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Kentucky’s Lesson for Republicans
As I write this, the Democratic senatorial candidate running against Mitch McConnell in Kentucky, Allison Lundergan Grimes, is running ads differentiating herself from Obama.
She is seen firing a gun, and declaring “I am not Barack Obama.” Democrats have not and will not attack her for this, as they assume it is largely an insincere electoral tactic to win an election in a conservative state, and that once ensconced in the Senate she will be a loyal Democratic vote on most issues.
Contrast this to the unreasonable conservative reaction to similar behavior by politicians like Chris Christie. Running for re-election in a very liberal state, he distances himself from the House Republican majority to establish his moderate bona fides, and all too many Republicans are ready to condemn him as a traitor. Democrats stick together, which helps them win, while Republicans are damned unless they are 100% pure in their behavior. Our obsession with purity tests is needlessly dividing our party.
I think our party could take a lesson from this.
Published in Elections, General
McConnell looks like he’s winning, and has been improving his position. He’s personally built up the Kentucky party from a relatively small minority to a majority. He’s been keen to shape agendas both by persuading others and by acting boldly in his own right, as when he successfully litigated one of the most important First Amendment cases of recent years. He’s gotten favorable deals with the Democrats and then forced them to go back to the table and sweeten a deal that had already passed. If his understanding of the most effective way forward is different from yours, it’s not necessarily because he’s mistaken.
That’s one of my problems with the establishment- there is no way forward with them, because they don’t see anything wrong now except that they aren’t running the show. Hence they have no desire for reform.
We can see this in such actions as the ruthless and desperate efforts to save such incumbents as Thad Cochran and Pat Roberts. Protect the status quo at all costs, because the Tea Party hordes are at the gates, and who knows what they’ll do.
We can also see how thoroughly this has failed. I see today that the opponent savaged by the establishment in Kansas is considering endorsing the “independent” in the race.
Well played, GOP. Well played. Not.
I don’t consider outcomes like that success. McConnell plays a big part in the poor decisions that give us such events, and it’s time for his so-called leadership to end.
I’d be happy to have him win his seat again, however. But then I want him to become an obscure and quiet backbencher, lacking the power to damage the party by foolishly meddling in primary elections in states not Kentucky.
@Xennady- “That’s one of my problems with the establishment- there is no way forward with them, because they don’t see anything wrong now except that they aren’t running the show. Hence they have no desire for reform.”
Isn’t a large part of our problem that too many Americans are either complacent or uninformed about how bad things are getting fiscally, in terms of liberty and in terms of threats, especially from a rising Chinese fascism and from jihadism. If the public were more concerned, politicians’ priorities would reflect that.
In many ways politicians are like mirrors – they reflect what goes on around them. So you see conservatism, or whatever passes for that now, growing in the nation. And conservative politicians increase with that movement.
The republican party would like to lay claim to that mantle. It has not, however, performed well enough in the past to grasp it without some doubt – especially by the conservatives today (many of whom have come to conservatism fairly recently, it not being that popular in earlier times). So it needs to slowly show that it really IS serious about conservatism.
To some degree, it has done that already. But comments against the Tea Party, really a serious base for them to court, not malign, have not helped. AND it isn’t helping that the TP side is taking this personally. Think of the mob – “Nothing personal, it’s just business.”
Absolutely true. But most people don’t follow politics for fun and entertainment.
The GOP establishment does nothing to signal the uninvolved that we face terrible problems, nor does it win over the concerned by presenting credible plans to deal with them.
I’ll believe they believe it’s a crisis when they act like it’s a crisis.
I don’t see that now. I see a party establishment that may occasionally give the concerned lip service, but is also quite happy to see the ignorant remain ignorant.
Picking one example, you mention China. I share your concern.
Question: Does the GOP advocate any change at all in US policy regarding China?
As far as I know, that answer is negative. If I am correct, then I see no reason why- as a concerned citizen- I should support the GOP, as they see no problem there.
If I am wrong, and thus it appears I am one of the uninvolved, then it shows the political failure of the party, because they should have somehow managed to make me aware of their view of that problem and their plan to deal with it.
And if I’m one of the uninvolved, considering that I do follow politics for fun, then something is seriously wrong with the GOP and its approach to politics.
But considering that the disastrous incompetent named Barry Obama managed to get reelected, that should be obvious.
