Joe Miller’s stunning victory over Lisa Murkowski to win the Alaska’s GOP primary for the Senate is remarkable on many levels, yet the bottom line makes perfect sense. Miller’s victory is the latest part of a continuing saga that began when Scott Brown defeated Martha Coakley in Massachusetts in January. Voters are fed up with big government, fed up with enormous debt, and fed up with professional politicians of every stripe. There’s a scene in the 1969 film “Patton” that illustrates the mood of the electorate today. George C. Scott, portraying the famed general, is frustrated with what he perceives to be a subordinate’s incompetence. Patton relieves the man of command, turns the unit over to the former commander’s executive officer and snarls menacingly: “You’ve got four hours to break through that beachhead. If you don’t make it, I’ll fire you!”
In this election cycle, the fact that a politician has a “D” or an “R” behind his name is not a critical factor. Party affiliation still matters of course, but not nearly so much as being an outsider matters. It’s a tough year to be an incumbent or to be viewed, as Lisa Murkowski was, as a Washington insider. For years, candidates have promised to break away from “politics as usual” if elected to Congress. Few have actually delivered on that promise on either side of the aisle. Fed up, a large portion of the populace is applying a new kind of test before they cast their votes: the more disconnected from the political mainstream a candidate is, the more likely the candidate is to win votes of vast swaths of the discontented, disillusioned electorate. The Tea Party movement is surely the most tangible manifestation of this sentiment, but it’s clear that this ballot box rebellion isn’t just about the Tea Party. Nor is it just about dissatisfaction with Congress, or the administration, or big government. It’s about all of the above, and more. It is, at the most basic level, about the direction that the country is headed and who has been responsible for steering the ship of state.
In ordinary times, there is no way that a candidate like Joe Miller would have stood a chance in this primary. Lisa Murkowski is part of a powerful family that has long been a force in Alaskan politics. She raised more than ten times as much money as her virtually unknown opponent did. While far from a solid conservative, she is still right of center on most issues. In the reliably Republican, sparsely-populated, state of Alaska, Murkowski’s combination of power, money, and name recognition should have made her a shoo-in.
As an Alaskan, I can attest to Joe Miller's guts and determination in a fight that all the pundits thought lost back in June.
Joe never faltered. Like the Army officer he was, as the top 1% of his class that he was, as a steadfast warrior that he is Joe went to bed in the early morning and came out fighting the next day again and again.
We need that guts and determination in this new Congress if we are to reset our spending priorities, rescue the country from financial insolvency, and secure our borders and the the weapons that could harm us.
We need more Joe Millers. Here in Texas, my friends and I are turning out conservatives for Nov. 2. We'll support any honest conservative, but the Republican Party can't take us for granted. The Republican Party has been the Democratic Party in slow motion. That has to stop.
It is a sea change.
As another Alaskan I can attest to the fact that Alaskans have always been strong conservatives and have always lived a seperate life to those in the lower 48. Now we all see that we cannot live that life without getting involved with the movement to take back our country. Without that movement we will never take back our state from the Feds who now controll all our natural resources. Joe MIller who I know personally, is a strong constitutionalist and will work for Alaskas future to achieve our independence from the dependence thrust on us by the Federal Government.
It is the fact that she is INDEED far form a "solid conservative" that doomed her in this election year. It is not simply INCUMBENTS who are feeling the wrath of voters, although many pundits–especially those with a typically leftward approach–would like readers to believe it so. It is the reliably LIBERAL and the reliably RINO whose jobs are in peril. Murkowski was a classic example of the latter and it finally caught up with her. Had McCain faced a strong challenge from a STRONG candidate, he too would have been relegated to betraying the American people from the bleachers next year.
The way the Left handles effective opposition is to call itnames and infiltrate. Names are having no effect on the tea party so infiltration is next on on the docket.