The Other McCain

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

Spewing Forth The Lukewarm GOP

Posted on | February 22, 2014 | 53 Comments

by Smitty

We don’t really have explicit proof that John McCain threw the 2008 election, like Butch Coolidge was supposed to do in Pulp Fiction. I’m sure McCain must’ve felt a little sting at some point, but the old chap is far beyond pride.

The 2010 Tea Party uprising seems to have caught the GOP by surprise. The GOP leadership’s body language to the base seems to be: “Shut up and get back to manning the oars; navigation input from the rowers is neither necessary, nor desired.”

Thus we saw no significant rallies in 2011, and 2012 was a reversion to McCain form. Again, I’ll fall short of explicitly saying that Mitt Romney himself deliberately wasted everyone’s time. But if BHO gets to own the demise of Ambassador Stevens, then Mitt owns the failure of his campaign. Why might these failures be occurring?

For starters, Daily Pundit chides Stephen Green over being willing to vote for Zombie Nixon over Udall, pointing out that, on the issues, the two are about as distinguishable as chicken-fried steak and schnitzel:

Sure, some elections matter, but what matters even more is why we are electing people, and what they do after we elect them. If, as is the case with Udall and Nixon, the party label is a distinction without a difference, then advising people to crawl over broken glass to vote for one or the other may result in a lot of eviscerated voters, but no material changes.

On a related note, we have Joan of Argghh’s feedback to Sowell on Ted Cruz, where the normally awesome Thomas “expresses concern” over Cruz’s popularity, and Joan responds:

As if we on the Right are no better at evaluating an ideal from reality than the mascots of the Left. I take strong exception to that aspersion. I’m listening to Ted Cruz and find him interesting in that he seems to know what it will take to grab attention in a Media stronghold, not that his ideas leave me breathless. He has moxie and he has solid values and he’s unafraid. Will he be a good leader if given the chance? Ah, there’s the rub.

Now, I’m as reasonable as the next person, even willing to be shown a better way, but if Mr. Sowell is asking me to seriously consider the possibility that Ted Cruz is promising me things that appeal to the same crass envy that Obama gleefully cultivates in his own followers I must scratch my head and wonder if his disconnect with his own supporters can be so vast. It may simply be an emotional ploy, wrought by an old man’s fears. If so, I share them and sympathize. But either way, it’s obvious that the GOP hit squad is starting early with the Palinization of Ted Cruz. Instead of being cast as an air-head, they’ll demonize him as dangerous to their plans. Those “plans” that will work this time, they swear!

Over here at the navigation plot, I can tell you that our current Progressive course is breeding collapse. Herbert Stein is kicking in. If the Vichy GOP have some kind of reform plan, they need to circulate it STAT!

Karl Rove and the High Priests of Progress are already trying to circulate dead fish such as Chris Christie and Jeb Bush. If the goal is to serve up a third un-inspirational piece of work, to complete some sort of Tri-f**kta of Fail, then we need only listen to what the Really Smart Guys and the codpiece media are saying.

And I’m not trying to sound like some kind of Cruz sycophant. It is entirely possible that, for all he seems a guy sticking to his principles, his soul could be devoured by Cthulhu. Truly, we need adherence to principles, not hero worship. It is not enough that Ted be Cruz; we all need to be our own variations on Ted Cruz.

But the broader point here isn’t about Ted Cruz. Rather, that the vacuum left at the top of the GOP by the lack of leadership like that of Cruz is truly devastating. You can love or hate McConnell and Boehner all day long, but if you took them both to court, you could not convict them of having any vision. They’re both just caretakers of the Progressive regulatory State, here to make sure that we’re only buried in 9,000 pages of new regulations, instead of the Democrat’s full 10,000.

Dump that noise. It’s high time for reform.

Update: Hot Air’s quotes of the day post is timely:

Notwithstanding the Republican establishment’s campaign to marginalize them as what the Journal obligingly labels a “rump kamikaze caucus,” their ranks are swelling. Without them, the Republicans would not have recaptured the House in 2010. Increasingly, they mount primary challenges against Beltway relics. They don’t win all the time, but they win quite a few — like long-shot Ted Cruz’s stunning primary rout over the party’s preferred candidate. And there is a more serious danger for GOP leadership: The conservative base increasingly wears the establishment’s disdain as a badge of honor.

Beltway Republicans do not seem to grasp how ominous this is.

We’ve trusted the GOP’s words, and will now set about using those words on the GOP elite as a suppository.

So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

Category: GOP

Comments

53 Responses to “Spewing Forth The Lukewarm GOP”

  1. Bob Belvedere
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 6:33 pm

    She conducted herself with Honor and did her Duty. And I think you are spot-on.

  2. The State Of The GOP Union… | The Camp Of The Saints
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 7:11 pm

    […] …as delivered by retired Admiral Of The Afghan Seas Smitty: […]

  3. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    February 24th, 2014 @ 3:21 am

    I hope you are right. I would gladly support Ted Cruz.