I have to admit, I'm a little upset.
A witch ruined my Maggie's post.
Well, okay, part-time witch and newly-elected Delaware Republican candidate Christine O'Donnell ruined my Maggie's post. It really hurt.
A few days before the Delaware election, I was reading various articles in both the MSM and MSB and, in regards to the Tea Party spirit, was planning on writing an interesting piece on "who gets it" and who doesn't.
From the Left:
David Brooks: Tea partiers are narcissistic, egomaniacal, self-righteous people who distort the truth!
I think it's safe to say that ol' Dave doesn't get it.
Jacob Weisberg: The Tea Party movement has two defining traits: status anxiety and anarchism
Or ol' Jacob.
And from the Right:
Who is tea party sensation Christine O’Donnell?
Krauthammer: Palin’s and DeMint’s endorsements of O’Donnell are destructive, capricious, irresponsible
Christine O'Donnell, Tea Party Favorite, Stuns Mike Castle in Delaware
And, as an example of an entrenched pundit who really doesn't get it, Krauthammer, in an effort to salvage some warped version of pride, then declares:
Krauthammer to DeMint and Palin: Go down to Delaware and prove that O’Donnell is electable
We have to assume that Krusty Krauty is fully aware that bringing in Palin would only draw out the raging Palin-bashers and do nothing but sidetrack the election, probably assuring O'Donnell's defeat. Then he could tell everybody "I told you so!" Christine already has her official endorsement from Palin and the rest is up to her and the groundswell.
Now, from somebody who does get it:
Those who dismiss or disparage Tea Party candidates as ideologues really miss the point of what is driving this movement.
An ideologue is someone motivated primarily by a set of ideas and clings to them despite facts and experience.
The Tea Party movement was not launched by and is not driven by theory but by a healthy sense of realism fueled by practical experience.
Consider, for instance, Gallup’s annual survey of most and least trusted professions.
In the latest one published last December, rock bottom on the list was Members of Congress. Fifty-five percent gave them low/very low ratings on honesty and ethics. Members of Congress beat car salesmen by four percentage points as the professionals the American public finds most ethically-challenged.
It’s not theory or dogma that earned Members of Congress this distinction. It’s experience.
So put two and two together.
She then continues, and not once, until the very end of the page, do we see a partisan word like Democrats. Leave the ideology behind, focus on the hard realities.
And
then Christine O'Donnell ruined my Maggie's post.
Because, in the wink of an election tally, everything changed. Suddenly, even gol'dang
senators are paying homage:
Christine O'Donnell's win on Tuesday may have shocked establishment politicians and the media, but it was no surprise for everyday Americans who have been struggling to get Washington's attention.
On Sept. 12, 2009, millions of citizens rallied across the country. They gathered in the nation's capital and other cities to convey a clear message: You work for us; we don't work for you. Stop the bailouts, the takeovers, the debt and dependence.
For years, conservatives have been told that the only way to create a big-tent party was to support big-government candidates who were "electable," rather than principled. History suggests otherwise. Majorities are built on principles, not the other way around.
- South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint
I'd say at this point pretty much everybody — whether they like it or not — gets it.
And thus my nice "who gets it" post was ruined. Thanks a lot, Christine. I suppose it was worth it.
The glory that arose from both Delaware and other recent Tea Party victories isn't just that it legitimized the process, or gave the agenda its stamp of approval, or seriously brought the Tea Party into the national eye. While it did all of those, the real 'victory', as underscored by Senator DeMint's open publication, is that people like Mr. Brooks and his accusations of the Partiers being "narcissistic" and "egomaniacal", and all of those who have tried to attach the word racism to it, now, finally, look like the partisan hacks that they really and truly are.
Hallelujah.
