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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

A Case Study in Why Republicans Do Not Fear Conservatives

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  March 14th, 2012 at 02:40 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

“Paper tigers are desk ornaments, not cause for concern.”

The primary battle for Illinois’s 16th Congressional District is a case study in why Republicans do not fear conservatives and do not take conservatives seriously in the House of Representatives.

Consider, if you will, that what Jim DeMint has done in the United States Senate is make Republicans understand they might just be seriously challenged by candidates and major money if they go too far astray. After Bob Bennett went down to defeat by Mike Lee and the Republican favorite Trey Grayson went down to defeat by Rand Paul in Kentucky, suddenly Orrin Hatch became the junior partner in Utah’s conservative renaissance.

The House Republican Leaders don’t much care. They do not have to. Conservatives, time and time again, will not put their money where their mouth is. They like to fight policy battles, but sit out the political fights.

Consider Illinois 16. Eric Cantor came out and endorsed Adam Kinzinger.

By any measure, Manzullo is far more conservative than Kinzinger:

  • American Conservative Union lifetime scores: Manzullo 96, Kinzinger 72.
  • Club for Growth: Manzullo 85, Kinzinger 56
  • Heritage Action for America: Manzullo 84, Kinzinger 63.
  • Americans for Prosperity: Manzullo A+, Kinzinger B.
  • National Journal (conservative composite score): Manzullo 74, Kinzinger 58.

But after Cantor endorsed the squish, Republicans in the House stepped up to fund Adam Kinzinger.

Manzullo has only seen Louie Gohmert and Spencer Bachus chime in on his behalf. Where is Jim Jordan? [Edit: Jordan's staff tells me he cut a check this morning] Where is Mike Pence? Where are the other conservatives?

For that matter, where is the money from the outside groups? That, in fact, is key. Outside conservative groups like to endorse, but they don’t like to cut checks.

Here is a race that will go Republican and that conservatives could have for their own, but they won’t fight for it. House conservatives won’t fight their Republican brethren and outside groups don’t want to rock the boat.

Other than the Club for Growth, conservatives like to fight on policy, not on politics. Conservatives will keep losing these fights on policy in the House because they aren’t willing to win the political fights that precede them. Why do House Republican Leaders need to take their conservative members seriously when the conservatives and their outside groups won’t even pony up for their own. Paper tigers are desk ornaments, not cause for concern.

Conservatives in Illinois and around the nation have the chance to ensure a safe Republican seat is safely conservative. But they will need to contribute to Don Manzullo.

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COMMENTS

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  • freemanja1991

    Will run for senate in 14, and Manzullo will reclaim his old seat.

  • wennejunk

    $50

  • jamesm

    out. I saw one poll that put him slightly ahead. Conservatives will come out for Santorum in Illinois. It has been awhile since this primary mattered. This should benefit Manzullo.

  • Ned Reck

    2010?

    Go ahead… take US… take the U.S…. for granted. Make our day.

    Ya know… somehow… someway… there’s gonna be a day of reckonin’…

    If you’ve never been a party to one… you are gonna have a treat comin’ soon.

