Mark Schmitt says social issue extremism is a potent reminder of everything voters hated about Republican rule.
One problem is that Tea Party extremism is so far out and obscure that it doesn’t immediately register as extremism. They want to repeal the 17th Amendment! That sounds odd, but most of us don’t know off-hand what the 17th Amendment is. And even after being reminded that it’s the one that has to do with direct election of senators, it’s still not clear why they want to repeal it, other than the fact that it was passed during the Progressive Era. It takes a lot of explaining, and I still don’t quite get it, plus it seems so unlikely to happen that I can’t get too worked up about it. (There’s also the fact that living in Washington, D.C., without senators, I don’t have a vote to lose.)
