Political Doldrums

The Party of No could become the Party of Go.
Not as in "You guys go away and leave things to us,"
but as in "Let's go forward together."

   It may take a force of nature matching Hurricane Sandy to free the Republican Party from its doldrums of exclusionary politics.
   For several years, Tea Party supporters and their radical brethren have pushed the party ever further to the political right, convinced of the Great Truth of their beliefs to the exclusion of any dissenting voices.
   A consequence of this marginalization of those who disagree only thins their ranks and sends the True Believers further away from the mainland middle ground. Out to sea, as it were.
   This is not to say that right wing radicals never succeed in dominating a government and imposing their views on the general population. It has happened before. There is often more danger to individual freedoms from the Radical Right than from the Looney Left.
   It's a paradox, considering that the loudest chant from the right is about individual rights and freedoms. Yet taking them away is often what the Radical Right does. They believe that since they're right, everyone else must be wrong. No compromise and no surrender. Ever.
   "Better dead than Red" was a siren call in America some 60 years ago, and too often, that conclusion applied not to the speaker but to the leftist opposition. Any who disagreed with the Received Wisdom and Truth were deemed either looney or criminal, or both. At their most charitable, the True Believers deemed opponents misled and misguided, and in need of re-education.

   So to the point. Will there be someone stronger than the storm to persuade the Radical Righteous to come back to the political mainland, and work together for the common weal?

   Current TV ads promote the New Jersey Shore and its people as "stronger than the storm," who joined forces under Gov. Chris Christie's leadership to recover from weather damage and make the region a good vacation destination again.
   Christie has been riding the wave of approval generated by his aggressiveness on behalf of storm-battered New Jerseyans, and he's putting it to good advantage in his campaign for a second term as governor.

   The question now is whether Christie can use that post-storm popularity to steer the Republican Party out of its political doldrums and generate mainland popularity.

   In short, is Christie the political redeemer the GOP needs?