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Robert E. Meyer
A 2008 Mentality Applied to a 2010 Reality
September 21, 2010
It's already old news that Christine O' Donnell won the Delaware Republican
primary in upset fashion. It took less than two seconds flat for the
establishment pundits to declare her unelectable. Of course that's what they
said about her chances in the primary. This development created a rare flutter
of frustrated animation in the perpetually stoic demeanor of former White House
strategist Karl Rove. The pungent taste of sour grapes was in the mouths of old
guard RINO apologists after the primary results were publicized.
The message has been clear during this election cycle: incumbents are out of
favor, and within the ranks of the Republican Party, dead wood is being pruned
out and "new blood" principled conservatives are being grafted in. The Tea Party
influence is obliterating the glass ceiling within establishment Republicanism
that has suppressed the ascendancy of conservative ideas.
Rove claims the elections of these young guns rather than the establishment
icons might cost the Republicans a few potential senate seats in November. Of
course 51 Republicans in the Senate would restore chairmanships and the
opportunity to control legislative agenda's. That is important to elite power
brokers, but not to the average citizen. What good is a majority if a half-dozen
RINO's cave on platform precepts, or vote in sympathy with the Obama agenda?
The conventional wisdom that outsiders like O'Donnell are unelectable is
applying a 2008 mentality to a 2010 reality. The unelectability myth has been
disproved by the earlier results in other states, and commentators are slow to
identify the current populist ideological wave. The argument is that people in
states within certain geographic parts of the country aren't going to vote
conservative? Why not? Unless it is the case that they are satisfied with
electing representatives that are just going to be rubber stamps for every
disastrous ploy that Obama wants to foist upon America. And even more curiously,
why vote for an over-the-hill war horse who embodies a light version of the same
bitter, ineffective medicine? If it turns out we lose the battle this time
around, so be it. If necessary though, let's go down swinging, by giving
uncompromising support to candidates articulating and standing on a conservative
platform. Let it be known that if you lean on a political platform for support,
you better we willing to stand on it proudly.
Candidates like Mike Castle think it's their birthright to be perpetually
elected regardless of the positions they take. In the 2010 reality, this model
doesn't work. What is even more troubling is when candidates such as Charlie
Christ in Florida, Castle in Delaware, and now Murkowski in Alaska, all pout and
act like spoiled children, rather than being gracious, and in the name of unity
support the candidate who won the primary. Christ and Murkowski are running as
Independents, and of course will likely divide the Republican voting block.
Castle is snubbing and turning a cold shoulder toward O'Donnell. All three are
acting both dishonourably and selfishly. If nothing else, we are ridding
ourselves of the political cry babies.
I wrote a piece in November of 2008 called "A time for purging." Here is the
first paragraph from that piece.
"On election night, just after Barack Obama was declared the President-elect,
Fox News interviewed Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, who is thought to be a
rising star within the ranks of the GOP. With a facial expression which
telegraphed resignation, Ryan offered a synopsis of the Republican party's
problems, and a sense of resolution, that eerily mirrored a speech given by
Ronald Reagan on March 1st, 1975, entitled, 'Let them go their way.' More than
anything else, Ryan expressed the idea that too many Republican's had been
afraid to stand on conservative principles, and it was time for that practice to
end, and it is time for that sort of politician to go."
In the Republican primaries so far, we are seeing the initial phase of Ryan's
vision beginning to come into fruition. We are seeing some of those types
politicians voted out or on the ropes. If we search diligently for some silver
lining in the election of Obama, it is that the nation now has had the
opportunity to come face to face with what genuine liberal radicalism looks
like. That is why candidates who didn't have a prayer under the 2008 mentality,
have a great chance to win given the 2010 reality. The conservative voter is
loaded for bear, and those sort of folks who voted to usher in the Obama utopian
vision are disillusioned and unmotivated.
It's pretty hard not to get excited about November 2cd. It's time to discard the
2008 mentality and bask in the 2010 reality. |
