May 13, 2012

Eric Hovde — running for the U.S. Senate in Wisconsin — "said President Barack Obama is sending the country down a 'dark path' and the Democratic Party has its roots in communism."

Reports Patrick Marley in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. I'd sure like a real quote there! So he used the phrase "dark path" — an unwise metaphor that can be picked up by race-card players. But what did he say that got paraphrased as "the Democratic Party has its roots in communism"?

We get this direct quote: "The other side -- our side -- is rooted in the philosophy of self determination, free-market capitalism and conservatism." Which sounds fine.

Hovde was speaking at the GOP convention, where he was eliminated on the first vote. Tommy Thompson, interestingly enough, was eliminated on the second vote, and no one is getting the endorsement:

None of the four Republican candidates for U.S. Senate were able to capture 60 percent support at the state party convention Saturday, meaning no one will get the party's official endorsement.

The vote was an especially tough blow to former Gov. Tommy Thompson — who was first elected to public office in 1966 — as he was eliminated in the second round of voting after getting just 18 percent support. It also served as a stinging rebuke to political newcomer Eric Hovde, who was eliminated in the first round of voting with 16 percent.

Saturday provided a boost to state Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, who has dramatically trailed both Thompson and Hovde in fundraising but emerged with the most support from Republican Party faithful after the third and final round of voting. Still, he couldn't reach the threshold required to get the endorsement and the money, access to the party's grass roots network and other support that comes with it. Former U.S. Rep. Mark Neumann came in second behind Fitzgerald in the final vote.

31 comments:

edutcher said...

The Democrat Party as it exists today maybe, but the Demos go back to Tom Jefferson.

As to the "dark path", isn't that rrrraaacciiiisssssst?

Anonymous said...

I think most Republicans would rate BO as a representative of 'The Shining Path'.

garage mahal said...

The RPW endorses......no one!

Scott Walker's GOP: back-benchers, Agenda 21 black helicopter kooks, and relics from the 1980s. They Divide and Conquer their own convention.

Jason said...

The RPW endorses......no one!

Yeah, getting those those endorsements are a big deal.

Ask Kathleen Falk.

chickelit said...

To me, the story reads like somebody want to give Neumann and Fitzgerald more time to be noticed.

ndspinelli said...

If Republicans can't come up w/ someone to defeat Tammy Baldwin then they are complete bozos.

Curious George said...

"ndspinelli said...
If Republicans can't come up w/ someone to defeat Tammy Baldwin then they are complete bozos."

Any of these candidates will beat Baldwain. The issue is which GOP will be the Junior Senator from WI. I think it will be Hovde.

Mogget said...

The issue is which GOP will be the Junior Senator from WI. I think it will be Hovde.

Me too. I think the plan was to leave him more room to make himself known. I wonder how Tommy Thompson is taking all this. I have to assume he thinks he can win without the endorsement, but for him it has to be a kick in the pants.

Quaestor said...

"The Democratic Party has its roots in communism"?

Yeah, that is really suspect. Communism's roots spring from Rousseau, whereas the Democratic Party is an heir of John Locke via Andrew Jackson (Jefferson's practical politics were a bit too pragmatic to appear in the Democrats pedigree. He's more of an influence than an ancestor) There is nevertheless a certain convergence, a will to power thing, that owes a lot to the machinations of heirs of Rousseau who began to infest the fringes of Democrat territory starting in the dank halls of Tammany. The infestation grew into a sizable colony by Wilson's presidency, and it only grew stronger with the passing years. Scoop Jackson was perhaps the last Democrat whose mind owed more to Locke than Marx.

Hagar said...

The Democratic Party today is run by "Brave New World" types, not the "Communist Manifesto," and there is a large difference.

It is hard to remember that as late as 1960, Jack Kennedy was running to the right of Richard Nixon, or, for that matter, that George Wallace ran as a true-blue Democrat.

Paul said...

"said President Barack Obama is sending the country down a 'dark path' and the Democratic Party has its roots in communism."

So he is telling the truth. About time someone said, 'The king as no cloths', or in this case the king is a closet communist (keep in mind Obama wants to take unilateral action in spite of Congress AND the Supreme Court. Just what Communist dictators would do.)

Yes, the guy is right as rain on this. And notice how many movie stars friends of Obama suck up to communist dictators in South America.

MadisonMan said...

but for him it has to be a kick in the pants.

Well, a certain part of the pants, anyway.

KCFleming said...

Post-New Deal Democrats have strong ties to the collectivism that swept the world since the early 1800s, starting with Rousseau and ending with Marx.

It's fruits included FDR, who admired similar state approaches by Moussolini. But Stalin and Mao were little different, and Tom Friedman of the NYTimes has repeatedly admitted his admiration for Chinese statism.

They are all forms of state collectivism, and the horrible truth is that each form tried has ended in state coercion and mass murder. Obama was raised in collectivist beliefs, and the current president of France is an avowed socialist no different than he.

