I was listening to the great Howie Carr last night and he did a segment on the Bob Smith-Scott Brown-Jeanne Shaheen Senate campaign in New Hampshire. For those unfamiliar with the details, here’s a quick primer. Jeanne Shaheen is a moonbat, who won her seat in 2008. She beat John Sununu, a guy who mostly got by on the family name. In a big Democrat year, weaklings like Sununu were easy prey. Now the shoe is on the other foot and a lot of experts think she is vulnerable. That’s why Scott Brown moved to New Hampshire so he could run against her.

It is also why Bob Smith moved back to the state. He was a senator from New Hampshire for a long time and was a reliable old school conservative. Like a lot of those guys he went slightly bonkers in the Bush years over the invade the world/invite the world stuff. The Bush people ran Sununu against him in the primary, thus ending Bob Smith the senator.

He’s now back looking for a little payback. He’s also running as the conservative alternative to the liberal Scott Brown. The Conventional Right and many Republicans are framing it as the imperfect, but electable Scott Brown versus the unelectable ideologue Bob Smith. Do you vote your heart and let the Democrats keep the seat or do you hold your nose and vote for the fop?

That’s the setup and that’s how the radio segment was setup. It was a steady diet of locals saying you take the best you can get and that’s Brown, because he can win. One guy said it was like poker. You play the hand you’re dealt. The ideologues just keep folding because they don’t get the hand they want. The fact that the analogy works better the other way was not noticed by the host or the callers.

One guy, a libertarian, made a try at arguing against voting for the least worst option, but the host was having none of it. The belief that libertarians are sympatico with conservatives is a mistake, I think. Libertarians have more in common with the Left than the Right, when it comes to these things. The called simply could not get his mind around the idea of taking half a loaf rather than no loaf.

As for the race, I’m not sure why anyone thinks Brown can win. Current polling has him trailing badly. It is still early and the last polls are over a month old. The immigration issue will put a dent in Shaheen’s support. Brown is up with ads bashing Shaheen’s record on immigration. Plus, he has been a late bloomer because he is a nice guy. He gets a late push from the undecided voter who finds him pleasant.

On the other hand, New Hampshire is a weird state. They hate outsiders almost as much as West Virginians. The people Brown needs to win are not going to see him as a local. Instead they will see him as a turd sandwich from Massachusetts and just stay home. That throws the whole argument about Smith and Brown out the window. If the choice is a turd sandwich that can’t win and the true blue conservative who can’t win, you send a message.

One argument in the segment got my attention. It is an oldie I first recall hearing in the 70’s. That is, a guy who votes your way half the time is better than a guy who votes against you all the time. It sounds reasonable, which is why the liberal wing of the GOP always says it. A caller put it this way. “Brown will only screw me half the time, while Shaheen will screw me all the time.”

Again, that sounds good until you think about it. What if, as has been the case with the GOP, those issues they fuck you on are the big ones? Sure, the GOP has been pretty good about cutting taxes on rich people, but so what? Since Reagan burst on the scene, the Federal state has grown bigger, more intrusive and more expensive. For fiscal year 1980, the total outstanding Federal debt was $908 Billion. When Bush the Minor left office it was $9 Trillion.

The size and scope of the Federal state has grown geometrically since 1980. Gun laws? We have more of them. Tax laws? We have quadrupled the size of the tax code. Immigration? There were 3 million illegals here in 1986 at the time of the amnesty. We have 30 million illegals and more flooding over the border. Regulations? The code is five times larger than it was in 1980. Culture? In the 80’s Eddie Murphy was making jokes about homosexuals and AIDS. Today they put you in jail for it.

I could go on, but the point is obvious. The “half-fucked” strategy is not working. If the guys arguing in favor of accepting half a rape could point to some success, then maybe they would not have to counsel laying down and quietly taking it. No matter how you feel about your favorite Republican, the evidence says the GOP is never going to beat the Liberal Democrats at anything. Doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result, is not madness. It is stupidity.

Take a look at the Left. In the 1990’s they did not like the direction of their party so they started backing the Green Party. It cost them some elections. It may have even put Bush in the White House. But, the result was a far more liberal party. The Democrat Party is now wholly owned by the Left. Maybe the Right should take the same approach. Getting raped by a liberal Republican is no better than getting raped by a liberal Democrat. Maybe losing a few elections will force the Republicans to change as it forced the Democrats to change.