OPINION:
In every election cycle in the past 40 years, the Republican establishment has always attacked genuinely conservative candidates. However, they keep presenting it as something new. Meanwhile, they try to pass off bigger-government, bigger-spending Republicans as conservative.
Take the campaign of former Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell, for example. Conservatives were willing to crawl over broken glass to poke Karl Rove in the eye; they weren’t so much voting for Miss O’Donnell.
I know Miss O’Donnell personally and know she is far more talented, capable and smart than the phony image of her that was presented in media smears. Yet as much as I admire Miss O’Donnell, grass-roots voters and donors were overwhelmingly rejecting Mr. Rove and GOP insiders. Most of them didn’t know much about Miss O’Donnell, but they knew that if Mr. Rove opposed her, they wanted to send a message to GOP insiders.
So now Mr. Rove proposes to “vet” Republican primary candidates (smear them) and tell Republican voters for whom they should vote, but will anyone listen to Mr. Rove’s recommendations?
In 2010, the more he told the grass roots elements not to vote for Miss O’Donnell, the more eagerly conservatives lined up to vote for anyone he and other insiders opposed. This was a way for them to express their anger at the establishment.
Fighting a civil war on conservative grass-roots groups is the secret to winning elections for the GOP, according to Mr. Rove, former Rep. Steve LaTourette, Ohio Republican, and other establishment insiders.
Recently, 2012 presidential candidate Herman Cain penned a column in which he says the Tea Party is Republican attitude, not an organization. So it cannot be defeated.
The establishment needs to start listening. As Jesus told Saul of Tarsus: “It is hard … to kick against the goads.”
JONATHON MOSELEY
Manassas, Va.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.