Specter’s Specter

(Cross posted from America Needs Me)

The Republican who never was cemented his position in the popular kids clique today.

The Arlen Specter/GOP relationship has been one-way from its inception: he takes cash when he needs to be reelected then votes with the Democrats when it is important. His exit doesn’t really do much other than enable the RNC to spend its money on someone who won’t crap all over the party. Whether it will actually do that remains to be seen. My faith in who the party supports financially is practically nonexistent.

This will invariably be portrayed as one man simply sticking to his convictions when his party has abandoned him, an idea so loaded with manure it could fertilize farms in the western hemisphere for a decade. This is simply about Specter taking the path of least resistance in his waning years. He’d rather go out having his ass kissed than…what’s the word…oh yeah, working. Nicole Richie has body fat in greater abundance than Arlen Specter’s convictions.

There is now a lot of consternation about the Democrats having a filibuster-proof majority. That was going to happen anyway. In reality, it already had happened given the fact that Specter jumped ship during the first Hope and Changey vote he was presented with. It doesn’t matter whether there is an “R” or a “D” after a senator’s name. If the votes are there, then the votes are there. And they were, thanks to Specter.

In the end I can’t blame Specter for much. Republicans have, after all, been electing representatives who aren’t big on, well, representing us, for years. Just this morning, Scott Rasmussen explored the growing disconnect between the Beltway GOP and “the rest of us”.

The disconnect between D.C. Republicans and Republicans throughout the country has been growing for nearly 20 years, but it became more intense and noticeable during the waning years of the Bush administration.

This is what I’ve been trying to explain to my friends on the Left since the Tea Parties; we’ve been sick of this crap for a while now.

The elitist disconnect seems to be a prerequisite for functioning in the Senate, where it then becomes pathological. There isn’t a cushier gig in America than being a United States Senator. You don’t have to mess around with reelection very often. You get paid extremely well. It’s essentially a 19th Century House of Lords with American accents. That’s why people like Specter, Teddy Kennedy and Robert Byrd won’t just retire, already. Retirement would be hard compared to being a senator.

The only cure for this disconnect (whichever side it occurs on) is greater participation by those of us who feel we’re being disenfranchised. As always, the solution is in the Constitution. American citizens have extraordinary power, we simply choose not to use it most of the time. Apathy before an election and whining after are easy. Working a phone bank, signing up voters, canvassing door-to-door aren’t. It’s time to stop complaining about our ballot choices if we haven’t done anything to influence them.

This disconnect is perilously close to biting Americans of any political persuasion on the butt.

The gap between Beltway Republicans and the Republican base is part of a wider gap between the Mainstream and the Political Class. On many issues, the gap between Mainstream Americans and the Political Class is bigger than the gap between Mainstream Republicans and Mainstream Democrats.

The fact that this is a representative republic seems to be in need of constant repetition now. We are in control of who we elect to represent us. If we keep sending people to Washington who represent only themselves we aren’t participating in the process to the fullest. The point I kept making during the Tea Parties was that the mere physical presence of a representative doesn’t indicate that any actual representation is taking place.

American citizens in either party would do well to grasp this point. Congressional approval ratings have been low across the board so the disconnect can’t only be happening on the Right. If we keep allowing people like Arlen Specter to represent no one other than themselves we run the risk of the chasm between elected officials and those they are supposed to serve growing wider by the minute. Very soon the “Us” vs. “Them” discussion may not occur between Republicans and Democrats but between an overly powerful political class and an almost silent constituency.

In other words: all of us outside of Washington will be irrelevant.