How good is Robert Stacy McCain? He takes a perceived personal slight and turns it into an expose into what went wrong for the GOP. The payoff:
Like the corporate manager who loses sight of his responsibility to the customers and to the stockholders, the Republican elite have lost sight of whose interests the party was intended to serve. What is really at issue here is, “Whose party is this?”
Is this a party that belongs to Republican voters? Or is it a party that belongs to the hired consultants and strategists, the think-tank wonks and lobbyists, the Kathleen Parkers and David Brookses? And of these two groups, which is more responsible for the GOP’s recent defeats — the elite or the grassroots? On Election Night, I wrote an American Spectator column with the title, “You Did Not Lose,” which I think accurately answers that question.
Republican voters are more powerful than the Republican elite; the latter are dependent on the former, and not vice versa. If the elite no longer serves the interests of the voters, a new elite can be easily created. Ambitious young Republican political operatives are a dime a dozen in Washington. It is only because the grassroots don’t know their own power that they have put up with the elite’s abuse as long as they have.
