Primaries not looking good for insiders

Freedom New Mexico

This is the May of Americans’ discontent, to be made glorious this summer and fall. Tuesday, voters acted firmly against the Establishment, Democratic or Republican, in major races across the country.

The major vote was in Kentucky, where Rand Paul defeated Establishment favorite Trey Grayson for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate. Paul’s win was widely expected. But what was a surprise was the size of his victory: 59 percent to 35 percent. Grayson had been supported by Vice President Dick Cheney and other longtime GOP figures.

Paul clearly benefited from the popularity of his libertarian father, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas. Both are medical doctors. The father enjoys a strong national following and has among the most popular YouTube interviews for politicians.

A key to the Paul victory was the national tea party movement, a loosely organized collection of Americans outraged at out-of-control government at all levels. “We have to stand up and take our government back,” Paul said of his victory. “You have to earn the tea party vote. I interviewed with every one of the different committees in the tea party, and they will ask you, ‘Will you be a rubber stamp for the Republican Party?’ And that’s not a good thing because they say sometimes the Republican Party is wrong.”

No kidding. After eight years of a “conservative” Republican presidency spending the country into insolvency, it isn’t just Democrats who believe that.

The other major defeat voters dealt to Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., a 30-year incumbent. Starting his career as a Democrat, he switched to Republican when it became advantageous, then switched back to being a Democrat. He’s the poster boy of political opportunism.

On Tuesday, Specter was defeated in the Democratic primary by upstart Rep. Joe Sestak, 53 percent to 47 percent. Sestak retired from 30 years in the Navy as a vice admiral. Sestak goes along with President Barack Obama on health care, the bailouts, and the military deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. But he certainly is less of an insider than Specter.

Both Sestak and Paul face potentially difficult elections in November. But their Tuesday victories give them momentum.

“Every so often we have an Outsider Election,” said Jack Pitney, author of “The Art of Political Warfare.” Past instances were the Ross Perot campaign in 1992, the Republican capture of both houses of Congress in 1994 and President Obama in 2008.

“Once an outsider is elected, he becomes an insider,” Pitney said of Obama’s current position. And given the disastrous state of the American economy and general discontent across the land, the insiders are taking the blame. “The problem for the Democrats is they control the presidency and both houses of Congress,” Pitney added. And Democrats now, as insiders, are tied to both the unpopular Wall Street banks and big business in general.

Pitney predicted the rest of 2010 will see “more incumbents lose in both primaries and general elections.” We also expect the trend to “throw the bums out” will continue.

We’ve long warned that major changes need to be made in government at all levels to stop the runaway taxing, spending and borrowing. Fed up, disgusted and outraged, voters finally are taking action.