    Ned

  • lesstressrx

    It is interesting to me that the word conservative is used on all kinds of republicans. Moderate, some establishment Rino’s, just about anyone that thinks it will get them elected.
    Santorum is a “Social” Conservative, but he is called Conservative because using Social only wouldn’t bring him as many votes. Mittens calls himself a conservative although most people know he is a “Moderate” or just another establishment republican. Newt is a “Fiscal/ Social” Conservative, but you never hear much about the ?Social?. He has balanced a budget under a Democratic President along with many other attributes conservatively speaking.
    Tea Partiers say they are looking for both Fiscal and Social, but that is not the way they are voting. In fact, I am really surprised they are putting ?Social? ahead of ?Fiscal? when our country is heading towards financial disaster. The people that call themselves Fiscal, Social, Constitutional Conservatives
    should put some things in priority real fast. Rick Santorum is a big government spender. He is a go along to get along kinda guy.
    How anyone with a straight face call him a conservative makes no sense to me. Especially when they say he is the only real conservative in the race.
    The media says he is a far right wing conservative. But they never say he is ?fiscal conservative?. Sounds like we need a clear definition of conservative. Vetting would then be much easier & we all could become closer to the same page. If not, once again the Establishment will win. Unfortunately with Mittens or Rick we get ?the establishment? and it appears that is were we are headed. It is being said that Paul is considering a deal with Mittens & attempting to make the liberal Romney the GOP candidate. He will be hoping to have a plumb speaking gig at the convention while getting a fed audit. Santorum would like Newt?s support. http://hotair.com/archives/2012/03/14/time-magazine-romney-paul-in-early-discussions-about-a-deal/
    There you have it. Once again the people that really want real change loses. How sad.

  • reformist55

    Rush defines Conservative over and over and over again. There are few true conservatives; Rush, Mark, Sarah, that’s about it. Go to Hillsdale to read about true conservatism or listen to Rush or Mark if you dare.

  • atillathehun

    I agree with lesstress. There seems that there are as many different definitions of conservative as there are people on the planet. We all have our own I guess. It is also true that by and large conservatives are cheap/conservative??? So when we look at two candidates one who really fits our mold and one who is a “moderate” the words of Willian F. Buckley Jr. come to mind and we may vote for the one who has the best shot at being elected. Depending on the local climate of electability ther could be substantial reason for going with the RHINO. I am faced with casting a vote for a RHINO or a Marxist Scott Brown vs Warren so my choice is no choice at all. Many of us more conservative people have the same non choice. Moving is also a choice but at 73 is becoming less so as time passes.

  • greenpoint

    Go to the pawn shop and reclaim your ability to think for yourself. The 2 radio geniuses you cite have never served America in the polirical or miltary arena. Yet they alone, along with Palin hold the truth to what conservatism is and isn’t.Turn the radio off and DO something for the country.

  • tlhanger

    You just don’t hear the end game. Herman Cain told you his end game. That is why we were voting for him.

  • circlegranch

    conservatism equals federalism and defense of state sovereignty. When the Democrats in Florida thought they were being clever by deleting those 50 white stars which represent the 50 states in favor of one ruler’s face on the American flag, they made a very troubling statement. There is growing consensus that does not defend state’s rights or believe states should be able to formulate law that serves the people of their state. Conservatives do support the 10th, every bit as much as we do the 1st and 2nd Amendments, and all others. If we lose sight of state’s rights and slowly evolve into a nation that grants full and unlimited power to the federal govt., then conservatism ceases to exist.

  • raybacliff

    Erick is bemoaning the lack of conservative support for conservatives in Congress. The answer may be found in Erick’s statement concerning Sen. DeMint. DeMint will only do something if Republican leadership ‘goes too far afield’? In addition, Sen. Paul has gone too far because he is not conservative; he’s turned out to be a libertarian, like his dad.

    Seems to me that public support wanes when elected officials speak boldly about conservative beliefs then either won’t stick with it all the time or go too far afield themselves.

  • Gwynplaine

    Ditto.

    I supported Kinzinger in 2010, but his softness during his freshman year is a letdown. I sent a contribution to Manzullo.

    There seems to be a moderate pushback happening in central Illinois. For the upcoming primary, establishment and incumbent Republicans are falling in line to support Gray Noll over Sam McCann, who, with tea party support, won his state senate held 35 years by Democrats. Squishy Sangamon County Republican county chairman Tony Libri apparently isn’t squishy enough; the same establishment Repubs are trying to force him out for a variety of reasons including booking Ted Nugent for the county organization’s Lincoln Day dinner. Nugent called the president “an absolute America-hating punk,” which made the local Republican aristocracy nervous.

