Notwithstanding my disdain for liberal Republicans like Mike Castle and Lindsay Graham, Krauthammer writes an excellent article on the Buckley Rule regarding nominating candidates that can win against Democrats. It's impossible to be ideologically pure, so if you can have allies that are with you 70 or 80% of the time, you're still ahead when it comes to advance a big-tent agenda as Reagan did in the 1980's.
Krauthammer writes:
Of course Mike Castle is a liberal Republican. What do you expect from Delaware? A DeMint? Castle voted against Obamacare and the stimulus. Yes, he voted for cap-and-trade. That's batting .667. You'd rather have a Democrat who bats .000 and who might give the Democrats the 50th vote to control the Senate?
I'm concerned by the influence that Sarah Palin seems to have over the nomination process. Considering she ran with McCain who supported the bailout and immigration amnesty, she's hardly in a place to be determining who is the best candidate in each congressional, county clerk, and state rep race around the nation.
If the GOP is going to be an inclusive, big tent party, it's going to have to accept that it may have it's own "Blue Dog" caucus of moderate conservatives who might undermine various issues like abortion, immigration, and family values issues. However, those moderates will still be very likely to vote for reduced government spending, fiscal responsibility, and military strength as happened with Reagan.
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2 comments:
I agree with CK on the electability' issue and at first was quite upset with the ideologues for giving Castle the boot, because he wasn't pure enough.
Having had time to reflect on the matter I am no longer so sure of things. I'm not convinced that it was only or even primarily because he wasn't pure enough. I believe it might more be that he was not sufficiently fiscally conservative, and was not a reliable vote for a cut-off of the spending tap.
The fact that he has talked to Obama and Biden after his debacle but not people in his own Party says something about where he really belongs.
I don't have much use for the so-con wing of the conservative movement. I am essentially libertarian there. But fiscally --- I'm not sure that extremism in that area is not in fact not only a 'good thing' but a necessary thing. Things ARE out-of-control , and you can't get elected 9 times in Delaware by not liking to spend.
So while I don't think that Ms.O'Donnell is really a great candidate, at least she is what she is. I'm not sure what Mr. Castle is. I think that's why he lost. Others didn't know either.
Regarding the so-called big-tent, Rush said it best, "There is no tent."
The R's successfully disenfranchised the non-liberals from its ranks ages ago. The Tea Party wouldn't even exist if the R's hadn't been complete idiots.
This isn't an "attack" on the Republicans, it is a reclamation project.
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