Posted on 11/06/2013 11:28:45 AM PST by TBP
One of the Democratic Party’s most accomplished operatives and ally of Hillary Clinton beat conservative Ken Cuccinelli in Virginia, ushering in two new post-election certainties. First, we will hear from Democrats how this means the repudiation of the anti-Obamacare efforts by Republicans and the endorsement of the President’s “stay the course” message. Second, the victory of Democrat Terry McAuliffe means that Republicans had better nominate candidates far more moderate in the 2014 election season, now begun.
To be more specific. We conservatives – and this writer is certainly one – made two major mistakes and we had better learn our lesson, they will warn. First, we had better not stand in the way of the Obama agenda in the future, whether it is spending issues or Obamacare, or else we will lose more elections. Second, we had better not ever again nominate someone as principled a conservative as Ken Cuccinelli in Virginia.
Certainly there will be sub themes. One example is the argument “we just don’t agree with the tactics of conservatives.”
Another sub theme is where eager campaign consultants will speak of whatever mistakes they can find to point to and blame either Cuccinelli personally or someone or other in the campaign who they hate or are competing with. Losing campaigns always see the “long knives” come out the next day or even the same evening.
But make no mistake about it: the longest knives of all will be reserved for anyone in America who is or has ever been identified as a conservative or Tea Party sympathizers. They’d best recant now or else they will be driven out of the Party, thrown under the bus or best of all, burned screaming, at the stake for all to see. It begins now.
Look for the days and nights ahead leading to the primary elections of 2014 to be full of pundits cautioning conservatives to not repeat these mistakes, like a mantra, over and over, aimed at conservative and GOP voters: do not oppose Obama on important issues, compromise today and fight later, next year, and do not ever again follow crazy rightwing conservatives – who will be named – such as Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Mike Lee, Rand Paul and the GOP House Majority not to mention people like Sarah Palin, Rick Santorum, Michelle Malkin, Ann Copulter, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, etc.
What will be a surprise to newer conservatives, newer Tea Party members and old time conservative and Republican Party voters with an early case of Alzheimers is this: many of the arguments you will be hearing are very, very old. They are not brand new ideas.
For example, after moderate and liberal Republicans fought the nomination of Barry Goldwater in 1964 they continued to attack him after the primary, until he lost the election. Then they said “see we warned you.” They issued the same warnings against Ronald Reagan, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and many more – who went ahead and won the general election after GOP primary voters ignored the liberals and nominated a conservative.
What you will be hearing over and over is not new: the claim that there was a “sudden lurch” to the right and the party had best nominate more moderate candidates, has been urged on the GOP faithful all the way back to Taft vs Eisenhower in 1964. Often, the threat by moderates works, the conservative candidate loses and the more moderate candidate wins the nomination and like Bob Dole, John McCain and Mitt Romney, they lose to the liberal Democrat after floundering around with a virtually issueless, conservative-less campaign.
Has anybody ever noticed that with those loses, there are NO repeated stories about the “lesson the GOP should learn” to never, ever again nominate moderate candidates weak on the issues of concern to most Americans and motivating to conservatives?
So lets go over the conservative rebuttal as the “long knives” for us conservatives come out today, in the following, “Top Eleven reasons to ignore liberal whining about GOP loss in Virginia.”
One. As indicated, this whining isn’t new. They should stop pretending. They are repeating the same junk they always say. We conservatives should ignore such silly, bad advice to nominate more liberal candidates, and reject conservatives.
Two. It is Democrats and their frightened moderate Republican friends who always offer this advice to not nominate conservatives, and to not fight the liberals so strongly on issues. Why should we listen to Democrats? For that matter, any Republican whose strategy comes from the Huffington Post, Daily Kos and Media Matters, is the one who should be ignored by Republican primary voters. Why don’t they tell THEM (Democrats) to nominate candidates who are strong and principled conservatives like Ken Cuccinelli in the future, instead of always telling us to nominate candidate closer to the philosophy of Barack Obama?
