My friends in the Tea Parties won't see it this way, but Cox is right: Bevin, et al, have successfully moved the GOP even farther to the Right. Indeed, McConnell is consistently rated as one of the most conservative voters in the U.S. Senate:
McConnell didn't win because he became a Tea Party member – he's so conservative, he didn't have to. (A vote analysis casts him as one of the top 25 conservative members of the Senate, and Tea Party darling and intrastate rival Paul is at number 19.) Instead, McConnell's win just shows how easily the GOP grows over its fringes.What's happening in the Republican party is the worst of both the Tea Party and more traditional "free-market" (but never really as free as advertised) economics: an aggressive "pro-business" agenda combined with radically retrogressive social policies.
But I don't expect the TP maximalists to take any heart from Bevin's loss.... Even worse, most of them will probably hold their noses and vote for Mitch against his formidable Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes.
UPDATE (30.05.2014): Here's middle-of-the-road political analyst Bill Schneider over at Reuters saying much the same thing as Cox on the same day: "How far right can Republicans go?"
UPDATE (30.05.2014): Here's middle-of-the-road political analyst Bill Schneider over at Reuters saying much the same thing as Cox on the same day: "How far right can Republicans go?"
By Ana Marie Cox
May 21, 2014 | Guardian
