A new national poll from Rasmussen finds what many of us have known instinctively and seen anecdotally: Republicans won’t win by running to the center-left, as liberal media pundits often suggest.
Doing so is the fastest way to lose. The Rassmussen Reports poll, reported by USA Today, finds that if the “Tea Party” were a political party and not political movement, voters would flock to it. The result? Republicans and the “Tea Party” lose, and the Democrats win.
Republicans cannot win without liberty-oriented, small-government voters, as represented by the Tea Party movement. Meanwhile, those folks working hard in the Tea Party movement would be well-served to keep hammering away through the auspices of a political party. And given that the modern political system is jury-rigged for two parties, and the Democratic Party is home to the more avowed wing of socialism in America, that leaves just one place to make a difference.
Quoting USA Today:
[A] Tea Party candidate would fare better than a Republican candidate, 23% to 18%, with the Democratic candidate coming out on top at 36%.
Those Republicans thinking they can spend, borrow and tax their way into the hearts of base voters or whose consultants tell them to out-left the left, better re-think those falling strategies. The elections of 2010 are shaping to be anything but pleasant for those who don’t realize voters really are sick of the big, burdensome government foisted upon us over the last decade.
The establishment (dare I say, “country club”?) Republicans who look with disdain on those voters gathering for rallies and organizing around ideas — not personalities — might find themselves even further out of power unless they open their allegedly big tent for the conservative voters.
