In the wake of the primary elections that have been held thus far this year, the Other McCain provides discerning halftime analysis:
Democrat candidates can fake being conservative a lot easier than Republican candidates can escape the toxicity of that “R.”Notice, for example, that in the May 18 Arkansas primaries, the turnout on the Democratic side was more than 300,000 while the highly-contested GOP primary — with eight candidates — drew less than half that. In fact, Lincoln’s vote in Tuesday’s Democratic runoff (about 135,000) was nearly twice what John Boozman got (about 75,000) in the Republican primary.If Republican primary turnout is so low in Arkansas — not exactly a bastion of liberalism — it’s obvious the GOP still has a lot of work to do in order to rid itself of the toxic taint of Bushism.
And that’s why we have the Tea Party. The Tea Party is an easily recognized and accessible antidote for GOP establishment toxicity. Tea Party candidates are running against the nasty, corrupt, incompetent, and unprincipled Republican good ol' boy network.
Nikki Haley is as good an example as any other…when Tea Party principles are sincerely embraced, conservative Republicans can enjoy great success, even in the most toxic GOP environments. (Scott Brown reminds us that this is not just a "red state" phenomenon). And that's why the Tea Party scares people on both sides of the aisle.
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