Ed Kilgore on what a Democratic win in Kansas should mean:
If the Republican governor of a very Republican state loses for undertaking a conservative political and policy revolution, complete with a purge of party “moderates” and reactionary legislation on just about every front imaginable, it may remind Republicans everywhere that there are limits to a meta-strategy of moving to the right, polarizing the electorate, and then winning on money and pure dumb luck. As a huge bonus, among the injured in a Brownback loss would be the Koch Brothers, right there in their Wichita lair….
Brownback has very publicly made his state a conservative “experiment station” and sought to stamp out any dissent in his party, all in the pursuit of a sort of intellectual rogue’s gallery of bad ideas, from supply-side economics to the harshest attacks in the country on reproductive rights. He not only deserves to lose, but his regime needs to be remembered with fear and trembling by Republicans everywhere.
I guarantee you, if Republicans lose in Kansas, it will be because they were not conservative enough. Conservatism never fails, it can only be failed.
I passed long the opinion (which I agree with) of Seth Masket yesterday that three times will not be the charm for Vice President Biden, because Democratic primary voters have been there and done that twice before, and they actually have attractive third and fourth options in Warren and O’Malley. Republicans look upon their potential presidential field with growing panic and fear, and it is making them yearn for a third run by Mittens. Here’s veteran conservative writer Jonathan Last:
People have assumed for two years now that the 2016 GOP field won’t be the 2012 clown show, but rather an all-star line-up of awesome. Christie. Walker. Jindal. Rubio. Ryan. Huckabee, maybe. That’s what it looked like 20 months ago.
Then Rubio pushed all-in with a bad immigration bill. The Bridgegate thing hit Christie. Jindal’s in-state approval rating tanked. Ryan looks to prefer the House. Walker is in the fight of his life for reelection. Jeb Bush inserted himself into the conversation. And Rick Perry began rehabilitating himself.
Now the field looks much more like Perry, Cruz, Rand Paul, and, possibly, Jeb. With Ben Carson making noises about getting in. And suddenly the clown show looks like it might be coming back to town.
I posit that it’s possible the Republican field in 2016 could be much weaker than people anticipate.
If that happens-if Walker loses and Christie can’t recover his mojo and Jindal never takes off and Rubio either decides not to go, or can’t escape his immigration problems and Ryan stands pat and Huckabee chooses to keep making money-then there will be a moment of chaos and panic in Republican circles as the party realizes that the line-up they were expecting isn’t going to appear. And in that moment, there will be the opportunity for both a fresh face we haven’t looked at before, and for Romney 5.0.
I am convinced their nominee will be Ted Cruz. It is time for the GOP to go the 1964 Goldwater route. Wake up the party to the reality that a pure conservative campaign loses them 40 states.