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The ‘Electability’ Myth

Photo Credit: TownhallMuch has been said and written regarding Karl Rove and the Republican Party establishment’s latest plan to go harder after conservatives than they ever would Democrats. And I’ve had much to say about it myself.

But I’ve yet to see anyone question the premise of the phony argument Rove is hiding behind to justify his crusade to purge the GOP of anybody that won’t grovel at the feet of the ruling class (which is what Rove’s pro-establishment Jihad is really all about). See, in Rove’s world if you actually have principles and want to defeat Democrats and not just negotiate the terms of liberty’s surrender, you’re a “nutcase.”

Rove claims he’s out to find “electable” candidates. Well, who isn’t? Of course, all of us want to win elections. The candidate you’re supporting doesn’t get to act on any of the principles he’s running on if he doesn’t win. Nothing in politics is more crushing than losing on election night when you’ve spent your time, talent, and treasure on behalf of a candidate who’s a champion of your principles. So for Rove and the establishment to claim they’re the only ones concerned about “electability” is patronizing at best and disingenuous at worst.

Besides, how do we define “electability?” Furthermore, how come we allow the very people who oppose our ideas and principles to define who is and who isn’t “electable?” Should the General Manager of the Boston Red Sox consult with the New York Yankees front office on personnel decisions? Maybe Auburn’s new football coach should call Alabama’s Nick Saban and get his take on whom to recruit?

“Electability” is a ruling class fallacy, both on the right and the left. It’s essentially the political equivalent to Jim Crow laws, aimed at stifling the potential for upward mobility of those in the grassroots who would challenge the ruling class’ status quo. Despite all their public hand-wringing and pandering, they don’t really reach out to minorities for all the same reasons they don’t really reach out to their own base. They are adherents to the “Golden Rule,” which is he who has the gold gets to make all the rules. They may speak of a “big tent” but really they crave the small tent where they remain in charge of their own little fiefdom, crumbling infrastructure and all. Ironically, it’s been we in the base they hate that has diversified the GOP. Where did Ted Cruz, Allen West, and Tim Scott (just to name a few) come from?

Read more from this story HERE.

Club for Growth to GOP Establishment: Define ‘Electable’

photo credit: donkey hotey

In response to signals that the GOP establishment is prepared to play a more aggressive role in 2014 Senate primaries, Club for Growth President Chris Chocola fires a shot across the bow in an op-ed published Wednesday.

“In the wake of some missed opportunities to pick up seats in the U.S. Senate over the past few cycles, one tactical change floated by the GOP establishment is that the party apparatus and its affiliated Super PACs should play a more influential role in primaries to make sure that more “electable” candidates are nominated.

It is hard to imagine a bigger mistake…

Everyone wants to avoid the next Todd Akin or Christine O’Donnell, neither of whom received any support from the Club for Growth PAC. But the Republican establishment has a horrendous track record of accurately identifying which candidates are truly unelectable and which are not. Too often, party insiders mistakenly substitute the word ‘unelectable’ for the word ‘conservative.'”

Chocola, a former GOP congressman from Indiana, points to a litany of top, establishment-favored candidates who lost in 2012 and also to a rogue’s gallery of so-called ‘electable’ GOP House and Senate candidates who backfired in spectacular fashion in recent years: Dede Scozzafava, Arlen Specter, and Charlie Crist.

Read more from this story HERE.