THE LEINENKUGEL BLUES

A businessman named Dick Leinenkugel not long ago declared his candidacy for the Repub nomination for U.S. Senator from Wisconsin. The seat is that of Dem hero Russ Feingold. There were other candidates for the nomination, but Leinenkugel was regarded as the most viable of the lot.


He is quite conservative and you might figure he is just what the Repubs want. But he isn't. And he is no longer running.


So what happened? Did he dig his political grave with his mouth, Rand Paul style? Was he found with, as the saying goes, a dead girl or a live boy? Was he caught with his hand in the till? is he unwell? No to all of the above.


Despite his conservatism, Leinenkugel was done in by rightist radio talkers and bloggers. They labeled him - horror of horrors! - a moderate. What did he do to provoke this calumny? He briefly worked as state commerce secretary under Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, a Democrat.


Leinenkugel explained that he thought this non-ideological job was a practical transition from business to public affairs. But no. He fraternized with the enemy. There can be no compromise.


Leinenkugel said something worth noting when he withdrew from the race. He said that the wave of intolerance we are witnessing on the right does not come from anger (as we keep being told by the teabaggers and the rightist-influenced media) but from hate.


Anger, he said, can be healthy. It can precipitate righteous resolve. It can motivate citizens to take reform measures. Hate, however, accomplishes nothing constructive.


So we begin to see that even between very conservative citizens there is a gulf.


On one side of it are those whose orientation is practical, like Dick Leinenkugel. They are reasonable. They understand that compromise is essential to our kind of society and government. They are good citizens and will do things like take on a job for a liberal governor, to promote not liberalism but a prosperity that is in the interest of everyone.


On the other side of the gulf are the teabag crowd, who are politically active only to vent and attack and demean and wreck things. Theirs is the politics of the tantrum.


The Republican party gave way to the Republicult when it decided that only ultra-conservatives could seek office under its banner. But now even many ultra-conservatives are to be cast into outer darkness because they want to serve in government rather than dismantle it.


When Barack Obama offered a new politics of hope, the Republicult countered with a new politics of hate. When and how will this folly end? We can only wait and see.