Let me say, to begin with, that elections matter. From 2009 (the Doug Hoffman campaign in NY-23) through 2012, nobody argued more strenuously than I did about the importance of winning elections, and nobody covered campaigns with the kind of gonzo fanaticism that I brought to the gig. In the past couple of years, however, it has been very difficult to ignore the evidence that Republicans don’t want my support, and that the GOP Establishment in general is profoundly embarrassed to be associated with conservatives in any way.
What was done during the dishonest and brutal Mississippi primary was definitive in that regard. If ever conservatives needed an argument why they should stay home on Election Day, “Re-Elect Thad Cochran” was it.
The Republican Party reminds me of a Bible verse, which is to say it is “without form and void” (Genesis 1:2).
If the Republican Party were listed on the periodic table of elements, it would be in the right column, among the inert gases.
From the foregoing discussion, you can perhaps understand that I’m just quivering in anticipation at the prospect that Republicans might — just barely, maybe — capture a majority in the Senate on Nov. 4.
John Ekdahl at AOSHQ has a state-by-state breakdown, for those of you who experience spontaneous erection just thinking about the idea of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
See, here’s my problem: It’s not just that I remember all the recent backstabbing and sellouts by Mitch McConnell and his GOP Senate cronies, but I also remember the history of Republican Senate majorities under such paragons of conservative leadership as Bob Dole and Trent Lott. I remember how GOP leaders begged and groveled in their vain attempts to retain the “party loyalty” of such stalwarts of Republican principle as Jim Jeffords and Arlen Specter. And then I think one more time about that Mississippi primary, you see, and the way all these things keep adding up in my mind . . .
Well, maybe Mitch McConnell will be Senate Majority Leader next year. Maybe that gives you a raging boner, just thinking about it.
But speaking for myself, “Meh.”
They haven’t done a damned thing to suggest they even care whether I care or not. And I’m pretty sure I don’t care. Do you? Why?
[…] Read more here: The Election Thing […]
Kansas and Mississippi should make conservatives sick. McConnell is a tool. But even Ted Cruz is saying a majority matters. It hardly gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling, but it is a matter of degree of bad and it does hamstring Barry for his last two years.
I don’t care. We’re screwed.
Which is worse, ignorance or apathy?
Don’t know, don’t care!
Remember during the 2009-2010 period when the Republican house and Senate members were full of vim and vinegar, full of righteous outrage and indignation at what Obama and the massive majority Democratic legislature were doing to this Republic? Remember the anti-Obamacare rallies at the Capital? Remember House leader Boehner casting shame and opprobrium, he even swore a little, at the Democrats for the travesty they were inflicting on our nation the night the house voted for passage of the ACA? What happened to that outrage was it feigned, was it just a bit of theater for us rubes?
After having some time to ponder I’ve determined that all that outrage and indignation was indeed genuine. They just weren’t outraged for the reasons we were. For the majority of Republicans the outrage was that they were excluded from the process. They weren’t indignant that the federal government was taking of the nations healthcare system, they were indignant that they didn’t get a seat at the “stake holders” table when it was decided how the federal government would take over healthcare.
The best we can hope for from a Republican house, senate and White house is a repeat of the 2000-2008 Republican “Caligula” period. Maybe less spending than under Democrats but still higher spending. Under Bush we got more regulations than under Clinton. Is there any reason to believe a new Republican regime would be different?
Honestly, the main reason people will go to the polls this election is local politics and referendums that might hit voters in the pocketbook.
Multiple choice question: The Republican Establishment’s worst enemy is…
Much as I am loath to admit it, I and the rest of the insurgency do not pose the greatest threat to Establican power; that threat is embodied, rather, in people like Karl Rove and other Establicans.
I still care because we’re one supreme court justice away from losing the 2nd Amendment.
I care, but not as much as I could; precisely because the Mitch McConnells on the GOP don’t want anything from me except my money and my vote without having to do much, if anything, to earn them.
Still, any Republican is better than any Democrat. At least they can be reasoned with or sometimes intimidated into doing the right thing.
As bad as it is, they don’t have to worry about a Rockefeller heiress buying her ex-husband’s first re-election, and keeping a bad commedian in the Senate.
I understand how you feel. I have not lost all hope yet, but if you are going to go Galt, get ready for Hillary in 2016. What could go wrong.
But the democrats told me that Ted Cruz shut down the government all on his lonesome. So why do we need McConnell as majority leader?
Look, if you’re a Mississippi voter and decide to not vote for Cochran I get it.
But why should all of America suffer because of the actions of Cochran? Why does Harry Reid deserve control of the Senate to atone for Cochran?
