May 09 2012
Are The 2010 Insurgent Voters Still Out There? You Betcha!
Apparently the 2010, insurgent Tea Party voter (as opposed to any attempt to organize an actual political party) is alive and well in Indiana. And my guess it is alive and ready to vote change in all 50 states and the White House this year.
While the GOP tried mightily to co-op these independent, centrist voters it really never worked. The GOP simply looked like the better foundation through which to begin a political revolution. The GOP supposedly is the party of small, limited government. But after the GOP caved in 2011 on real, near term cuts in government, it became clear the establishment GOP was as addicted to government power as the liberals. So more change is coming.
This morning the nation wakes up knowing it can (and will) throw out those politicians who are too set in their ways, and too able to stymy actual cuts in government. Dick Lugar was one of these ‘statesmen’ who knew how to play the Senate – yet he (and too many others) allowed the Democrat Senate to run in neutral for 3 years, never once meeting its constitutional requirement to pass federal budgets to run the government. Instead of the promised action after the 2010 election wipe out, we are stuck with terminal inaction and those stupid promises of future good behavior.
In my mind, Lugar is one of nearly 100 pols who need to be retired. So while a good start, the job is not done yet.
DC is all twitter that Richard Mourdock (has the backing of Libertarians and Tea Party types.
No duh!
Hopefully more will be on the way. It may take a decade to clean house – but sooner or later DC will bow to the will of We The People.
Can’t help but end this by noting a bit of panic from Jim Carville:
Democratic fundraisers, activists, supporters, and even politicians alike have somehow collectively lapsed into the sentiment that the president is going to be reelected and that we have a good shot to take the House back while holding the Senate.
I ask: What are you smoking? What are you drinking? What are you snorting or just what in the hell are you thinking?
…
The polling? Not that encouraging. The latest Democracy Corps poll was 47-47. The Real Clear Politics average of polls has the president up a whopping three-tenths of a percentage point. And I am hearing the garbage that Democratic donors are telling Democratic fundraisers …”Obama has it in the bag.”
Well, Obama does have his epic “FAIL!” in the bag. Here is the key data point. Obama is sitting in too many polls at 45% or lower. That is the point of no return for incumbents. I suspect he will drift all the way down to around 40% over the summer as two things transpire.
First, most 2010 insurgent voters are so fed up they have tuned out politics. You see it in the low turn out in the primaries, and you see it in the dropping readership/viewership of political shows and electronic outlets. They wake up on occasion, but mostly they are biding their time until November.
Second, the polls are not yet sampling likely voters. So when Obama is up by 3 he could really be down by 3. And if he is tied he could be behind by 5-6%.
When these two factors shift late summer the Dems are going to have a rude awakening.
“First, most 2010 insurgent voters are so fed up they have tuned out politics. You see it in the low turn out in the primaries, and you see it in the dropping readership/viewership of political shows and electronic outlets. They wake up on occasion, but mostly they are biding their time until November.”
Could not have put it better myself. And I consider myself to be exactly as you just described. I know that my letters to Congressman and Senators have dropped over the last couple of years simply because I know they’re not listening. But November, we’re all going to be coming out of the woodwork.
re: Sen. Lugar example
My wife is and has been active in local and state politics for 35 years with occasional breaks due to frustration. She is currently attending Republican central committee meetings and heard an incumbent State Sen. complain about the effrontery of a strong primary opposition this year. The Sen. said that he was shocked that anyone would oppose him as he NEVER has heard any complaints about his policies. The problem is that he NEVER listens to the Republican rank and file but listens to the Liberal press and loves to compromise with the Democrats. He was nowhere to be found when the local [shot] gun club was shut down by federal bureaucrats–the land used by the club was on land owned by the Air Port but no where near the terminal. He has been on the side of building a gigantic new high school campus even though the current high school is adequate and enrollment is slowly dropping and the citizens have three times in the past decade voted down the plan. He also has voted to raise taxes repeatedly while in office as a Mayor and now as a State Senator. But he is shocked, shocked that someone would want to replace him.
I sure hope the insurgent, tea party types follow through.
Dan Kurt
AJ, you have finally gotten on the anti-RINO bandwagon! Welcome aboard, it took way too long but you’re finally here!
all that old talk about “centrism” and “working together” and “compromise” can now be flushed down the drain for good. This system needs a total revolution, and that revolution is on its way – and it starts with the tired old RINO’s like Lugar getting put out to pasture. (why an 80 year old man who hasn’t lived in Indiana for 30 years thinks he should still have the right to represent them is beyond me!)
The Revolution has to start inside the Republican party, because there is no room for it at all on the left, and it takes too many years to set up a 3rd party and frankly, we don’t have that much time left.
So, Step 1 is to systematically weed out everyone in the GOP who isn’t on board with conservative economic principals, as embodied by Paul Ryan, Mark Rubio, and now Richard Mourdock. Once the party is cleansed (and we are well on our way) then the attention can turn to defeating the Left once and for all. Yes, Romney is far from a pure conservative, but he will tack right if forced to work with a conservative House and Senate. That’s one of the few good things about politicians without strong convictions; at least you can always trust them to sail along with the prevailing wind. That’s not high praise, but this year its the best we can do under the circumstances in that race, and a hell of a lot better than the alternative!
And don’t forget Scott Walker’s performance in Wisconsin – outstanding! One more month to go before the final, but a solid win by him is a death blow for the unions, who have pumped almost all of their available cash into defeating him!!!
