When you enter House District 62 you're entering the Twilight Zone

I never knew the Shelbyville area was that weird a place. When Democratic Rep. Curt Cobb resigned his House 62 seat to take a clerkship in the Bedford County Courts, he set off a chain of events that has led to the following:

1) His brother Tyrus, or Ty, a UPS driver, ran for and won the Democratic nomination. He is not to be confused with Democratic State Rep. Tyler "Ty" Cobb, a Columbia firefighter. Then, he sought AND WON the endorsement of....wait for it...TENNESSEE RIGHT TO LIFE. Yes, the people who think that people like us who believe in a woman's right to choose what to do with her body are baby-killers. How did this happen?

Well, because 2) Pat Marsh, the GOP nominee, had been a DEMOCRAT until right before the filing deadline, and apparently thought it would be easier to win the open seat as a Republican than as a Democrat. As every seat is now crucial in a 50-49 House, the GOP establishment has circled the wagons around him. The establishment, yes. The GOP rank-and-file, not so much.

They seem to be moving toward 3) the Constitution Party candidate, Chris Brown, who has decided to bring the crazy when he has gotten the chance to debate either or both candidates.

So, we have a Republican who was a Democrat, a Democrat who is anti-choice and the candidate of the Right-to-Life movement, and a Constitution Party candidate who shows signs of out-looning them all. Why the hell should I even care? It's not my district, after all.

You see, this is the problem with the TNDP outside Memphis, they don't seem to really understand what a Democrat is or is supposed to be. (We had that problem for a while ourselves; see under Ford Jr, Harold) The freaking TNDP is even attacking Marsh for allegedly supporting human cloning! What the hell?

What next, a call for the end of fractional reserve banking? Welcome to Bizarro World, folks, where apparently Democrats are running to the right of Republicans (again, ask Jr. how THAT worked for him), who are trying to keep the Constitution Party guy from getting the teabagger types and pretending everything is OK.

THIS whole scenario is why the TNDP, despite the best efforts of Chip Forrester (who is cranking up ground troops as I write) is lost right now. Outside Memphis, with the exception of a few Nashvillians and bloggers, they still seem to think that Blue Dogism is the path to victory and it's still 1992.

To hell with that noise, I say. If you're not a National Democrat, you're not a Democrat, it's that simple.

Or not; see Baucus, Max, or Lincoln, Blanche. I am a Hubert Humphrey Democrat, a Paul Douglas Democrat (look them up) and a Dale Bumpers Democrat (there was one Southerner who understands the term). Those were people who took stands and were respected for those stands, even getting votes from people who might not agree with them.

You see, if all you do is just run slightly to the left of the GOP, the battle keeps moving to the right and away from natural Democratic positions. Why? Because the GOP ALWAYS advances their beliefs and their agenda. The Democrats here? Gosh, no, we don't want to offend our preachers or Mom or the druggist or whomever, so we can't do that.

BULLSHIT. People respect you when you stand up and fight for your beliefs. The crazy teabaggers? Well, right now, they're unreachable, so quit worrying about them. If you can't make a case for liberalism, what the hell are you doing in the Democratic Party? I am tired of appeasement (and that goes for you, too, Mr. President, STAND UP FOR THE PUBLIC OPTION AND USE YOUR BULLY PULPIT!) and I want Democrats who FIGHT and move the agenda forward. If you can't do that, move over for someone who can.

Besides, we're running out of guys named Ty Cobb.

UPDATE: Andy Axel, who makes a great comment, goes on to write a post of his own at KnoxViews well worth your time, and Aunt B. joins the fun as well. Our beloved Newscoma follows up on this, too.

Well, they've improved ONE thing

While we know that, as a general rule, GOP policies are for shit because they hurt the working people at the expense of the wealthy, give them this much: they build a badass website.

http://www.capitol.tn.gov/ is the new website for the Lege, and the legislators' email addys will change to have @capitol.tn.gov at the end, so note that.  It has MUCH better district maps, and I am still playing with it.  Webheads, go check it out!

H/T to Vibinc!

UPDATE: Vibinc says both parties were involved:

"Actually this was a bi-partisan affair between Ramsey and Naifeh."

Oops, my mistake, thanks for the fix...