Richter Magnitude 10

Now that they’ve experienced the equivalent of a 10 on the political Richter scale, will the leadership of the Delaware GOP get the message? Today and the months and years ahead afford the current leaders of the Republican party an opportunity to survey the rubble remaining after their Castle was demolished. The question is whether or not they will seek to cooperate in rebuilding and reforming a party that must include the conservative wing so long ignored, or at the very most, cynically utilized to consolidate their power base. Or will they retreat to underground bunkers where they snipe away? Will they prefer a Gotterdammerung rather than accommodation?

In any case, “Moderate” Republican leaders must deal with the enormity of the ground shaking victories of two renegade candidates they neither endorsed nor supported. Both the picks of the Republican convention lost, despite the spending rivers of money and the mounting vicious attacks against fellow Republicans. Both candidates won without any support from their party—nada, zero, zilch.

The ruling class lost and lost big. They may not regain their standing any time soon—if ever.

Some modest predictions: I don’t think there will be any reaching across the aisle by Republican “moderates,” not, at least, any time soon. I also don’t think they will begin to rebuild by reconsidering their contempt for and denigration of the Tea Party movement that was instrumental in the O’Donnell victory. I fully expect the “moderates” of the Delaware GOP to pull a Karl Rove attitude from now until after the election. That is because I think that aside from a nod to fiscal responsibility, they are far more temperamentally and ideologically aligned with Democrats than they are with conservatives.

The above leads to another observation concerning the unseemly crowing of Democrats over a victory not yet won.

Do Democrats suppose there are no disaffected Democrats in Delaware who will vote for O’Donnell and Urquhart because they also are fed up with the radical leftist turn their party has taken? Do they really think there are no Democrats who are horrified by the runaway debt, the expansion of federal power, and the anti-business stance of the Democratic party--just to name a few concerns? Do they suppose the party ranks will present and hold a solid, impenetrable phalanx any more than Delaware Republicans have presented a unified front?

Do they suppose all Democrat party members are so loyal they’ll stick with a party that leans toward a socialist agenda, stands against parental choice for the education of their children, generally scoffs at religious values, scorns pro-life beliefs, and undermines small business—all the while continuing to raise taxes?
Perhaps most tellingly, do they suppose Democrats don’t see the depressing reality of the US and Delaware economy?

If so, they have missed the titanic fissure in both parties. They have missed the resurgence of a conservatism that transcends party affiliation. They have ignored the disgust of Republicans, Independents and Democrats alike with the ruling elite who have not listened to or felt, much less responded to the tremors under their feet.

In fact, I believe we are about to see a political reconfiguration that shakes both parties to the foundations, a reconfiguration that combines fiscal and social conservatism. It started with tremors of dissatisfaction and then swelled to the size of an earthquake--angry repudiation of the current state of affairs.

But we’ve seen nothing yet in comparison with what’s to come.

More political earthquakes on the scale of Richter Magnitude 10 are on their way.