Making Majority Matter
By Mitch Berg
Pat Toomey, former conservative Republican rep from Pennsylvania and current president of the Club for Growth, writes an excellent post on the GOP’s reflexive defense of RINOs (Republicans in Name Only).
You need to read the whole thing for its background. The story is, of course, an important one in Minnesota, as the GOP grassroots in many districts have taken action to shun RINOs – including some sitting incumbents.
Toomey:
A Republican majority is only as useful as the policies that majority produces. When those policies look a lot like Democratic ones, the base rightly questions why it should keep Republicans in power. As the party gears up for elections in the fall, it ought to look closely at the losses suffered under a political strategy devoid of principle. Otherwise, it can look forward to a bad case of déjà vu.
Last week on the NARN, I said that in a sense – in the long-term, certainly – putting RINOs to the (rhetorical and political) pike is more important than defeating DFLers. Hyperbolic? Maybe – but also on point. If we, the GOP, don’t offer a coherent choice (and in 2006, the voters were pretty clear that we did not), the voters will have no reason not to vote Tic. Acting like Tics – like Reps. Erhard and Peterson and Tingelstad and the rest of the Override Six – eats the party’s seed corn; it gets a short-term electoral bump, at the expense of long-term viability as a party.
May 8th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
The irony thing is, that when Republicans act like Democrats, the Dems use it against them. Bush 41 agreed to a compromise tax increase, and the Democrats campaigned in 1992 on that issue…that Bush raised taxes.
May 9th, 2008 at 9:07 am
Is it just spending that matters, or can one spend wildly and still be okay as long as he toes the line on social issues? Is Tom Delay a RINO?
May 9th, 2008 at 9:58 am
And we still get the rhetoric “We need to elect Republicans!” from the same groups and individuals that mouthed that mantra in the 2006 run-up. And they are still rampant down here in Scott County and the 2nd Congressional District.
Mike Osskopp, who is John Kline’s District Director had a report that paralleled the report that I cited at http://www.savagerepublican.com/2007/01/republicans-newly-recognized-party-of.php.
And McCain, I’m sad to say, is keeping to his script to tick-off conservatives.
I’m coming around to the fact that the reason, and only reason that he’ll be elected is because of the unelectability of his opponent.
May 9th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
I”ve long been one of those beating the drum for electing the best Republican you can while you have choices, and that after that there isn’t a choice. The Republican nominee is better than the Democrat, period. I’ll even try to work up some enthusiasm for the candidate, especially if he/she seems interested in meeting me part way.
Until now, I’ve been thinking that was all I could do, but I’m starting to see something else. I realize that the State and National Party bears a lot of responsibility in how the election turns out, because they think people like me are enough to win elections. I’m convinced that we lost in 2006 because every effort was made to turn out the vote, and no effort at all was made to convince people of why their vote mattered. Party without principle doesn’t win elections. Principle over party doesn’t win elections, either, and winning is the only thing that matters, because the only other option is losing.
So, again, get the best Republican you can find to run, make the State and National Parties coordinate and run a positive policy campaign which will turn out the vote, and get proxies to handle the negative campaigning early and often. Winning with Party AND principle is what works.