Three. Early polls showed McAuliffe with a huge, insurmountable lead. The only question to media pundits was how big a margin that the Democratic would win by. When they keep repeating this over and over, it tends to cause many who would have voted for the conservative, to stay home, not bother to vote (certainly not strong conservatives like me and most of my readers here). Every couple percentage points counts my friend! And as it turns out, Ken Cuccinelli lost by only two percentage points, not the 8 or more the liberal-left influenced media kept chanting about in the days before Tuesday.
Four. Ken Cuccinelli and his slate do not represent a “lurch to the right.” They are in fact, the mainstream of the Republican Party, who are as representative of the wishes, hopes and aspirations of the party faithful today, as Ronald Reagan ever was when he ran for Governor in California and President.
Five. Democrats are deceptive campaigners. To put it less charitably (and more accurately) they lie their heads off in elections in order to win. The President came to Virginia to campaign for Terry McAuliffe as did Hillary Clinton and many other big Democrats. Why didn’t they speak up about Obamacare and their plans to spend more and more money than they collect in taxes? Why didn’t they admit that Obamacare will cause people to lose their insurance and be forced to pay more insurance with higher deductibles? This lying has helped them win elections. In the long run, will it continue to work? Should GOP voters stop calling them out on their lies, or worse, join in the lies and stop standing in the way of this “change”?
Six. A Republican Governor restored voting rights for convicted felons, who vote overwhelmingly for Democrats. The fact is, there aren’t many conservative Republicans in the ranks of convicted felons. Convicted felons vote Democrat and they voted for McAuliffe. Many thousands of votes were added to the voter rolls thanks to this action of GOP Gov. Bob McDonnell – potentially enough to swing the two percentage points of victory margin for the Democrat (source: CNS News).
Seven. Under a Republican Governor, Virginia just enacted the largest tax increase in commonwealth history. This $6.4 billion dollar tax increase was enacted as are all such tax increases by citing all the good things that government would do for people. This did two things. It depressed voting and donations for the Republicans – who were fielding a slate against the top fundraiser for Bill Clinton and the Democrats lets remember. And, it boosted the vote turnout for the Libertarian protest candidate. All by itself, this was MORE than enough to tip the election to the Democrats or, to put it more accurately THROW the election. (Source: Bearing Drift).
Eight. The Democrats funded the LINO candidate (Libertarian in name only) who siphoned off MORE than enough votes all alone, to cause Ken Cuccinelli to lose. Robert Jarvis garnered 6.58% (142,062) of the vote. Cuccinelli lost by 47.57,(1,027,517) to 45.42% (981,124). Cuccinelli lost by 46,393 votes and the LINO pulled away 142,062 votes. One Democrat donor made this possible: Joseph Liemandt. “Liemandt, a software entrepreneur from Texas who had a net worth of $1.5 billion in 2000, gave the Libertarian Booster PAC $150,000 in January 2013. Breitbart News searched Federal Election Commission records and discovered that Liemandt donated $4,090 to the Virginia Democratic Party just three months earlier on October 17, 2012.” (Source: Breitbart News)
“Campaign finance records show the Libertarian Booster PAC has made the largest independent contribution to Sarvis’ campaign, helping to pay for professional petition circulators who collected signatures necessary to get Sarvis’ name on Tuesday’s statewide ballot” (source: The Blaze).
Nine. In the final weeks before election day, news reports of the illegal, unreported, large gifts to the Republican Governor by a donor, dominated the news. The defense that it was just his wife and he didn’t know, was silly at best or seen as a lie, at worst. It was a fine gift to the Democrat candidate by the outgoing Republican Governor. It was of course, seized upon eagerly by Democrats and their news media allies (see Daily Caller).
Aside from this gift to Democrats, a second effect of this controversy crippled Ken Cuccinelli’s fundraising advantage, resulting in him being outspent by the Democrat “ace” fundraiser by a ten-to-one margin and shrinking his army of volunteers. “The governor he depended on to rally the troops disappeared into a fog of scandal. Many of the money men who had provided oomph in past elections vanished.” (Washington Post)
Ten. Moderates such as Lt. Governor Bill Bolling continued to take pot shots at GOP nominee Cuccinelli and his slate. Bolling, who wanted the nomination but quit after polls showed he had no chance at a GOP convention against Ken Cuccinelli, “publicly mulled over an independent bid and then said he wouldn’t endorse anyone in the race” (Washington Post). It got worse: “it appeared that Bolling had tried to help persuade an influential business PAC to support Democrat Terry McAuliffe over Republican Ken Cuccinelli II (ibid).
