Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Rand Paul and a few others, did a better job at exposing the *real* side, the hidden side of the establishment Republicans, than ever before.
That –regardless of the pain in recognition– is a big win.
Rule #1 in any conflict is KNOW YOUR ENEMY. I have personally always explained it a little further, saying: Know your enemy, not as they wish to be known, but rather as they know themselves.
I do not believe that Senator McConnell was responsible for the "anomaly" earmark for the Olmsted Dam project in last night's budget deal
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) October 17, 2013
When you know your enemy as he knows himself – you are able to see all of the associations and intents clearly. The distant horizon gets much closer and you do not to spend time trying to analyze the back-lit shadow.
When the enemy is known as they know themselves – you can make strategic decisions in your own best interests, and you don’t have to waste time identifying all those angles normally considered when you are in a relationship of tenable trust.
Secondly, failure to accept the intent of the enemy does not protect you from it. Being blind to the intentions of your opposition is automatic entry into a room of weakness because you will always be evaluating yourself from a position of risk management.
Being fully aware of the intents of the opposition allows you to draw bold distinctions based on principle; and empowers your decisionmaking from a position of strength. There is, quite simply, no longer anything to fear, and solutions become far easier to determine.
Sarah Palin pens an article for Breitbart which outlines the following conclusion:
[…] Friends, do not be discouraged by the shenanigans of D.C.’s permanent political class today. Be energized. We’re going to shake things up in 2014. Rest well tonight, for soon we must focus on important House and Senate races.
Let’s start with Kentucky – which happens to be awfully close to South Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi – from sea to shining sea we will not give up.
We’ve only just begun to fight. (link)
The historical irony embedded within the geography in question is not lost on us…… The Kentucky Rifleman – August 1, 1775 from a gentleman in Frederick to a friend in Philadelphia:
…”I have had the happiness of seeing Captain Michael Cresap marching at the head of a formidable company of perhaps one hundred and thirty men, from the mountains and backwoods, painted like Indians, armed with tomahawks and rifles, dressed in hunting shirts and moccasins, and though some of them had traveled near 800 miles from the banks of the Ohio, they seemed to walk light and easy, and not with less spirit than at the first hour of their march.
Health and vigor, after what they had undergone, declared them to be intimate with hardship, and familiar with danger”…
…”On Friday evening last arrived here, on their way to the American Camp, Captain Cresap’s Company of Riflemen, consisting of 130 active, brave young fellows, many of whom had been in the late expedition under Lord Dunmore against the Indians.
They bear in their bodies visible marks of their prowess, and show scars and wounds… two brothers in the company took a piece of board, five inches broad and seven inches long, with a bit of white paper about the size of a dollar nailed in the center, and while one of them supported this board perpendicularly between his knees, the other at a distance of upwards of sixty yards and without any kind of a rest, shot eight bullets successively through the board, and spared his brother’s thighs.
The spectators, amazed at these feats, were told that there were upwards of fifty persons in the company who could do the same thing; that there was not one who could not plug 19 bullets out of 20 within an inch of the head of a ten-penny nail”…
Word Soon Reached London, England – London Chronicle on August 17, 1775:
“This province has raised 1,000 riflemen, the worst of whom will put a ball into a man’s head at a distance of 150 or 200 yards, therefore advise your officers who shall hereafter come out to America to settle their affairs in England before their departure“.
History comes full circle.
Onward to Kentucky……
