All She Has Is Her Principles

        The following post was written in September of 2011. Christine O'Donnell did what most of you and I will never do, She actually acted upon her convictions in such a way that made her a national target of ridicule. She challenged the liberal establishment of Delaware while being criticized by the establishment of her own party! Even today her name is often brought up in relation to the problems that the Tea Party can cause. In reality she was, and is, part of an army of conservatives trying to oust the royalists from the Republican Party. Would not three Bush presidents out of five be a reasonable facsimile of a royal line of monarchy? One thing we can do is when Christine O'Donnell's name is brought up by Republicans in derision, we can defend her efforts, and deny the Republican royalists this inaccurate, dishonest and unethical argument.


         Feudal lords in the upper echelons of the Republican Party treated Delaware Republicans as vassals as they worked against the candidacy of Christine O'Donnell while labeling her  as a troublemaker. How dare her challenge their dictates and not only run for a seat in the United States Senate but beat their handpicked candidate in the primary! O'Donnell titled her newly released book Troublemaker and I highly recommend it to you. She is not only the essence of the Tea Party but also of the overall resurgence of conservative America.
         America's political transformation was jump-started by women.... mothers who were not going to turn their children over to the state, and the Christine O'Donnells who showed the feminists what real womanhood was. I don't have the exact quote before me for I quickly passed her book on, but it was essentially this: Mike Castle, her primary opponent in Delaware, brushed off her challenge to him this way "She has no money, no organization...all she has is her principles". South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint has a seat amongst these same feudal lords and they don't particularly like it. A recent CNN report quoted him in "I don't have the support inside Washington or even inside my own party." The report continued "DeMint took hits from leaders in his own party when Republican incumbents and establishment-favored candidates were brought down by his tea party favorites. This summer, he proved to be one of the most intransigent members of Congress, refusing any compromise with the Obama administration in debt-ceiling negotiations." DeMint is quoted again in, "I was lectured in front of the whole Republican Conference saying, 'DeMint, you don't understand how this place works. It's not about principle, it's about the numbers.' "
         Thomas Jefferson wrote "In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current." Principle is when the corporate executive resigns rather than swim with the current. It's when the incumbent says "If I lose, then I'll go out and get a real job once again." It's when the teacher says "My primary pension will be the responsible citizens, functioning well in our society, who were taught in my classroom." It's the minister who says "I preach Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." It's the editor who says "My job is to inform not instruct."
         Abraham Lincoln wrote: "Important principles may, and must, be inflexible," and that thought is an anathema to the professional political strategist of today. O'Donnell's book is a quick read and an enjoyable read as she is personable, humble and honest. Read it and you too may become a troublemaker to the fiefdoms whose Mike Castles' continue to crumble.