The fallout from the Delaware Republican primary win for Christine O’Donnell is stunning. If you look at almost all the nay-sayers you’ll find that, if they are Republican, they are “senior GOP” personalities or otherwise identifiable as Establishment, Ruling Class. The vitriol from those stale, faux-conservatives just drips, post Super Tuesday. Here are some quotes from Politico.com, followed by my comments:
“GOP NIGHTMARE: ….If Castle had won the nomination, the GOP almost certainly would have taken the seat. Now, Republicans are UNlikely to take the seat and therefore UNlikely to take the majority on Nov. 2” This has been the pervasive criticism from the Republican Establishment all along. It’s about who has (R) by their name rather than actually working to get this nation back to its roots. It’s also why the TEA party movement has grown.
“STATE GOP CHAIRMAN TOM ROSS (who will probably resign today) has called O’Donnell ‘delusional,’ and told AP’s Philip Elliot in a phone interview on Sept. 2: “She’s not a viable candidate for any office in the state of Delaware.” I sent a number of emails to this fool warning him it was unwise to come out so publicly against O’Donnell and that if he couldn’t sit down, shut up and wait until the people had spoken he should just quit. He is, again, a perfect example of the Republican Establishment that has, for decades, compromised principles all for the sake of the Party, rather than for what’s right.
“KARL ROVE, to Sean Hannity: “It does conservatives little good to support candidates who, l…while they may be conservative in their public statements, do not evince the characteristics of rectitude and sincerity and character that the voters are looking for….But I gotta tell ya: We were looking at eight to nine seats in the Senate [of the 10 needed for the majority]. We’re now looking at seven to eight, in my opinion. This is not a race we’re gonna be able to win” I’ve not been a huge fan of Rove. He may be “the architect”, but his “designs” have been stale for some time, now. And getting George Bush elected was not necessarily something I’d be bragging about. There’s so much that annoys me about his statement. First off, “it does conservatives little good to support candidates who…” Who WHAT? Are
“GENE ROBINSON, on WP’s “PostPartisan” blog, “Christine O’Donnell’s win is the GOP’s loss. She is pro-life, she’s hostile to gun control, and she was able to position herself as the anti-establishment candidate…. The problem is that Republicans can’t win in November on Tea Party anger alone. They also have to appeal to the disaffected independents – and in a state like Delaware, those independents are likely to be turned off.” The key point I’d like to raise is the VERY thing the Republican Party MUST do. They must appeal to the disaffected….but not just the independents. The problem is that when you say “big tent” you’re really saying “water down your principles and make your group more appealing to people by giving them carrots”. On the contrary, what they SHOULD be doing is convincing the disaffected why the principles of conservativism make the most sense, why it’s the better way of those available. I can use the Church as an analogy. What many churches have done is watered down the Gospel, ignoring the parts on the basis that those parts wouldn’t draw some people or turn them off. Which explains what’s wrong with the Church. The Gospel of Christ is actually very inclusive, given that He died for ALL, but you have to understand what’s messed up in your life and realize why it is better for you to come to Him. The Republican Party needs to take the same approach instead of playing “big tent” at one end or preaching “liberal hell-fire and brimstone” on the other.
“Jonathan Martin: The Delaware results gave Democrats fresh ammunition to make the case that the Republican Party had been taken over by extremists. In effect, Democrats now can counter the GOP’s attempt to nationalize the election around the unpopular policies of the administration and Congress by pointing to such figures as O’Donnell, Nevada’s Sharron Angle and Kentucky’s Rand Paul and asking voters if that’s the Republican Party they want to return to power….If nothing else, the primary election defeats suffered by NRSC-favored candidates this year indicates the lack of a unified command structure within the GOP now. It has, in effect, become an uncontrolled and ungoverned party in which the powers that be in Washington are mere bystanders.” Oh, you mean we’re NOT a bunch of ignorant, unintelligent, mind-numbed lemmings? Oh, my gosh, what is this world coming to? We should be proud of that particular fact, if it turns out to be true. The problem has been a party that exists only if everyone is lock-step with the Establishment. But, guess what! What you’re seeing is that the rank and file IS independent, and it CAN self-organize without the tired Progressive Republican Establishment telling us what to do and how to do it. Uncontrolled? The beauty of this movement is that it IS, in fact, controlled---by the people. This is precisely how our independence from England happened, folks. Read your history. What Mr. Martin mischaracterizes (which is the only way Progressives win an argument) is this being a kind of Republican Party that might “return to power”. The fact is that it’s precisely the old Republican Party that we DON’T want to return to power. We need a better Republican Party, one that actually remains true to the founding fathers’ intent.
So, here we are, a “party torn”. The people have spoken, which is as it should be. Now the Republican Party Establishment has a decision to make. Do you embrace the fact that people want a return to the principles and values this nation was founded upon, do you knuckle down and examine the very tough, probably less-than-palatable medicine that MUST be sold to the American people if this nation is to survive and people remain free and unify behind a message that can resonate in the heart of hearts of people who, deep down, know we have to fix this mess? Or do you get your feelings hurt and wash your hands of the candidates the PEOPLE have chosen and guarantee that you won’t have a majority of (R) members in Congress? The ball is in your court. For those of us who are independent Conservatives, we aren’t about to let our work and our fervor stop with the primaries. We are taking it to Nov 2. To borrow from my Hispanic friends, si se puede.
