More post-primary thoughts

I live in one of the reddest counties in one of the reddest of the red states, so around here, winning the Repub nomination for any office is tantamount to winning the election. With that frame of reference, I've been looking at the official numbers from Tuesday's primary returns.

One reason the Repubs have dominated politics in this country since 1994, and particularly since 2000, is their fascinating tendency to march in lockstep. The growing influence of the evangelunicals in the GOP has resulted in their ability to accept certain conditions as a matter of faith, and flock together for guidance around whichever conservative has been designated as the shepherd. Since 1999, the shepherd has been W.

The Democrats have traditionally been the liberal party. Liberalism by definition doesn't encourage conformity on a mass scale, since it implies acceptance (or at least consideration) of a broad spectrum of thoughts and positions. The Repubs will pick the old white guy they want to shepherd the flock and consolidate their resources behind him promptly. Once he's been handed the staff, they flock in whatever direction he moves them. Normally, the Dems will dither for months among themselves over which old white guy will carry their banner, and even if they can get their guy elected, they usually can't get organized to push his agenda.

Leaving out the "old white guy" part, what's going on now among the Democrats is the kind of activity that, unfortunately for them, is typical. It's just more of the disorganized fragmentation that's kept them out of power and given them minimal political influence in the 21st century.

So will they get steamrolled in November by a Republican party marching in lockstep ? Maybe not, if the election results for my county are indicative of anything resembling a mindset among conservatives. Tuesday, McCain got about 6400 votes, and Hucklebuck got another 5400. The part I found amusing was the 500 votes that went to Ferd Thompson, Rudy G, and Willard Romney. Hell, even Duncan Hunter got 47 votes, and that loser has been out of the race a LONG time. Ron Paul and Alan Keyes combined to get 800 lunatic fringe votes,

When all was said and done, Walnuts got 48 percent of the vote, and 52 percent went to candidates who were (a) no longer running, or (b) such longshots it was laughable. This doesn't look like a party that's ready to march in lockstep, and explains why the GOP desperately wants the Dems to nominate Hillbillary. She'll get their party back in lockstep REAL fast.