By Richard N. Baldwin T. /HispanicVista.com
Hell Bent On Suicide

     Looking at political gyrations in both México and the US, I am reminded of a passage in the first epilogue of  Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. The central character, Raskolnikov, is gravely ill and falls into delirium in a hospital. He dreams of a new virus coming from Asia that travels through Europe and the world that infects men's minds. This caused them to believe that only they are the "chosen ones" and that they only knew the truth. And they proceeded to destroy all others that did not agree with everything that they believe. All were to be destroyed except a very few chosen.

     This sounds a little like the extreme right wing in the US and the extreme left wing in México.

     In the US the left wing "bomb throwers" have quieted down somewhat against fellow democrats because they realize that to do anything, they have to win the coming election. The extreme right wing, however, is conducting an all out attack on the only man (McCain) that has any chance at all of getting elected in the fall. Yes, there some differences in McCain's philosophy that doesn't fit into the "true conservative" agenda. However, they forget that totally, McCain has far more conservative points than any other possible candidate from either party does.

     The same thing is going on in México with the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), the left leaning party that Andres Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) belongs to who narrowly lost the presidential election last year. AMLO is still strutting all over calling himself the "legitimate" president of México. And this is after calling for and getting numerous recounts. Every recount not only showed that the results were the same, but the wining candidate picked up a few votes on every recount. Now, the election for party president is in full swing with the party split between those who do not recognize Felipe Calderón as president and those that accept reality and want to work in the congress as the "loyal opposition".

     The majority of the PRD seem to be realists in the congress (80%) along with the speaker of the house who belongs to the PRD, leading that fraction. But if the AMLO fraction ends up pulling out of the party, the PRD stands to have a good chance of becoming irrelevant.

     This seems to be the same path that the Republican "purists" are taking. They (Limbaugh, Hannity, Dobbs, Robertson et. al.) should start listening to their broad center base and tone it down. As it is, the Republicans have a small enough chance to win under any circumstances. After eight years of the Bush administration and the low approval ratings that it has, it is in the normal course of events that the opposition party will come into power. They are tying one hand behind their backs to fight a very tough fight.

     One thing about McCain is that he is clear on what he believes in and does not keep changing his rhetoric from audience to audience to try to make everyone happy. The main sticking points from the purists are:

     · McCain voted against the tax cuts originally. Reason is that he felt that they would only increase the bloated deficit. He was wrong and admits it. Once again, it was proved that tax cutting ends up improving government revenue. At least he was putting a high priority on deficit control, which very few have been doing so far.

     · McCain was a sponsor of the passed campaign spending bill that sets limits on spending. As it is, such spending in the US is almost obscene and there are many loopholes that should be closed. The issue is free speech, but if there is a level playing field that is better than only letting the richest candidates compete.

     · McCain sponsored the immigration reform bill that included the "pathway to citizenship" for those that qualified and went through a lengthy process to do so. The purists call it "amnesty" without looking up the word in the dictionary. But, on the other hand, the purists would only accept a mass deportation "final solution" to the problem that was caused jointly by three administration's ineptitude on the subject. McCain has now put a priority of strengthening the border control on his agenda, which certainly everyone can agree on. But in all of this, the purists are forgetting the growing power of the legal voting power of the Hispanic sector. Do the purists want to deport the legal US citizens who do not make up their view of what the US "should be"?

     The right wing Republicans will have to make up their minds: Do you prefer Obama or Hillary?

     Note: I am not mentioning Huckabee here because it has been declared "mathematically impossible" for him to get the nomination. However, you can count on both Huckabee and Romney to have influence on the Republican platform.
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Richard N. Baldwin T., a HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com) contributing columnist, lives in Tlalnepantla, Edo de México. E-mail at: R1041643422@aol.com