The Republican Party's War on the Tea Party
From Ben Shapiro at Breitbart, Rove Declares War On Tea Party:
The battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party has begun. On one side is the Tea Party. On the other side stand Karl Rove and his establishment team, posing as tacticians while quietly undermining conservatism.
Yesterday, the New York Times reported that the “biggest donors in the Republican Party” have joined forces with Karl Rove and Steven J. Law, president of American Crossroads, to create the Conservative Victory Project. The Times reports that this new group will dedicate itself to “recruit seasoned candidates and protect Senate incumbents from challenges by far-right conservatives and Tea Party enthusiasts who Republican leaders worry could complicate the party’s effort to win control of the Senate.” The group points to candidates like Christine O’Donnell in Delaware and Richard Mourdock in Indiana as examples of Tea Party primary picks going sideways in major Senatorial battles.
But it is American Crossroads and its ilk that have run the GOP into the ground. Spending millions of dollars on useless 30,000-ft. advertising campaigns during the last election cycle, training candidates to soften conservatism in order to appeal to “moderates,” blowing up the federal budget under George W. Bush as a bipartisan tactic – all of those strategies led the party to a disastrous defeat in 2012. The Tea Party, which may nominate losers from time to time, also brought the Republicans their historic 2010 Congressional victory. If Tea Party candidates lose, it’s because they weren’t good candidates; if GOP establishment candidates lose, it’s because they weren’t good conservatives. The choice for actual conservatives should be easy.
David Horowitz adds:
The biggest problem with the Republican Party is that no one in the establishment paid the price for two straight presidential defeats. Instead the blame is being dumped in the Tea Party. And that’s only fair, what with the Tea Party being huge Romney backers. [...]
In 2008 and 2012, the establishment told us that they knew electability. And their candidates were electable. They just didn’t get elected. Now they’re working overtime to safeguard their electability status by backing Amnesty for illegal aliens, tax hikes for the middle class and No Tea Party signs on front laws. [...]
The GOP can either “evolve” into liberalism, it can try to run as the unimaginative competent party or it can actually open the door to fresh ideas, which is the only thing that has saved it in the past.
Talk amongst yourselves.
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Comments:
Sep '10
Re: The Republican Party's War on the Tea Party
If this goes to Main Feed its at least 300 comments.
Oct '10
Re: The Republican Party's War on the Tea Party
This has been the battle ever since the Rockefeller Republicans undermined Barry Goldwater. It took a charismatic conservative former movie star to be the only one to overcome the opposition of the GOP establishment.
We are right to support the TEA Party, and to work to seize control of the Republican Party. But if the entrenched establishment will not let go, and want to fight to the death, than bring it on.
Remember that a strong conservative movement will produce one of two outcomes. We will either bring conservatism to the GOP for the future, or we will have built the core of leadership required to put the modern Whigs, the GOP, right where the old ones are, into oblivion.
The name 'Conservative' sounds better than 'Republican' for a political party anyway.
Re: The Republican Party's War on the Tea Party
Ramesh Ponnuru has a great take on this over at The Corner. He says concern is overblown.
Feb '11
Re: The Republican Party's War on the Tea Party
My opinion of Karl Rove is so negative I will not attempt to express it, as it would be a long string of CoC violations. And there probably aren't quite enough synonyms for "contempt" anyway.
So I'm not at all surprised to see him organize a group to make war upon the grass roots of the party, because he's just that smart.
About those senate candidates: Christine O'Donnell would not have even been the GOP candidate if Mike Castle could have been bothered to do a teensy bit of campaigning for the job. But asking the proles to vote for him was apperently beneath his lofty dignity, so he lost to a woman most famous for not being a witch.
And Mourdock self-destructed- but the man he beat in the primary hadn't maintained a residence in the state he supposedly represented for decades and spent his last days in the senate working to pass a leftist foreign policy agenda.
Why don't the establishment geniuses have a problem with that?
I don't know, but I'm tired of making up excuses for them in my head.
Stop this GOP, or disappear.
Mar '12
Re: The Republican Party's War on the Tea Party
Somehow this conversation
http://ricochet.com/member-feed/Is-there-a-cure-for-stupidity
seems relevant.
GOP
Mar '11
Re: The Republican Party's War on the Tea Party
In other words Carl Rove and his friends whose whole power base, and Upper Class livelihood is based on a business model that is seeing a more well organized and powerful competition (Tea Party) that is resulting in consumers (Republican Voters and Donors) moving away more from the traditional products of these old guard businesses. Therefore Rove and partners are trying to defend their paycheck, and firms which they have spent decades building around a failing business model.
Replace elections and donors with market share and profit and it become very transparent at what this is.
A group of close business associates forming a trade group trying to shut down competition in order to keep a power base and defend their large paychecks, despite poor performance, by supporting and creating prouducts (Candiates) that will keep improve the chances for Rove and Company to have power and large salaries.
Like many a CEO, they want to destroy open markets and limiting the choice of products (open elections) under the guise that competition hurts the end consumers (aka the nation). But off course they are only doing this in order to improve their companies bottom line and market share (power).
Dec '12
Re: The Republican Party's War on the Tea Party
Rush is wrong concerning the Republican party. They took out Goldwater and they tried to take out Reagan. They have not represented conservatives forever and have out-lived their usefulness. Their brand is bankrupt and it is time for conservatives to abandon them for a new party.
Jun '12
Re: The Republican Party's War on the Tea Party
I think Karl Rove's failure is he underestimated how far the voting base has shifted left.