Eleven. Moderate Lt. Governor Bill Bolling cast the tie breaking vote to postpone having the voter ID law take effect until 2014. Those who claim to be voters – such as illegal aliens – could once again vote in Virginia without fear that they would be required to show proof of their identity as an American citizen. More Democrat votes in 2013. Thanks Bill.
In summary, there’s nothing new here. But there is a lesson to be learned, especially for newer conservatives. We Conservatives need to learn better how to play hardball so that when we nominate principled conservatives like Ken Cuccinelli, they go forward and win. At all costs, we should shun “rule or ruin” GOP opportunists and liberals (who are two different groups – and the latter ALWAYS denies being liberal – all the way back to “progressive” Nelson Rockefeller in New York and they always makes alliances with other GOP members of the “stop the conservatives” crowd).
The old advice repeated by this writer many times over many years since I was there to hear it and also by other conservatives such as Fox TV’s Sean Hannity from Ronald Reagan after the 1974 election losses at the Conservative Political Action Conference of 1975, bears repeating now after this loss in Virginia. Said Reagan to you, me and conservatives, in words that apply just as much today as back then: “our people look for a cause to believe in…a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors which make it unmistakably clear where we stand on all of the issues troubling the people?”
The eleven reasons cited here, are proof positive that the close election loss by Ken Cuccinelli in Virginia against such terrible odds, does not give us reason to turn our back on him and on Ronald Reagan. I thank Ken Cuccinelli and all those who stood by him as our standard bearer and champion in this election. We appreciate you – all of you. Thank you very much and God bless you, in behalf of conservatives from all across America. This article is dedicated to you.
I say to fellow conservatives, there is a lesson to be learned from what happened yesterday in Virginia with the loss of Republican nominee for Governor, conservative Cuccinelli. I hope you will listen to me, a fellow conservative, and not our enemies what that lesson is. Pass the word, stand for principles, refuse to follow week kneed establishment Republicans who won’t fight, praise the Lord, pass the ammunition and soldier on … and we’ll win in 2014.
The people in Virginia will always vote for the founders of the KKK..Now they are followers of the communist party not much different from the KKK except they except blacks but not Jews..To bad I was hoping the state would have more educated people and not followers of ungodly people..well they will all be sorry one day when it all ends..
Cuccinelli had to run against the Rats and the GOP leadership who would rather have a Democrat than a Conservative as Governor of Virginia. This is a chronic problem in the GOP and it is not going to go away any time soon. The leadership has more in common with the progressives than with their own base.
MSM coverage of this story mostly ignored the impact of the 3rd party candidate, the fact that Cuccinelli was outspent by millions, that Cuccinelli’s campaign was hampered by his remaining in office and doing his job, that most voters who voted on the Obamacare issue voted for Cuccinelli, and that VA is heavily dependent on the DC economy and was thus disproportionately affected by the government shutdown, which the MSM blamed solely on the Republicans. But from the MSM, all you will hear is “the Tea Party lost, the Tea Party lost, the Tea Party lost.”
The Democrats and “moderate” RINOs are the devil. They’re the God-forsaken Satanic spawns from Hell here on Earth. The Democrats are in collusion with the GOP-e, and it can be proved that they’re doing it for mutual gain.
There’s no money in being conservative. Conservatives run on principals and values. Democrats and RINOs conspire together to sink the conservative vote through vote-buying, election rigging, and ballot stuffing in the forms discussed in this article.
If conservative candidates do not stick to their guns and run on the values they hold true, they’ll be sunk every time. Evil NEVER triumphs, but it does win a few battles before it’s conquered.
