Michigan11
08-05-2010, 03:21 PM
http://apps.detnews.com/apps/blogs/watercooler/index.php?blogid=447
Read it all..... our movement is catching on :eek:
3rd Congressional District: West Michigan goes rogue
There's no overstating the dramatic nature of what happened last night in the 3rd Congressional District's GOP primary. The victory of Ron Paul admirer Justin Amash - who will almost certainly win the seat being vacated by Vern Ehlers - is like a nuclear bomb going off here in the Grand Rapids area.
If it seems like I'm exaggerating the case, because you've always heard how conservative West Michigan is, let me elaborate.
West Michigan conservatism is not the type that champions, say, radical downsizing of government. People here will tell you about their "work ethic" and their opposition to abortion. But the civic and business establishment here has always put its resources behind congressional candidates who would get along by going along in Washington - never rocking the boat and always making sure to bring home West Michigan's slice of the federal pie.
That's how we ended up with a Republican like Ehlers, who pork-barreled with the best of them, and voted against drilling in the ANWR so as not to upset his friends at the West Michigan Environmental Action Council. His predecessor, Paul Henry, was exactly the same way.
People here think Gerald Ford was the greatest Republican ever.
So when Ehlers announced his retirement, the establishment got behind long-time civic leader Steve Heacock, who had connections to the Amway founders and to party leaders. Heacock won endorsements from mucky-mucks like former Ambassador to Italy Peter Secchia, former Grand Rapids Mayor John Logie, the Grand Rapids Press and, of course, Ehlers himself.
Around here, when you get all that, you win. Until this year.
Heacock absolutely got his clock cleaned yesterday, coming in third behind Amash, a state representative from Kentwood, and Bill Hardiman, a state senator also from Kentwood.
I have reservations about anyone who likes Ron Paul, but I don't think that's why Amash won. He won because the people of this district - and I'm talking about the Republicans - have awoken from a slumber in which they had failed to recognize their countenancing of the old ways was part of the nation's growing fiscal problem. And when the establishment told them to send a Ford/Henry/Ehlers clone to Washington to deliver more of the same, the voters said no way.
This. Is. Huge.
Read it all..... our movement is catching on :eek:
3rd Congressional District: West Michigan goes rogue
There's no overstating the dramatic nature of what happened last night in the 3rd Congressional District's GOP primary. The victory of Ron Paul admirer Justin Amash - who will almost certainly win the seat being vacated by Vern Ehlers - is like a nuclear bomb going off here in the Grand Rapids area.
If it seems like I'm exaggerating the case, because you've always heard how conservative West Michigan is, let me elaborate.
West Michigan conservatism is not the type that champions, say, radical downsizing of government. People here will tell you about their "work ethic" and their opposition to abortion. But the civic and business establishment here has always put its resources behind congressional candidates who would get along by going along in Washington - never rocking the boat and always making sure to bring home West Michigan's slice of the federal pie.
That's how we ended up with a Republican like Ehlers, who pork-barreled with the best of them, and voted against drilling in the ANWR so as not to upset his friends at the West Michigan Environmental Action Council. His predecessor, Paul Henry, was exactly the same way.
People here think Gerald Ford was the greatest Republican ever.
So when Ehlers announced his retirement, the establishment got behind long-time civic leader Steve Heacock, who had connections to the Amway founders and to party leaders. Heacock won endorsements from mucky-mucks like former Ambassador to Italy Peter Secchia, former Grand Rapids Mayor John Logie, the Grand Rapids Press and, of course, Ehlers himself.
Around here, when you get all that, you win. Until this year.
Heacock absolutely got his clock cleaned yesterday, coming in third behind Amash, a state representative from Kentwood, and Bill Hardiman, a state senator also from Kentwood.
I have reservations about anyone who likes Ron Paul, but I don't think that's why Amash won. He won because the people of this district - and I'm talking about the Republicans - have awoken from a slumber in which they had failed to recognize their countenancing of the old ways was part of the nation's growing fiscal problem. And when the establishment told them to send a Ford/Henry/Ehlers clone to Washington to deliver more of the same, the voters said no way.
This. Is. Huge.