We went to our local Lincoln Day dinner last night and got a full dose of Republican politics. It’s a lively time for the party with fresh candidates popping out of the woodwork everywhere you look. A lot of tea party energy was in evidence, however I sensed a retrenchment on the part of the GOP establishment. If they think they know best how to defeat the left, they “have some ‘splainin’ to do” about how their past leadership brought us a Democrat state government and two Democrat senators. Tea party candidates have no prospects as a third party, however it’s unreasonable to expect GOP guardians to just morph into constitutional conservatives and incorporate tea party fundamentals. Conservative principles have been on the table all along and they weren’t sufficiently compelling to the GOP the last time they had the majority. We will get Republicans elected next Fall because the left have scared the crap out of mainstream America with their Weather Underground/Ayers/Alinsky/Muslim Brotherhood/socialist revolution. But I worry that the self-interest of the GOP old guard will come before the “self-evident truths we hold.” Many battles lie ahead.