What anti-ObamaCare efforts? From what I can tell, the GOP-e fully supports ObamaCare. They keep funding it. They raise money and give it to candidates who expand Medicare. And they withhold money from candidates who file lawsuits trying to stop it.
As indicated, this whining isn’t new. They should stop pretending. They are repeating the same junk they always say. We conservatives should ignore such silly, bad advice to nominate more liberal candidates, and reject conservatives.
Two.
It is Democrats and their frightened moderate Republican friends who always offer this advice to not nominate conservatives, and to not fight the liberals so strongly on issues. Why should we listen to Democrats? For that matter, any Republican whose strategy comes from the Huffington Post, Daily Kos and Media Matters, is the one who should be ignored by Republican primary voters. Why don’t they tell THEM (Democrats) to nominate candidates who are strong and principled conservatives like Ken Cuccinelli in the future, instead of always telling us to nominate candidate closer to the philosophy of Barack Obama?
Three.
Early polls showed McAuliffe with a huge, insurmountable lead. The only question to media pundits was how big a margin that the Democratic would win by. When they keep repeating this over and over, it tends to cause many who would have voted for the conservative, to stay home, not bother to vote (certainly not strong conservatives like me and most of my readers here). Every couple percentage points counts my friend! And as it turns out, Ken Cuccinelli lost by only two percentage points, not the 8 or more the liberal-left influenced media kept chanting about in the days before Tuesday.
Four.
Ken Cuccinelli and his slate do not represent a “lurch to the right.” They are in fact, the mainstream of the Republican Party, who are as representative of the wishes, hopes and aspirations of the party faithful today, as Ronald Reagan ever was when he ran for Governor in California and President.
Five.
Democrats are deceptive campaigners. To put it less charitably (and more accurately) they lie their heads off in elections in order to win. The President came to Virginia to campaign for Terry McAuliffe as did Hillary Clinton and many other big Democrats. Why didn’t they speak up about Obamacare and their plans to spend more and more money than they collect in taxes? Why didn’t they admit that Obamacare will cause people to lose their insurance and be forced to pay more insurance with higher deductibles? This lying has helped them win elections. In the long run, will it continue to work? Should GOP voters stop calling them out on their lies, or worse, join in the lies and stop standing in the way of this “change”?
Six.
A Republican Governor restored voting rights for convicted felons, who vote overwhelmingly for Democrats. The fact is, there aren’t many conservative Republicans in the ranks of convicted felons. Convicted felons vote Democrat and they voted for McAuliffe. Many thousands of votes were added to the voter rolls thanks to this action of GOP Gov. Bob McDonnell – potentially enough to swing the two percentage points of victory margin for the Democrat (source: CNS News).
Seven.
Under a Republican Governor, Virginia just enacted the largest tax increase in commonwealth history. This $6.4 billion dollar tax increase was enacted as are all such tax increases by citing all the good things that government would do for people. This did two things. It depressed voting and donations for the Republicans – who were fielding a slate against the top fundraiser for Bill Clinton and the Democrats lets remember. And, it boosted the vote turnout for the Libertarian protest candidate. All by itself, this was MORE than enough to tip the election to the Democrats or, to put it more accurately THROW the election. (Source: Bearing Drift).
Eight.
The Democrats funded the LINO candidate (Libertarian in name only) who siphoned off MORE than enough votes all alone, to cause Ken Cuccinelli to lose. Robert Jarvis garnered 6.58% (142,062) of the vote. Cuccinelli lost by 47.57,(1,027,517) to 45.42% (981,124). Cuccinelli lost by 46,393 votes and the LINO pulled away 142,062 votes. One Democrat donor made this possible: Joseph Liemandt. “Liemandt, a software entrepreneur from Texas who had a net worth of $1.5 billion in 2000, gave the Libertarian Booster PAC $150,000 in January 2013. Breitbart News searched Federal Election Commission records and discovered that Liemandt donated $4,090 to the Virginia Democratic Party just three months earlier on October 17, 2012.” (Source: Breitbart News)
“Campaign finance records show the Libertarian Booster PAC has made the largest independent contribution to Sarvis’ campaign, helping to pay for professional petition circulators who collected signatures necessary to get Sarvis’ name on Tuesday’s statewide ballot” (source: The Blaze).
