The stunning victory of Christine O'Donnell over Mike Castle in the Republican Senate primary has unleashed a fascinating debate on the wisdom of the Tea Party movement going in favor of new conservative faces over familiar, establishment middle-of-the-roaders (or worse in Castle's case). Charles Krauthammer and Karl Rove, both of whom know far more about politics than I do, are sharply criticizing the election of O'Donnell in Delaware. They are arguing that Castle would have been a lock to defeat far-left Democrat Chris Coon and possibly give Republicans a majority in the Senate. O'Donnell, they argue, will almost surely lose in November.
I say, "So what?"
The gentlemen's opinions may be entirely correct, but they seem to be forgetting that the Tea Party movement is not about getting the Republicans back into the majority in the House and Senate even though Tea Partiers will certainly vote for the Republican candidates. Let's not forget that the movement is also a backlash against Washington Republicans who have abandoned the principles they were elected to follow. The reason Republicans lost power in the first place is because they joined the corrupt system inside the Beltway and broke their pledges of the Contract With America.
The reasoning of the voters in Delaware is that this is the time for fresh new faces who are truly conservative and believe in the Constitution. What good does it do to have Republicans recapture the Senate with people like Castle, who voted in favor of cap and trade? Here is a guy who has also voted with the Democrats on the Police and Firefighters Monopoly bill. If that is the cost of having a Republican majority in the Senate, no thank you. For those voters to go along with the reasoning of Rove and Krauthammer is to surrender to the very rot that took over the Republican party in the first place. This is not a time for middle-of-the-road solutions to defeat the agenda of Obama, Pelosi and Reid.
If O'Donnell goes down to defeat in Delaware (and I'm not so sure she will), at least the movement has not compromised on its principles as many in the Republican party have. It behooves the Republicans to support this candidate now. If they don't, it is another example of why the party no longer deserves the support of conservatives and why new faces are needed in Washington.
Besides, if you want to look for contrasts, look at how Democratic voters in New York re-nominated Charlie Rangel.
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14 comments:
It's going to be fun watching you Tea Party folks drive the Republican party into permanent minority status.
Guess what. I don't care. I am an independent.
Oh please, Gary, don't make me laugh. So your official party registration is "independent." Big deal. That's pretty meaningless when you support Republicans 99.9999999% of the time and have only voted for a Democrat once in your entire life.
"Just because I've voted Republican every election for 30 years is no reason to call me a Republican!"
Anonymous,
You must be a mathematician. Anyway, I guess I'm just not a joiner.
Totally off-topic, but I just gotta say that I love the name Krauthammer.
Sounds like something Patton would have come up with. "We invade Germany tomorrow with Operation Krauthammer!"
How about Krauthammerbrau?
Give Gary a good beer and we can all be friends again.
Incidentally, I'm an independent who almost always votes for Democrats. I don't donate to the DNC because the Democrats are such spineless wimps (most of the time) about standing up for what I believe in. Republicans are a little less spineless about doing absolutely nothing worthy of respect or support.
Word verification: amess
Actually, I think the Reps are the ones who are spinelss. The Dems know what they want and they go for it.
Ah, we're both voting for people we perceive to be spineless wimps. Where have Viggie and Sluggo gone when we need them?
Vinnie and Sluggo are working for Card Check legislation.
Vinnie and Sluggo are working for Card Check legislation.
Not since Sharon Angle put them on retainer.
There is no doubt that the Tea Party is moving both the Republicans and the Democrats to the more conservative side of the spectrum. The Tea Party reflects the majority of voters' outrage over the big government, big spending, big debt, big tax, big takeover we got with the Obama administration.
The question is whether it is better (for the Republicans) to nominate a Conservative who is unlikely to win rather than a sure winner who is not conservative. I have to go with the former view. What is the sense of getting somebody who will vote for liberal bills? There is the argument that the Republican candidate, as liberal as he may be, will still vote for the right majority leader who will select the crucial committee chairmen.
I'd also point out the rift in the Democratic Party where not many of the candidates will appear with Obama and almost none will say in their campaigns that they voted for ObamaCare. Russ Feingold says, parenthetically and among other "accomplishments" that he voted to "reduce healthcare costs." (Like that's happening.)
This terrible situation you see domestically and in foreign affairs is what you get when the liberal Democrats govern. Let it be a reminder and let us hope that we can reverse some of this legislation without too much long term damage.
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Miggie, that is a good example of what spineless wimps the Democrats are. What mass base the Tea Party once had could have been pushing the Democrats to the LEFT if the Dems had been looking for opportunities to step out boldly, instead of reflexively cringing. Fools like Glenn Beck rush in where angels fear to tread.
My favorite example: if Obama had come into office and made one change in the Bush program for heading off Depression, take the institutions too big to fail, break them up into pieces small enough they are no longer too big to fail, sell them off in pieces to recoup the taxpayers money, and offer THAT to the American people as sticking it to Wall Street, either the Tea Party movement would have collapsed, or it would have been cheering for Obama.
Now that its been hijacked by the usual Republican manipulators, its a little late. Bold and honest wins, when voters catch a rare scent of it, left as well as right.
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