The Real Lesson from Mississippi

The Weekly Standard ^ | June 26,2014 | Jay Cost

[Hojczyk]

On balance the Republican “establishment” has done fairly well this primary season. Its favored candidate in the Nebraska Senate race lost, and of course Eric Cantor went down to defeat, but Thad Cochran, Lindsey Graham, and Mitch McConnell all hung on. So, all is right in the world, right?

Not really. It is important to differentiate the candidates challenging the establishment from the voters backing those challengers. The candidates are either amateurs with no political background or upstarts who refuse to wait their place in line.

They often have fewer funds, employ less experienced consultants, and lack the personal assets necessary to campaign effectively. Occasionally, a virtuoso rock star like Marco Rubio emerges, but the typical insurgent is lucky just to know how to hold the guitar.

The problem for the Republican party writ large is that the Cochran-type does not seem like an outlier. People do not see the GOP as a party out to make the government “smaller and smarter,”

The party’s leaders need to ask themselves: if their purpose is to perpetuate interest group liberalism, why should anybody vote for them? There is already a party whose central purpose is to carve up the federal pie for its clients/voters. It is called the Democratic party, and nobody does interest group liberalism better than it does.

People do not see the GOP as a party out to make the government “smaller and smarter,” to “celebrate success, entrepreneurship, and innovation.” They certainly do not see think it is trying to “lift up the middle class.” They see a party that perpetuates and expands government as it suits them, often to the benefit of the well-heeled interest groups that have descended upon the nation’s capital.

[Cboldt]

No flames from me. Voting decisions should be based on the candidates, not on the parties they happen to be in. There have been a number of legislooters that switched parties. See Party switching in the United States for an interesting list. Some of the switchers (like Bloomberg of NYC) are clear RINOs, but others are more conservative that the likes of Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, John McCain, Ayotte, etc.

The GOP claims to be experts at winning political races, and I say let them exercise their expertise. When they lose a race, it is their own fault.

[Cboldt]

One other thought crosses my mind. The GOP seems to do better at thrwarting the growth of government when the GOP is in the minority. The GOp grew the government by leaps and bounds under Bush II. They’ll do it again if they get a majority of both houses of Congress.

[Patton@Bastogne]

.


Who are the REAL ENEMY to America's Conservatives in the U.S. Senate ?

Harry Reid and "Chuck-You" Schumer ?

That's what "Juan" (Amnesty) McCain keeps telling us.



With the Thad Cochran debacle, it's "perfectly clear" that our REAL ENEMIES are ...

Karl Rove, Jeb, Bush, Orin Hatch, John Bohner, Lindsay Graham, Marco Rubio (oh yeah !!!), Mitch McConnell (barf alert) ...

"No quarter asked ... No quarter given" ...



.

[Reagan79]

I am voting Childers. He is just as conservative if not maybe more.

[cuban leaf]

Cochran is toast. Childers will run all over him, as conservatives stay home in November.

---

And plenty of them, like me, will actively vote against the GOPe candidate. I’ll be voting against McConnel.

[BroJoeK]

mazda77: "Circa 1850 anyone?
It is now coming apart faster than it did for the Whigs, and rightfully so."

Nonsense. And before you begin wildly cheering for Republicans to go the way of the old Whigs, please remember some facts:

1. Since almost Day One, there have been two parties: the dominant Democrats, originally based in the South and among big-city immigrants, and anti-Democrats -- first called Federalists, then Whigs, now Republicans, originally northern & western based.

2. In the 1960s, dominant Democrats abandoned their Southern-white roots in order to more reliably focus on their big-city supporters, largely ethnic groups.

3. Conservative Republicans were happy to have Southern white support, which helped elect Presidents Nixon, Reagan and both Bushes.

4. Today, every political map shows that Republicans dominate almost every rural county, Democrats almost every big-city.
   In most national elections, Republican win fewer total votes than Democrats, but because of Constitutional rules, often win more representation -- i.e., majorities in the US House of Representatives.

5. Truly conservative Republicans represent less than half -- maybe only a third -- of all Republicans, meaning less than 20% of all voters.
   So Conservatives can have a huge effect within the Republican party, but outside it, we'd have only slightly more clout than, say, Libertarians.

