Tea party forces are confronting the Republican establishment by backing insurgent conservatives and generating their own candidates — even if it means taking on GOP incumbents.
Music to my ears. John McCain showed us exactly where this country will go if the GOP continues to promote watered-down Democrats.
In Florida, where the national party has signaled its preference for centrist Gov. Charlie Crist in the GOP Senate primary, tea party activists are lining up behind former state House Speaker Marco Rubio in reaction to Crist’s public backing for President Barack Obama’s stimulus package.
And Marco Rubio has made quite an impression on ardent conservatives. George Will, the prognosticator of all prognosticators, has stopped just short of declaring Rubio the victor:
Rubio intends to prove that "in the most important swing state, you can run successfully as a principled conservative." He probably will.
As I watch Rubio build momentum, I find it hard to disagree.
Tea party organizers say their resistance to Republican Party-backed primary candidates has much to do with what they perceive as the GOP’s stubborn insistence on embracing candidates who don’t abide by a small government, anti-tax conservative philosophy.
Perception has nothing to do with it. The polls and the election results speak volumes. The GOP didn't just abandon the conservative base, the GOP abandoned the electorate. If it gets any worse, the Republican party will be irrelevant.
In a handful of states, tea party activists have zeroed in on House Republican incumbents and have launched primary challenges in protest of their past support for the controversial Wall Street bank bailout.
This strategy will save the GOP, and that will, in turn, save conservatism. The GOP can only survive if it is in tune with the values of this center-right nation. Conservatism can only survive if conservatives infiltrate the Republican party and eschew defeatist attitudes and third party impulses.
