The biggest surprise for many California liberals Tuesday night was the total “blowout” of the proposition to legalize marijuana, despite the victories of Senator Boxer and Governor Moonbeam. (Did you watch his acceptance ramble? Jerry was obviously using something stronger than weed for that performance!)
But after all is said and done, one gets the government one deserves. The “toke” proposition was irrelevant to California voters in the first place, since law and order, common sense, and sober thought doesn’t really matter in that “Age of Aquarius” state, and hasn’t for many years. Voters have decided that fiscal mismanagement in Sacramento, double-digit unemployment, exorbitant taxes to bolster union pensions, billions in state debt, sanctuary cities, and the flight of industry to other states or even overseas can be endured indefinitely. And if they are wrong? Well, we’ll see if “mercy killing” is added as an initiative on the ballot in 2012. Suicide on a state-wide level should also be legal, right?
So why didn’t Tea Party candidates win every last contest in every state every time? This was the question of the moment for the news analysis folks. I mean, come on, shouldn’t they have captured the Senate too after all those marches and protests? And the media talking-heads now posit: How could it be after all those prognostications, declared as gospel by the Tea Party national organizations, that they might actually demonstrate human fallibility; despite the assurances of Dick Morris (Will he appear on “Hannity” tonight to explain his overly optimistic calculations?), and Tea Party Express, and the cross-national flight plans of “Tea Party One”?
Reid beat Angle! Boxer beat Fiorina! O’Donnell loses to Coons! What are we to make of these Tea Party “disasters?” Has the movement failed? I watch as the media post-mortem autopsies continue unabated on the networks, poking surgically at the Tea Party cadaver to discern if perhaps any life will still be present in 2011, and whether it will be consumed whole by the victorious GOP. And shouldn’t Reid’s survival by 17,000 votes have been the deathnell for the movement?
Well, let’s see now! As of this morning, the GOP (read Tea-publicans) has taken the House with 60+ seats. They have acquired 33 governorships, a net addition of 10 legislatures, and six, possibly seven, Senate seats, and a partridge in a pear tree. That, to anyone other than the stoned media types, is a rout of mammoth proportions on any political battlefield. So for those disappointed that Reid, Coons, and Boxer won, don’t be.
With the Senate still in Democrat hands, and especially with Reid in command, the president has a huge problem leading up to his 2012 reelection bid. He actually wanted the Senate in Republican hands come January, so that he could accuse the Republican Congress of being a “do-nothing” Congress. He could continue this for the next two years, while proudly waving his veto pen and using the bully-pulpit to castigate the Republicans as the party of “no.”
However, with the Senate under Harry’s continued leadership, the president and the Democrats in the Senate will be forced to continue justifying to voters why they still support his vastly unpopular leftist legislative agenda. House Republicans, on the other hand, will be free to revoke and defund the president’s policies, and decry his veto attempts. Most politicians, from both parties, now see the handwriting on the wall. Expect to see Tea-ocrats emerge as a new species next year, slithering toward the center.
I say “center,” because both established political parties realize that some new entity is between them, demanding the Constitution be restored as the standard for the middle ground (as the founders intended it) for all government behavior. This midterm has convinced the nay-sayers that this entity is real, and will continue to devour “establishment” types in both parties for the foreseeable future.
O’Donnell lost largely because of the egregious, jealous, negative attacks of Karl Rove, the Fox News political analysis guru, which he initiated immediately after her amazing primary win. Hannity was even shocked by the viciousness of his attacks. This put O’Donnell at least 12 to 15 points in the hole after giving her political opponents and the media some silly issues with which to bash and investigate her. This also took her off message, thereby ensuring that she could not recover.
As for the other Tea Party losses in the Senate, Sharron Angle lost because Tea Party Express had to be a “queen-maker” in Nevada, rather than letting the Tea Parties choose between Angle and Tarkanian themselves. The same can be said for the Tea Party Express’s influence-peddling in other states. Money that groups like the Tea Party Express receive from contributions should not be used to promote their own organizations’ agendas or to select candidates. The funds would be better spent by the local Tea Parties. I suggest the national Tea Party groups raise contributions for their local groups in the future, especially if donations are going to wind up being used to fly umbrella operatives around in private luxury jets.
The Tea Party has much to celebrate about Tuesday’s great victory! Now we must prepare for the next campaign with both parties, and even within our movement. “Yorktown” is coming! So, up the revolution!
William Temple is a historical re-enactor, a pastor of a Bible church in Brunswick, Ga., and a well-known figure at Tea Party events across the country.