Ken Cuccinelli will lose in Virginia because he’s been seriously outspent by a Left that understands the power of perception, and seriously undersold by an establishment “right” that understands the same thing.
Throw in a “libertarian” candidate who doesn’t have the support of either Ron or Rand Paul, a guy who supports increasing gas taxes, is for a per-mile tax on driving (which would necessarily involve governmental tracking), etc, to take votes from the conservative (the Pauls have noted that Cuccinelli would be the most libertarian — read, classical liberal — governor in the country were he elected), and who has earned the endorsement of uber libertarian Jennifer Rubin, and it’s a perfect storm of fraud, deception, and money purchasing power.
The rhetorical ground is already being set, with these two races its supposed proofs: look at how well Chris Christie did in a blue state! Look at how Cuccineli’s extremism lost us Virginia!
I sincerely hope Cuccinelli can pull it off. But I think the deck has been very intentionally stacked against him.
It’s time we understood a simple truth: Every political battle now is an attack on the TEA Party by the status quo ruling class. And that’s because the TEA Party is the last barrier to the surrender of individual sovereignty and the permanence of big government statism favored by crony capitalists, corporatists, and liberal fascists.
It isn’t paranoia when they really are out to get you.
I’ll make a bold statement too.
What is now known as the TEA party, and the enemies they face within and without the Republican party along with the common attacks visited upon us, is nothing new.
For a time roughly encompassing the Bush (jr& sr) years, we were known as social conservatives, and before that, responsible for the Reagan revolution, the Moral Majority. All three manifestations assaulted on the same basic grounds.
The element tying them together is an emphasis on bottom up self governance, as opposed to top down solutions to every problem, real or conceived.
Again I’ll bring up the Adam’s quote, our constitution being wholly inadequate for an immoral and irreligious people.
Unless and until we can recapture the imagination of the culture, planning political tactics and strategy is purely academic at best. Realistically, it is more likely merely feeding the propaganda machine of the left, centering all recourse on political/government action.
What we have here is a never ending positive feedback loop, as JHoward used to preach, where even when we win the political fight, we lose, because it’s a government solution trying to fix cultural problems.
We can and should try and replace every fucking incumbent up for election this cycle, but I personally won’t do a minute of celebration until I see government actually start contracting. Defunding Obamacare isn’t nearly enough. There will be no reason to celebrate until the debt starts to actually go DOWN, and whole bureaucracies are dissolved, starting with the Dept. of Ed.
This will only happen when people stop looking for big government to fix things, and take it upon themselves, their families, the church, and the community to do it instead.
I was pretty sure that Cuccinelli was toast a couple of months ago when one of the National Romney Online squishes (I think it was Geraghty) wrote a long post to the effect that if such a “severely” conservative knuckle-dragging wingnut like Cuccinelli couldn’t get elected then it’s going to prove to you hobbits out there that everybody thinks you’re crazy and you’ll just need to shut up and get behind the kinds of candidates that Jennifer Rubin can support. It didn’t seem at the time that NRO would go out on a limb and say that so early unless they were pretty convinced that Cuccinelli was going to lose. Given that NRO was trying to paint the guy as some tea party type too, it even had me wondering whether the Cucc in fact was proving to be another Romney-style technocrat that nobody was the least bit excited about supporting. I don’t know enough about Virginia politics to know the story there, but to your point about laying the groundwork I’ll remind everyone about this old NRO post to verify that they’ve been laying that groundwork for months now.
Isn’t Terry McAuliffe currently under investigation by the SEC and FEC for his dealings with the now defunct solar company in Mississippi? How is he even eligible for a governorship?
None of that means he won’t win, of course.
He is. Nobody knows. Or cares. Because he has Obama and Clinton stumping for him.
He’s a former DNC fundraising chair. He wants to raise taxes and push gun control. And all the government types who’ve settled into cushy homes in VA are going to vote for him.
Locusts.
