GUEST COLUMN
As you read the following most excellent column by Daniel Horowitz of the Madison Project, bear a couple of things in mind...
1.)
A similar unprecedented number of challenges to incumbent GOP state
legislators is taking place right here in Nevada - starting with primary
challenges to the GOP's legislative leaders, Senate Minority Leader Moderate Mike Roberson and Assembly Minority Leader Pat Hickey.
2.) Moderate, establishment Republicans such as Gov. Brian Sandoval (R&R-Partners), Roberson, Hickey, lieutenant governor candidate Mark Hutchison
and all manner of Gumby Republican legislators are now attempting to
"pull a Hatch" (see below). Just look at how they recently put out
statements slamming ObamaCare even though they've voted time and again
to implement the program.
3.) As Mr. Horowitz notes, it's not
not enough to simply cast an occasional convenient conservative vote.
Conservatives are looking for elected officials who will champion
conservative issues and actively and vocally fight for them - or,
conversely, actively and vocally fight against liberal legislation. (See: Ted Cruz/Rand Paul filibusters)
The
anti-GOP establishment insurgency we're seeing here in Nevada isn't
unique or unusual. Indeed, the conservative uprising is manifesting
itself all across the country. Bring on Conservageddon!
- Chuck
2014: The Year of the Primaries
by Daniel Horowitz
Next
year Republican primary voters will have an unprecedented number of
choices for whom to nominate to the United States Senate. There have
never been so many primary challenges against such high-level and
long-serving members of the Senate.
There are now primary
challenges in Kentucky, Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, South Carolina,
Kansas, and Wyoming. The challengers vary in degrees of viability,
competence, and skill. Not all of them have been endorsed by
conservative groups; not all of them necessarily will receive
endorsements. But all of these states are represented by entrenched
ruling class Republicans of yesteryear. They are also all states Mitt
Romney carried by a comfortable margin.
As such, irrespective of
the details of each individual challenge and challenger, conservatives
should celebrate the growth in election competition in itself. At the
core of our free market belief is that choice and competition perfects
the outcome of any product or service. Politicians are no different.
Senators
are elected for six-year terms, not lifetime appointments. Every six
years they need to stand before their constituents and vouch for their
record while explaining why they would be the best choice for a new
six-year term. When there is no competition in primaries, they feel no
need to improve or consider the concerns of their conservative
constituents. Primaries offer alternative candidates, and often, better
choices for the future. Again, this is something we should celebrate,
especially in conservative states.
Some media figures and
disgruntled Republicans are perplexed at the extent of the primary
challenges this year. Many of the apologists for the banal incumbents
point to legislative scorecards to express confusion over why their
candidates are insufficiently conservative. After all, they contend,
these senators don’t seem to fit the mold of the typical beleaguered
moderate-liberal incumbent like Arlen Specter.
Here are some
points we must all consider when examining the upcoming primaries,
especially in the context of the current crop of GOP senators:
• The Hatch Effect:
As Erick Erickson noted a few months ago, Orrin Hatch started a new
trend among the ruling class members. Recognizing the mistake of
moderates like Bob Bennett and Dick Lugar, Hatch ran all the way to the
right when he began to sense a credible primary threat. Last year, he
voted 100% with Mike Lee. This year he has voted for amnesty, ENDA,
funding Obamacare, debt ceiling increases, the Biden-McConnell tax
increases, and many of Obama’s liberal judges and executive appointees.
The
sad reality is that it worked for him, and now Senators McConnell,
Cornyn, and Roberts are trying to replicate the Hatch Effect. They
figured out how to pick the lock. Move all the way to the right as soon
as a primary challenge emerges and completely muddle the need for an
alternative. Then they can point to a scorecard showing them voting the
right way that year.
• Rebuilding the Majority with a Rotten Foundation:
Piggybacking off the last point, do we really want to trust the
primary-year foxhole conversions? Remember these are the same old bulls
who nearly destroyed the party during the Bush years until the Tea
Party saved the GOP. They were headed to a third wave election of
defeat before conservatives united the party behind a message of free
markets and anti-bailouts, eschewing years’ worth of bad messaging of
the party by some of these same members. Do we want to rebuild the
majority with these same members?
• The Paradox of Congressional Disapproval:
All political factions agree that Congress is corrupt, Washington is
broken, and members have a lower approval rating than used car
salesmen. Yet it is only the Tea Party that is actually willing to do
something about it. It’s amazing how everyone agrees that Congress is
hated, but whenever we promote a challenge to a sitting member, the
media looks at us like we are from Mars. They make fun out of our
citizen legislator style candidates. Well, how are we going to change
Washington if we continue to rubber-stamp another 6 years for every
incumbent if they are not made to fear competition?
• A Voice, not Just a Pandering Vote:
Even the foxhole conversion into voting conservative is incomplete and
inadequate. We need elected Republicans who will give voice to
conservatives and fight back against the left, not those who will
surrender the war but make sure to cast a conservative vote in order to
protect themselves back home.
Yes, John Cornyn voted against the
amnesty bill on the final vote. But he voted for it in committee, and
after conservatives almost killed it on the floor, he revived it with
his phony amendment, which gave rise to the contours of the final deal.
Obviously, given that he was personally on the fence with this issue,
he certainly did not whip up opposition to the bill. Ditto for Mitch
McConnell.
Moreover, no scorecard could ever encapsulate the
degree of damage they did when they gave Harry Reid 60 votes to fund
Obamacare, and publicly stood with Democrats against conservatives to
sabotage the only legitimate fight against Obamacare.
Similarly,
it is nice to see Pat Roberts support the defund effort once he got a
primary challenger (after opposing it a few weeks prior during a
townhall event). It is also nice to see him call for Kathleen Sebelius
to resign. However, he was the individual who foisted her upon the
country when he gave the home-state endorsement in 2009. We need
articulate voices who will fight battles, not those who will ensure we
lose the battles, albeit without their personal fingerprints on the
concession during primary elections.
It’s important to remember
that some of these incumbents are not liberals, or even moderates. But
they are not conservatives either. They are ruling class of special
interest career politicians who pursue personal power as an ends to
itself. When it suits their need to cast some conservative votes, they
will do so. But when they need to placate the special interests, they
will jump in head first. They certainly will never put their careers on
the line to fight for us.
When Republicans win back all branches
of government and revert to their natural tendencies, just remember
that you had a number of choices when it really mattered.
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