There's an election tomorrow. Hey, how 'bout that? [/sarcasm]
"Shame on you, Vulture! It's the most importantist election ever!" Uh huh.
"Vulture! It's all different this year! The Tea Party is gonna change everything!" Really? How so? The Tea Parties have been completely co-opted by Team Elephant. Why would I say that? What evidence do I have of such a thing? A sampling:
John Boehner "rallies the troops" with empty (and limp) words "backing" Tea Party principles. He swears spending will be rolled back to "pre-bailouts levels". Seriously? Going from $1.5 trillion deficits to $1 trillion deficits? Oooooh! I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO impressed!
And worst of all, the Queen of Inside the Beltway faux conservatism "celebrates" the Tea Party as having "saved" Team Elephant from King George the Dim. Ms. Noonan, for those of you who weren't paying attention, was one of King George's biggest apologists during his 8 year reign of error.
"Vulture! Even YOU have to admit that we're better off with Republican-co-opted Tea Party candidates than with the Dhimmi-crats who have rammed a 50-year wish-list of Progressivism down our throats the past 4 years!"
Better? Better HOW? BETTER would have been for the Tea Parties to have come together as a third party or under the umbrella of one of the existing third parties (Libertarian or Constitution, for example). BETTER would be for those candidates to be able to enter Mordor on the Potomac (hat tip: Mike Church) with a clean slate and a fresh canvas than to walk into the clutches of Mitch McCommie and John BaneTurd.
Here's the big reason I'm so unenthusiastic. I'll lay it out in a single sentence. The co-opting of the Tea Parties by Team Elephant guarantees the failure of the principles that brought those people together. Guaran. Effing. Tees it.
There is no principle that Republicans will not run from, no compromise they will not accept, no stand crucial enough for them to make.
What happens to the Tea Parties after their "champions" are relegated to the Congressional equivalent of the Back Bench, and the John Boehner Business-as-Usual express continues propping up Crony Capitalism? What happens after Mitch McConnell compromises for the umpteenth time on a point of principle that just SCREAMS for men of courage and conviction to just say "NO!"?
You kill this once-in-a-political lifetime awakening of the sheeple, and you kill any chance we ever have of wresting power away from the looters.
But that's the idea really, isn't it? That's why the GOP has co-opted the Tea Parties. They like the gravy train that is "public service" in Washington every bit as much as Team Donkey does.
