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Purity or Strategy: The Debate We Need To Have: Would you rather put up with a RINO, or a Democrat?
Pajamas Media ^ | 02/22/2014 | Andrew Klavan

Posted on 02/23/2014 11:43:17 AM PST by SeekAndFind

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Last week, there was one of those mommy-and-daddy-are-fighting moments on Fox News as two powerhouse conservatives debated one of the most important issues facing the right. In one corner, was the dagger-sharp and stunningly beautiful and did I mention beautiful Ann Coulter. In the other corner, was the valiant, good-hearted and, you know, perfectly presentable in his own way Sean Hannity. No one can doubt either the patriotism or the fearlessness of these two. You may sometimes disagree with one or the other, that’s fine, but it seems undeniable that both have the good of the country first and foremost in their minds. Plus Ann’s really attractive.

You can watch the video to hear the whole thing but the gist is this. Ann thinks we have to stop “shysters” who pretend to represent the Tea Party from luring us into endless primaries against “establishment” Republicans. The thinking behind this (as I’ve heard her say elsewhere) is that there is only so much campaign money to go around and it needs to be focused wholly on defeating Democrats, winning a Republican majority in both houses and using that majority to “repeal Obamacare, repeal Obamacare, repeal Obamacare.”

Sean took a more purist Tea Party line, saying there are some Republicans who “should be defeated,” and endorsing the idea that we should primary the RINOs where we can and — my words here not his — we should end the civil war within the Republican Party by winning it for the true conservatives.

What a swell party this is!

Just to let you know where I stand emotionally, here’s a true story. The first time I made a speech before a Tea Party crowd, I felt as if I were floating two feet off the ground. I respected, admired and agreed with the Tea Partiers so completely, that my heart rose up and I began to believe that despite the Obama debacle, the country would ultimately be fine. As I was leaving the rally, I got a call from a friend asking me to come by for a drink with a couple of the highest-ranking Republicans in Washington. It was me and them, having a glass together, eye to eye. By the time I left that gathering, I was so depressed by the establishment GOP’s blindness and philosophical corruption I could barely see straight. I phoned Andrew Breitbart for moral support. “I’ve just had a drink with [blank] and [blank],” I began. And he responded immediately, “Are they ***holes or what?”

All my sympathies, in other words, are with the Tea Party. And I would truly love to see the RINOs skewered on their own horns.

And yet… In general, Tea Party candidates tend to do well in congressional races where small, homogenous districts are in play. In Senate races where you need votes across an entire state, a primary victory for someone like Christine O’Donnell or Todd Akin may briefly fill the conservative heart with joy, but the loss of a Senate seat that could have been won is simply too high a price to pay for that momentary triumph.

We need to talk this out with good sense and without pompous ranting. Politics is the art of the possible. Writing belligerently purist articles, blog posts or comments is relatively easy. Winning elections is hard. Barack Obama is one of the most destructive presidents this country has ever seen, but a talented politician. If stopping him in his tracks requires stomaching some RINOs here and there, it seems a no brainer: It must be done. Ann may have put her case a little too forcefully in the debate above (she’s not exactly given to dithering!), but surely she’s right in the general principle that strategy — and victory — have to come before purity.

I’d rather put up with frustrating RINOs than continue in the minority with our country under attack from within. But let me know what you think.



TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: cinos; conservatives; linos; randsconcerntrolls; rino; tpinos; uniparty
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To: Blackirish

We WON the election in 2000....got a House and a Senate to go along with the Executive....what did we get besides the TSA and DHS and other liberal wet dreams?

We WON the House in 2010.....what did we get?


21 posted on 02/23/2014 12:04:58 PM PST by Gaffer (Comprehensive Immigration Reform is just another name for Comprehensive Capitulation)
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To: ScubieNuc

Hang tough!


22 posted on 02/23/2014 12:05:29 PM PST by Gaffer (Comprehensive Immigration Reform is just another name for Comprehensive Capitulation)
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To: ScubieNuc

Hang tough!