But the US left likes to deny its beliefs.

Kirk Parker said...

Look, if the primary vote is determinitive--i.e. if the party isn't going to nominate their candidate via caucuses or a convention--then isn't this exactly the proper result if they have several fairly-close candidates for the primary?

wyo sis said...

Roots in Communism is not exactly true. That Communism via socialism has "infested" the Democrat party as Quaestor points out is more accurate. Almost without exception our founders expressed the opinion that the republic they created would be brought down by either collectivism or monarchy.

Hagar said...

Pogo,
The current socialist president of France is a multi-millionaire with three mansions and a trophy mistress.

None of these people will admit to their ties to the socialist ideas of the past century, which leaves them hanging loose with little attachment to reality.

somefeller said...

But what did he say that got paraphrased as "the Democratic Party has its roots in communism"?

I agree, let's see the actual quote, but you shouldn't be surprised if he said that or something very much like that. It's not uncommon to hear some conservatives (to be fair, the cynical, paranoid and/or dumb ones, not all of them) linking Democrats and liberals to Communism, Fascism and whatever other evil the particular speaker wants to link them to. Such statements have come from some commenters on this website. Don't be surprised if someone running for office comes up with a comment like that.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Recent election results show the Repubs are shit-canning the old guard. And that is a good thing- I wonder when the Dem voters will latch onto to this postive trend.

Terry said...

Hubert Humphrey purged the commies from Minnesota's Democrat-Farmer-Labor party.
Roosevelt's VP before Truman, Henry Wallace, was a commie sympathizer.
Liberals should learn the history of their chosen political party.

Chip S. said...

The Democratic Party hasn't had anything much to do with Jefferson since the New Deal.

It's easy enough to understand why many people thought they had witnessed the collapse of capitalism by 1933. It's also easy enough to view FDR as a pragmatist flailing about, willing to try anything to deal with the economic crisis. But it's also clear that the Democrats' desire for a cradle-to-grave social welfare state has been unaffected by the subsequent reassessment of the causes of the Great Depression.

So the modern Democratic Party is rooted in a basic distrust of capitalism. That doesn't mean its roots are in communism as it is understood to involve a totalitarian state, but definitely in a form of collectivism in which individual freedom is subordinate to the desires of the collective.

Hagar said...

It is not so much a distrust of capitalism as dislike of its emphasis on individual enterprise.
And it is not so much a belief in the benefits of socialism as just plain the politics of envy.

Calypso Facto said...

The Democrats go into a Governor primary with no party-endorsed candidate, and garage says "Choices are good!" The Repubs go into a primary without declaring an official endorsement and he's all, "What doodie-heads!"

The issue is which GOP will be the Junior Senator from WI. I think it will be Hovde.

Me too.


Me three. I'm glad the R's gave him more time, because I think Thompson and Neumann are stale and Fitzgerald has huge disapproval numbers while doing nothing to impress independents. Hovde can repeat the Ron Johnson, outsider, small government path to success, aided by his moderate and Madison-centric cred.

dreams said...

BO's mother was a fellow traveler and his father was a socialist. I think it is obvious that he is a socialist. He has stated that he wants to fundamentally transform the USA.

Guildofcannonballs said...

The evolving understanding of Reagan was hugely affected by the publication of his letters. There was not a trace of sham in those thousands of letters, written to motley people who had engaged his interest or his concern, or who had aroused his curiosity. The letters revealed a man whose concern was always for others, and whose
intelligence was literate and active. His eyes might have closed while the Pope was speaking to him, but such moments had no historical hangover. No gaucheries on any scale were traceable to lapses of attention or even of memory. One regrets that Reeves, in his assessment of Reagan, is too resolute in his commitment as a backbencher on the other side to indulge the buoyancy of the Reagan years, honestly and industriously though he surveys them. Morrow, addressing many themes and many people in his book, never goes overboard, but he senses what it is that moved so many people to act so decisively on the one occasion -- 1984 --
when Reagan was standing there waiting for a national plebiscite after four years in the White House. -- WFB "The Ongoing Reagan" 2/7/06

gadfly said...

Dwight Eisenhower outlawed the Communist Party in 1954 so those folks had to change their name. Where is Tail Gunner Joe when you need him?

dreams said...

"Dwight Eisenhower outlawed the Communist Party in 1954 so those folks had to change their name."

There is still a communist party in the US.

harrogate said...

Goodness. The crazy keeps getting crazier. I hope Romney says this stuff a lot during campaign.

harrogate said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
machine said...

"...self determination, free-market capitalism and conservatism."

What a joke...

Rusty said...

machine said...
"...self determination, free-market capitalism and conservatism."

What a joke...




Joke's on you.

Methadras said...

The Democrat Party does not have it's roots in Communism. The Democrat party of today is a Communist organization.