DeMint, Armey and the rump Movement et al. largely already won their initial objectives. Just by saying ‘boo!’ since August 2009.
From a shadow fallen so low none could foresee its rise again in 2008, the Movement now is a confidently self-organizing dominant voice in our rootless, meme-soaked apolitical consciousness. It’s a remarkable achievement. True, willfully inept enablers in the Obama Administration and on Capitol Hill played their vital part, flinching on cue, passively reacting. The rump Movement (still fragmented and at partial strength) governs this country increasingly by negative implication.
You, Dear Reader, know the Movement is apart and separate from Republicans. We’ve discussed this in depth for 5 or 6 years. Some like Chuck Todd are reporting on this today, September 15th, as breaking news and insight. At least he knows what the soup of the day is in the White House before the rest of us.
If Republicans take the House or more remotely, the Senate, ‘Republicans’ regain perks like Chairmanships, larger staff and subpoenas. The Movement’s notion of winning, however, is not so pedestrian. Like all Movements from the Continent before, today’s American subset is bent on acting out its narrative of grievances. That narrative (as always before) is too expansive for mere institutional titles and rules.