Posted on 12/18/2014 5:46:20 AM PST by cotton1706
The tea party is growing up, and while its stances aren’t softening, its tactics are changing rapidly.
It's Politics 101: Whenever a Democrat or Republican announces a run for office, the other party pounces with a "rapid response" attack on their rival's record. And so when Republican Johnny Isakson of Georgia announced last month that he would seek a third Senate term in 2016, someone was inevitably going to rain on his parade.
But this time, the attacks didn't come from Democrats. They came from the right. The new for-profit media company Conservative Review blasted an email to its subscribers telling them Isakson's "Liberty Score" was an "F", and followed that with a list of "5 reasons conservatives will never be on Sen. Isakson's side."
Conservative Review's rapid response is part of bigger shift within the movement: A half-decade after the anti-Obama (and anti-Obamacare) revolution, the resurgent right flank of the Republican Party is growing up, displaying a new willingness, even an eagerness, to adopt the same tactics the establishment has used against them.
snip
And in 2016, Conservative Review and like-minded groups don't need to win races to make their presence felt. In their 2014 losses, the groups saw a silver lining: The establishment candidates who beat their challengers did so in part by co-opting antiestablishment issues and rhetoric.
"We're winning on the issues, but the nuts and bolts of knocking off any incumbent ... it has never gotten easier and it never will, you're always going to be a pariah," Horowitz said. "But I believe we won. Did you hear Pat Roberts? I've never seen him that feisty in 20 years. He ran on our issues. We made Karl Rove drink our own Kool Aid—he had to go and put out an ad against amnesty."
(Excerpt) Read more at nationaljournal.com ...
What's happened in the last several cycles is that we have forced the Establishment to show their hands, and show all their dirty tricks. They've shown that they're not republicans in the real sense of the word, but oligarchs.
Translation of this article: the establishment is wrong in the big picture sense, so more voters are supporting conservatives.
I think people forget that at some point in a state or local race, there is a tipping point, when more money doesn’t mean squat, it becomes the message. This is where we have the advantage over the establishment.
Our message is worth a lot more than both the mods or libs. We just need enough money to cover a state, not necessarily stack blankets on the state. Basically, we can do more with 5 million than our opponemts with 15 million. We just need to be smarter with how we spend.
The only thing our opponents can do with more money is cheat, and the only way we stop that is by taking a more aggressive stand with things like poll watchers and creating commercials with video we capture.
And it’s worth expanding on that by saying grassroots matter. This means you, dear reader. Contribute to your local candidate, and as importantly, volunteer to make phone calls and house calls. It works.
“...it’s almost tantamount to waving a slingshot without any armor and having the incumbent blow the guy up with a bazooka... You need to start coming in with airstrikes against the other guy first.”
Start with the nosebleed military metaphors.
At least it’s not sports metaphors.
“We can kick a field goal in the ninth inning if we use a full-court press. Remember that you drive for show but you pick up the spare for dough.”
— Alice, from ‘Dilbert’, mangling sports metaphors
Or mixed metaphors.
“You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make a silk purse out of a pig in a poke.”
— Opus, running for office, from ‘Bloom County’
We tried carrots, we tried sticks, we tried carrot sticks, mostly to little avail.
Yep, the complete dismantling of the Reagan legacy began when GHWB took office. The whole Bush Clan is a curse on America.
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