Watching and listening to Karl Rove's pathetic diatribe about Christine O'Donnell's victory over Mike Castle reinforced what I have been saying for years – that the Republican hierarchy expects us to follow their dictates when it comes to electing candidates.
It also reminded me how wrong Rove and other party elites had been about Sarah Palin – who they viciously criticized when she stepped down as governor. Rove pronounced her damaged goods and of no use to anyone including herself.
In my column "Republi-devil-crats" I wrote:
"As an act of good faith, even the devil will seemingly help you before he comes for your soul. His help is a charade dressed in the vestiges of altruism, when in actuality, concealed beneath same is a raw, unmitigated thirst for power, control and possession.
"Yet these Faustian 'vote for me' waltzes will continue, with voters blinded to the fact that their vote, given freely, is just that – a free vote. There are ostensibly two reasons that politicians offer when telling us we should vote for them. One is that the other guy, gal, and/or party is bad for us – which is synonymous with saying they, themselves, are good for us. The other is that 'hell will freeze over and life will end if the other candidate/party is elected' mantra.
Don't get me wrong – I believe socialist, liberal Democrats are as bad for our country as lead paint is for a baby – but I'm … [having] a difficult time telling the difference between my party and the liberals. And it is specifically for that reason that I have concluded we must move beyond blind ideological support."
That is exactly what the voters in Delaware did in supporting Christine O'Donnell. Elections aren't about who the party elites/hierarchy or media want, they are about who best represents the concerns, principles and will of we the people.
Rove, Charles Krauthammer, et al, were and still are stunned that the voters would actually vote their own minds and consciences. To their way of thinking, "how dare we?"
They are about the numbers. They didn't take into account Castle's record – they simply calculated that he could beat the other guy. They calculated that in so doing he would help them regain control of the Senate and help stop Obama's agenda.
But the truth is, Castle did nothing to stop Obama's agenda, just as Lindsay Graham, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins and John McCain didn't. Which begs the answer, why keep electing them?
Joseph Pika, professor of political science at the University of Delaware, said O'Donnell's victory reflected "lots of anti-establishment feeling … some anti-Washington [and some] anti-career politician rhetoric."
I say it's about time.
The sands of time are changing, and the tea party is the wind that is blowing said change. People are tired of vacant promises, expanded government and the erosion of our Constitutional rights. And in this election cycle they're prepared to do something about it by electing candidates who mirror our concerns.
We are tired of voting for candidates who have to reinvent themselves to get elected. We have learned the hard way that leopards cannot and do not change their spots.
As I also wrote in "Repuli-devil-crats": "It is time we demand something in exchange for our votes."
What we must demand is accountability and integrity.
"It is not enough for candidates to promise they will respect us and fight for that which is important to us – they must deliver. And we [must] hold them accountable if they don't," I wrote.
It is not the worst thing that can happen if we select candidates who represent our concerns and they lose. In my column, , I wrote: "The hustle may have been a line dance we did back in the days of disco, but today it's what GOP leadership and a complicit media are trying to do to the voters. … This is a ruse, a con and in brief a hustle, an attempt to hustle the voters. GOP leadership is trying to 'Bob Dole' us. They have, in effect, met in smoke-filled back rooms of a private club and decided amongst themselves who they want in. … Their problem is how to deceive the voters into believing that said pick is of the voters' choosing."
Those days are over. We are deciding who we want, whom we will support, and we will not be talked down to or bullied by Rove et al, because of our choices. If they truly care about our concerns, they will support our candidates. If they don't, we'll win without them.