One of the reasons the Democrats and media are working so hard to drive a wedge between the “establishment” GOP and the Tea Party is that the Tea Party wins elections and, more importantly, represents the real future of the GOP.
Haley, a little-known state senator before being elected governor, would never have had a chance at becoming governor against the state’s good ol’ boy network of statewide officeholders. Scott would have been a long shot in his Republican primary against none other than Strom Thurmond’s youngest son. Marco Rubio, now the hyped 2016 presidential favorite, would have stepped aside to see now-Democrat Charlie Crist become the next senator, depriving the party of one of its most talented stars. Ted Cruz, the other Hispanic Republican in the Senate, would have never chanced a seemingly futile bid against Texas’s 67-year-old lieutenant governor, seen as a lock to succeed Kay Bailey Hutchison.
But all those upset victories–all of which at the time seemed shocking–took place because of the conservative grassroots’ strong sentiment for outsiders who campaigned on their principles, and not over their past political or family connections. Even a decade ago, party officials would have been more successful in pushing these outsider candidates aside, persuading them to wait their turn. (In Rubio’s case, it almost worked.) Now, in an era where grassroots politicking is as easy as ever thanks to the proliferation of social media, more control is in the hands of voters. And contrary to the ugly stereotypes of conservative activists being right-wing to the point of racist, it’s been the tea party movement that’s been behind the political success of most prominent minority Republican officeholders.
That, of course, is not the current left and media (ptr) narrative about the Tea Party. The media, and its rhetorical camp followers in the Leftyblogosphere Stupid Caucus, have been banging the “Teh Tea Partie is teh ignerent racisst” drum for close to four years now.
And in that time, the GOP overtook the Democrats in the number of elected minorities at the state level.
This is potentially good news, in the long term.
If the GOP deserves to keep it going.
Looking at Boehner’s performance this year, I’m seeing an obstacle or two.
There’s one wing of Republican soul-searchers that argues it’s the GOP’s overly conservative positions on issues–immigration, most prominent among them–that’s poisoning the Republican Party brand and damaged Mitt Romney’s candidacy, preventing any real inroads with the growing number of Hispanic and Asian-American voters. Mitt Romney’s call for illegal immigrants to “self-deport” certainly was one of the lowest points of his campaign. Their argument is on target, and deserves a wide hearing as party officials debate how to retool their agenda. But a bigger part of the challenge is the image the party presents to the public as well. Rubio, a fresh young Hispanic face who called for entitlement reforms in his 2010 campaign, nonetheless comfortably carried the Hispanic vote in Florida. Susana Martinez, running a conventionally conservative campaign for governor, won in heavily Hispanic and Democratic-leaning New Mexico that same year. Scott, a tea party conservative, won a handful of Obama supporters in both his general election campaigns, outperforming Romney by four points in 2012.
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