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Conservative voters know what they want
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I was prepared to disagree massively with Ann Coulter when my assistant first brought to my attention an interview Ann did last week in which she seemed to be advocating Republicans only choose left-leaning moderate candidates because true conservatives cannot win.

 

After finally reading the transcript of her interview and listening to the interview as well, I’m prepared to sheathe my sword, though I disagree with Ann in principle.

 

During the Newsmax interview, Ann said she would advise Republicans that some states just "aren’t going to elect a conservative." She continued, "We have to start recognizing Massachusetts is different from Utah."

 

Ann used as an example Delaware’s Christine O’Donnell, the conservative candidate who upset the liberal Republican RINO Mike Castle in the primaries in 2012 only to be defeated by a Democrat in the general election.

 

Ann said, "It wasn’t that (O’Donnell) said anything massively stupid that made her dead meat; it was just that she was too conservative a candidate for Delaware. Delaware isn’t a very conservative state." She said that Castle "was a shoo-in for that Senate seat, and as the Obamacare vote shows us, any Republican, even John McCain, is better than a Democrat."

 

Ann’s point as such is not without merit. But, it is without integrity to what the former Republican Party used to represent and what true conservatives should represent. You see, I argue that McCain, Castle, and many other so-called Republicans are nothing more than stealth Democrats. What I mean by that is when their voting records, policies and initiatives are more in line with liberalism, that takes them out of the conservative Republican column and puts them in the liberal column on the left.

 

Ann’s observation is not as contemptible as the behind-the-scenes machinations of Karl Rove, who has made it known that no candidates will receive one "red" cent of his PAC money unless they are approved by him and party hierarchy. Which, I say, ensures us of having more RINOs in office.

 

The Republican Party of today would have acquiesced and struck the sort of deal that would have continued slavery. But the founders of our party refused to compromise, because righteousness, truth and integrity were on their side.

 

This is not the first time it has been suggested and/or debated amidst Republicans that left-leaning moderates and their platforms are more favorable. Those familiar with history will remember the contentious battle for party control pursuant to policies between traditional Republicans, known as "stalwarts" and moderate Republicans, known as "half-breeds." I reference this not to suggest conservatives today are the "traditionalists," but to note that good ol’ boy machine-power politics was as wrong then as it is today.

 

And, advocating that conservatives should capitulate, selling themselves out for the sake of electing more RINOs who defecate in the faces of We the People and use the Constitution as bathroom tissue, is not what we are. Christine O’Donnell lost in Delaware not because Delaware is anti-conservative; she lost because the party establishment refused to help her in a way consistent with winning. We all remember Rove berating her and her victory and threatening to punish her by making sure she received no campaign funding. Rove’s petulant outbursts took place on Fox News, and while he was forced to backtrack on his threats, the truth is that O’Donnell was never provided the weaponry to actually win the general election.

 

Rove and those who believe the GOP cannot get true conservatives elected attacked Sarah Palin, Sharon Angle and Nikki Haley, who genuinely outraged Rove and company when the people elected her as the Republican governor of South Carolina.

 

As president, George W. Bush, with the help of then-Sen. Rick Santorum, campaigned for the late uber-liberal Republican Arlen Specter over Pat Toomey because Toomey was viewed as too conservative to win. As a show of gratitude, Specter switched parties, becoming a registered Democrat when Toomey finally prevailed to win the Senate seat in Pennsylvania.

 

And lest I forget about Castle of Delaware, when he realized O’Donnell had defeated him, he called Obama to apologize for losing (as I remember) before calling any of the Republican Party hierarchy or campaign leaders. So tell me again why we should believe moderate (read liberal) Republicans are the key to victory? Which brings me to my last point.

 

Truth, integrity and virtue are not fungible qualities. One either has them or one does not. The evidence of what I am saying is legion among Republicans today.

 

In the final analysis, voters want candidates they can trust. They are willing to elect a person they are confident has the best interests of the country in mind. Ronald Reagan was such a candidate, as were Eisenhower, Kennedy, Jefferson and Madison. The transmogrification of politics into seamy, costumed Kabuki theater events is not what the framers of the Constitution envisioned. I argue it was precisely what they wanted to avoid.

 

Republican hierarchy won’t take my advice, but I caution them that they are undermining We the People at their own peril. More and more conservatives are willing to sit out elections or cast write-in ballots juxtaposed to holding their noses and voting for the lesser of two evils.

 

Karl Rove, Reince Priebus and the Republican hierarchy would do well to understand there is a growing majority of conservatives who are no longer willing to march in silent lockstep, taking directions from Erebusic malevolents whose objectives are counter-productive to what true conservatism represents.

 

 

Mychal S. Massie is the former National Chairman of the conservative black think tank, Project 21-The National Leadership Network of Black Conservatives; and a member of its parent think tank, the National Center for Public Policy Research. You can find more at mychal-massie.com.