Mar '11
Re: The Republican Party's War on the Tea Party
Demographics, demographics, demographics
Jul '10
Re: The Republican Party's War on the Tea Party
Nah. I think it's that he thinks the country club republicans can continue to be "in the game" (Romney) by virtue of their money. They don't really think they will "run" the place as much as they think that if they spend the money government will continue to support their businesses against their opposition. ?Notice what the "green energy" companies are doing. ?GM. AMD and ethanol.
This country has long had governmental support of the big guys against the little ones. Apparently no one involved wants that to stop.
Jun '12
Re: The Republican Party's War on the Tea Party
Devereaux
Nah. I think it's that he thinks the country club republicans can continue to be "in the game" (Romney) by virtue of their money. They don't really think they will "run" the place as much as they think that if they spend the money government will continue to support their businesses against their opposition. ?Notice what the "green energy" companies are doing. ?GM. AMD and ethanol.
This country has long had governmental support of the big guys against the little ones. Apparently no one involved wants that to stop. · 13 minutes ago
I think you should hold out the possibility that "country club republicans" are too far to the right to get elected.
Apr '11
Re: The Republican Party's War on the Tea Party
I think his problem is that it doesn't matter to him what happens, since he probably extracts some lucrative fees for setting up and running this PAC. All of these things are giant money making schemes.
The fact is neither the Republican Establishment or the Tea Party (whatever that is) are that good at picking candidates. Basically they have something like a 50% chance of picking a good one.
If you want a real strategy for your PACs and grass roots, here is one. Spend 4 years raising money and attacking Obama and any Democrat insight for everything that goes wrong. Never give them a compliment, never give them rest. The first words of any Republican on TV should be "This is all the Democrats fault". The last words should be "This is all the Democrats fault."
Jun '10
Re: The Republican Party's War on the Tea Party
I disagree. I think he's well aware how far it's shifted left and he thinks the Tea Party is a problem when appealing to this new electorate.
My view is the public doesn't always know what it wants. Reagan mapped out an alternative and so he was appealing to an electorate that wanted to make a change. Obama likewise represented change when the people wanted change.
Most voters in a presidential election aren't very ideological. They'll move in the direction of someone who sounds like they know what they're talking about. Reagan knew what he was talking about. Obama sounds like he knows what he's talking about (even though he doesn't). Romney projected an air of competence which was his biggest asset. I think the flip-flop label stuck to him too much.
Feb '11
Re: The Republican Party's War on the Tea Party
No, Karl Rove's failure is that he underestimated how tired people are of the boundless incompetence of the GOP establishment.
Barack Obama is a disaster, yet the establishment still managed to lose to him. John Kerry remains a politician with approximately zero accomplishments except getting his picture hung in the Vietnamese victory museum, yet they nearly lost to him also.
That's failure, not demographics. The establishment simply will not use all the tools at their disposal to make a case against the left, but they certainly will against dissatisfied conservatives.
I hate to strap on my tinfoil hat in public. But I'm starting to suspect that the GOP establishment is merely a part of the regular, leftist establishment that puts on a Ronald Reagan mask when it needs to run candidates for office in conservative areas of the country.
Right or wrong, this suspicion doesn't give me any warm feelings about GOP.
May '12
Re: The Republican Party's War on the Tea Party
I don't know how the Tea Party will do on its own, but I do believe the Republican Party will be even less relevant without the Tea Party.
Jun '12
Re: The Republican Party's War on the Tea Party
"No, Karl Rove's failure is that he underestimated how tired people are of the boundless incompetence of the GOP establishment."
Show me the thousands of Ohio soccer moms who were just itching to vote for the right Republican candidate. They're probably in the same geographic vicinity of El Dorado and Atlantis.
Jul '10
Re: The Republican Party's War on the Tea Party
Xennady
No, Karl Rove's failure is that he underestimated how tired people are of the boundless incompetence of the GOP establishment.
Barack Obama is a disaster, yet the establishment still managed to lose to him. John Kerry remains a politician with approximately zero accomplishments except getting his picture hung in the Vietnamese victory museum, yet they nearly lost to him also.
That's failure, not demographics. The establishment simply will not use all the tools at their disposal to make a case against the left, but they certainly will against dissatisfied conservatives.
I hate to strap on my tinfoil hat in public. But I'm starting to suspect that the GOP establishment is merely a part of the regular, leftist establishment that puts on a Ronald Reagan mask when it needs to run candidates for office in conservative areas of the country.
Right or wrong, this suspicion doesn't give me any warm feelings about GOP. · 43 minutes ago
This. The GOP only wants to be "in on the game" - to share the goodies.
Jun '12
Re: The Republican Party's War on the Tea Party
I think there are two issues here that need to be separated:
- Issue #1: Karl Rove is a greedy (COC violation) who is doing everything in his power to ensure a lifetime flow of donor money. Point conceded.
- Issue #2: Karl Rove's ability to pick candidates and the ability of any candidate who remotely holds to some facsimile of conservative values to be elected given today's electorate. To those of you who say, basically, "Romney wasn't conservative enough", how do you explain the spotty records of Tea Party candidates? Sure, plenty of red meat conservatives shrugged their shoulders at Romney and didn't bother to go to the polls....in Texas. For every one of those voters you pick up in a state that doesn't matter you lose two squishy 30 somethings in Virginia who are uncomfortable with infinite spending into perpetuity but are even more uncomfortable with voting for a reactionary scold (or whatever other negative perception gets saddled to a solid conservative).
Aug '12
Re: The Republican Party's War on the Tea Party
The Consultancy Class Strikes Back
Has Rove conceded that Romney lost Ohio yet?
Being a political consultant sounds like a great job. I know that if I wrote software as reliable as the advice from most of these consultants I'd be looking for a new career. But politics is one area in society where failure can be a big resume enhancement.
Mar '11
Re: The Republican Party's War on the Tea Party
Time for Mr Murphy to make another podcast appearance.