That’s exactly the sort of thing we hate about Don Mitch McConnell, Capo di Capi of the GOP Senate Caucus. He acts like a gangster. The problem with the way the Establishment has been knifing the Tea Party is that it becomes harder and harder not to take it personally. The Establishment is poisoning the well with the Tea Party to the point where it’s not possible for them to “do business” together.
I’d have more use for McConnell and Boehner if they were half as willing to knife the Democrats as they are Tea Party Republicans.
Indeed. Mitch McConnell isn’t out to cut government for the benefit of the American people, he’s out to cut deals for himself and his cronies.
I don’t get you. Pat Roberts is, according to Heritage Action, the most conservative Senator up for re-election. He’s been one of the chief fighters in the efforts to keep the spending cuts focused on domestic programs, something that HA doesn’t pay a lot of attention to. He’s a big tax cutter, and a movement figure on abortion. He’s been the most effective campaigner for free trade… oh, that’s it, you’re not upset with Roberts for maintaining the status quo, you’re upset because he’s a conservative in one of the ways that you’re on the left?
Maintaining the filibuster in the face of concerted opposition and passing the sequester is about as close to being the opposite of those claims as you can get.
Roberts voting record is not relevant to my point. Roberts appears to be a hapless campaigner who doesn’t even live in the state he supposedly represents, and looks very likely to lose the seat to another shameless leftist liar.
And BTW that outcome is likely because the Kansas state supreme court discovered a novel way to read the English language and state law, as democrats often do.
This is what political failure looks like. Kansas is supposedly a red state, yet the courts saved the democrats bacon just like it was New Jersey. And the national party’s intervention in the primary left hard feelings all around.
I don’t live anywhere near Kansas (or Mississippi) and it angered me.
The GOP establishment makes endless efforts- as here- to attack any Tea Party friendly primary challenger, no holds barred, yet treats leftists with kid gloves, never daring to attack them.
Pitiful. And McConnell deserves a lot of the blame for that failure, along with the rest of the GOP establishment idiocracy.
The Debt Limit/Obamacare deal included a $2.1 billion earmark, known as the Kentucky Kickback. Coincidence? I think not. Mitch “maintained the filibuster” until he got his serving of pork, and not one minute longer.
Carey J #97.
In a knife fight you take out the weakest first. No sense being stabbed by a lessor opponent while you are facng off with the main man.
So I would submit that the TP needs to keep plugging. Don’t take any of this personally. Just keep working at it. Sooner of later, if you apply yourself, the “Dons” will notice you and need you. And then they will be “on your side”.
And whether or not Mitch likes it, more and more TP guys and gals are being elected. They will be a force to be reckoned with.
I’m not especially interested in saddling up my hobby horse today but I will note that I find it puzzling that you’d declare a dislike of “free trade” a position of the left.
I recall watching the debate between H. Ross Perot and Al Gore over NAFTA. Gore argued the pro- “free trade” position, and no one would call him a conservative. I also remember an occasion during the Clinton presidency when my steel employer and its union both made complaints about foreign merchantilism- and both the democrat House member of my district and Bill Clinton refused to do anything.
Plus, the advocates of “free trade”- low tariffs- have historically been democrats since at least prior to the Civil War.
So when you advocate “free trade” you’re joining the party of the left, going way back into history.
I’m advocating the policy favored by Abrahan Lincoln, the man who preserved the Union, created a politically dominant Republican party, and set the United States on the path to global power.
You’re…not.
Why is that?
Devereaux
To some degree, it has done that already. But comments against the Tea Party, really a serious base for them to court, not malign, have not helped. AND it isn’t helping that the TP side is taking this personally. Think of the mob – “Nothing personal, it’s just business.”
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Take it un-personal yourself. We’re gunning for the soulless Dons who have brought us low, and did it on purpose. It’s business to them; it’s business to us. We cannot oppose the left while we are bound by the moderates. It’s not personal — it’s hygeine. It’s tactics — they defend our enemies, so they are not our allies.
Blaming the Tea Party for not QUITE making good the 39-seat minority the GOP left us with is nonsense, to put it lightly. The spectre of Tea Party candidates losing is only accurate in the context of a historic Tea Party wave victory. McConnell and Boehner won;t tolerate another, and it’s us or them. So to L with them.