GOP Establishment Pissing Its Pants Amid 'Challenges From Right'

Here's the New York Times, "Leading Republicans Move to Stamp Out Challenges From Right."

Reading as far as three paragraphs down the phrase "tea party" is nowhere to be found. It's not until the ninth graf where we see...

The escalating tension between party leaders and Tea Party-aligned activists in groups like the Senate Conservatives Fund, the Madison Project and FreedomWorks arises from the activists’ view that some top elected Republicans are major obstacles to enacting conservative policies and need to be replaced.

The conservative activists say they are dedicated to deposing the lawmakers at the risk of losing seats. Their fervor has only grown after some played a role in the elections of Republican Senate mavericks like Rand Paul of Kentucky, Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas over the opposition of party establishment leaders such as Mr. McConnell.

“When you look at the direction Washington, D.C., as a whole is going, when you look at the state of the Republican Party and its decided lack of will to fight, you have to begin looking at the leadership itself,” said Drew Ryun, political director of the Madison Project. The chairman is his father, Jim Ryun, the former Republican congressman and track star from Kansas. “Mitch McConnell is, to me, the essence of the problem in D.C.”

Look, I personally don't hate Mitch McConnell. What I hate is how the GOP establishment tries to demonize the tea party instead of working to implement the tea party agenda. Star Parker nails it on this at WND, "Why Matt Bevin is challenging Mitch McConnell":

It’s with mixed reviews that the tea party is celebrating the fifth anniversary of its emergence onto the nation’s political scene.

According to a Pew Research Center survey, unfavorability rating of the tea party stood at 45 percent in October 2013, up from 25 percent in February 2010. Favorability was at 30 percent, modestly down from 33 percent where it stood in February 2010.

Why the unfavorable trend?

There is no instance where any tea-party principle has been shown to be off base.

If there has been a single defining theme of the tea-party movement, it has been push back against runaway government. And public sentiment today is very much in line with this.

According to a Gallup poll last week, 66 percent expressed dissatisfaction with the “size and power of federal government.”

A majority of Americans today appreciate that the tea party was right in 2010 regarding the impending disaster of the Affordable Care Act – Obamacare.

Principles of the movement, the very principles upon which this country was founded, liberty under God, are demonstrably true.

If we look around the world, or in our own history, we find a direct correlation between robust economic growth and limited government. It’s no accident that today’s sluggish economy coincides with historic bloating of the federal government.

It is also true that facts justify hoisting the banner of traditional values. Intact traditional families, and the children that grow up in them, are demonstrably healthier and wealthier.

So what’s the problem?

One is that upsetting the status quo means shaking up and displacing an entrenched, comfortable political establishment. For tea partiers, this means not just the opposition party, but also the establishment in its own party – the Republican Party.

Take, for instance, the current primary challenge in Kentucky by tea partier Matt Bevin against Republican Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell.

Keep reading.

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