The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Politics Is Attrition Warfare

Posted on | August 27, 2010 | 17 Comments

by Smitty

[Updated: fix date flub]
Finley Peter Dunne famously noted that “politics ain’t beanbag”. Frequently, it boils down to stamina and reinforcements. Whoever remains standing when the resources are exhausted is the winner. The principles involved in the question may or may not matter. How many times have you seen a politician on a network completely ignore an important, but inconvenient question?

The NY-23 election earlyier this last year remains a case study in how a rotten establishment can outlast and possibly circumvent the will of the people. I say possibly, because the Tea Party hasn’t fully steeped. Sam Foster calls the GOP unrepentant for how they are failing to support Doug Hoffman:

. . .Mr. Sickler came up with two important reasons for backing Matt Doheny. He felt that Doheny was the more rounded candidate. More importantly, he and his contemporaries still harbored a grudge against Doug Hoffman for having bucked Scozzafava’s coronation. The local kingmakers desired a more…loyal candidate.

If Republicans are looking for a loyalist, then Doheny is their Manchurian Candidate in disguise. He proved himself to be quite the party lapdog by going along with the candidacy of Dede Scozzafava and financially supporting her election bid with the highest donation allowed by law. Stepping even further, he turned down the chance to run on the Conservative Party ticket ahead of Doug Hoffman, sacrificing his so-called conservative ideals in exchange for not “alienating the Republican Party.”

Here is the point, and I think this generalizes beyond NY-23 to the rest of the country: the GOP won’t take the Tea Party seriously until the Tea Party is the GOP.

Anyone can get a blog, vent the spleen, gather a cohort, make some signs, heap verbal abuse upon officials, go home, and fume because they have been ignored. The Left’s strategy has first and foremost been to ignore and minimize Tea Parties, moving on to slander and marginalization as a secondary tactic. Hoffman’s cold shoulder experience in NY-23 is similar to DeVore in California, and Miller in Alaska.

So, while I met Doug Hoffman at CPAC this year, admire his courage, and support his candidacy, the sad play-by-play laid out in Foster’s article is unsurprising in every particular. Not only is politics attrition warfare, citizenship is not a spectator sport. The current crisis has been bred by lack of participation by a vast chunk of the electorate. Including me.

Get off the beanbag and support your local version of Doug Hoffman, or your sins of omission will result in a pocket-picking, and you’ll be at fault.

Category: New York, Politics

Comments

17 Responses to “Politics Is Attrition Warfare”

  1. Smitty nails it…as does SISU « Da Techguy's Blog
    August 27th, 2010 @ 8:59 am

    […] gop, joe miller, NRCC, politics, reality, republicans, tea party 0 In this post concerning the tea parties and the GOP: Here is the point, and I think this generalizes beyond NY-23 to the rest of the country: the GOP […]

  2. Bob Belvedere
    August 27th, 2010 @ 1:09 pm

    WOLVERINES!

  3. Bob Belvedere
    August 27th, 2010 @ 9:09 am

    WOLVERINES!

  4. Steven
    August 27th, 2010 @ 1:37 pm

    “..citizenship is not a spectator sport…”

    Amen.

    So if you truly want to honor the service of those fighting overseas, do your part to support and defend the Constitution at home.

  5. Steven
    August 27th, 2010 @ 1:37 pm

    “..citizenship is not a spectator sport…”

    Amen.

    So if you truly want to honor the service of those fighting overseas, do your part to support and defend the Constitution at home.

  6. Steven
    August 27th, 2010 @ 9:37 am

    “..citizenship is not a spectator sport…”

    Amen.

    So if you truly want to honor the service of those fighting overseas, do your part to support and defend the Constitution at home.

