Aaaaww, shit! It starts tonight! The banginest, bumpinest party up in this ‘hood! The Grand Ol’ Party Party!
Click here for soundtrack.

Spinning (get it?) tonight are some of the GOP’s biggest hitters: NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Senator John McCain (AZ). Funny, that. Almost every single Bushman to hit the podium tonight (and every other night) is dramatically less conservative than W himself. In fact, they’re so darn moderate… That they’re typically very highly regarded by Democrats! Whoah!

There are a couple of terms that get tossed around quite a bit during election years and I’d like to take just a moment to examine them: mainstream and majority.

The definitions are easy. Mainstream describes the prevailing thoughts, attitudes or values in the country at any given point. The thoughts attitudes, and values, most likely, of the majority. The mainstream can only be mainstream because it’s perpetrated by the majority, right? Maybe.

I’m not so sure. I’m starting to wonder if the mainstream isn’t defined more by the majority’s perception than by the majority’s ideas and opinions. We’ve all borne witness to the fact that perceptions change much more slowly than ideas. If only there were some sort of real world analogy I could use to further illustrate my point…

Oh! How about that time in 2000 when the majority of the voters in the country cast their vote for Al Gore, but he still lost! No one ever contended the point that he had won the popular vote. George Bush, the GOP, the RNC, the Electoral College, it was no secret that Al Gore had more supporters and therefore represented THE MAJORITY. I won’t say that he wasn’t awarded the Presidency based on public perception, but the point is still valid. George Bush was thought to represent the “mainstream, traditional views of the American people.” The mainstream and the majority were in disagreement.

I believe they continue to be. I believe that forward thought and social responsibility are starting to penetrate the “heartland” and that there are more democrats in the fly-over states than ever before. It’s obvious that they aren’t voting, but I think they’re there. Why else would the RNC be parading their most liberal and moderate members in front of us? Why else would those moderate republicans be among the most popular politicians in the country? Who’s more popular than John McCain and Rudy Giuliani? Colin Powell? Possibly the most powerful moderate in the country. The GOP knows their audience is changing, and it knows they’re moving left. Why, outside of the few names mentioned above, doesn’t the party reflect this left-moving trend?

I don’t know. Blind love of the President is all that comes to mind. With the House, Senate, Supreme Court, and Executive Branch all under Republican control, I think the party is just so tickled pink with itself that an objective view is nearly impossible, and certainly not politically rewarding.

So watch the Republicans party tonight. Watch them spin and shout and sing and dance. Watch the whole show and listen to every word. It’s important, if for no other reason than that this is an opportunity to be spoken to by the few moderate proponents of classical Lincoln-party views that should have made the GOP truly grand.