election. On Tuesday night, the Blue Dog House members were cut from 54 to 26. While this made the far left quite content, as this gives them the opportunity to vote for a more liberal candidate come 2012, I fear what this may potentially do to the two houses of Congress in the future.

Democrats have been very frustrated with GOP members of the House and Senate the past couple years, even nicknaming them as "The Party of No". Why was this? In large part, because there is very little diversity of opinion anymore among Republican members of Congress. If Democrats go a similar direction, I don't want to even think about the gridlock we'll face. It's been a very divided House and Senate as it is in recent years, with many House bills never even getting a decent look by the Senate. But, there has still been some flexibility with Democrats, especially with moderates and the "Blue Dogs," to go along with Snowe, Collins and Brown of the right. If we have nothing but far right conservatives and far left liberals in the House and the Senate, we might as well send the Senators and Congresspeople on a permanent vacation, because they're likely to get just as much work done while sipping a margarita on the beach in Cancun as they are voting on bills in Washington. Hopefully, the two parties will come to their senses, put their country ahead of party affiliation and be able to compromise some, so we can move this nation forward.