Palin Vs. "Moderate GOP Establishment "

The Daily Beast published a feature article yesterday titled, "Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective Political Parties."

They give 7 reasons why the Republican Party continues to lose elections, all supporting the idea that the Party is not "moderate" enough.

Sarah Palin has given a stinging response and is defining the GOP as being at a crossroads and why the Republican elitists are in a panic.

The Daily Beast article and Palin's response is the most defining narrative I've seen on the heart of issue.

The secular progressive agenda of the Democratic Party is pretty well defined---fiscally and socially.

The GOP is not so well defined any more. The platform is fiscally conservative, and it affirms a traditional, biblical view on social issues, however, the actions of some in leadership do not reflect the platform. In fact, in many cases on the issues of abortion and so-called homosexual "marriage," too many Republican leaders stand against the very platform they claim to support.

My interest in all this transcends the politics of it. My interest and deep concerns relate to the culture and the stewardship of the freedom God has given us. And to what we will pass on to our children and grandchildren.

Let's look at what the Beast says and at Palin's response.


The Daily Beast says the GOP has, and is making these 7 mistakes. With each of the 7, I've given a couple of quotes and the intent of each. The complete article is linked.

1. Maximalist Goals: Republicans are too conservative---not pragmatic enough and have the most radical platform since 1964. Probably referencing social values.

2. Apocalyptic Vision: Party at a fork in the road. Quoting Teddy Roosevelt in the 1912 Bull Moose Convention, "We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord." This, they say, "is a loosing mindset."

3. Irrational Animus: "It's not just that he's black," they say, but he doesn't hide his Ivy League education as Clinton and Bush did. They conclude conservatives hate the current president, and---"Hate leads to rage, and rage makes you stupid."

4. Collapse of Leadership: No proper, "moderate" leadership in the GOP.

5. Self Re-Enforcing Media: "Politicians do not always have to tell the truth." They claim the conservative grassroots of the Party "have become prisoners of their own artificial reality"---a result of listening to conservative talk radio and Fox News, etc.

6. Politics As War: Professional politicians, they say, are "disagreement managers"---should be flexible rather than hold absolute principles and values--pragmatic, bi-partisan--forget the culture wars.

7. Despair: "Conservatives who hold absolute values, are always promoting despair---creating the politics of despair" and "this", they say " is dangerous to democracy."

This is the essence of why the GOP can't win elections or political battles in Washington DC and what has gotten the Party to where it is, in the opinion of the "moderates.".

Sarah Palin has a very different view and she is not timid about sharing it. Her view was published yesterday afternoon after the Daily Beast article was published.

Palin told Breitbart News that these establishment financiers cannot relate to the average American worker and are throwing a "fit" because Wall Street knows they are in a whole new ballgame where their influence is diminishing.

Breitbart says Palin was responding to an article by David Freilander in Thursday's Daily Beast in which prominent Republican establishment financiers showed disdain for the conservative grassroots while being unable to identify exactly what a "precinct captain" is.

"If they could, all the money they threw at Romney would have paid off," Palin said, referring to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's inability to galvanize the blue-collar conservative base during the 2012 presidential election.

She says, "So I say call these guys out and expose the fact that they no longer control any conservative movement because they’re not the voice of the people. See, some of these Wall Street guys basically want to use the GOP for three things: They want low taxes for themselves; they want lots of cheap foreign labor (aka blanket amnesty); and they want to be safe (though most won’t send their own kids to fight our wars, they don’t want anyone blowing up buildings in Manhattan; so they’re all for sending our sons and daughters to whatever foreign hell hole beckons to make sure the bad guys stay off our soil)."

Palin said, "Ask yourself if most of them really care about America’s industrial base or can even relate to the American worker and our values. The particular fat cats who are so often used as anonymous sources to trash the grassroots see this latest effort to keep essential government open as just a distraction. They’re throwing a bit of a fit because this is a whole new, needed ballgame where their money can’t buy elections anymore."

Breitbart is reporting that according to the Daily Beast, Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, met with top GOP donors for lunch last month at Le Cirque, a fancy restaurant on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan.