  • mikeymike143

    conservatives knocked off favored establishment republicans across the board. just ask charlie crist or bill mccollum

  • Common_Cents

    Is involvement at the local party level, recruiting conservative candidates, becoming delegates etc…take over the party from bottom up, inside out.

    That is about the only way the party establishment will sit up and take notice. When their very power base is threatened. They laugh at the rest of us keyboard warriors from their comfy digs in DC.

    Agree that people need to step up in many ways. Americans had better get engaged quickly.

  • deadite

    A) Its political, not polirical;
    B) Mark Levin has been a long time political activist. He started out by running for a seat on his local school board – and winning. He is consistently telling his listeners that the top posts matter, but that the country must be won back from the bottom up. He has authored three extraordinary books.

    You may not like Rush, but you should listen to Levin. Its obvious you haven’t.

    Wikipedia does a better job of describing the rest…
    Beginning in 1981, Levin served as advisor to several members of President Ronald Reagan’s cabinet, eventually becoming Associate Director of Presidential Personnel and ultimately Chief of Staff to Attorney General Edwin Meese; Levin also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education, and Deputy Solicitor of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
    He practiced law in the private sector and is president of Landmark Legal Foundation, a conservative public interest law firm founded in 1976 and based in Leesburg, Virginia.

  • ihateliberals

    The Republicans have been trying to redefine what a conservative is. They know that without the conservative tag a republican has a hard time getting elected. The problem now is that people are slowly getting wise to them. There really isn’t any room anymore for a conservative in the establishment GOP. The left-wing of the Republican Party is PO’d right now that the people are choosing a conservative over Mitt Romney. This is what happened when Reagan took the nomination away form Bush. Romney isn’t a conservative by any stretch of the imagination. he is a left-wing Liberal Republican. We need to start calling these people what they are. The Term RINO no longer applies. A Moderate in any Party is a waste of a seat. You have to have principles and stand for them. A Moderate doesn’t stand for anything and wil sway with the wind. There are places that everyone should just get along but Congress isn’t one of those places. I send my congressman there to fight for wha ti believe in not given inot the opposition. The ony time you hear the words compromise or let’s just get a long together is from the Democrats when they are losing. When they had the power lke when they shoved Obamacare down our throats where was the compromise? Republicans use to know how to fight in congress but for some reason they are allowing the Elite Republican whic his the left-wing Republicans run the show. The GOP and the RNC are not for conservatives anymore. This has been painfully clear since Micheal Steele ran the RNC and by Karl Rove, john Boehner, John McCain, McConnell etc etc. In the future if conservatism is to survive it has to separate from the Republican Party. I hve been against this in the past but I now know that it is the only way for conservatism to become powerful gain. i think that when the correct message is coming from strong conservatives they wil win most of the time. The Republican party hasn’t chosen a winner since Reagan. GW Bush was an accidental win.

  • Seedyrom

    but knowing Cantor is shilling for lesser candidates concerns me.

    I think what we are seeing is the tough talkers simply put on an act for TV and go back to the office to debate policy and continue spending wildly. Meaning they will lose the House if voters see more fiscal stupidity.

    We need to vote Cantor out of office in 2014!!!

  • GeneralAl

    Kinzinger is a great honored veteran for which I honor him. However, he is a coward when it comes to politics. Yes, its almost a reality that he would lose to Jesse Jackass Junior but at least he would have established himself as a principled fighter. Besides, Dabbie Halverson, the incumbent defeated for the eleventh district seat, is doing the dirty work for him of beating up rear end boy. Instead, he picks a fight with a well established Conservative fighter to avoid the inevitable charge of racist that the MSM would level at him for critisizing the product of the worlds greatest race baiter. No loss, as Manzullo will give his little butt the beating of his life, despite all the funding coming from RINO Headquarters!