6. Finally remember, self-destruction of the Whig Party after 1850 was arguably an early step leading to increased radicalization of US politics, increasing 1850s Democrat political dominance, which produced Dred-Scott, the Republican back-lash, secession and Civil War.

And that is not the path we wish to chose.
Far better to win hearts & minds individual by individual, soul by soul, and turn the huge ship slowly, rather than crashing it on the rocks, in hopes that a few will make it to life boats.

So don't hope to make Republicans go the way of the Whigs.
It's not good politics, and could be disastrous for the nation.

[mazda77]

“It’s not good politics, and could be disastrous for the nation.”

Yea, everything is going along just swimmingly right now. I remember some sort of dribble coming from the stewards on the Titanic too. I see the current Republican Party sitting in their little life boat pumping sea water into the ship while it is going down.

I have my view, you have yours. Have a wonderful day.

[ScottinVA]

And plenty of them, like me, will actively vote against the GOPe candidate. I’ll be voting against McConnell.

No doubt.

[ScottinVA]

rather than crashing it on the rocks

It's already crashing on the rocks. GOP-e repubs are aiming for the throats of TEA Partiers and conservatives with far more intensity than they did vs. the democrats.

Time for a third party.

[Flintlock]

PLACE IN LINE????????

Just who the hell cares about ANYBODY’S place in “line”???

[BroJoeK]

ScottinVA: "Time for a third party."

A third party only guarantees a smaller minority than today's Republicans, thus locking-in perpetual political dominance of majority Democrats, and ever-expanding Federal big-government.

Politics is all about winning friends & influencing people, which can't happen when you're too busy angrily splitting apart your old political alliances.

That primary in Mississippi is not the first time political skullduggery has caused the better man to lose, and doubtless won't be the last.
As they say, politics ain't bean bags.
Still, you need political friends, and you really need to keep your disputes "in the family".

[Jabba the Nutt]

Any chance the election will be overturned due to fraud?

[Cboldt]

-- And that is not the path we wish to chose. --

So, why did the GOP choose that path? Methinks you are talking to the wrong audience, here. Party failures are assigned to the party. GOP losing credibility and popularity is a consequence of GOP decisions, actions, and communications.

[BroJoeK]

Cboldt: "So, why did the GOP choose that path?
Methinks you are talking to the wrong audience, here."

I'm talking to anyone who claims the country needs a "third party" or that Republicans should self-destruct like the old Whigs.

I'm not trying to defend Thad Cochran, the first Mississippi Republican elected since Reconstruction.
I don't know him, or the facts of behind this case.
Indeed, I'll be delighted if the election get thrown out for cheating.

But so far as I can tell, the Republican party itself has only done there what it always does -- tries to win elections.
And one thing I know about Mississippi politics is: all the old-timers like Chochran are former Democrats, which means they know how to think & act like Democrats, and for Democrats, anything goes.

How do you suppose Democrats first became the dominant party, and have kept dominance all these -- not just years, not just decades -- centuries! ?

Democrats don't let any legal niceties stand in their way to victory, and Cochran was a born Democrat, at heart.

Indeed, Democrats only lose big-time when their own Fire Eaters split their party apart (as in 1860), or when they so thoroughly screw things up (i.e., 1952, 1968, 1980) the country is willing to look elsewhere for leadership.
The best Republicans can do on our own, without Democrat "help", is squeak out the kind of victory we saw in the 2000 election.

Cboldt: "GOP losing credibility and popularity is a consequence of GOP decisions, actions, and communications."

Today the GOP stands on the verge of a historic election victory, if we don't screw it up.
The country is rightly sick of Barack, Harry, Nancy & and all their Dems, and is more than ready for new leadership.
All we have to do is provide it, and not shoot ourselves in political circular firing squads.

FRiend, my 92-year-old mother from North Carolina is a Tea Partier, and she has never voted for a Democrat in her long life.
So I say God bless her, and God bless the Tea Party, but don't think for a minute she would want a Tea Party running candidates against Republicans in a general election.

Please.

If you seriously, seriously want a "third party", then go join the Liberal/Progressive Democrats, and split away from them!.

That's the kind of Third Party any conservative could love.

[Cboldt]

-- I'm talking to anyone who claims the country needs a "third party" or that Republicans should self-destruct like the old Whigs. --

My point was that if the GOP goes down the drain, it is the GOP's fault. There is no sense of "should" in that, merely an assignment of blame if the party loses ground.