The donors, described as "a youngish collection of financial industry types and lawyers" and "banker types who occupy the upper reaches of Wall Street’s towers," were frustrated at what they saw as conservative recalcitrance on the budget and could not understand why Republican politicians had to listen to their constituents and the grassroots who sent them to Washington. Walden told them, "Listen ... we have to do this because of the Tea Party. If we don’t, these guys are going to get primaried and they are going to lose their primary.”

The financiers, though, may not have understood what Walden was talking about because they were oblivious to former Democrat and House Speaker Tip O'Neill's axiom that "all politics is local." Most of the moneymen in the room reportedly did not even know what a "precinct captain" was, according to this Daily Beast report:

"Walden asked how many of those seated around the table were precinct captains. These were money men, though, not the types to spend night after night knocking on doors and slipping palm cards into mailboxes."

“A lot of the people there didn’t even know what a precinct captain was,” said one attendee.

Not a single hand went up.

“I hear this complaint all the time,” Walden said. “But no one gets involved at the local level. The Tea Party gets involved at the local level.”

During his 21-hour speech on the Senate floor in support of defunding Obamacare, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who has said he would not be in the U.S. Senate had it not been for Palin's endorsement during the 2012 Texas Republican primary, said that the ruling class in Washington, D.C. was not listening to the people.

Precinct captains symbolize politics at the local level; they epitomize the country's democratic ideals. These "precinct captains" and millions like them knock on doors, make phone calls, put up signs, give small-dollar donations through direct mail and the Internet, volunteer on election day, recruit volunteers, and persuade neighbors to vote for candidates.

Breitbart says, "The financial elite and the political establishment, though, often treat these grassroots voters the way Democrats have been accused of treating African American voters--using them for their votes during election season and running as far away from them as possible once they come to Washington."

"The conservatives these donors so disdain revolted in part because of the big-government domestic policies of former President George W. Bush last decade, especially No Child Left Behind and the TARP bailouts during the 2008 financial crisis caused by the reckless behavior from the industries that employ these donors on Wall Street", Breitbart says.

Palin recently referenced senators like Cruz and Mike Lee (R-UT) as the "good guys." She said, "They see that the so-called Bipartisan Establishment Party, or "BEP," as they call it really did not differ that much from Democrats when it came to growing the size of government and supporting policies like comprehensive immigration reform that benefit themselves and their cronies while harming working class Americans."

You will recall I mentioned in a previous Blog that journalist Paul Kane with the Washington Post was surprised when Ted Cruz said he remembers every day who sent him to Washington. He said I know "to whom I am accountable; and its not elected officials in Washington---with all respect, its not the main stream media either."

"The people to whom I believe I am accountable are the men and women in Texas... who knocked on doors, who made phone calls, who stood up and said 'Please, help turn this country around,'" Cruz told him.

Kane commented on Twitter that he found it "interesting" that Cruz "views people 'who knocked on doors, made phone calls' for him as who he answers to." They would be the same precinct captains that the establishment donors at the fundraisers were not even aware of.

Cruz has said that a "paradigm shift" is occurring as the grassroots, values voters are rising up to challenge the "ruling class" in the Republican Party.

While Karl Rove claims to be conservative in his paid appearances on Fox's Hannity and elsewhere, he isn't. His super PAC "American Crossroads" spent over $100 million last election supporting candidates he described as "the most conservative candidate we believe is electable." Most, not all, but most of his money went to more "moderate" candidates because that is who they believed could win. They didn't. The very few wins Rove supported were conservatives who would have likely won anyway.

Commenting to the Daily Beast, Bobbie Kilberg, a prominent establishment Republican fundraiser said, “This may be a turning point" for the establishment, with establishment Republicans saying, "Enough already.”

I think conservatives have already taken that line

Palin told Breitbart News that "the day the GOP machine abandons the grassroots patriot – the heart and soul of the party who actually gets people elected – is the day the GOP elephant is extinct."

"This keeps up and I’m not sticking around to watch it happen," Palin said.

Be Vigilant. Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Prayerful. Be Active. Be Blessed.