Pope Leo XII had a great quote for times such as these: “Ubi deficiunt equi trottant aselli.”
Such are the times among Virginia Republicans.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Jeff Schapiro opens up on what had been long rumored, gossiped, and talked about for months among conservatives.
Yes — the tidal wave is coming. The article is worth a read.
Of course, Mr. Hall seems positively giddy about the prospect within our pages, even if Mr. Hoeft folds his arms in disagreement with the tone of division expressed among Bearing Drift’s wide array of contributors. So be it — that’s what we’re here for.
Here’s the thing, and this needs to be hammered home.
The conservative/libpop divide has been around for a decade or more within Virginia Republican circles. Only three people have been able to put a lid on it: Allen through 2006, Gillespie in 2007, and McDonnell from 2009 to 2013.
How was it done? Simple answer: we put a big money bag on top of the warring factions.
After what could only be termed as a disastrous June 2015 primary season for the Tea Party and the libpop insurgency, there is little question that the mainstream conservative faction within the Virginia Republicans is prepared to take the entire State Central Committee back. Not a mere 20 seats, but all of them.
$5 million? That’s reasonable to some of the numbers I have heard.
The short version is that out of the 49 states in the country, the incumbents typically fund, finance, support, and control the state party. Only Virginia (with notable exceptions in Nevada and Iowa, efforts that were stamped out quickly) has a State Central Committee at odds with its elected officials, to the point where RPV is careening towards a lawsuit against elected officials ability to select their method of nomination.
Here’s the other problem. Elected officials have learned in this primary that they don’t need to breathe with both lungs after all. They can beat the insurgency, outspend the insurgency, outwork the insurgency. Take for instance Susan Stimpson’s race against Speaker Bill Howell.
Stimpson arguably crushed her own numbers and expectations with a campaign that was hamstrung and underfunded out of the gate. Howell still rose up like an angry god and crushed her — as did the thousands of people supporting Howell. The sleeping giants are awake… and they remember.
Of course, it would be marvelous if we could all play along to get along. Calls for “unity” are the wrong calls, as unity has too often meant “can we keep what we stole?” or “unity… and here’s some Liberty Scores to show who we’re targeting next.” Unfortunately, the mainstream conservatives don’t see a way to co-operate with an insurgency that has constantly argued for this much and no more, but taken more and more with every race. Frankly, they have stopped being lazy and started to take SCC seriously — in short:
Did we really think that 67 delegates, 21 senators, and 7 of the 8 federal electeds were going to lay down?
Of course, there are a lot of moving parts here. The old paradigm of God, Guns, and Gays that won victories in the 1990s is moving to a different mantra: Jobs, Jobs, and Jobs. Obamacare and marriage now off the table, federal issues for Republicans circle around the economy, military readiness, and foreign policy — all areas where Republicans excel versus the Democrats. We have a chance if we can break out of our own petty squabbles… but the challenges are incredible: populism, libertarianism, mass materialism, evangelicals and Catholics who no longer believe they have a voice among a libertarian wing seeking to push them out, and the cult of existentialism. Politics follows culture, and right now our culture stinks.
What’s worse is that you have friends targeting friends over nothing — nothing — that ultimately matters. Meanwhile, we’ve lost a great deal of ground over the last 20 years, and for what? Insurgents claim the establishment is in the “slow lane” while conservatives spin off libertarians as Hobbits marching off to Mordor.
Both have elements of truth, but neither should be the case if we can learn to see a person who agrees with us 80% of the time and not see a heretic, but an ally.
Don’t be that guy who tries to tell your friends some straight up, 80 proof truth either. Ask Larry Nordvig how that works.
…and then there are the personalities. Gentle reader, please do us all a favor. The great enemy of our party are the handful of people who want the credit but never the blame. The great friends? Are the ones who jump in and never count the cost. Look for those people who get involved at personal expense when the smart play would have been to step back and watch it fail… those are the ones who deserve leadership posts and public consideration for office. Too many — far too many — are hanging back.
Rather than wallowing in this mess, what is required today is leadership willing to stand up to all factions within the movement and harmonize the whole. It’s a delicate balance, and where there is a lack of leadership, the edges continue to fray.
Lack of leadership is why the hairline fissures of perhaps just one year ago have become gulfs today, and mostly because of the distrust sown over the years.
Such is the horse race today. The electeds know that they don’t have much time to sort this out — the 2016 RPV convention to be precise — if Virginia is to fall into the red column for the presidential contest.
$5 million dollars, folks.
Meanwhile, as Republicans engage in the horse races… the asses trot on Medicaid expansion, banning speech, mocking marriage, and gunning down Virginia’s business rankings.
C’est la vie.
