COLUMN: Republicans fighting for establishment
During the past week, there has been a lot of talk about the “Republican establishment” coming out in opposition to Newt Gingrich in a campaign to ensure Mitt Romney is chosen as the Republican nominee.
What exactly people mean by “Republican establishment” is not exactly clear, but apparently they are a bunch of mean, nasty people who go around slandering Gingrich in order to get the “moderate” Romney elected — at least that is the story coming from the media, the Tea Party, and lately, Sarah Palin.
Palin recently wrote a Facebook note accusing “Cannibals in GOP Establishment” of “Employ(ing) Tactics of the Left,” saying “we need a fair primary that is not prematurely cut short by the GOP establishment using Alinsky tactics to kneecap Governor Romney’s chief rival.” The “Alinsky tactics” Palin refers to are those of Saul Alinsky, who wrote "Rules for Radicals," a book focusing on how to rebel against the establishment.
How she figures the establishment is using “Alinsky tactics” against Gingrich is a bit of a mystery, considering Gingrich likes to accuse President Barack Obama of using Alinsky tactics, and if the establishment used such tactics, they would somehow be rebelling against themselves — so clearly there is some logic lacking in that accusation.
The theme of her note is two-fold: that the establishment should stop pushing for Romney and consider Gingrich, Santorum and Paul as viable options as the party’s nominee, but also that this is bigger than Romney versus Gingrich — it is a fight between the “establishment” and the Tea Party.
The reason Palin and others talk about this fight is because of recent attacks against Gingrich being a “Reagan Republican.” But are accusations such as this really indicative of a schism in the GOP? Not really. Ultimately, it comes down to primary election politics and nothing more.
Gingrich was the Speaker of the House of Representatives — second in line for the presidency. Romney was a governor. If anything, Gingrich is the Washington insider who has been a part of the “establishment” longer than Romney.
So why are more of the “Old Guard” Republicans backing Romney? They have witnessed more elections; they know which candidates can win. Gingrich has a lot of baggage, while Romney has shown he can compromise with those on the other side of the aisle to get things done but still abide to Republican ideals. Romney is the electable choice, and those who have been involved in politics see this.
The Tea Partiers support Gingrich as the more conservative choice, because they mainly vote on principle — but voting purely on principle without factoring in electability typically ends in a loss on Election Day.
Palin is right — the GOP needs to let the primary process play itself out, but in doing so, Republican voters need to think about electing someone who can actually win. It’s time to pick a nominee, not throw around conspiracy theories to cloud the nomination process.
Editor’s note: Nathan Inks is the president of the College Republicans.
