GOP Leaders Can’t See a Good Thing When They’ve Got It

I noted the other day an article in the Wall Street Journal by Naftali  BenDavid, with the headline: Tea-Party Activists Complicate Republican Comeback Strategy. As you might expect from the title, the piece comes out in the first para to complain:

The rise of conservative “tea party” activists around the country has created a dilemma for Republicans. They are breathing life into the party’s quest to regain power. But they’re also waging war on some candidates hand-picked by GOP leaders as the most likely to win.

No. They’re waging war on people running as Republicans, who aren’t. Of what advantage is having Republicans in office who don’t govern as such?

I dare to suggest to you that the Tea-Party folks aren’t making the process of getting Republicans elected harder, but easier. They’re not complicating the comback, the Tea-party people ARE the comeback that the GOP has been praying for. Thing is, the GOP leadership cannot see it. They’re still treating their own base as if it was the enemy. I wrote past March in a Pajamas Media article:

The reactions of the establishment and the establishment wannabes to such people as Sarah Palin, Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher, and other personalities within the party who appeal to the base have been remarkable. The criticism of Sarah and Joe was fairly mild by most political standards. But the message was clear: such people are in ill favor with the establishment.

Alas, the GOP leadership seems as bent on distancing themselves from the TeaParty types now, as they were from the Palins and Wurzelbacher’s of last March. I said then:

The suggestion by the elites is that those principles need to be ditched if Republicans want to regain power. The major critique is not whether they are effective spokesmen for the cause.

Sadly, what I’ve been seeing the last couple of days in a lot of the anti-grassroots traffic coming out of CPAC is that we’re about to repeat the history of the pre-Reagan years. Then, Republicans lost sight of their principles and ended up aping the Democrats in promoting the worst aspects of the welfare state.

I say now that this is exactly where we are. We still have a GOP more interested in getting itself elected by means of compromised principles, than they are in representing it’s rank and file. Donald Douglass pointed out recently, that

“Democrats have nothing to fear from today’s Republican Party leaders. That’s why Democrats have taken to targeting Rush Limbaugh and others who aren’t in formal leadership positions in the GOP but who forcefully articulate a conservative vision.” —

All of this is the logical conclusion of the Democrats and their politics of demonization.  Look at the reaction to anything even remotely Republican-value driven over the last twenty years are so.  Any news of the day involving any Republican was enough for the Democrats to call a press conference and complain how ‘evil/racist/sexist/anti-progress’ the Republicans were. On every occasion, such events were used to promote the left, and their point of view.  The GOP leadership is desperate to avoid such confrontations, and roll over and play dead every time somebody on the left two sides to complain.  After all, you don’t want to lose the center.  Or, do you?  Why on earth would you want to fight for the values you claim to espouse?

Let’s remember, dear reader, that way we lost the last election so badly, both to the conservative base and the supposed  middle,  who either sat on their hands in their disatisfaction, or crossed the road to vote for Obama, was that the GOP decided to compromise on their principles.  I don’t care WHO you are, or what you think. You don’t sway people in the long run if you’re willing to compromise your principles.  The GOP leadership has spent far too long doing just that, which is exactly why they’re in minority status today in the halls of government.

And let’s get this out there right now…. In that minority status is where they richly deserve to stay, if they don’t start dealing with the base as what it is…  the heart of the Republican party and it’s values.