Nine.
In the final weeks before election day, news reports of the illegal, unreported, large gifts to the Republican Governor by a donor, dominated the news. The defense that it was just his wife and he didn’t know, was silly at best or seen as a lie, at worst. It was a fine gift to the Democrat candidate by the outgoing Republican Governor. It was of course, seized upon eagerly by Democrats and their news media allies (see Daily Caller).
Aside from this gift to Democrats, a second effect of this controversy crippled Ken Cuccinelli’s fundraising advantage, resulting in him being outspent by the Democrat “ace” fundraiser by a ten-to-one margin and shrinking his army of volunteers. “The governor he depended on to rally the troops disappeared into a fog of scandal. Many of the money men who had provided oomph in past elections vanished.” (Washington Post)
Ten.
Moderates such as Lt. Governor Bill Bolling continued to take pot shots at GOP nominee Cuccinelli and his slate. Bolling, who wanted the nomination but quit after polls showed he had no chance at a GOP convention against Ken Cuccinelli, “publicly mulled over an independent bid and then said he wouldn’t endorse anyone in the race” (Washington Post). It got worse: “it appeared that Bolling had tried to help persuade an influential business PAC to support Democrat Terry McAuliffe over Republican Ken Cuccinelli II (ibid).
Eleven.
Moderate Lt. Governor Bill Bolling cast the tie breaking vote to postpone having the voter ID law take effect until 2014. Those who claim to be voters – such as illegal aliens – could once again vote in Virginia without fear that they would be required to show proof of their identity as an American citizen. More Democrat votes in 2013. Thanks Bill.
In summary, there’s nothing new here. But there is a lesson to be learned, especially for newer conservatives. We Conservatives need to learn better how to play hardball so that when we nominate principled conservatives like Ken Cuccinelli, they go forward and win. At all costs, we should shun “rule or ruin” GOP opportunists and liberals (who are two different groups – and the latter ALWAYS denies being liberal – all the way back to “progressive” Nelson Rockefeller in New York and they always makes alliances with other GOP members of the “stop the conservatives” crowd).
The old advice repeated by this writer many times over many years since I was there to hear it and also by other conservatives such as Fox TV’s Sean Hannity from Ronald Reagan after the 1974 election losses at the Conservative Political Action Conference of 1975, bears repeating now after this loss in Virginia. Said Reagan to you, me and conservatives, in words that apply just as much today as back then: “our people look for a cause to believe in…a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors which make it unmistakably clear where we stand on all of the issues troubling the people?”
The eleven reasons cited here, are proof positive that the close election loss by Ken Cuccinelli in Virginia against such terrible odds, does not give us reason to turn our back on him and on Ronald Reagan. I thank Ken Cuccinelli and all those who stood by him as our standard bearer and champion in this election. We appreciate you – all of you. Thank you very much and God bless you, in behalf of conservatives from all across America. This article is dedicated to you.
I say to fellow conservatives, there is a lesson to be learned from what happened yesterday in Virginia with the loss of Republican nominee for Governor, conservative Cuccinelli. I hope you will listen to me, a fellow conservative, and not our enemies what that lesson is. Pass the word, stand for principles, refuse to follow week kneed establishment Republicans who won’t fight, praise the Lord, pass the ammunition and soldier on … and we’ll win in 2014.
Are they whining?
I assume they are lecturing.
The GOP retained control of the VA legislature.
McAwful is a lame duck. He’ll accomplish nothing, except pave the way for Cackles in 2016.
12. Despite all of the rhetoric about conservatism not playing well with independents, Cuccinelli won independents over McAwful by +9. It was the margin with women (-9) and the general lack of GOP GOTV efforts that cost Cuccinelli, both of which could have been easily countered with an active national GOP investment.
I guess they will not be supporting waiving the individual tax this year nor letting folks keep their policies. Go with that Democrats.
I’m not seeing any victory laps, looks like Cooch scared the crap out of Dems up for re-election
Good encouraging word. I agree, we soldier on and we will win !
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