Posted on 06/28/2006 1:45:44 PM PDT by Dane
WE LOST THE REFERENDUM
It was a landslide.
They had that referendum on illegal immigration yesterday and the answer was clear.
People don’t care.
I’m not saying that as a criticism, or as accusation, but as an observation. If yesterday’s Republican Primary in Utah’s third congressional district was a test of the country’s sentiment on illegal immigration, it is unarguably clear that people aren’t that bothered by it.
At least they’re not in Utah.
Congressman Chris Cannon pounded the living snot out of challenger John Jacob. It wasn’t even close. John Jacob lost in every county, jurisdiction and precinct. At no point did he lead in any category and every new report of results was more bad news. As I sat last night at the computer with his staffers, watching the results post on the Internet, it was clear that by the time 10 percent of the precincts had posted that the race was lost.
So I’ve got egg on my face.
I attacked Chris Cannon ruthlessly. I was John Jacob’s loudest and most passionate defender. His loss is also my loss. His failure to represent the interests of the people is also my failure to read the interests of the people. What I thought was important was clearly unimportant to the voters. And in a republic, the voters are always right.
It turns out that Salt Lake City’s two daily newspapers, and Provo’s newspaper, the state’s other talk-show host, and most of the state’s politicians were all more in touch with the sentiments of the Republicans in the Third District than I was. It is clear that their general liberalism is a better reflection of voter sentiment than my rabid conservatism.
And I should have known that. Instead, I was blinded by my desire to evangelize the world to my view of freedom – a decidedly conservative and Constitution-based view. But Utah is not a politically conservative state. It is dominated by the Republican Party, but not by conservative Republicans. The governor is a moderate to liberal, one senator is a moderate and the other is arguably a liberal. The last two governors were moderate to liberal and the attorney general is moderate to liberal.
Those are not accusatory labels, they are merely demonstrations of the consistently expressed will of the people. When Utahns go to the polls, they often pick moral conservatives, but rarely pick political conservatives. More typically they go for social liberals.
And they rarely go for political challengers from the right.
So, logically, John Jacob’s campaign was doomed from the beginning. And I should have known that. I probably did know that, but chose to ignore it, caught up in the talking-head argument that this was the time and place the people would rise up against government neglect of the border and acceptance of illegal immigration.
That argument made sense. This was the chance. It was the chance for conservatives in the Republican Party to call to account the ruling liberal wing of the party. But that is not what the voters wanted.
And that can’t be ignored.
If this was a referendum on illegal immigration, it seems the people want Senate over House, Kennedy over Tancredo. It seems that Chris Cannon’s 10 years of being the open-borders guy in the House is something the Republicans in Utah’s Third District wanted to reward.
Again, that is not an accusation. It is not bitterness. It is an observation. The landslide re-election of an incumbent is not a call for change – in that incumbent’s conduct or in the direction of his party. It is a ratification and approval of what they both have stood for.
George Bush and Vicente Fox won last night. It was a fair fight, I made the issue as clear as I could, and people chose what I wasn’t selling. Which is their right and the great beauty of our republic.
We tried to make our stand, and we got steamrollered. We can take comfort in knowing that we did our best, and we can seethe in the bitterness of knowing that it didn’t do any good. It was duty done, but pointlessly.
And I apologize for that. For taking up so much of your time with this issue. For being so passionate about something for which there is not a public enthusiasm. For being clearly out of touch with what Republicans want. For misreading the potential of this election.
It is impossible to ignore the fact that Chris Cannon won this primary by a larger margin than he won the primary two years ago. Last time’s $50,000 campaign did better than this time’s $700,000 campaign. And even that second figure is uncertain. It is possible that John Jacob’s campaign ran out of money a month ago, that it was underfunded. It is possible that John Jacob was a poor candidate.
But it is also irrelevant.
In his concession remarks – he bypassed a prepared speech – John Jacob said that the results of the election showed that Chris Cannon has support in Washington.
Actually, that’s not right.
The results showed that Chris Cannon has support in the Third District.
His constituents have known him for a decade and they seem overwhelmingly to like him and what he does. The referendum failed. It’s business as usual – business with which the voters seem completely content.
If this primary was an opening battle in the war to bring the Republican Party back to its conservative roots, we got massacred. And that will be noticed and have consequences. We conservatives hoped to show momentum and strength and didn’t. And we may have hurt our cause substantially as a result. Opposition to illegal immigration has been hurt, and so has the attempt to chastise the party. We fell flat on our face, and to the winner go the spoils.
Politics is like baseball. When you lose, you congratulate the winner and walk off the field.
Chris Cannon won because he represented what people want. He won the election. He deserves congratulations.
To say nothing of the large populations of German Mennonites in Mexico and Bolivia.
Streaky, nice to see some sanity here. Let me add something that I read on another site regarding the election:
"I guess Tancredo's backing alone is not strong enough to defeat the multinational corporations that bankrolled incumbent Chris Cannon combined with the endorsement of President Bush. No, Tancredo's endorsement is only strong enough to get a raving lunatic 44% of the vote against a polished, wealthy incumbent. Next time we'll win."
Tomorrow tomorrow is just a daaay away!
Bay Buchanan is a SCARY woman whom I've always suspected as being "in the closet." Tancredo was a great congressman who has fallen in love with himself as a political messiah as of late.
Bay is that you?
Seems like you've had all the Kool-Aid flavors.
New York did NOT have a Mexican population until the early 1990s. Many of those who came during the 1990s are leaving because of the high cost of living. $1600 per month for a decrepit one-bedroom in a dangerous slum is still expensive, even if you pack 10 guys into it.
NO I am just laughing at you. That's ok it was a moral victory and you are just as good as any of the other kids.
Wow. I knew that Jacob had lost every county, but I didn't know that extended down to the precinct level within those counties as well. That's an especially bad performance.
Oh get over yourself.
Actually, I was so glad I wasn't home when George called so it would record on our messages, and bummed that I was home when Laura called and her message didn't get recorded.
I want to use the recording of W's voice and have it be my announcement that I have e-mail... "Hi, this is George W. Bush".... very cool.
Ya know, it's not worth going into a battle of wits with an unarmed man. Never knew Kool-Aid could be so addicting. Not to worry, there's probably a 12 step program for that.
These guys just make things up as they go along sort of like democrats.
Wow did you just make that zinger up? Damn that crushed me. I'm going to steal that and post it to everyone I know.
Utah is not exactly a cold weather state. Nor is it losing population. Wikipedia, as usual, seems to be more a source of misinformation than enlightenment.
LOL -- You snagged a troll tonight. Good job.
Hell they just jump in the boat. You don't even have to bait the hook.
Hahahahaha. I saw that! Too funny.
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