This TruCon fantasy that Republicans losing means the GOP becomes more “Tea Part” is pure idiocy. If Republicans keep losing elections, they’re going to move more and more to the Left to appeal to voters.
The GOP will get a majority in the senate, even if it’s not huge, it’ll be enough to stop 0bama’s bad policies. and it’s mostly due to everyone finding out 0bama is a raging homo-marxist who has gay sex with union thugs, dogs, arabs, chris matthews, socialists, and communists. While worshiping his idol Karl Marx and spreading communism. and also because most voters have seen this video which pretty much sums up what the 0bama/dems/libs/arabs do to the country and themselves 24/7/365. *lol* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEEhvx4VfAs
There are two problems to fix for the Senate to be useful: 1. Money 2. Filibuster. Going back to state legislatures choosing Senators won’t solve #1, because the real problem is bootlicking, and slobbering the knobs of party apparatchiks is not any nobler than licking the bottoms of big pockets. #2 is solvable, except A. Tradition and B. Fear/greed of advantage. So, good luck on both.
The problem with the Republican Party is the same problem with the general electorate: too many people are low-info voters. It’s tempting to think all Republicans are conservatives, but that simply isn’t true. There are vast swaths of people who vote for candidates like Cochran…that’s why he keeps getting elected.
Republican control of the Senate is important for the same reason that Obama had to be re-elected: the people need to get burned before they open their eyes.
I hope Republicans win the Senate. I hope that McConnell governs wisely, but I don’t expect it. Quite the opposite.
I think the reality will be that the Statists will retain the majority in the US Senate.
We will have more Republicans in there than Dems, or at least an equal number. But the leadership will only change in name
But with more Republicans, why they could defund Obamacare! Woo hoo!
But you know they won’t even bring it to the floor for a vote.
They aren’t always better. If the establishment passes legislation that is liberal, then we get the bad law AND we get blamed for it. See Romneycare for an example of that.
For the counter-example, see Obamacare.
So? Who cares what Republicans do?
Obamacare is going to crash and burn. Insurers will be asking for their bailouts in the summer of 2015. If the GOP Senate hasn’t made it clear that they want it repealed before the crash comes, it will be clear evidence of their collusion.
It will never crash enough and burn enough to be shoved out of the way, though.
It has to be repealed.
If you see no difference between a Senate led by McConnell and the GOP and the current arrangement, there is little to say to you.
And nothing to be learned from you.
“They haven’t done a damned thing to suggest they even care whether I care or not. And I’m pretty sure I don’t care. Do you? Why?”
Because I haven’t fallen for the idea that Sen. McConnell is, or ever will be my leader. I don’t vote for Republicans because I want the Republicans to be in the Majority. I consider myself an American Patriot. I vote the way I think would most likely make my vision of a future America become a reality. And then I work pretty hard to make that reality come true through the tools I have elected.
And they ARE my tools. They, and the courts, are the tools we are given to make America become what we think it can be. Like any powerful tool they need to be guided, and if we walk away from them, they either thrash about and cause huge amounts of damage, or we allow the more persistent people to control them… whether they would do what I want has not proven to be a distinct possibility.
My most important job, and I think yours, Stacy… is to persuade as many Americans as possible to find their vision of America’s future, and work toward making it a reality. After our self-recognized obligations to God and Family, that is our most important job.
That is why I have, and forever will care, why I will vote, and why I will work hard to get the people I think should be in office elected.
That is why you will continue to expose the Left to the disinfectant of Sunlight. Not for Sen. McConnell, and not for the Republican Party, or even the T.E.A. movement.
In the end, we get the Governance we deserve. I can’t change Sen. McConnell, but I can help us deserve better than we have now… and when we do, people like McConnell will do what we think is right out of professional self-preservation if nothing else.
But not Thad. The Laws of Inertia show that he’ll always be a dick.
During Bob Dole’s presidential campaign, I saw a refrigerator magnet with a picture of Dole and the caption “Bob Dole for refrigerator magnet.” I thought it was hysterical and I ended up voting for the guy.
Amen.
All politics is local. The people of Kentucky are faced with a choice between a guy who embodies the Republican establishment and a woman who will claim to support the coal industry but will screw them the first chance she gets. Not much of choice but they can’t stay home.
I find it depressing how many conservatives are simply giving up. It did not work well for the Roman Empire.
Stacy, you gotta be a little pleased with Republican Elise Stefanik firmly ahead in that upstate New York district. That’s sort of revenge for you, with all that stuff that went on with Doug Hoffman years back.
No, I don’t think Obama has sex with dogs. That’s taking things a bit too far. The others you mention, well, perhaps?
