A note to former Murphy supporters
We can watch the train go over the cliff with us still on it, or we can fight to control the locomotive. That's the difference between Martin O'Malley and Bob Ehrlich.
Voters’ memories are notoriously short and if you asked them right now whether the name Brian Murphy rings a bell, 95% of them will say no.
I’ll certainly grant Bob Ehrlich isn’t my preferred candidate but I’d rather have someone who at least would have conservatives at the table than one who would shut them out. We need to send the message that our continued support is contingent on following through on issues near and dear to us.
In the meantime, we also have work to do reforming the MDGOP. Taking our ball and going home simply means they can continue business as usual. The more talk about going third party or skipping the election, the more ability the establishment has to marginalize those of us who choose to fight from within.
I left that comment at Ann Corcoran's Potomac Tea Party Report. Obviously there's a subset of people who believe that all is lost after Murphy's defeat (as well as that of Jim Rutledge) and are willing to toss their votes out the window to support a third-party candidate. Once upon a time millions of Americans (including me) did that for Ross Perot and we got Bill Clinton.
There's no doubt that Brian Murphy was a more conservative candidate, nor do I dispute the claim that the Maryland GOP put its finger on the scale big-time when they waived Rule 11 to back Bob Ehrlich.
But all of these people need to understand that we only lost one battle in a war that's going to be fought long-term. If we fade back into the woodwork nothing will change. Those of us who are fighting the battle from within would be the ones left high and dry, smacked back into oblivion by the machine that we're trying to fight this guerrilla struggle against.
If we stay at the table and Ehrlich wins, he's going to owe us bigtime. I don't know if Bob can run again if he wins, but conservatives would be in the far better position with a Republican in the governor's chair and enhanced numbers in the General Assembly than we would with Martin O'Malley back in charge. Remember, Martin O'Malley represents a party whose Senate leadership vowed:
(GOP leaders are) “going to be flying high, but we’re going to get together and we’re going to shoot them down. We’re going to bury them face down in the ground, and it’ll be 10 years before they crawl out again.”
That's how they operate in this state, my friends. Martin O'Malley would sooner give up his guitar than do something for conservatives. I've known this for awhile.
If diehard Murphy supporters leave or vote third party, we are ceding the hard-fought gains we've won in this battle and it's going to be twice as hard to get it back in a war where the enemy holds all of the high ground. I don't care for compromise, and certainly it would have been great to see success like conservatives saw in Delaware. But we still have a lot worth fighting for, and staving off extinction through redistricting is a serious prize to me. Democrats have plenty of plans to carve Republicans right off the electoral map.
Sure, it would be nice to get the Libertarians and Constitution Party their 1% to stay viable for another term. But let it come out of the other guy's total.