The Real Winner of the Republican Primaries

David Frum - a rational conservative as opposed to a Kool-Aid drinking crazy like most of today's GOP - looks at the real winner of the GOP primaries and, sadly, he says it's Barack Obama. Perhaps the death by a thousand cuts that the GOP is inflicting upon itself that has emboldened Obama and the DNC to blatantly throw LGBT Americans under the bus yet again as the DNC erases LGBT agenda items from its civil rights agenda. Increasingly, the two political parties offer voters the choice between (1) certifiable crazies such as Christine O'Donnell, and (2) mealy mouthed spineless wonders like the current occupant of the White House. It's literally, a case of being forced to choose between the lesser of the poisons. It makes it truly difficult to feel much motivation at all to be excited about a candidate. Yes, Obama excited people in 2008, but sadly he's proven to be all talk and no action - and even less leadership. If Obama and the Democrats cling to power it will be not because they deserve it, but only because the GOP seems to have a death wish. A pox on both their houses seems the best analysis of the horrible choices facing voters this election cycle. Here are highlights from David Frum's column on the subject:
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The real action in this election cycle was in the Republican primaries, they are almost over, and we already know who won: (drum roll, please!) President Obama. American conservatives have suffered a crushing and lasting defeat. The center of gravity in American politics has shifted permanently and irreversibly to the left (and conservative ideology will eventually follow).
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The saddest thing is that this conservative calamity is mostly self-inflicted. More and more conservatives get Oprah-cized . . . They now believe that expressing their feelings (e.g. by nominating quixotic candidates) is more important than trying to influence government policies (e.g. by nominating viable candidates). They withdraw from practical politics and instead join a protest movement. They march in the streets in tricorn hats while the liberals (whom they unwittingly help to put in office) are creating new entitlements and raising taxes.
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Many vulnerable Democratic congressional candidates got their dream opponents (the latest example is Christine O’Donnell – unfortunately, just one of many, way too many, examples). So the GOP gains in November will be smaller than they could be. Furthermore, a lot of those gains will be easily reversible.
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Even if Republicans capture the House this November, they will have a barely functional majority – a 225-210 split is about the best we can realistically hope for – and will be almost certain to lose the House again in 2012, potentially even by a worse margin than in 2008. Such a scenario would be devastating to conservative causes, since Obama would claim that his own re-election victory combined with his party wrestling the House from the GOP (and expanding their Senate majority) gives him a clear mandate to implement his agenda (rather than pursue bipartisanship). And make no mistake, that’s the mandate Obama plans to get before pursuing his remaining agenda. All the talk about the importance of this year’s election in stopping Obama is just talk.
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The Senate seats that the Republicans threw away (the seat in Delaware has just been added to this list) will now be in the hands of Democrats for 6 years, and some of them will not realistically come into play again for much longer than that. Who knows, the Republican president in 2025 (I’m not very optimistic we will see one earlier than that) may have some important part of his agenda derailed because of coming up one Senate vote short (thanks to a Democrat rather than Republican representing Delaware).
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We will never know how many talented young people contemplating entering Republican politics (especially in swing states) will decide to pursue other career options instead because of all the ugliness they saw in this primary season (nor how many congressional Republicans will retire earlier than they otherwise would). But we can be sure that conservatism will be suffering for decades because of their decisions.