In fairness Stacy, McConnell does have a pretty conservative voting record, in the 80s on ACU, NTU.
And you gotta admit, what O’Keefe has done to Alison Lundergan Grimes is outright hilarious.
They have given up because it clearly doesn’t matter what the public wants or what they vote for. That has been made abundantly clear.
So while I was voting Gillespie because Rubio threatened to run for President in 16 if GOP didn’t retake the Senate, I decided to go see him up close and personal and take the measure of the man. I am no fool of course, Gillespie is a US Chamber guy, he did talk about border security first (I don’t believe it). I do however believe in less regulation, less taxes and for the 100th time in my political life from both Party’s ENERGY INDEPENDENCE. He is a nice guy, of course I am sure Reids friends and idiot voters think he is a nice guy too.
I am going election day because I do like the candidate running for Congress, I spent a half hour talking to her at a home Party for her, never skipped a beat on answering my questions and lined up nicely with a majority of my positions.
I haven’t been enthusiastic since Cuccinelli so it is just a rote vote not a fired up one.
OK, so Senator McConnell isn’t the greatest thing since Calvin Coolidge; as a former, and eventually to be again, he’s still a lot better than Alison Grimes!
We cannot let better be the enemy of good. If Senator McConnell winds up the majority leader, there will be things we won’t like about him, but they sure as Hell won’t be as bad as the things we don’t like about the current majority leader and the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Your inability to distinguish between Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell is something you should have checked.
Sometimes we don’t keep them from being the Stupid Party.
So, the fix is to go along with it? You don’t seem to recall the “shut up and vote” for the nominee only runs one way. When a “centrist” establishment type wins a primary, folks like you take your ball and go home, party unity be damned.
McConnell doesn’t excite me at all. Nor do virtually all of the other 534 members of Congress. Congress needs a collective horse whipping, and I do not speak metaphorically.
But it’s the system that we have, and we have to work with that. So, suck it up, Stacy.
There’s always the added spice of watching Reid become immaterial, pretty much like Pelosi. Both of them gibbering on the sidelines will be a much needed comedic (although minor) relief.
Given what I see in the US, I think the country is under God’s judgment. The electorate is insane and ungodly. Ungodly people get the type of government they deserve – just what you see in DC at the moment.
Lest think this is a demo of despair, think again. I know God is still in charge and he knows what is going to happen in November and already knows what he will do. I am His, and He is my God, so I have nothing to worry about, even if things get just a bit dicey because the GOPe won’t do what it should.
Over the last 14 years we’ve pretty much failed at that. Make that the last 20.
He’s rated much lower by real conservative orgs. ACU’s ratings are much too high.
The best outcome is Grimes wins and the GOP still takes the Senate. McConnell isn’t worth the time of day.
Midterm elections are never about what the party coming into power is going to do, they’re about punishing the party in control:
Let’s worry about what the GOP is going to do with the House and Senate once the election is over.
Ask a question, get an answer … from today’s American Thinker: http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/10/be_careful_what_you_leave_democrats_alone_to_vote_for.html
The man has a point, a Harry Reid-led lame duck session after the 2016 election would be a thing to be feared.
And I’m pretty sure I don’t care. Do you? Why?
Why? Future generations. I have plenty of relatives that I honestly feel bad for, leaving a country in ruins to them after my baby boomer generation literally sucked it dry.
Why not? I’m counting down until I can tap the retirement and bug out. This is the last time I’ll be watching my low information neighbors elect an Al Franken. I’ll be getting the fluke out before it ever happens again. Hillary in 2016? Let me know how that works out for y’all as I’ll be comfortable in my tropical location, far far away.
Once you’ve made that decision, it all gets easier to take.
I’m surrounded by morons ready to go 60 or 65% for Al Franken. It doesn’t matter whether I give up or not. It only matters if I’m prepared to do what it takes to get by, knowing what’s coming.
Exactly.
And let us not forget that Grover ‘The Dhimmi’ Norquist is ACU.
I’d rather have a Democrat progressive than a Republican progressive. It’s a little early for the, “If you don’t, HILARY!” paranoia. They ran Romney last time. McCain the time before. The Republican Party is a joke.
Or no child left behind.
Indeed.
If only they (GOPe) did not fight the TP toe and nail in the primary and pretended that we did not exist but instead embraced their principles, they would have had the 2014 elections in the bag now instead of still fighting for dominance in several of the races.
That is why it boggles the mind why the GOPe is committing hara kiri by alienating their base.
Might be because they have become the Dem lite, doing their (Dem’s) bidding for now.