From James Taranto:
‘I don’t consider myself a tea party candidate,” Sean Bielat tells me over dinner. “I don’t know what it means.” But an hour later Mr. Bielat, Rep. Barney Frank’s Republican challenger, receives a hero’s welcome at the Spindle City Tea Party, a gathering of nearly 200 citizen- activists in this economically depressed mill town. As he approaches the stage, they stand, applauding and chanting “Go, Sean, go!”
What he tells them is consistent with this reporter’s view of the tea party: “I’m starting to think that people want to take this country back—that people no longer believe that the government has the answers for our betterment, that the government can tell them how they should use their money. People believe that they have the power to create their own opportunity, if only they are given the chance. . . . There is so much wrong in Washington, I almost don’t know where to start.”…
Two things are clear with recent events – even Democrats in supposedly safe seats are worried, and the Republican party is finding challengers who are brim full of both new ideas and a willingness to just listen and learn as they go along. The people are talking and candidates like Bielat are listening. This is a potent force to bring against someone as entrenched in the Ruling Class as Barney Frank.
To be sure, Bielat has an uphill fight – but as a Marine, he was trained to overcome just such obstacles. I don’t know if he’ll win on November 2nd, but I’m betting he’ll at least make it very close…and, who knows?, he just might pull it off.
It is the success that people like Bielat – and O’Donnell in Delaware – are having which makes me think that we’ve been too gun shy on the right. We’ve resigned parts of the nation to the left simply because the left has represented the area for a long time. But Bielat points out that Frank hasn’t had a real challenger since 1982 – Frank’s strength could well prove illusory, as can the strength of other entrenched liberals.
Win or lose against Frank here in 2010, we need to learn this lesson and apply it in 2012 and beyond. Challenge everywhere. In the GOP primaries, and in all general election battles. Our goal should be to never let any politician run unopposed. If we want our government to be under our control, the first step is to exercise that control the only way possible – in election contests.
We can save our nation – all we need to is put in the effort.
UPDATE: Moe Lane reports that Charlie Cook has shifted Frank’s seat from “Safe” to “Likely”, as well as four other entrenched Democrat seats. This is a political tsunami building, my friends…
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