Tea Party Loses Key Battles, But Is Winning The War

thedailybeast.com ^ | 5/21/14 | Ben Jacobs

[cotton1706]

Defeats handed to Tea Party candidates last night only tell half the story—the Tea Party’s real success has been to change the very DNA of the GOP

The Tea Party got shut out on Tuesday night.

In Idaho, incumbent Rep. Mike Simpson easily defeated Bryan Smith, the Club for Growth-backed challenger. In Kentucky, businessman Matt Bevin got walloped by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and the two most establishment candidates made the runoff in the Republican Senate primary in Georgia.

Ironically enough, however, last night represented a big win for the Tea Party's conservative, small government ethos, and the extent to which Tea Party ideology is now cemented into the GOP is now plain to see.



Despite not having any candidates who draped themselves in Gadsden flags win marquee races on Tuesday, the election results showed the ultimate success of the Tea Party’s effort to change the very DNA of the GOP, as the median voter in a Republican primary has become far more conservative in the past few years. The “establishment” candidates may have won—but they did so by becoming increasingly conservative.

[BeadCounter]

We have to be careful not to cut off our nose to spite our own face...People, our country’s future is as stake..Yes, we need to move towards more conservative values like our founding fathers created, but we also have to look at where our moralty and people are currently at in this country. Frankly, it’s lousy for those of us who are Christian conservatives, but I’ll tell you one thing...we HAVE TO START by TAKING BACK the SENATE! If this means we back a few middle of the road RINOS iT IS A NECESSARY EVIL to GET RID of the BIGGER EVIL in HARRY REID! Ben Carson said it best, “we cannot attack ourselves, so we need unity at the base levels if we are to make progress in the overall big picture”...

Totally so, it makes you wonder about some people's motivations.

[wku man]

I'd have a hard time doing that, but it gets to the point where you have to ask yourself if prolonging the inevitable worth the prolonged misery? If six years of Communism at the hands of the Obammunist isn't enough to wake this country the f**k up, what's it gonna take? Might as well put the Commies fully in power, and let the nightmare commence. If we survive, maybe the lesson will last 50 years or so.

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

[Prov3456]

Well, if we think about it from the viewpoint of the Daily Beast, perhaps the Tea Party HAS changed the Republican Party for the worse. In the opinion of the DB, more conservative is bad - therefore, they don't like the change.

I don't agree with the DB assessment, but we have to try to understand what progressives think so we know how to counter their arguments with the LIV.

Just a thought....

[RinaseaofDs]

If George Washington had quit because he lost battles, lots of them, who knows?

[CommerceComet]

I agree with the assessment that the success of the TEA Party movement is measured in terms of a war and not battles. In politics, getting your ideas implemented is really more important than getting your people elected (although getting both is best). As long as our ideas are getting traction, we are winning.

[Lazamataz]

We are so screwed.

[TBP]

Congratulations, GOP. You just lost Kentucky.

[TBP]

I guess Kingston is the better of the remaining choices.

[TBP]

No, they *claimed* to be more conservative.

The McCain trick. Run to the right in the primary to fend off your conservative challenger, then tack right back to the mythical "center" after you've taken the conservatives down.

[Future Snake Eater]

Just because they say things on the campaign trail and show up at CPAC toting a rifle means nothing.

Exactly what I was thinking. Rush pointed out back in the Clinton years that liberals win elections by sounding like conservatives. This is nothing new and nothing will change.

[KC_Lion]

We were outspent by the corporatist uni-party. It’s hard to compete with Amnesty $$.

Well Said Jane.

The Communist and Socialist parties have combined.

[ModelBreaker]

“...but they did so by becoming increasingly conservative.”

I think it would be more accurate to say “they did so by pretending to be increasingly conservative.”

Campaign talk is always conservative. It’s what they do when they get to Washington that matters. And on that count, the GOP-E has a sorry record.

So I’m sorry, the article is a bit like all the articles after the John Roberts Obamacare decision, trying to spin it as anything other than a crushing defeat for America.

The ongoing lock of the GOP-E on our party is a crushing defeat for America.

[Theophilus]

The convulsions are ebbing but the patient has become comfortably numb?

[TBP]

and is to the right of John McCain

That's not hard. Mittens is a bit to the right of McCain. McCain is Soros's favorite Republican.

[TBP]

I would love it if Tea Party wins increased the Republican numbers, even taking the Senate, but McConnell and Boner went down. How delicious would that be?

[TBP]

We get all the rhetoric; they get all the action.

[Luke21]

“I am GOPe..”

Glad to see you admit it. But we already knew. :D

[RKBA Democrat]

It’s just a flesh wound.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Yes at least Kingston votes the right way. He’s no warrior but at least he has a voting record to look at.

[wku man]

If Washington had lost every battle over a 26-year period except for two, largely because his generals were inept and his soldiers were gutless, he'd have thrown in the towel.

26 years, of course, being a reference to the time that's elapsed since President Reagan left office, and the two victories were in the 1995 and 2010 mid-terms. Other than those, our Republic has "progressively" lost ground since Ronaldus Magnus folded his tents and went home. Inept and gutless are our so-called "leaders" and us...because we keep sending them back to do the same inept job they always have.

All this, despite 12 of those years having been under Pubbie administrations, and at least two years of united Pubbie control in Washington. When is it time to quit filling sandbags, face the fact that the flood waters are going to destroy your home, and resolve to rebuild on higher ground after the insurance check comes in?

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!