23 posted on 02/23/2014 12:05:45 PM PST by Gaffer (Comprehensive Immigration Reform is just another name for Comprehensive Capitulation)
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To: SeekAndFind

This ideological purity argument is getting old, and weak. We will always have disagreements with our political representatives, but those we have representing us now are losers. They don’t have a creative, or politically tactical idea in their heads. The communists are running over this country, and the battle cry from our side is, “Wait for the next fight!” They keep arguing they can’t win the fight, but one thing you can be sure of, you lose 100% of the fights you run away from. Look at how much press Cruz is getting now. His opinions are in the news as much as Obama’s. Why? Because he stood for principle and fought. Win or lose, people respect that. They don’t respect cowards, and we need to purge our party of cowards.


24 posted on 02/23/2014 12:06:08 PM PST by Yogafist
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To: Gaffer

It happened in Kansas today, a candidate told a tasteless joke on Facebook or something. They declare him toast and say we need to re-elect the RINO.

I guess the guy wasn’t “pure” enough for them.


25 posted on 02/23/2014 12:06:34 PM PST by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans!)
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To: SeekAndFind

A problem with Ann Counter’s and the author’s reasoning is that it doesn’t do any good to elect Republicans if they vote as Democrats once they’re in the House or Senate. We could have R majorities in both houses, but they’re not going to vote to repeal Obamacare if enough of the Republicans are saying to themselves, “Yeah, some people are really zealous about this ... but honestly, it doesn’t affect me that much personally. What’s the big deal?”


26 posted on 02/23/2014 12:06:54 PM PST by Tax-chick (The future is not going to take us seriously.)
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To: SeekAndFind
There are several truths about having A Socialist DemoRat in power.

1) You do not have to worry about being stabbed in the back, because you will never let him get behind you.

2) If the Socialist DemoRat has replaced a RINO or GOP-E shill, that RINO/GOP-E collaborator is now useless to the Socialist DemoRats, and you know what they do to those useless to them.

3) The RINO and GOP-E fundraisers have less ability to fund raise for the RINO GOP-E as they can't deliver favors.

27 posted on 02/23/2014 12:06:54 PM PST by Navy Patriot (Join the Democrats, it's not Fascism when WE do it, and the Constitution and law mean what WE say.)
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To: Jim Robinson

My wife and I are putting hundreds of dollars into conservative primary candidates across the country. She’s been attending school and isn’t working, but we both believe the money is worth it.

A RINO can never be relied upon for any given vote; however, they will generally vote conservative more often than a Democrat.

When ever we can tilt the election to the most conservative candidate possible, we win. Primaries are the absolute best place to stack the deck in our favor.

Kick out the dead weight to put the most conservative likely winner in, every possible chance!


28 posted on 02/23/2014 12:07:21 PM PST by ConservativeMind ("Humane" = "Don't pen up pets or eat meat, but allow infanticide, abortion, and euthanasia.")
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To: SeekAndFind

We don’t need to discuss the choice right now, between the GOP-e, and the democrats.

Now is when the candidates start being selected.

We need the TEA PARTY candidates to be the ones selected, to run against the democrats.

Just saying.


29 posted on 02/23/2014 12:07:28 PM PST by Cringing Negativism Network ( http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html#2013)
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To: SeekAndFind

Considering Ann’s actions in the Romney fiasco she is the LAST person I’d listen to when it comes to “Shysters’.

Because she contributed mightily to our current problem with her Kerry style flip flop. And now we are to believe she is an authority? Sure. On switching teams before the big game starts...


30 posted on 02/23/2014 12:10:14 PM PST by Norm Lenhart
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To: Jim Robinson

” Politics is the art of the possible. Writing belligerently purist articles, blog posts or comments is relatively easy. “

Politics is WAR. Either we support Small G’ment or we go the way of Argentine and Venezuela.

Voting for RINOs is the same as voting for any other Tyrant


31 posted on 02/23/2014 12:11:43 PM PST by DanZ
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To: Gaffer

When Denny Hastert, Tom Delay and W were passing 2000 page porkfest bills I was one of a few posters on this forum outraged. Many were basking on Serenity Island. Now we have a House and speaker....Bonieir. ..much more conservative then Hastert but everyone is calling for his head. Lame and hypocritical.


32 posted on 02/23/2014 12:12:39 PM PST by Blackirish
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To: GeronL

I, for one, am CERTAINLY not going to be one here on FR that is willing to openly and affirmatively discuss how I am ready to throw way all my constitutional principles for the sake of electing ANY Republican simply because he/she seems better than a Democrat.

