I have written that the difference between conservatives and leftists is that conservatives try to win the argument at all costs, while leftists try to win power and impose their agenda at all costs. In fact, we conservatives can be downright suicidal in our approach to elections.
Consider, for example, last year’s election for U.S. Senator in Delaware: The Republicans in Delaware had two choices for their party’s nomination:
(1) a moderate Republican congressman who, if nominated, would have been virtually guaranteed to win the general election, would have voted with the Republicans to organize the Senate, and in general would have voted with the Republicans about 60% of the time; or
(2) a reliably conservative Republican who had never held elective office, had been rejected by the voters in several previous elections, had repeatedly bilked her campaigns and campaign employees of funds for personal gain in violation of federal law, had to start her campaign by disavowing her prior flirtation with witchcraft (yes, really), and had taken positions so far outside the mainstream of the Delaware electorate that she had no chance whatsoever of winning.
The Delaware Republicans chose the unelectable conservative over the shoe-in moderate, and as a result, they ended up with a leftist Democrat who helped the Democrats maintain their majority control of the Senate and who votes with Republicans 0% of the time on substantive issues.
A similar story happened in Nevada, where the Republicans nominated an untested conservative purist who constantly put her foot in her mouth and proved to be the only person in Nevada who could not defeat hugely unpopular leftist Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
One might think that Republicans had learned their lesson, but one would be wrong.
Today I received an invitation on Facebook to “like” a page dedicated to “Draft Tricia Stall for Virginia Senate.” That would be the same Tricia Stall who, in 2007, defeated moderate Republican incumbent Marty Williams in a primary and then went on to lose a Republican seat to Democrat John Miller – a seat that Williams would have retained easily in the then-Republican-leaning district. And to make matters worse, Tricia Stall’s loss of Williams’ seat cost the Republicans their majority in the State Senate.
Now, four years later, after redistricting has made the district more favorable to Democrats, some conservatives want to draft Tricia Stall to be the Republican candidate again. These conservatives want to commit political suicide by focusing on winning the argument even if it means losing the election.
I believe in the approach advocated by the late great conservative legend William F. Buckley: Support the most conservative candidate who can win. By supporting unelectable conservative candidates in races where there are electable, albeit less conservative, candidates available, we are conceding election after election to leftist Democrats. How does winning the argument but losing the election advance the conservative cause?
Albert Einstein defined “insanity” as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. That’s why my response to the invitation to help draft Tricia Stall was, “Are you out of your mind?” I don’t know if there are other Republicans who have a realistic chance of defeating John Miller, but Tricia Stall has already demonstrated that she cannot win.
Draft Tricia Stall? No thanks – This conservative is tired of losing.
NOTE: An earlier version of this article contained a mistaken reference to certain elected officials “liking” the “Draft Tricia Stall” Facebook page. In fact, the Facebook page “likes” those elected officials. I have revised the article to remove this reference. -KF