  7. A Possible Way Forward for TEA Parties and Others « Ric's Rulez
    August 27th, 2010 @ 12:06 pm

    […] August 2010 in Modest Proposals, Topical The political establishment has closed ranks, most notably in the Republican Party but (perhaps less in-your-face) among Democrats as well. The […]

  8. Russ
    August 27th, 2010 @ 4:54 pm

    “The Left’s strategy has first and foremost been to ignore and minimize Tea Parties, moving on to slander and marginalization as a secondary tactic.”

    Which, coincidentally, is the same as the Establishment GOP’s strategy.

  9. Russ
    August 27th, 2010 @ 12:54 pm

    “The Left’s strategy has first and foremost been to ignore and minimize Tea Parties, moving on to slander and marginalization as a secondary tactic.”

    Which, coincidentally, is the same as the Establishment GOP’s strategy.

  10. Adobe Walls
    August 27th, 2010 @ 7:27 pm

    We didn’t really expect everyone to get it the first go round did we?

  11. Adobe Walls
    August 27th, 2010 @ 7:27 pm

    We didn’t really expect everyone to get it the first go round did we?

  12. Adobe Walls
    August 27th, 2010 @ 3:27 pm

    We didn’t really expect everyone to get it the first go round did we?

  13. Estragon
    August 27th, 2010 @ 8:32 pm

    Sam Foster isn’t all that prescient, is he?

    I mean, I kept expecting to find some RNC or RCCC fingerprints in there somewhere, but all he has is the same old NY-23 GOP establishment. The same people who gave us Dede in the first place. The same people whom Hoffman showed up.

    Just how stupid and ignorant of human nature does someone have to be to expect them to embrace Hoffman after that? This has NOTHING to do with the “GOP Establishment” nationally or even statewide in NY, it has NOTHING to do with the national party groups bucking the Tea Party candidates or anything remotely like that. This is personal animosity at the local level, nothing more.

    Of course, when the paranoid lunatic fringe wishes to promote their “‘us’ vs ‘them'” conspiracy theories, actual facts get in the way of the meme and must be discarded.

  14. Estragon
    August 27th, 2010 @ 4:32 pm

    Sam Foster isn’t all that prescient, is he?

    I mean, I kept expecting to find some RNC or RCCC fingerprints in there somewhere, but all he has is the same old NY-23 GOP establishment. The same people who gave us Dede in the first place. The same people whom Hoffman showed up.

    Just how stupid and ignorant of human nature does someone have to be to expect them to embrace Hoffman after that? This has NOTHING to do with the “GOP Establishment” nationally or even statewide in NY, it has NOTHING to do with the national party groups bucking the Tea Party candidates or anything remotely like that. This is personal animosity at the local level, nothing more.

    Of course, when the paranoid lunatic fringe wishes to promote their “‘us’ vs ‘them'” conspiracy theories, actual facts get in the way of the meme and must be discarded.

  15. LBascom
    August 27th, 2010 @ 8:35 pm

    “Hoffman’s cold shoulder experience in NY-23 is similar to DeVore in California, and Miller in Alaska”

    I would quibble a little with this Ric. Not the heart of the thing, I just wouldn’t want anyone to forget that Whiteman (DeVores opponent)spent $80,000,000 of her own money to win the frigg’in primary. How much more she spends for the general, who knows?

  16. LBascom
    August 27th, 2010 @ 4:35 pm

    “Hoffman’s cold shoulder experience in NY-23 is similar to DeVore in California, and Miller in Alaska”

    I would quibble a little with this Ric. Not the heart of the thing, I just wouldn’t want anyone to forget that Whiteman (DeVores opponent)spent $80,000,000 of her own money to win the frigg’in primary. How much more she spends for the general, who knows?

  17. Bloggers Surprised GOP Under-reacting To Unproven Tea Party Commitment To Long-Term Agend–Oh. . .Shiny! : The Other McCain
    September 5th, 2010 @ 12:42 pm

    […] at large. Yes, polls are trending this direction, which brings me to my next point.Third, Politics is attrition warfare. We can state, with decreasing certainty, the following points:The election in two months will […]