  • chief1356

    the house counterpart to Sen. DeMint’s SCF? I donate to them with the understanding that they were funding conservatives running for the house. Let me guess, they do not fund primaries against incumbents? So we are on our own to find the conservatives primarying the establishment republicans?

  • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

    CW

  • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

    I understand your frustration with “the Republican Party” but the fault lies with conservatives who don’t participate inside the Party. You said, “There really isn?t any room anymore for a conservative in the establishment GOP.” Actually, there’s plenty of room. Indeed, a gaping hole exits in the Party at the precinct level, where all the power ultimately lies, that could be filled by conservatives. Fill up all these vacant precinct committeeman slots with conservatives and then your candidates for the officer slots within the Party, from the local, county and state levels, as well as the RNC levels, can replace the current “establishment.”

    You said, “In the future if conservatism is to survive it has to separate from the Republican Party.” Conservatism could survive and thrive inside the Party if conservatives got inside the Party. The reason the Republican Party is not “conservative enough” for some complaining conservatives is because not enough conservatives are “inside” the Party.

    You may recall here at RS, in the weeks and days leading up to the election of the RNC chairman, all the many “open letter to the RNC”" type Diaries and comments that were written about the need for the RNC delegates to elect a conservative to the RNC chair. Yes, it’s nice to have an opinion, but the RNC delegates could have cared less about what some conservative was writing at RS. Because their respective constituencies were the precinct committeemen in their respective states who had elected the electors who elected them to be national committeemen. The bottom line is that the neighborhood (precinct) Republican Party committeemen are the ONLY Republicans who elect the officers of the Party, and until sufficient numbers of conservatives step up to the plate and become ball players inside the Party, so they are in a position to vote for the Party officers, we won’t have a “more conservative” Party establishment. It’s not hard to become one and the duties are not onerous. Every state has a different system. And in some states, and counties, those currently in power do not want anyone new to come into the Party and will not ever advertise how easy it is to become a PC or how many vacancies exist.

    With half the PC slots vacant, on average, in every state, the Party is there for the taking by conservative Republicans. In my opinion, becoming a voting member of the Party ought to be the top priority of every conservative Republican. It’s not the fault of the “establishment” Republicans that they act like establishment moderates. That’s what they are. It’s the fault of us conservatives (and I’m guilty as charged; I didn’t get inside the Party until 2007) who have stood on the sidelines of the Party rather than getting inside it and outnumbering the moderates. Majority rules, and we don’t have, overall, in the Party a majority of conservatives.

    But we could.

    Thank you.

    ColdWarrior

  • redeyes

    There are many ways to serve ones country! You might not agree with Rush on anything, I don’t know, but without him, we may not have the alternative media we now have against the fifth column and yellow journalism in the midstream media! A pretty important contribution I think!!

  • BA Cyclone

    SCF I know is great, I am less familiar with HCF…but nothing wrong with those groups.

    However I don’t think this should be the limit of your interest. If you find a particular candidate (maybe like this race) where you feel your dollar can make a great impact for conservatives, I think you still need to have some budget for an individual race…not just a mutual fund group.

    However if you only have time / funds / interest for the mutual fund group, those 2 are certainly valid choices.

  • https://www.facebook.com/HanoverHenry hanoverhenry

    Splendid article. Too often it turns out to be true – the right’s bark is much worse than its bite.

    I saw local 912 club in previous election putting volunteers at polls to hand out literature mainly focusing on “are you fed up” theme, not much on specifics. I had to work real hard to even figure out of their slate of candidates was conservative or liberal populist? They were very happy at how they had covered a lot of precincts. That was their concept of campaigning.

    Did not want to listen to the idea of GOTV (get out the vote) – the nitty gritty work that you know wins primaries – identifies our voters, then turns them out on election day. The other side gets beating our brains out on GOTV and in primaries, unless we do a lot better, the inherent advantage of having the “organization” support the “regular” Republican so often is decisive.

