The Republican establishment hung Ken Cuccinelli out to dry. They deserve criticism for this, but where were the insurgent conservatives to come to his rescue? Ever since the Dean campaign of 2003-2004, grassroots liberals have developed an infrastructure (and even more a culture) that allows them to raise vast amounts of money for populist candidates. A similar culture on the right might have saved Cuccinelli and it would strengthen the position of the conservative grassroots relative to the donor groups that are allied to the Republican establishment. Instead, conservative insurgents spend their (fewer) resources threatening existing Republican office holders with primary challenges. Until conservative insurgents can build a large enough infrastructure and culture to win competitive general election races, they will be stuck in the current dysfunctional relationship where they try to sink the establishment in the primaries and depend on the pockets of the establishment in the general election. I have more on this at today’s On The Square. I’m away from home and can’t embed links, so here is the url (or whatever it is called:
http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2013/12/an-alternative-to-the-republican-establishment
