Democrat resurgence in the Republican heartland
Submitted by davidswanson on Thu, 2006-06-29 16:05. Elections
From Kansas to South Carolina, Republican moderates are turning their backs on the neocons and defecting to the enemy
By Paul Harris, THE OBSERVER , TOPEKA, KANSAS
The squat, bunker-like building in a south Topeka suburb does not look like a place to turn US politics on its head. Nor does Mark Parkinson, a tall, affable man, look too much like a revolutionary. But here, deep in the American heartland, are the warning signs of a political earthquake.
The two-story office block is Parkinson's campaign headquarters as he runs as Democrat candidate for deputy governor. So far, so normal. Except that only a few weeks ago Parkinson was a Republican.
In fact, he was Kansas Republican party chairman.
His defection to the Democrats sent shockwaves through a state deeply associated with the national Republican cause and the evangelical conservatives at its base. Nor was it just Parkinson's leave-taking that left Republicans spluttering with rage and talking of betrayal. It was that as he left Parkinson lambasted his former party's obsession with conservative and religious issues such as gay marriage, evolution and abortion.
Sitting in his headquarters, the new Democrat is sticking to his guns. Republicans in Kansas, he says, have let down their people.
"They were fixated on ideological issues that really don't matter to people's everyday lives. What mat-ters is improving schools and creating jobs," he said. "I got tired of the theological debate over whether Charles Darwin was right."
This is music to Democratic ears and has profound potential implications for November's mid-term elections. Kansas has been an iconic state for the Republican right, a symbol for issues such as teaching creationism in schools and fighting abortion rights.
The rest of the article is at:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/12556