Desperate GOP in European Denial

Conservative Republican Jim Ellis and liberal Democrat Bennet Kelley present Filibanter, a combination of political filibuster and banter. Read Ellis’s perspective on the European Parliamentary elections here.It appears that Euro Disney has a new challenger: Euro Fantasy Island. The party that gave us “Freedom Fries” is now heralding parliamentary election results in France and the rest of “Old Europe” as the sign of a future conservative wave. No European Tide. Are we to believe that the French voters that elected a Socialist president during the Reagan-Bush years and then a conservative president during much of the Clinton years are our new bellwether? The reality is that there is no “European” trend in either direction. Since 1965, the United Kingdom, France and Germany have been politically aligned for only one calendar year and never have all been aligned with the U.S. The winner of the Redskins game on the Sunday before the election is a more accurate predictor of future U.S. election results. Jolly Greens. While Jim is gleeful over gains by the center-right EPP, he ignores the substantial losses of the more conservative UEN, which lost almost half its seats. The real winner on Sunday was the Green Party, which matched conservatives by gaining 11 seats—an increase of 28%. Euro-RINO’s. Even if Sunday were a resounding victory for European conservatives, those same candidates would be dismissed by today’s ideological Republicans as heretics for their views on social issues and support of big government. If the GOP can learn a lesson from Europe it’s that a center-right party wins more elections than a far-right party. This appears to be lost in translation. Despite the recent election losses and polls showing a significant erosion of support across all major demographic groups, the GOP continues to offer the same failed dogma of the past. As long as they remain in denial, the Grand Old Party will be les misérables. But I am sure they will find some glimmer of hope in next month’s elections in Kyrgyzstan or Mauritania. Bennet Kelley is an award-winning political columnist with over 30 years of political experience that includes being the co-founder and national cochair of the Democratic National Committee’s Saxophone Club, its young professional and fundraising arm during the Clinton era. With Jim Ellis he has formed Filibanter, which provides a live presentation combining political filibustering and banter.