I thought this message from a former Delawarean now living in Philadelphia was illuminative:
In all the coverage I’ve been reading about O’Donnell’s defeat of Castle in Delaware, no one mentions the unmentionable dynamic of social class distinctions (especially when they play out in a state with fewer people than than most cities with NFL franchises).
Both parties in Delaware have been led by blue-blood patrician types for eons. That probably isn’t unusual in most states, but in a small state it plays out in a very interesting way. The big donors and loyalists of both parties are members of the same bar association, members of the same country clubs, do business together and send their kids to the same private schools. They live in the same neighborhoods, too. This co-mingling created a genteel centrist quality in Delaware politics that has not been challenged in any significant way, until now. All these folks live in Wilmington’s old money neighborhood and its upscale suburbs. The rural southern counties (long the base for conservative Democrats) never counted for much politically — except for producing a few powerful codgers in the legislature. Now, the only voters the state GOP has left in any concentration are the rural conservatives, yet the party blue-bloods have ignored them (the 2006 Senate nominee was so pathetically liberal, he was to the left of the Dem — Tom Carper).
O’Donnell didn’t only beat the state party, she absolutely buried it. Without Castle, the state GOP has only one state office holder (the Auditor for life, who nobody doesn’t like). The state GOP, to have any future, will (finally!) have to be totally remade, in the image of middle class and rural voters who want a choice — not an echo. But this is work that should have started 14 years ago.
Also, I noted to another conservative late last night, we must now ask whether the Castle campaign ever gave a fed-up Delaware Republican voter a real reason to vote for him. If you’re mad as hell about what’s going on in Washington — and it’s not like Delaware is spared the recession — what message do you send by shifting the kindly, gentle-voiced, conciliatory, consensus-minded moderate guy from the House to the Senate?
Christine O’Donnell’s win in Delaware proves that voters don’t always behave the way politicians expect them to, which is a good thing for a country that has been suffering too long from the consequences of political predictability. Harry Reid’s belief that there is no reason any Hispanic would be a Republican is a large red flag to certain “voting blocks” in this country. They and their votes are taken for granted by the Democratic Party and it would serve them well to take a cue from the Tea Party movement and shake things up a bit. One of the most difficult things for voters to do is get the attention of their party leaders. The Tea Party movement, whether you like it or you don’t, found a way to do that and is ruffling some feathers that have been in need of ruffling for some time.
When given two equally undesirable choices, human nature persuades us to go with the choice we’re most comfortable with, which is why the “lesser of two evils” crowd has been dominating Washington for so long. If voters in Delaware are prepared to speak truth to power, Christine O'Donnell gives them the opportunity to do that; if they’re satisfied with business as usual in Washington, they can vote for the other guy. The voters’ choices in the past have been to vote for the liberal Democrat or the almost-as-liberal Republican, so it’s no wonder Delaware is a blue state where the “good old boys club” is alive and well and runs the show. The good news for Delaware voters this year – and for the two-party system in years to come – is that for the first time in a very long time Delaware voters actually have a choice in November.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe Democrat starts out with a 16 point lead, at 50-34. The NRSC planned to devote how much to this race if Castle won?
Now they should devote an amount of money similar to other longshot races where a GOP challenger is behind big in a blue state. How about Huffman in Oregon? Len Britton in Vermont? They are equally likely to win as O'Donnell is.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMaybe it is time for the establishment Republicans to understand that many of us who have consistently voted for the (R) candidate no longer consider ourselves Republicans. We are, first and foremost, conservatives.
I can't stand the presumption that Castle would have been an easy winner in the general (implicitly assuming that most O'Donnell supporters would have come home to the GOP candidate). Why shouldn't the same be expected of the establishment Republicans? Why shouldn't they be expected to vote for the party's nominee now that the primary is over?
I think O'Donnell has a reasonable shot at winning if the party establishment would just shut up. After all, this is a state that elected the empty suit, Joe Biden, to the Senate on more than one occasion.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFact is, what is about to sweep Rs in office is a limit-spending conservative wave, not a GOP wave. The GOP establishment will whine about its good soldiers Castle and Bennet and Murkowski being involuntarily retired. Maybe they are good soldiers. But so long as the GOP merely basks in reflected Tea party energy insead of presenting a cohesive agenda of its own that people can get excited about (think Gingrich's contract w America), they can never de-link the sacrifice of RINOs from the wave on which the GOP is catching a ride.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is the Tea Party's challenge to Republicans: join our parade or we'll march right over you. The party can't co-opt the movement without first adopting their policies. (As much as the left-media likes to pretend the Tea Party is really just a couple of Republican billionaires with a sneaky marketing plan.)
I've always thought the situation was a lot like the Perot voters in the last decade -- though in the Tea Party case there is no single charismatic leader to direct the effort towards a third party. The nightmare scenario for Republicans is if the Tea Party does develop a charismatic leader who directs voters towards a third party (that would probably just help Democrats by splitting the non-left vote.)
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