My experience tells me that we have too many Vichy Republicans already who are actually worse than Democrats. They waste our time, our money and our votes and they actively collude with one another to give my grand daughters’ freedoms away.

Stay strong. Stay resolute. And don’t ‘settle for the lesser of two evils’. We can do better if we don’t give up even before we fight.


33 posted on 02/23/2014 12:13:06 PM PST by Gaffer (Comprehensive Immigration Reform is just another name for Comprehensive Capitulation)
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To: Blackirish

You can bark that stuff up another tree. I’m not interested in equivocation of why you’d vote for a RINO.


34 posted on 02/23/2014 12:14:07 PM PST by Gaffer (Comprehensive Immigration Reform is just another name for Comprehensive Capitulation)
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To: Gaffer

“Stay strong. Stay resolute. And don’t ‘settle for the lesser of two evils’. We can do better if we don’t give up even before we fight.”

It’s really that simple.


35 posted on 02/23/2014 12:14:42 PM PST by Norm Lenhart
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To: SeekAndFind
In Senate races where you need votes across an entire state, a primary victory for someone like Christine O’Donnell or Todd Akin may briefly fill the conservative heart with joy, but the loss of a Senate seat that could have been won is simply too high a price to pay for that momentary triumph.

Let's be really clear about a few things here.

1. We now know that O'Donnell was victimized by the IRS scandal. We don't know how she would have turned out in a fair election.

2. Akin and Mourdock were entrapped by a gotcha question on rape and abortion. True, we need to be sure that candidates are TRAINED to expect, recognize, and then deflect these traps when they are being set - because they will be set up - but these should not be held up as examples of what happens when a Tea Party candidate wins a primary.

3. "Establishment" Republicans should not run from candidates when they stumble over MSM tripwires. They should learn to circle the wagons the way that Democrats do.

4. The problem in 2012 was not the Senate candidates, it was the lack of a coordinated strategy by Senate leadership. The fault lies squarely on Mitch McConnell. Prior to the 2012 convention, Republicans were winning 7 Senate seats, but McConnell was absent. By the time November came around, they lost 2 seats. No leadership was visible at all during the Senate campaigns. No attempt was made to nationalize the Senate races.

5. No changes to candidates will matter if the leadership in the Senate is replaced, modernized, and made younger. The current leadership is tired, out of ideas, and beaten down into submission by the MSM.

-PJ

36 posted on 02/23/2014 12:15:32 PM PST by Political Junkie Too (If you are the Posterity of We the People, then you are a Natural Born Citizen.)
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To: Gaffer

bump


37 posted on 02/23/2014 12:16:10 PM PST by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans!)
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To: SeekAndFind; Gaffer; GeronL; Norm Lenhart
I Almost Forgot!

"Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.” -- John Quincy Adams

38 posted on 02/23/2014 12:16:46 PM PST by KC_Lion (Build the America you want to live in at your address, and keep looking up.- Sarah Palin)
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To: SeekAndFind

WoW.. this was from Feb 2014... I’m astounded at Klavans BLINDNESS..
Normally I agree with ALL his wit and snark.... and sometimes actual wisdom...
Amazing that one such as this could NOW be so completely BLIND..

Voting indeed DIED Nov. 2012... the poll booths have been breached.. contaminated.. KLAVAN MISSED IT!.. jeese..

Boner and McConnell are doing “Weekend at Bernies” with freedom in Congress..
And not all precincts are compromised JUST MOST ARE..
Especially in blue/purple States but not only there ... sometimes in red places as well..
Even republicans primarys were effected by this corruption.. (AND will be)..

I guess ADMITTING this sends the willys down all true patroits and conservatives BACKs..
Don’t blame them either.. starting to look like ONLY a Civil War will set things right..

All the blood and guts in THAT conflagration would make a strongman balk..
I fear it will become very nasty soon... Ukraine and Venezuela are just “tells”..
A full fledged “underground” is needed... maybe already is or is being martialed NOW..


39 posted on 02/23/2014 12:17:07 PM PST by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole..)
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To: Gaffer

I have gotten to the point that I will vote for a dem over a rino.
I’M DONE.
Its time to collapse it and remove it.


40 posted on 02/23/2014 12:17:36 PM PST by right way right (America has embraced the suck of Freedumb.)
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