J. D. Prose – 2/10/09

This page was last updated on February 16, 2009.

Survey says? Bush bad for Pa. GOP; J. D. Prose; Beaver County Times; February 10, 2009.

As you read this opinion column, keep in mind Mr. Prose wears at least one other hat for the Times. Mr. Prose is also a reporter covering political stories. Ask yourself this. When a pundit gives his political opinions in one part of the paper, can he be trusted to report politics objectively elsewhere in the paper? After all, would a person whose opinion is 1+1 equals 3 report 1+1 really equals 2?

Rather than subject you to the whole column, I’ll focus on the section addressed by the title.

“Why have Republicans across Pennsylvania been flocking to the Democratic Party since May 2006 and helped the Democrats to a 1.2 million voter advantage? According to a recent survey by Muhlenberg College’s Institute of Public Opinion, ‘The presidency of George W. Bush and the war in Iraq were identified as the largest contributing factors to the abandonment of the Republican Party in the Commonwealth.’

[RWC] Put on your thinking cap before you read this piece. At the end I’m going to ask what is wrong with the premise of this column.

“Yes, we know all you Sean Hannity fans will find this hard to believe, but 68 percent of Pennsylvanians who’ve left the GOP for the BOP (Barack Obama Party) cited Bush as a ‘very important’ reason for their defection.”

[RWC] Disliking your candidate is a reason to vote for someone else, but is no reason to change party registration. Here’s one problem with the above claim. As I read this column, these folks allegedly left the Republican Party after Mr. Bush could no longer be a candidate.

“Fifty-four percent of former GOPers said the war in Iraq also was a ‘very important’ reason. Other reasons were the Republican Party’s positions on foreign policy, the environment and taxes.”

[RWC] Note Mr. Prose doesn’t describe “the Republican Party’s positions on foreign policy, the environment and taxes.” Are we to believe real Republicans would switch parties because the Republican Party tends to favor tax cuts and to oppose tax increases?

“Fifty-three percent strongly agreed with the statement that the ‘Republican Party has become too extreme in its positions.’ And these weren’t Republicans Come Lately. Of the 400 former GOPers surveyed, 53 percent had been in the party for 20 years or more.”

[RWC] Note Mr. Prose doesn’t describe which positions are “too extreme?” What’s funny about this is far too many Republicans, particularly those in Pennsylvania, campaign and govern as Democrats-lite, not conservatives.

For an example of a person who claimed he switched parties “after 50 years of being a Republican,” please read my critiques of letters by William Horter.

“Now, all our right-wing fans can claim Bush Derangement Syndrome or whatever other insults they steal from talk radio, but these are your former conservative colleagues speaking.”

[RWC] Regarding Bush Derangement Syndrome (BDS), too bad Mr. Prose didn’t check his facts. Perhaps Mr. Prose believes writing as a pundit vs. as a reporter means never having to check your facts. BDS didn’t come “from talk radio.” Charles Krauthammer, a print journalist, identified the syndrome back in 2003 after then-presidential candidate Howard Dean (D-VT) said, “The most interesting theory [about the 9/11 attacks] that I’ve heard so far -- which is nothing more than a theory, it can’t be proved -- is that he [President Bush] was warned ahead of time by the Saudis.”

As a political pundit/reporter, Mr. Prose should know conservative and Republican aren’t synonyms. Particularly in the Northeast, many (most?) Republican politicians are almost indistinguishable from their Democrat “opposition.” For example, only three Republicans voted for the porkulus bill (H.R. 1), PA’s Sen. Arlen Specter and Maine’s Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe. All three routinely vote with Democrats, and for Republicans have fairly low lifetime American Conservative Union ratings of 45%, 52%, and 49%, respectively. In other words, between the three of them, these three “Republicans” vote the conservative position on bills less than half the time.

“All of them couldn’t have fallen under Obama’s magic spell, could they?”

[RWC] What’s wrong with the above? If the people switching registration were “real” Republicans with conservative principles, why would they switch to the Democrat party? Wouldn’t real Republicans stick with their party and try to get it back on a conservative track?