Anyone who thought the
tea party and movement conservatives had won and we could all go back to sleep after the 2010 congressional election victory was sadly mistaken.
From the phony spending cuts Congress passed last Spring, to the August 2011 fight to raise the federal debt ceiling, to the cone of media silence that has dropped over the Rick Santorum and Ron Paul presidential campaigns, to the carpet bombing of Newt Gingrich in the Florida presidential primary — the Republican establishment and their mainstream media allies have fought one desperate rearguard action after another to preserve their power and Washington’s spend, tax and borrow status quo.
Nowhere was this desperate battle more apparent than in the Florida Republican presidential primary where, through a combination of more money, better organization and scorched earth advertising, Romney planned to grind down his conservative adversaries and post a win that will revive his claim to inevitability after his defeats in Iowa and South Carolina.
But the Romney nomination is far from inevitable.
While Romney may be polling ahead of the other candidates individually, “not-Romney” continues to hold a commanding lead in most polls. But will this lack of enthusiasm for Romney have practical, on-the-ground political implications in a campaign that will likely go on straight through to the GOP Convention?
The enthusiasm gap between Romney and the conservatives in the field was on stunning display in Florida, as Santorum and especially Gingrich drew larger and more enthusiastic crowds throughout the state. However, this grassroots conservative enthusiasm has yet to match the results at the polls that are being produced by the desperate fight the GOP establishment is waging to hold on to power.
In politics, as in life, every day there is a race between rabbits and foxes. Occasionally, a fox catches a rabbit, otherwise there would be no foxes — but more often the rabbit escapes, because while the fox is running for his dinner, the rabbit is running for his life.
Right now, the establishment rabbits are winning only because they know they are in a desperate race for life — and that their hold on power and their grip on the throats of the American taxpayer are over if they lose.
Conservatives have the numbers on their side, and at a time when half of Americans fear big government, conservatives have the issues on their side.
However, right does not automatically defeat might; to defeat the establishment and win the Republican presidential nomination, and the coming battles in Congress, conservatives must wake-up and match the fierce desperation of an establishment that is fighting for its life.
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