-- How do you suppose Democrats first became the dominant party, and have kept dominance all these -- not just years, not just decades -- centuries! ? --

By promising and delivering money from the public treasury, to its constituents. And it seems to me, the GOP is going down the same path. After all, that is how elections are won in political systems that adopt universal suffrage.

-- Today the GOP stands on the verge of a historic election victory, if we don't screw it up. --

Who is "we," kemosabe? Voters choose on the basis of self-interest, and the success of a party depends on the party's appeal to voters. The way I see it, when the GOP loses, it is the GOP's fault.

-- The country is rightly sick of Barack, Harry, Nancy & and all their Dems, and is more than ready for new leadership. --

I don't see the GOP supplying leadership, at this point. Just a watered-down flavor of "money for you, from the public treasury." Both parties are parties of solutions by the government.

I've voted all my life too, never for a DEM, and refuse to cast a ballot for Snowe, Collins, and a handful of other good-for-nothing GOP politicians. I find them to be incompetent, destructive, and dishonest. I will not, of my free will, help legitimize an out-of-control government by endorsing them or their likes.

In the Mississippi election, my order of preference in the general would be McDaniels, Childers, Cochran; and I wouldn't vote for Cochran. That order of preference, and refusal to support Cochran, is driven by the actions of Cochran and his support team. I'd much prefer them to act responsibly, but they choose not to.

[mazda77]

Did you ever notice just how the same tune gets played over and over and over again? Well the Republican Party is caught now in an Aichie Breakie Heart syndrome and people who keep dancing to their music are just another part of the problem.

Just how many Roosevelt Democrats do you see just voting over and over again for the Democrat because it is the only thing they know? Just as many who still had the capability for critical thinking, they noticed the Party left them and moved to the only alternative as did many politicians who did not want to wait in their line of ascendency. They saw a new opportunity by just changing their affiliation but did nothing about changing their ideology.

Just as we are seeing in Iraq and Syria, and soon to be Afghanistan, when there is a lack of leadership it creates a vacuum. Something will fill that vacuum whether it be from within or a new outside force moving in. What we are seeing is that Progressives have been moving in for quite some time and it is just this runoff that pulled the curtain down.

I am sick and tired of the Chicken Little excuse of the sky will fall if we don’t have Foghorn Leghorn to protect us. Foghorn only cares about himself and I think it is high time that defenders of the GOPe recognize that simple fact. Despite all their lofty promises and dire warnings if they are not elected, it always stays the same. To me, using your now lame Chicken Little warnings is nothing more than proving Einstein’s definition of insanity.

When the Republicans had the Executive, Senate and House, they spent like drunken sailors even with a 9 seat majority in the Senate. The next Congress it was 50/50 with the VP as the tie breaker. What did the Republican Leadership do? Trent Lott split the baby and continued to lead from behind and the spending continued. In 2006, the Republicans were thrown out of control of both houses because they just could not help themselves.

There is an old saying that the truth shall set you free, but most have no idea what the rest of it is. It follows with but at first it will drive you insane.

The main issue we have with the GOPe is that nobody is leading, period. So if we have to go outside of the box to find leaders, dammit, we are going to do it.

[RC one]

Eventually, the money will run out and then it’s a brand new deal.

[BroJoeK]

Cboldt: "My point was that if the GOP goes down the drain, it is the GOP's fault."

The GOP will not "go down the drain" unless somebody pushes it there, and the reasons are simple:

1. In every state, even the most liberal, you have big-city Big-Government machine Democrats in control of urban areas, with small-town, smaller-government Republicans in more rural areas.
   Doesn't matter if we're talking North, South, East or West, this pattern is consistent across the country, election after election.

2. So the political battle-ground is suburbia -- call them "soccer moms" or whatever -- they can be influenced, and will change their votes as they "feeeeel" the need.
   It's why, to cite one example: Bush Younger ran as "Compassionate Conservative".
   At the time, remember, we thought, "Oh, isn't that cute, 'compassionate', for goodness sake."
   Little did we grasp that "compassionate" is just dog-whistle language for "big-spending liberal".

