Matt Bevin. Loser.
The 2014 Senate primary skirmish in the larger Republican civil war has been decided mostly for the establishment. And my, how the vanquished
do whine about it. Seems that
everyone is to blame for their losses, everyone but the tea party candidates themselves, anyway.
Take Bill Connor. He was one of the multitude challenging Sen. Lindsey Graham in South Carolina and he's actually blaming the tea party. He says they promised him funding that never materialized and that he "felt a bit like sticking the neck out and being left in the cold." In that race, FreedomWorks president blames Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC), who Kibbe says let himself be persuaded by Graham to stay out of the primary. And other tea party groups blame the establishment for the fact that they talk people like Connor into running and then don't support them. "Fighting the establishment is never going to be easy. In almost all cases, our guys and gals, our folks get outspent almost across the board," says Kevin Broughton, spokesman for Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund. Then there's Dwayne Stovall in Texas, in another crowded primary against Sen. John Cornyn, who blames some nameless someone who didn't tell him exactly what he was in for. "I wasn't groomed or developed or had the bloodline to be an establishment or a chosen candidate," he said. Damn someone for not telling him that he wasn't qualified to be running!
But the best blamer is easily Matt Bevin, who failed to beat Mitch McConnell and his cronies. Louisville tea party president Andrew Schachnter says it's all Sen. Rand Paul's fault. "Him endorsing Mitch McConnell early on really limited the activists we could convince to join us." And Bevin blames all of the lily-livered people who didn't vote for him.
"We have increasingly less courage in our country and that’s something we suffer from," he said. "It's disappointing to me not even as much as a candidate, but as an American, how apathetic and timid we have become as a nation."
What's utterly lacking in any of these guys is one iota of introspection about their own flaws as candidates, or how maybe—just maybe—the tea party message doesn't resonate beyond a small chunk of voters. Take Bevin himself, who was hurt by "a
revelation he once backed the federal bank bailout and
once spoke at a pro-cockfighting rally." It apparently hasn't even occurred to these guys that they've got a problem with their basic message. Here's Kevin Broughton, spokesman for Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund. "Our message hasn’t changed, our philosophy hasn't changed and our attitude hasn't changed. None of that is going to change based on the results of any one election."
All Republicans have a victim complex, but tea party types take that to the extreme. All of the reasons for their defeat is always going to be someone else's fault, particularly the damn public who just can't be convinced to support them.