Fake Democrats?

Writing at Express Milwaukee.com, Lisa Kaiser says former state senator Tom Reynolds trying to undermine the elections with “fake Democrats.”

Former state Sen. Tom Reynolds, an ultra-conservative religious Republican from West Allis who lost his seat in 2006, is trying to get back into politics by undermining the Democratic primary on Sept. 9.

Reynolds formed a political action committee (PAC) called Clean Sweep Wisconsin, which is running “anti-incumbent” candidates on a clearly conservative platform: privatizing health care and education, capping all taxes so the government can’t invest in the public good and preventing Wisconsin from “being an illegal alien state.” These are hardly the issues held dear by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

It’s not at all clear, regardless of what Kaiser says, that these Democrats are running on a Reynolds-endorsed “conservative platform,” or that Reynolds has specifically recruited candidates to do that.

He is trying to recruit more conservative Democrats to run in majority-Democrat districts, the idea being that, if we can’t get a Republican in there, maybe we can still improve the ideological balance of the Legislature.

There are pro-life Democrats, you know. Pro-Second Amendment Democrats. Pro-private property Democrats.

See, they’re not fake Democrats, they’re Democrats who are somewhat more conservative than the incumbents on this or that issue.

What Kaiser is saying is: they don’t toe the line – they don’t conform – thus, they’re fake and shouldn’t be allowed. Ironic, coming from the Party and the ideology that claims they want diversity and open, competitive elections.

Of course, this would be a much better point if we didn’t have so many on my own side of the spectrum who do exactly the same thing to Republicans who don’t measure up to conservative ideals.

Hat tip to Foxpolitics.net.