Yesterday, Today and . . .

Thanks to the magic of Earthlink, yesterday's posts were lost. They consisted of two somewhat related items: first, Fred Thompson is such a clueless lightweight that he stands a good chance at the Republican nomination. And if the DoJ/Diebold machine works as Rove designed it, he might win the White House.

Second, the Republican field is so desperate that they're falling back on the classics: according to both Giuliani and Romney, the disaster in Iraq is Bill Clinton's fault.

And now for today's interesting little tidbit:

Steven Benen has an intriguing little piece at TPM about the California Republican convention. Said Arnold Schwarzenegger:

"In movie terms, we are dying at the box office. We are not filling the seats," the California governor said. "Now, while the number of California Republicans has been declining, the number of independents has been growing. They may well outnumber both political parties in just 20 years." Schwarzenegger made the comments in an address to the California Republican party state convention.

"The real opportunity for Republicans is that independents generally agree with our core principles," he said. "I want to make the Republican Party welcoming to these Independents."

Says the rank and file:

"The Republican Party should stick to its core principles," said Mark Zappa, 48, a promotional business owner from Gilroy who said he was "very disturbed" by the governor's call to open the Republican Party to independent voters as the Democrats do.

"If you have to sway your beliefs just to satisfy society, you don't have a moral basis," Zappa said. "Does that mean you're marginalized? Possibly."

Now, in a democracy, it would seem that the reasonable foundation for a party's core principles should be built from the bottom up: the platform derives from the agenda of the membership. It seems that the differences between the Democrats and Republicans on this issue are structural: the Democrats are willing to adapt their principles to reflect their membership's priorities; the Republicans insist that the membership adhere to the principles dictated by the party, which in this case is under the control of the extremists.*

This is not something that has a long history with the Republicans. I remember the days when parties hammered out platforms that had the broadest possible appeal, because they wanted to win the election. In the last generation or so, it seems that the Republican platform is designed to drive people away -- maybe it's because they feel, after six years of the Bush/Rove machine, that they have other ways to stay in power.

At any rate, I find it ironic that the Republicans are face to face with one of the core principles of evolution, another thing they don't like: adapt or die.

* Thinking on this a little more, it seems to me that one can list among the Democrats' core principles inclusion of diverse points of view, which is why any group of liberals looks like a rehearsal for a Keystone Kops movie. Republicans, as the party of oligarchy, have a much more unified approach because diversity of viewpoint is not one of their core principles. It has become a high contrast in mindset.