The presidential primary race is quickly devolving into something worse than a farce. It’s rapidly becoming a self-destructing tragedy that may have repercussions far beyond November. For some reason – unfathomable to many of us in the cheap seats – Willard “Mittens” Romney is apparently the anointed titular heir to the mantle of such successful GOP candidates as Barry Goldwater (’64), Gerald Ford (’76), GWH Bush (’92), Bob Dole (’96), and John McCain (’08). Wow – they worked out so well for us, didn’t they?
Recent events seem to indicate that the conservative victories of 2010 made little or no impression on the GOP elite. I guess they thought the TEA Party was no more than a flash in the pan and Nixon’s old “Silent Majority” would just STFU and go away by now.
As the 2012 primary season continued through summer and fall, it was increasingly evident that the foot soldiers of the Republican Party were less than excited about a rerun of the 2008 “Also Ran Romney Show”. One “Not-Romney” candidate after another rose and fell: Bachmann, Perry, Cain. The only competitor that didn’t have his moment in the spotlight was Jon Huntsman – who could never convince the voters that he wasn’t really just Mittens Lite.
Enter the resurgent Newt Gingrich in Iowa and South Carollina. And the knives came out with all the ferocity of the Roman Senators against Julius Caesar. “Et tu, Brute” in spades! Talking heads, media mavens, conservative columnists, Congressional colleagues – all of them turned on Gingrich like a woman scorned. Oh, yeah, one of those too. Even John “I wouldn’t attack Obama on his lack of experience, his left-wing, violent, anti-American friends, or his narcissistic, socialist values” McCain, and the Good Rev. Mike “I never called Mitt dishonest” Huckabee have buried the blade and twisted it in a desperate attempt to preserve the predetermined outcome for their very bestest buddy in all the world – Willard Bain Romneycare.
And how have these Establishment Elites skewered Gingrich? By dragging out the Liberal Bible, Saul Alinsky Version, of course, which the left had used successfully against Newt almost twenty years ago. Sarah Palin described the tactics in her best-selling book, Going Rogue:
…One of the left’s favorite weapons is frivolous ethics complaints. That’s what they used to bring down the architect of the 1994 “Republican Revolutionâ€, Newt Gingrich.
Prior to the election of 1994, the Democrats had held a majority in the House of Representatives for nearly 4 decades. Working with a team of grassroots activists, Newt selected and trained candidates, shaped a political message, and became what [David] Horowitz called “something rare in Republican politics–a genuine movement leader.â€
To the left, that meant one thing: he had to be eliminated. There are many fine Democrat public servants, but sadly many in the party have moved increasingly left, and often the beating heart of their political warfare had been the personal distruction of their enemies. Generally speaking, after decades of failed social policies and weak national security positions, the party doesn’t have a strong base of success from which to win political arguments. So it targets people instead of ideas.
Back in the 1990s, Democrats had Newt in their sights. And strangely enough, the more influential he became, the more “unethical†he became–at least if you count the number of complaints filed against him. Horowitz wrote, “Eventually, Democrats lodged seventy-four separate charges against Gingrich, sixty-five were summarily ‘laughed out the committee’.
Over time the cloud of ethical questions hanging over Newt reached critical mass. Instead of defending their own, Republicans on certain committees forced Newt to concede one charge.
-Governor Palin in Going Rogue (page 363-364)
Since it worked so well for the Democrats back then, the mental midgets brilliant strategists in the Romney contingent have adopted the same tactics to assure Willard’s primary victory and – in all probability – his defeat in the general election. In their scorched-earth campaign to destroy Newt by any and every means possible – except having a healthy and honest debate about policies, ideas, records, and visions for the country (Which Romney would lose handily) – these Ivy League Entitlement Elites have sowed the seeds of destruction for the GOP by cementing it as the infamous cannibalistic Donner Party.
Governor Palin again summed up the situation perfectly on her recent FaceBook post when she wrote:
… [I]n South Carolina the Tea Party chose to get behind him [Newt] instead of the old guard’s choice. In response, the GOP establishment voices denounced South Carolinian voters with the same vitriol we usually see from the left when they spew hatred at everyday Americans “bitterly clinging†to their faith and their Second Amendment rights. The Tea Party was once again told to sit down and shut up and listen to the “wisdom†of their betters. We were reminded of the litany of Tea Party endorsed candidates in 2010 who didn’t win. Well, here’s a little newsflash to the establishment: without the Tea Party there would have been no historic 2010 victory at all.
…We truly need sudden and relentless reform in Washington to defend our republic, though it’s becoming clearer that the old guard wants anything but that. That is why we should all be concerned by the tactics employed by the establishment this week. We will not save our country by becoming like the left. And I question whether the GOP establishment would ever employ the same harsh tactics they used on Newt against Obama. I didn’t see it in 2008. Many of these same characters sat on their thumbs in ‘08 and let Obama escape unvetted. Oddly, they’re now using every available microscope and endoscope – along with rewriting history – in attempts to character assassinate anyone challenging their chosen one in their own party’s primary.
This full-out effort to destroy any competition to Romney may succeed in the short run when he has the money to outspend Newt and the rest of the GOP pack by 3 to 1, but when Obama and Axelrod, who will have even more millions than Willard can imagine playing with, bring out the giant proctoscope and shove it up Romney’s nether regions, it’s entirely possible that the ultimate outcome will be, shall we say, unsatisfactory?
The purpose of the primaries is to weed out the field and end up with the strongest candidate. What we are experiencing is nothing of that sort. What we are witnessing is nothing less than political cannibalism of the highest order. Unfortunately, the victor will not be the strongest candidate, but the slimiest, most self-serving SOB who comes to the party with knives and forks and a ready supply of barbecue sauce.
Donner Party, your table is ready. Table for one.