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Wow, we’re all agreeing here. It’s out with the old, in with the new. Most of the pols in Washington need to be retired and replaced with someone that will actually listen to the people and uphold the constitution.
Even seeing it with my own eyes, it is hard to believe that the RINO’S have allowed Obama and his crew to go 3 years without passing a budget. They don’t want to be held accountable or be constrained in their spending.
So yes, we can’t vote for Dimocrats so that only leaves the Republicans, but at least we can vote for different Repubs whenever we can and leave the old ones at home.
I love the results of the W. Virginia Dimocrat primary.
one small disagreement, Marco Rubio is giving the impression that he’s another ‘go along to get along’ politician. He supported the ‘give the terrorists control in Libya’ movement by Obama and he is pushing a Dimocrat DREAM act. We could do much better.
wws, did you read Fred Thompson’s post about budget compromising?
No more compromising!
It was Dick Armey that told us that we can no longer “go along just to get along”.
Ya think we’re getting stronger and stronger to fight this liberalism?
Excellent posts, today. The Mushrooms (kept in the dark and fed manure), eh I mean democrats, are going to be rudely awakened indeed! I have said to myself all year long: Nothing is as it seems! Below the docile faces of many Americans are REVOLUTIONARIES… revolutionaries that, through their votes, will make the sixties hippies look like school children on November 6th! Enough is enough.
And I DARE the lame-duck congress to try to pass extreme soverignty- killing bills, over-reaching in power…WE WILL NOT STAND FOR IT.
The Senate Republicans are claiming they could do nothing about the lack of a budget. NOT TRUE!
They could have shut down the ENTIRE Senate, refused to pass ANYTHING, blocked EVERYTHING, until a budget was passed! But they were too scared about looking “uncollegial” in the NYT and so they just rolled over and played dead during one of the greatest senatorial outrages in the history of this country.
Men like Lugar served well, but they’ve had their time and it’s over. They are NOT the kind that can be part of the solution, and so they must either step aside voluntarily or be pushed out of office as quickly as possible. We need Senators and Representatives who will FIGHT! not just go along to get along!!
I remember listening to a commentator saying that the United States is a unique combination of people, with traits making it difficult to turn it into a European kind of country. He didn’t elaborate on this opinion. However, I read into it as being perhaps our highly ingrained sense of “rugged individualism,” versus the collective mentality seen in other cultures, which sets us apart from other more socialistic counterparts.
What I have felt certain about is that, despite the creeping opportunism of entitlement programs growing a bigger centralized government, there remains a majority out there who stay out of the political fray, live their lives, remain relatively self-reliant, and are consequently under the political radar. Only when this majority, subtitled the “silent majority,’ starts to feel the walls of government closing in on their own space, straining their livelihoods, religious or personal belief systems, are they nudged to get involved, taking a stand at the ballot box. This happened in 2010, and, after yesterday’s various primaries and ballot elections, it appears to be on the horizon for reoccurring in the 2012 GE.
WWS, you are correct. Out with the old (policies) in with the new. I have often observed that while congress persons will have firm stands on various issues while running for election, his focus after winning is to keep the position, not on doing the right thing. He wants to keep everyone happy and keep his job. that’s when it’s time to go.
The problem with shutting own the Senate or government or whatnot is that the mainstream media will paint these efforts as evil.
I’ve been watching Rubio very closely and do not like what I see lately.
Would very much prefer Rand Paul.
I think he has a bright future.
Agreement! Mostly. But AJ, you’ve got to give us a break and get off this moderate “centrist” crap.
“…these independent, centrist voters…”
Lugar is a moderate. Luger is a centrist. He got thrown out on his ass for being a centrist. The people want fiscally CONSERVATIVE politicians.
Being a Republican doesn’t mean a thing by itself. I don’t equate conservatism with republicans, so the term RINO is meaningless. The problem with the Republican party is there ARE NOT ENOUGH conservatives in it.
But we’re changing that!
Layman, I think the intent of the word RINO is saying that a person is a Republican but not a conservative. Historically, of course, Repubs were conservative, but when you get people that are not conservative but are Not liberal enuf to be a Dimocrat then they have to run as a Republican(in name only) because trying to run as a third party is a waste of time. So if the intent is to get the Destructive party out of office you only have the option of voting Republican whether or not they are conservative.
These Repubs that sit there and let the Dims not pass a budget are in the Rino category because any conservative would be supporting the passage of a budget.
lurker:
“is that the mainstream media will paint these efforts as evil.”
uh, only if it is Republicans that do it……
The Richard Mourdock win is an illusion.
We have been told for months that the “Tea Party” movement is dead.
What many might not know is that the Tea Party hasn’t just been active on the more visable state/national level…..they have been busy replacing Republican committee persons, township supervisors, judges, school board officials, State Reps, etc. on the local level. No one has been sleeping since 2010.
I like Rubio’s version of the Dream Act. I don’t think he is a RINO at all for it. I think the GOP should take advantage of Obama’s fail on immigration issues. I am generally a “secure the border first” person; but, there has to be immigration reform. It would be a lot better if the GOP define their immigration policy rather than to have the Democrats define it for them.
GOOD! I hope like hell that President Obama believes that he is going to win, hands down.
GOOD! I hope like hell that President Obama believes that he is going to win, hands down.