Thursday, July 15, 2010

Mike Castle and how to win as a Republican in a rural Yankee state

Downtown Dover, Delaware, Photo by Tim Keiser, under license c.c.a.s.a 2.0 generic


His list of priorities, as listed on his website, are as follows: "Fighting for Delaware", "Jobs", "Energy Independence", "Good Governance", "Education", "Supporting Our Troops", and "Healthcare", in that order and stated in that fashion with bullet points, and lengthy, folksy, passionate discourses below. His opponents are not listed in any particular order, but instead can be selected from a drop down menu, and include "Economy", "Education", "Energy", "Environment", "Financial Reform", "Health Care", "National Security," and finally, "Offshore Oil Drilling", which last time I checked is not a major revenue source for the state of Delaware - stated profesionally, technically, scholastically, transactionally, and without any reference to the state he seeks to represent.

Now, to be fair, this is not displayed on a separate page, but directly on a menu on home, and if you click the "issues" button up top instead of viewing the drop down menu (which you will see first), it goes to a page with little boxes surrounding each issue and stereotypical pictures of what people would think of when they consider that issue, but in no picture is Delaware clearly seen, and your eyes go all over the page, and every time that the words "Delaware" or "Delawarean" are used, they are in small print, below the more important "Energy", "Economy" and "Education"s that are many times their size. The picture of Coons, gazing seriously with the eyes of a hawk, could just as easily be used in a newspaper advertisement for a law firm.

For some time now, Harry Reid has been asking local Democrat senators, such as Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Ben Nelson (D-NE), to forsake whatever their constituencies might want for the sake of passing progressive national legislation. When they ask about their own voters, he offers earmarks, and money, to essentially bribe whatever constituency he feels needs to be pulled along.
[Source] He points to the use of Republican filibusters as a common enemy, and whips all of them together to march lock step lock step in favor of the agenda that the party as a whole has advanced. Coons mentions Delaware only as a part of the larger whole, like: "Delawareans, as well as the entire country, have felt the effects of the current economic climate." Ad libs off of that phrase could capture the entirety of both Coons', Reids and Pelosis platform.

Like Andrew Jackson before him with his decision to evict a peaceful and economically successful native people, the Cherokees, from the state of Georgia without Georgias consent, Coon sees not 50 individual states, but a larger agenda that he (hopefully) sees Delaware benefiting from, but never the main focus of. Castle has not once taken his eyes off of Delaware, and you can see his very website swelling with state pride.

A full profile of the election from the NY Times seems to show very little optimism on the part of democrats in Delaware, with the appointed replacement to Biden not seeking a full term, nor Bidens relatively popular Attorney General of a son, and RCP shows Castle ahead of Coons by double digits. Castle has been Delawares sole house member for 17 years, and is a moderate Republican used to routinely working with Democrats. More importantly, I suspect, is that he is a true Delawarean, while Coons is the executive of Delawares largest, northernmost and urbane county, essentially an extension of Philadelphia, with nothing in common with the remainder of the state, and no real care for it. The democrats, like Pelosi and like Coons, have lost themselves in the dream, and this will hurt them among rural northeastern townspeople, who clearly believe in representatives representing.

4 comments:

Scott said...

NEWSFLASH: Mike Castle is going to lose in the Republican primary on September 14 to conservative Christine O'Donnell.

Just thought you should know...

Unknown said...

I do not know which is better than another... but I heard that actor Chuck Norris said in March that would be willing to sit at the head of a secessionist movement to "release" Texas, whose president could be himself. In an editorial published in March ultra-conservative WorldNetDaily website, the actor who portrays him Walker writes: "East Coast West Coast, America seems to depart more and more the vision of its founding fathers. How will Americans swallow? When will enough be enough? Not saying that other states would have the courage to start on the path of secession, but Texas has a history that can prove that. " "Lone wolf" and claims that thousands of cells are held right across the U.S. and expects to stage another revolution in the U.S.. The only things that are bound Texas farm and cowboy hat are not separated. Norris was born in Oklahoma and raised in Southern California.”

PS _ and you have an award to pick_up from my "bloody" blog...and it's not a bribe for your JJ's club. smiles.
All the best, man!
Dy

Jeremy Janson said...

@Scott: Well I'm not so sure about that, the guy seems awful popular.

@Dyeve: "They say it never rains in Southern- California---" You know as much as I like Texans sometimes I really do have to wonder how much cow shit can really be contained in one persons body. My mom grew up in Texas, I still have a lot of family there, and I'll tell ya, no one trash talks like a Texan. It doesn't even occur to them that they're not the only state that has cowboys - they're not even the state that has the most cowboys, in fact they're pretty urban actually.

BTW, you do realize the fan club was just a way of making fun of Sensi right? Speaking of trash talk, if you're in the mood for some: www.blogcatalog.com . That's where me, Dyeve and Sensi know each other from. The site's run out of San Antonio, which I'm sure helps.

Jeremy Janson said...

Thanks for the extra traffic dyeve! :)