For a political party that promulgates itself as constitutionalists and the party of principles, the recent election victories of Tea Party candidates has revealed its hypocritical underside that is earning the GOP the opportunist’s label. Witness the vociferous castigation of Tea Party candidate Christine O’Donnell following her surprising victory over long-time establishment candidate, Delaware Sen. Mike Castle.
Led by Washington insiders, Charles Krauthammer and Karl Rove, the Republican establishment reacted with astonishment and disdain as an unknown candidate of principles won out over an opportunistic but “electable” candidate with left-leaning tendencies. Citing William Buckley’s call to support the most electable conservative that can win the seat of power, these pundits are painting the real face of the Republican party as one of power over principle. Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan would not approve.
This raises the more disconcerting question as to whether or not the GOP is really capable of setting a new direction and governing the country out of its current free-fall. The GOP has yet to make amends for its pathetic use of its majority power during the Bush years when it traded away the country’s manufacturing superiority to China, expanded entitlements, increased the deficit, and nearly granted amnesty to 20 million illegal aliens.
Since then, there has been little to distinguish the policies of the Democrat party from the actions taken by a RINO-led GOP establishment. That is until recently, when the American electorate, disgusted with a completely rudderless Republican congress and administration, and anxious for any kind of change, stooped to elect the most liberal president the country has ever known. Now, it seems, the GOP has developed a backbone with its near-consensus obstruction of Obama’s liberal agenda. With that, hope sprang eternal – until now.
Completely ignoring the lessons of recent party desertions of RINO candidates such as Charlie Crist and Arlen Specter, the GOP put its support behind failed candidates such as Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, and Castle who were as likely to join the left-leaning RINO caucus of Sen. Olympia Snow and Susan Collins. These are the Senate votes that Obama looks to help him pass cap-and-trade and amnesty-based immigration reform, along with budget- busting spending bills.
How does the GOP expect to lead and govern when their “majority” is in name only? The American people, 60% of whom support the Tea Party movement, have sent a clear message to the GOP and that is that they are willing to remain the minority in Congress if it means getting unprincipled opportunists out of the Republican party.
The current election trends strongly indicate that, should the GOP establishment ignore the drum beats of its grass roots constituency, there will be a price to pay, and the trend is only getting stronger. If there is even an inkling of intelligence among them, they would know that the only path to power is through the people, and the people want only the real Republicans to please stand up.
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