Monday, July 23, 2007

Like I Said Last Week

See these two items concerning the election of Paul Broun. One is an opinion piece from the Wall Street Journal and the other is a letter to the editor of the Banner-Herald, both making the same point. - Broun’s election does not necessarily mean bad things for the GOP. What it does mean is that Republicans are more likely to win when they govern (or campaign, as the case may be) according to the values their base expects; it is when they stray from the limited government, lower taxes and spending philosophy that they lose. I think that James Whitehead, by virtue of being the establishment candidate, suffered from a backlash among the Republican faithful (of course, that is not an observation unique to me) in addition to the various faux pas committed by his campaign.

In a related vein, I find it amusing that the "progressives" in Athens are playing up Broun’s electoral debt to themselves (not without justification, mind you), even as they intend to work feverously to unseat the good doctor next year.

Also, kudos to John Marsh for continuing to keep up with all things educational.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I will be astonished if Paul Broun isn't either:

1) Quickly assimilated into the Republican establishment

2) Defeated in the Republican primary in 2008.

I hope to be astonished.

Jmac said...

I agree with the anonymous poster, but I also think you - like most conservatives and libertarians - are overselling this 'folks want smaller government thing.'

Folks want an efficient government that manages their money well and provides good, quality services. They could really care less about 'big' government or 'small' government.

The past few years haven't been efficient, and they voted otherwise (Democratic in most places, paleo-conservative/libertarian here). The same thing happened in 1994, but the tables were reversed.