My immediate response to liberals who emerge from their Ouija boards to denounce Christine O'Donnell as a one-time dabbler in witchcraft is: At this point in our history, I'd vote for Elmira Gulch before I'd vote for another statist masquerading as a Republican.
The fact that O'Donnell might have done some things in her past she's not particularly proud of would make her fairly normal. I'm more concerned with where she is now, and she seems like a reliable Christian conservative with her head on straight about both religion and politics. In her television appearances, she's been quite impressive -- energetic, articulate and right on the issues.
But Christine O'Donnell isn't really the issue here. The more interesting and relevant stories arising out of her primary victory are: 1) the liberals' efforts to paint her -- along with other mainstream conservatives, including the entire tea party movement -- as extreme and, frankly, a bit wacko when the real extremism resides in the Democratic Party; 2) the liberals' efforts to fabricate a major schism in the GOP when, in fact, the real dissension of consequence is occurring in their own Democratic Party; and 3) establishment Republicans disgruntled over their inability to control the selection of candidates going forward, their apparent anxiety about the entire tea party phenomenon as rocking their world, and their resulting collusion with the liberal establishment to discredit the upstarts, who are beyond their power to manage and manipulate.
The mentally sedentary and complacent establishment types haven't figured it out yet; our nation is under a formidable assault that differs in kind, rather than degree, from the gradual liberal march toward statism we've witnessed for the past 50-plus years.
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If there has been one upside to the Democrats' firm control over the two political branches these past 20 months, it has been to reveal to America the extreme liberalism of the Democratic Party's governing class. That should be the overarching headline of the day, not the falsely alleged extremism of grass-roots conservatives peaceably protesting the destruction of their beloved America and not this trumped-up anxiety over Republican candidates who don't fit the establishment template yet are resonating with grass-roots voters.
Conservatives are coming together in a way that I haven't seen since the Reagan years, and it's none too soon. I once feared that baby boomers were in jeopardy of forfeiting our liberty because it was mostly handed to us with no requirement of sacrifice in return, but I no longer do. If many did take it for granted, they don't anymore. The flip side of complacency about liberty for having been born into it is that you cherish and will fight for it, especially when someone is trying to take it away.
Liberals have made the mistake of going too far too fast with this bunch of statists currently in power. They would have had a better chance to continue to advance their Utopian schemes had they remained patient in their gradual march. But with their in-your-face excesses, their outright dictatorial abuses of power, their displays of utter contempt for the will of the people, and their recklessly destructive policy agenda, they've awakened another slumbering giant: mainstream, grass-roots America.
Two times more people identify themselves as conservatives than as liberals, so liberals, as usual, are resorting to stridency and vociferousness to characterize the majority as extremists. This time it's not working, because the majority now realizes that it is in fact the majority and, more importantly, that liberals are the ones wreaking disaster on this nation with careless abandon.
So obvious is the public mood against the liberal extremism of Obama's Democrats that even entrenched members of that party are beginning to jump ship. That's where the real dissension is. Some 34 Democratic congressmen are running ads against Obamacare. Where are the mainstream media on that one?
Let the MSM and the Democrats continue to press the fantasy storyline that Republicans are in disarray with splits and tea party defectors, but the fact is that the Democrats are the ones who are imploding with absolutely no coherent agenda around which to rally and no excuse for the manifest recklessness of their disgraceful agenda.
The tea partiers are not splintering or otherwise threatening the Republican Party; they are making it more accountable, more conservative and more effective. It can no longer be said that incumbents in either party are shoo-ins. We're witnessing the healthiest paradigm shift in modern politics, and it is an extremely positive development.
Power entrenchment is unhealthy for the republic because it militates against responsive republican government. As the future unfolds, perhaps we'll see candidates succeeding more because of their positions on issues rather than their connection to power and wealth. I happen to believe that's the way the Framers intended it.
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