    We need to focus on districts like the ones you are trying to draw attention to and we need to do a lot more than just say a few nice things on a facebook page or hand out flyers in front of the polls on election day.

    And, many of the newer Tea Party recruits to our cause have contempt for any type of fundraising – which also is what helps wins primaries. Finally, many good and decent conservatives try to give the benefit of the doubt to incumbents who are kind and decent people too but who so often vote more to the left than we hoped for.

    All of this adds up to giving a pass to liberal behavior. One way to punish liberal voting is to primary a candidate. But WINNING a primary such as 16th congressional district in Illinois is the single best tonic to the “now we have to move to the center” disease that afflicts so many newly elected Congressmen.

    We do not need frustrated “we’ll stay home on election day” chatter. We do not need “we’ll vote (or start) a third party” chatter. These things do not affect change.

    Your article is spot on about what will produce change. Conservatives have fought lonely battles in many districts across America like the one you describe – the question is can we network and find the ones where we can make a difference and produce victory results?

    Or else we will see the more “moderate” candidate chosen by establishment, go-along/get-along Republican leaders prevail again and again. Thank you for the article and for the work you do at RedState, and I am proud to be associated with you.

  • https://www.facebook.com/HanoverHenry hanoverhenry

    If I may, I’d like to give a stab at responding to Cold Warrior’s request that conservatives should not just (if I may paraphrase) howl at the moon but influence policy more directly with the GOP by BECOMING the establishment we so often complain about, starting with the local county committeeman seats and precinct chairmanships where so often they have either a vacancy or someone not very active, just waiting for you to jump in and TAKE that slot. I hope that fairly summarizes Cold Warrior’s point and my apology if it does not.

    On the other hand, there are those who say we are wasting too much of our time fighting on a battlefield that is rigged against us, and we should steer clear of GOP politics.

    I do not believe that is actually what Eric is suggesting. We need to have INDEPENDENT organizations, websites, columnists/writers, and activists, whose entire being is not subsumed by being GOP leaders, who worry first about being a conservative and second about GOP. That does NOT PRECLUDE being active in the GOP apparatus so I do not think it is fair of Cold Warrior to imply a need to rebut or disagree with Eric in this regard.

    When George McGovern’s outsider army captured the Democratic nomination in 1972 it was because enough of his leftist allies protested against the Johnson administration in 1968 that it actually caused him to withdraw his candidacy and substitute his VP (Hubert Humphrey). They established a beachhead of INDEPENDENT groups and leaders not thinking of themselves primarily as Democratic leaders.

    I do believe many of us on the right learned from that and emulated that very idea. Independent groups formed on the right going back to Bill Buckley’s NR, later YAF and ACU and then so many more. But the point is, they are independent of the party apparatus, and the leaders of these groups do not rely on the favor of GOP officials to continue in existence.

    Because of these “independent” groups and organization Ronald Reagan was able to capture the nomination. In many states around the country the same thing has happened.

    So we need both. We need people who live, think and breath GOP partisan politics. And – in my view more important – we need independent conservative voices – such as Red State, such as those who write here, who study and learn how to influence public policy better, how to use social media, how to build a local conservative club instead of merely joining the local GOP club.

    These are not mutually exclusive but the key to victory is exactly what Red State does – having independent voices ready to criticize a Boehner or Cantor when their behavior does not measure up to our standards, regardless of the fear that “oh you will help the Democrat win.”

    It is when they disappoint us by abandoning principles they CLAIM to support, that they have the problem. It is not our pointing to the truth – that time and again on capitol hill the conservative side gets the short end of the stick.

    We need to support activity to build a GOP infrastructure that is populated by conservatives exactly as you say Cold Warrior – starting with local, voting committeemen and precinct chairmen. And we must as RED STATE always tries to focus, also build an independent conservative apparatus that is not controlled by GOP leaders. I am pleased to be associated with you here for this purpose.

  • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

    We need to do both.
    Thanks again,
    CW