Ronald Is Out
link The Fix – Christine ODonnell upsets Mike Castle in Delaware Senate primary.
And they thought conservatives were dull.
One of the major laments heard among voters in all countries, but especially so in the U.S. is, “they’re all the same anyway”. Well, something big has been happening down there for a while and the recent Delaware Senate primary is just the most recent indication of the change that appears to be taking place nationwide.
For Miss ODonnell to win in an upset over the long serving incumbent Mike Castle in Delaware is equivalent to voting out Ronald at McDonalds. Castle has been holding this senate seat for over four decades. Four decades. When he first came to office, cell phones were just some science fiction device seen on the Jetsons. Playboy was a racy magazine, The New York Times was a legitimate newspaper and the NBA had mostly white players. Like Charlie Rangel, when you’re in office for that long, you build up loyal allegiances, get lazy and probably lose touch with changing cultural and social trends. The fact that you get elected easily every term provides a sense of complacency in your outlook. It’s likely you will maintain relationships with those that kept you in office and probably alienating those not in this privileged circle.
It was fascinating to observe the response of Karl Rove, the sage guru of the GOP, both during the primary and post the election results. Clearly fuming over the loss by his long term pal, he was embarrassingly ungracious and petulant in his interviews on live TV. It’s as if he had suffered a personal attack. Dana Perino, normally a classy and articulate former White House spokesman, was equally visibly annoyed at the outcome of the primary.
The rationale given was that despite winning the primary, ODonnell will not likely beat the Democratic opponent in November. This is exactly the mindset that brought the Republican party grief in the first place. In the political racket, winning is the only goal. Compromises are made to many constituents to achieve and stay in power. What has happened to the GOP is that many long term members have morphed from their conservative values to essentially become the derisively labelled RINO’s, Republican In Name Only. Michael Bloomberg is a sterling example of this. What if you walked into an ice cream shop and they only had one flavour? When you order ice cream, you want chocolate or vanilla, you don’t want choconilla. The causes and issues pushed by the liberals have been embraced by weak Republicans just to maintain office. This is especially glaring on the principle of spending. The nonsense of Cap and Trade is but one recent glaring example. Slipperiness and flip flopping on issues are supposed to be Democratic hallmarks.
In fact, politicians have been all the same. The notion of standing for defined principles has become but a quaint relic of some idealistic past. It now appears that people want some change in that status quo. They don’t want more of the same.
Interestingly, the Dem camp are dancing with glee in Delaware because they assume that their guy will now cruise to victory in November. Maybe. But maybe Dem voters don’t want choconilla either.