Hey GOP: Lead. Follow. Or Get Out of the Way

Tea Party conservative Christine O’Donnell knocked off longtime Republican insider milquetoast Mike Castle in the Delaware Republican primary Tuesday for the Senate seat once held in a lockbox by Vice President Joe Biden.

It’s another victory for the GOP rank and file, whose party leadership has abandoned them in recent years on its great detour into the wilderness of big-government leftism.

One of the lessons that leaped out at me in recent days, as O’Donnell stormed from out of nowhere to win, was the symbolic difference in the two candidates:

O’Donnell: pretty, young (41), wide-eyed, smiling and bright, marching off confidently from appearance to appearance with a strong conservative message. The very image of the girl next door.

Castle: old (71), weathered, worn, dour and gray, walking lamely and slowly. The very image of the tired old white-guy GOP that has turned off young voters at least since the days of Reagan, and maybe longer, pitching leftist policies from his RINO perch.

GOP leadership wants to cling to its tired, old, go-along-to-get-along image. The GOP rank and file, in primary after primary, is very clear in what it wants: young, new, vibrant, and conservative! They don’t want to go along to get along with big-government statism. They want to fight. They want to take back their country.

But GOP leadership is not on board. And it’s going to kill itself in the process. A moment after the Delaware result came in, Karl Rove was on Fox submarining his own party’s candidate before the general election campaign even got underway.

Said Rove: “I’m for the Republican. But I gotta tell ya: We were looking at eight to nine seats in the Senate [of the 10 needed for the majority]. We’re now looking at seven to eight, in my opinion. This is not a race we’re gonna be able to win.”

The fact of the matter is that candidates like O’Donnell can win in states like Delaware, especially with hefty party resources behind them. But it seems the GOP has given up before the race has even started. It’s infuriating.

After all, Democrats never give up or apologize when their candidates are tax cheats (take your pick), adulterers (John Edwards, Bill Clinton), ethically challenged (Charlie Rangel), carpetbaggers (Hillary Clinton), scions of segregationists (Al Gore), members of the KKK (the late Robert Byrd), or well out of the American political mainstream (Barack Obama).

Dems don’t submarine their own candidates, however corrupt or out of the mainstream. Instead, they rally behind them. And O’Donnell is hardly corrupt, hardly out of the American mainstream.

I was so incensed by the GOP behavior relative to O’Donnell that I whipped off this letter this morning to party leadership.

Dear Michael Steele:

Registered Republican here for 22 years, since the day I turned 18 – right here in the heart of Moonbat Central in Massachusetts. That’s not easy. State GOP delegate here in Massachusetts this year. On your mailing list nationally.

I’m excited to support Jeff Perry in the 10th Massachusetts. A conservative Repub here in coastal Mass. He can win. We can flip a Dem seat to Repub in my district, just like we did statewide with Scott Brown. Very exciting.

But I’m not sure you guys at the national level are on board the train here. So here’s my advice:

Get your act together on Christine O’Donnell in Delaware. Today. Right now. Get behind her. Get behind her strong and fast. You’re really (upsetting) a lot of people with your milquetoast candidates and policies and your refusal to stand proudly behind your party’s history or behind conservative policies.

I know Karl Rove doesn’t speak for the national GOP, but his appearance on Fox last night was disgusting. In the eyes of much of the public, Rove is GOP elite. And the first thing he did was rip his party’s candidate after a thrilling victory.

So get your little ducks in a row, and do it fast. The GOP rank and file are going one way, as recent election results prove, and you guys are going another. You know the saying:

Lead. Follow. Or get out of the way.

Otherwise you’ll be a party leadership without a party.

Reagan/Tea Party Conservatism can win in this country. O’Donnell can win in Delaware. Hell, Reagan won 93 states in two elections … including here in Massachusetts in ’84!! Including Delaware in both ’80 and ’84!!!

Since then, you, the GOP, has failed to give us strong, conservative candidates … candidates that can win big around the country, and even here in small northeastern states like Massachusetts or Delaware. Your voters are screaming from the top of their lungs, demanding a new course. A winning course.

The left fears this conservative message, that’s why they’re throwing water on the O’Donnell victory, trying to snuff out the fire. But most people dig this message; independents and moderate “Reagan Democrats” are quickly swayed by this message; the rank and file GOP are desperate for this message … and you guys are the ones standing in the way. So snap shi*t.