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Ann Coulter has a tendency to be alarmist. And she tends to
rhetorical overreach.
The result is: people read her columns and books. They pay
attention to her ideas. Often they form strong opinions about her views, but if
that’s what it takes to become a celebrity intellectual, that’s what it takes.
In her column today, Coulter calls out the Republican Party
for failing in its most important task: winning elections. She might have been
doing a postmortem on the debacle of 2012, but she is aiming directly at this
year’s Senate races.
She writes:
When it
comes to politics, conservatives need to learn one thing from liberals: All
that matters is winning.
Or, as it says in the Bible:
Render
unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; render unto God the things that are
God’s.
Different arenas have different rules. Different arenas have
different kinds of success.
You do not get involved in politics to demonstrate your
superior virtue. You do not run for office in order to make a point. A noble
defeat is still a defeat.
What are the Democrats doing right? First, Coulter says, not
a single incumbent Democrat faced a primary challenge this year:
(Take a
moment to notice something, Republicans: No incumbent Democrat had to deal with
a primary challenger this year. That's one reason why Democrats win more
elections than their insane ideas would seem to dictate. Liberals understand
that you can't do anything if you don't win, so Democrats don't stage primary
fights against other Democrats.)
Republican candidates have been forced to expend rhetorical ammunition
attacking other Republicans. The 2012 Republican presidential candidates were a
case in point. Or better, a disgrace in point. Mitt Romney, who excelled at
assaulting his fellow Republicans in candidate debates turned weak-kneed when
it came time to criticize Barack Obama.
Coulter continues to identify the danger lurking in
Libertarian candidates, the ones who are most likely to siphon off Republican
votes:
The
biggest current danger for Republicans is that idiots will vote for Libertarian
candidates in do-or-die Senate elections, including Kentucky, Kansas, North
Carolina and Colorado. (That's in addition to the "Independent" in
Kansas who's a Democrat.) Democratic candidates don't have to put up with this
crap -- they're even trying to dump the official Democrat in Kansas to give the
stealth Democrat a better shot.
When
we're all dying from lack of health care across the United States of Mexico,
we'll be deeply impressed with your integrity, libertarians.
Libertarians like to think of themselves as too pure,
possessing too much integrity, too much love of freedom to dirty themselves
with raw political calculation.
Extremism, even in the pursuit of liberty, is a vice.
Especially when it discredits your candidacy and your party and drives voters
into the welcoming arms of the opposition.
The result: some Libertarians are making the Republican Party
look like a house divided against itself. They need to learn to put party above ideology.
Or, as the Bible says:
Every
kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or
house divided against itself shall not stand:
4 comments:
Sir, I submit that both libertarians and conservatives HAVE BEEN "putting party above ideology" for some time. It's gotten us Lindsey Graham, John Boehner, John McCain and Mitt Romney--all of whom are even worse than the Dems, because at least the Dems are patently obvious about what they stand for, crazy or not.
We're not doing it any more. For many reasons, not the least of which is that we've realized we aren't going to vote our way out of this. The United States of America is no more. The Constitution is null and void. The current government, in their blatant disregard of the very rules that outline their role, now has as much legal legitimacy as the Mafia.
"We can't do anything if we don't win?" These people won't do anything if they DO win. The crash and burn of the Great 2010 Republican Uprising should have told you that. It's a blatantly obvious dog-and-pony show, and I, quite frankly, could not possibly care less about it any more.
They are all in it together. They want you to keep thinking this is about Left vs. Right, R vs. D, Lib vs. Con. It isn't. It's about Liberty vs. Tyranny, and damn near everyone in politics today is on the wrong side of that fight, regardless of the letter in front of their names.
You're obviously an intelligent man, Mr. Schneiderman. How can you keep falling for the same old ploy? Whether Lucy's last name is Boehner or Reid, she's never going to let you kick that football.
The Democrats do seem to be avoiding challengers from the left, however disappointed left-voters are for what they're getting.
I'll agree with Libertarians as being extreme on their pursuit of liberty above all else. Given the tea party candidates are the ones causing trouble, I hadn't completely connected them as libertarians.
But the strong ideology I'd identify is economic - between the main stream Keynesians (independent of left/right) versus Hayek, or Austrian School.
Minnesota Republicans ran a High school economics teacher, Kurt Bills for U.S. Senate in 2012, and barely toped 30% of the vote, and he focused intensely on economics, but voters didn't buy it. I guess he'd also fit in with the Ron Paul libertarians.
I can see if you have an ideology that you're sure is right, AND you see the current system as doomed, then you're willing to be patient, and see the more chaotic our economic system is, the more people in the future will be desperate for any alternative, so maybe 30% is all you can get in a state election, but the important thing is to get your message out for that fateful day of destiny.
So by that logic, the libertarians ought to "stay pure" and let the republicans lose (for being borrow-and-spend candidates as bad as the democrats anyway), and if that means the Democrats win, its no different.
And really, the left has just as many rebels who will break rank if the Democrats gained too much power, and still failed to implement core ideas of the left. So the Socialists, Greens, Feminists, and Social Justice voters, they're just itching to help the Democrats lose if they fail to deliver.
Myself, I probably vote third party more than not, being a long time member of the Minnesota Independence Party, social liberal, fiscal conservative, and we're not having much luck now, but at least we can help pull discussion of the fake wedge issues of the left and right.
Ann Coulter is apparently a true conservative, at least in her mind, and sees real pragmatic compromise the Republicans would be willing to make with the Democrats, after she gains the House, Senate, and Presidency and doesn't need to compromise any more.
Coulter’s judgment this summer has been horrible. See “Ann Coulter Screws Up Again” at http://t.co/IfJD3YVG3o.
See also Never Trust Ann Coulter – at ANY Age, at www.coulterwatch.com/never.pdf.
"Libertarians are making the Republican Party look like a house divided against itself."
Libertarians are virtuous, principled, and high-minded. And they don't volunteer... they're too busy at book clubs and pot parties.
The thing that everyone forgets is that every political party lives off its volunteers. If the Democrats lost their union base, public school teachers and AFSCME hordes, they'd be screwed. Since the Reagan coalition came together, the Republican Party's volunteers have been religious conservatives. And religious conservatives haven't gotten anything meaningful in return for their support. Lots of window dressing on "throw 'me a bone" peripheral social issues. Sure, it's enough to get the Lefty media riled-up, but it isn't changing hard policy decisions. So the David Souters and Anthony Kennedys get appointed to the bench, and Republican politicians can still maintain their respectability at D.C. social functions, not having to worry about being labeled an "evangelical crazy."
Of course Libertarians are held in high regard for their principled opinions. After all, they never win anything, acting as spoilers and hand-washers as the Constitution they supposedly adore is ripped to shreds by Obama, Pelosi and Reid. When was the last time a Leftist seriously worried about a Libertarian? Maybe at a highbrow poetry party when they thought they'd be cheated out of the last drag off a joint.
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