Jen Rubin has a point here:
***
The state Republican Party made the decision to hold a nominating convention with 5,000 of the most hardcore Republicans rather than have an open primary. As a result, the more moderate Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling dropped out of the race, handing the nomination to Cuccinelli. The insularity of the state insiders is driving the state party over the cliff. After November there is likely to be a Democratic governor and lieutenant governor joining the two Democratic U.S. senators. The message to state GOP insiders – namely, that fiscal conservatives have other options (e.g. Sarvis) and that closed conventions are ineffective in selecting candidates who can win in the general election — is best delivered by providing Sarvis with a healthy vote total.
***
so going into the election virginians don’t even know if this cucinelli person could have won a primary
that’s a weird way to go about things
Lee —
I wrote on that a long while ago. Although in a more positive vein. To revisit it, here you go.
She has no point. Cuccinelli was the AG of VA. He was one of the first to take on (and beat) Obamacare in court.
For Rubin to talk about insularity is irony gone full blown. Open primaries give us Lindsay Graham and other fucking useless bits of constantly re-elected shit. If we lose here, it will be partially because they GOP establishment very much wants conservatives to lose. Sarvis is a moderate pretending to be a libertarian. The GOP elite hate that they can’t control who gets nominated.
Again, you may be at the wrong site if that kind of bullshit works on you.
it will be partially because they GOP establishment very much wants conservatives to lose
I don’t get that
the GOP establishment are the people what hand-selected this guy
voters didn’t nominate this person, a bunch of insiders did
Rubin is an idiot. She proves it time and again in her “conservative” column in the WaPo.
“the GOP establishment are the people what hand-selected this guy ”
I’m not sure, but I think you’re working on a wrong assumption from Rubin’s piece. When she said “a nominating convention with 5,000 of the most hardcore Republicans”, I think that was an indictment of closed primaries, not a description of the GOP establishment.
oh. I prefer closed primaries. They’re not an option in Virginia right now the way they have their laws.
California either, since 2010.
As the Presidential Primary System is a creation of Progressives, so too, I think, the Open Primary System is.
Maybe I’m old fashion, but all primaries should be limited to members of the party who are choosing a nominee. This way, for good or ill, said nominee represents what the majority in the party believe in, what they stand for.
If you are registered as Independent [or Unenrolled], why should you have any say in who is the nominee of any party? You’ve decided to not affliate, for whatever reason(s), with an organized party and the consequence is you don’t have a say in what candidate they put forward.
Open primaries are for cheaters.
Exactly, Leigh.
It’s a way to undermine the wishes of the members of the Party.
Closed primaries also give factions, like the TEA Party, to overcome the undermining of those that run the party.
I’m not surprised.
Should have read ‘a way to overcome’ [damn drugs for my back are making my hands jittery tonight].
Fixed that for her.
Funny how the “fiscal conservatives” always seem to have alternatives that need must be respected, while the “social conservatives” need to shut up and get in line, and then stay that way, for the good of the party, of course.
The good of the party always seems to benefit the same faction within the party, doesn’t it?
scare quotes intended, because I’m not so sure that the divide is fiscal versus social issues so much as it’s grass roots/populist versus establishment/technocratic-expert
Virginia, vote freedom, vote “Democrat?“
When the Establicans opposed Democrats more than they hated conservatives, they and the conservatives did great things together.
The problem with that was, conservatives are the ones who believe in doing great things — like preserving liberty and fomenting prosperity. Establicans find such things take time away from rubbing elbows with the Beautiful People, and make for awkward cocktail party conversation.
levin
The RINOs want a Terry McAuliffe victory in Virginia.
If Cuccinelli does win, thnen I’m going to party like it’s the very last day of an ice age.
It’ll be a miracle, but Obama and Biden are both campaigning for McAuliffe so perhaps that will be the nail in Terry’s coffin.
Moderation? Moderation? Since when do we need moderation?
Speaking of the “Libertarian”…
Revealed: Obama Campaign Bundler Helping Fund Libertarian in Tight Va. Gubernatorial Race