Progressive Democrats and
traditional Republicans alike are
delighted by any stumbling of Tea
Party Movement candidates in polls
and primaries. Each group has its own reasons for being encouraged when TPM
candidates falter but the joy
is shared, nonetheless.
Desperate Democrats believe that
their extremist racist astroturf
talking points are somehow being validated
when a free-spending incumbent's
advertising appears to be
working. Similarly, the GOP's
co-opting of the Tea Party's
essential message
along with its own ability to outspend
shoe-stringers has, indeed,
propelled many Republicans into the
lead.
But the real reason that incumbents
from either party continue to have even a remote
chance of getting re-elected is that
they have been able, thus far, to
prevent Tea Partiers from doing what
they do best -- simply by limiting
face-to-face contact with their
constituents.
In rare instances, as was the case
in John McCain's recent Arizona
primary victory, liberal incumbents
have somehow gotten away with
portraying themselves as
conservatives. Of course, in
order to pull that off it is
essential to have an opponent who is
vulnerable to negative attacks.
Oddly, when the stakes were much
larger, the so-called maverick
refused to use the very same attack strategy against Barack Obama
despite his weak resume and
questionable associations.
A year ago incumbents --
particularly Democrats -- were
getting torn apart by angry
protesters at town hall meetings.
But when was the last time you saw a TV
news segment that included aggressive questioning of
House and Senate incumbents by their
constituents?
Do you think, in light of the
combination of an unfixed economy, zero jobs creation
and the
unsavory unilateral passage of Obamacare
and other unpopular legislation,
that Democrat incumbents would be
anything but pulverized by now had
they been attending town halls again this summer?
Rallies and grassroots campaigning
are keeping Tea Partiers unified and energized
but are doing little to
grow the movement. The absence
of in-your-face public contact has
kept all incumbents from being as
bashed as they deserve to be.
Meanwhile voters are liable to
forget what --
and who -- caused them to be
angry, anti-government and anti-incumbent in the first place.
The Tea Party Movement and other
anti-incumbents have barely
two months to duplicate the success
they had last spring and summer to
secure election of their
endorsed candidates.
They need to bring specific charges
against each incumbent and to invite
the indicted to public meetings to
answer the charges.
"This candidate just doesn't
care about his/her constituents"
should be the single, simple,
oft-repeated message
that is used whenever
there is a failure to respond.
In addition, it should be demanded
of opposing candidates that they
complete a 10-question survey.
The questionnaire might vary somewhat from
venue to venue but the list of
questions should
include most, if not all of the
following:
-
How do you propose to stimulate jobs
growth?
-
How do you propose to cut spending?
-
How do you propose to lower taxes?
-
How do you propose to eliminate
waste?
-
How do you propose to eliminate
corruption?
-
Would you vote to repeal Obamacare?
-
Will you always vote as the majority
of your constituents demand?
-
What new legislation would you
propose?
-
Do you oppose term limits?
That ought to make incumbents share
some common emotions during the
next two months. Whether joy
will be among them is another story.