3. You may remember, Bush went to the 2000 convention with 1,526 delegates, runner up was John McCain with 256, and after them came Steve Forbes with 10 and Gary Bauer with 2!.
   The others -- i.e., Pat Buchanan, Herman Cain, John Kasich -- all withdrew a year earlier.
   Point is: there were no serious conservatives in that race.
   So November's choice came down to Bush's "compassion" versus AlGore's stark raving lunacy.
   Soccer moms chose "compassion" and the rest, as they say, is history.

4. Remember too, we already have various "Third Parties", including Libertarians (1.2 million votes in 2012) and the Constitution Party (122,000 votes).
   But most voters understand they have no chance to win, and could easily cause the "lesser of two evils" to lose.

Cboldt: "By promising and delivering money from the public treasury, to its constituents.
And it seems to me, the GOP is going down the same path."

Republicans have never been the Conservative Party, for the simple reason, there aren't enough true conservatives nationwide to ever make a majority.
But Republicans have always been more conservative than Liberal/Progressive Democrats.
In national elections, conservative "third parties" (Libertarians, Constitutionalists) win about 1% of the popular vote.

If you wish to join the Libertarians or Constitutionalists, I'd say: go right ahead.
But no good can be accomplished by splitting Republicans into ever smaller minorities, thus guaranteeing Big-Government Democrats perpetual rule.

Cboldt: "The way I see it, when the GOP loses, it is the GOP's fault."

Well, of course, in a sense, though it's hard to see what "fault" Republicans have for losing, say, 93% of Black votes, or even 71% of Hispanic votes.

Cboldt: "Just a watered-down flavor of "money for you, from the public treasury."
Both parties are parties of solutions by the government."

Specifically, talking about Thad Cochran in Mississippi, sure.
He's a former Democrat, can think & act like Democrats.
But Republicans generally have always been more conservative than Democrats, and even more so since the 1960s.
Now, if you wish to be a "pure conservative", then you can join the political 1% who votes for Libertarian and Constitution Party candidates.

Cboldt: "In the Mississippi election, my order of preference in the general would be McDaniels, Childers, Cochran; and I wouldn't vote for Cochran."

Cochran's life-time ACU voting score is 79%, which puts him around mid-point amongst Republicans.
Cochran's 2013 ACU score is only 60%, which means he is slip-sliding away, but it's the same score as Mississippi's other Senator, Wicker, and better than Georgia's two Republican Senators, Chambliss & Isakson.

By stark contrast, the most "conservative" Democrat Senator, West Virginia's Manchin gets a 28% score from ACU -- the same as your own dearly beloved Republican Susan Collins. ;-)
So, one could well argue that between R-Collins and D-Manchin, there's no serious difference.

But there certainly is serious difference between, say, your Senator Collins (28%) and Mississippi Senator Cochran (60%).
And even bigger difference between Republican Cochran (60%) and a nearby Democrat like, say, Louisiana's Mary Landreu (12%).

So, I'd say anybody who'd throw away a 60%er in favor of a 12%er, should spend some quality time questioning their own sanity, FRiend.

[Cboldt]

-- The GOP will not "go down the drain" unless somebody pushes it there ... --

So, if somebody's personal life goes down the drain, because they are not responsible, etc., it's somebody else's fault? I'm not buying it. Nobody is pushing the GOP except the movers and shakers inside the GOP. If, by "somebody pushes it there," you mean the GOP pushing itself, I agree.

-- Republicans have never been the Conservative Party, for the simple reason, there aren't enough true conservatives nationwide to ever make a majority. --

Okay. But, if it isn't conservative and/or doesn't provide conservative representation, the GOP is insane to think it will earn a substantial number of votes from people who desire conservative representation.

-- I'd say anybody who'd throw away a 60%er in favor of a 12%er, should spend some quality time questioning their own sanity, FRiend. --

You are the one questioning my sanity. I don't question yours, I just see you (approximately) as an enemy. Not that I see you as a personal threat, just we don;t agree, and so what to that. I'll not count you as a friend, anyway.

[Night Hides Not]

You are the one questioning my sanity. I don't question yours, I just see you (approximately) as an enemy. Not that I see you as a personal threat, just we don;t agree, and so what to that. I'll not count you as a friend, anyway.

Quoting Otter (Animal House), "forget it, he's on a roll."