“If it weren’t for shysters running against establishment Republicans we would have 51 Republicans senators right now,” Coulter told Sean Hannity
As our friend Chris Chocola of the Club for Growth put it so well, “the question isn’t why Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock lost — we know why they lost,” said Chocola. “The question is really why did Heather Wilson in New Mexico, Rick Berg in North Dakota, Denny Rehberg in Montana, Tommy Thompson in Wisconsin, George Allen in Virginia and Linda Lingle in Hawaii — why did they lose?”
We could add Mitt Romney nationally and Connie Mack in Florida to Chocola’s list, but you get the point.
The fact of the matter is that of the three Republican Senate victories in 2012; Nebraska’s Deb Fischer, Arizona’s Jeff Flake and Texas’ Ted Cruz all ran as Tea Party-oriented or anti-establishment candidates.
Still tryin’ t’figger out how did zero win ?
Maybe a more gracious way to answer Ann, is that the game has changed.
I don’t think we lie to note that the Club For Growth was more like the Club For Shrinkage in earlier years. But there also wasn’t a Tea Party.
Tea Partiers have two foes, and the “friendly” foe is the worse one.
The answer (sans cheating) could well be borrowed from the Democrats. If you really want grass roots, plant ‘em all over the place. As much as Democrats whine about what “victims” they are on the national stage, they are pushing on the local ones. Don’t depend on being a big party to sell yourselves.
The time for party unity is AFTER the primaries, and yes, that includes helping the GOPe win if they unfortunately survive their primaries. We can’t afford to sit the election out if we don’t get our preferred candidates. A candidate that votes with us 50% of the time should definitely be challenged in a primary, but if they survive it, a half conservative is better than no conservative.
Again, fight them for the seat in the primary, but don’t sit out the general election as an act of revenge if the GOPe candidate wins. I say this even if they refuse to back our conservatives in turn, because we cannot afford to let any Democrat—those who vote in lockstep against us time after time—to win.
Some here want to go third party or sit out elections if we don’t have solid conservatives running. Sorry, but that’s simply a sure way to lose. Our best chance to gain power is through the GOP even if some quarters resist us. Divided (after the primaries) we fall.