I would rather the Delaware Senate primary had gone differently. Mike Castle would have won the seat easily, and although he certainly is not perfect, he is good enough. Good enough, for my purposes, is defined as “will vote to repeal Obamacare.” Unless O’Donnell pulls off the upset again, we lost a vote for health care freedom last night.
But there is a silver lining. There’s no longer any question that tea party activists are staging a hostile takeover of the Republican party. We’ve now seen insurgents defeat party insiders in Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, and Utah. The party establishment is now on notice. Offended fiscal conservatives are not merely going to stay home (which red state insiders might feel free to ignore); they are going to turn the insiders out in the primary. The next time the GOP is in power, it will think twice before engaging in the profligacy of its last turn in power.
Before last night, tea party activists were sending that message at virtually no cost, as most of the insurgents were still favored to win. Now the message has probably cost us a seat. The expense does sharpen the message, but its heavy expense nonetheless. I hope it’s worth it.
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