Off with their heads?

When I was in high school I took a class on Russian history. What was really dismaying was the way the communists killed the entire royal family -- Nicholas and Alexandria and all the kids, including Anastasia, as it turns out.

Big question all of us teenage scholars had about that was, why? Was it really necessary to kill them? Couldn't you just exile them or something?

But look at the French Revolution, too. Not only did Louis and Marie lose their heads, but also their tailors and chambermaids. Uprooting the whole monarchial household and the horse they rode in on.  And again, why? Just bitterness? A punishment? What?

Well, so now Charlie Crist, Governor of Florida, started a new trend in the USA that goes some way to explain it. Crist ran against a very conservative guy, Marco Rubio, in the Republican primary for the US Senate. Crist lost. Rather than congratulate Rubio, Crist turned around next day (practically) and announced he was going to run anyway, as an Independent. So there, Marco! Just try and stop me! Do believe Rubio's currently polling ahead of both Crist and the democrat now.

As noted a couple days ago, Christine O'Donnell won a surprising upset in the Delaware Republican primary for the US Senate, defeating Mike Castle, who is a former governor and has served in the US House for about 100 years. To date, Castle has forgotten his manners -- never called to concede and congratulate O'Donnell, as is customary. Perhaps he's holding out for a re-count?

A little while back in the Republican primary in Alaska, Joe Miller won against incumbent Lisa Murkowski. Murkowski announced today to her disaffected following that she will run a campaign anyway as a write-in candidate. Good luck with that. Believe me, the system is so rigged against third-party interlopers, it's kinda like the dems and Reps have forged an iron-clad lock on every election.

This was reported all day on Fox, and discussed to death, mostly that all these upset winners were endorsed by the Tea Party -- which is friend to neither established party, rather only to their own ideals of limited government. But I liked Greta Van Susteren's characterization of these rejected senate wannabes "digging their fingernails into the arms of their chairs" to hang onto their political prestige, rather than face... what?... having to find another job in the economy they helped create?

Anyway, now I get it! If we just guillotined the sore losers, or stood them up against a wall and mowed them down, life would be a lot easier. The Russians and French were just clearing out the deadwood, making sure the Old Guard couldn't tamper with the future.

What astounds me is the ego. I mean, how many times do voters have to say, "Get the hell outa my face!" A certain amount of elitism here? Seems the established Republican leadership as a whole was none too thrilled to have O'Donnell threatening to claim a seat in one of the nation's hallowed chambers. Maybe they're afraid she'll show up hauling a double-wide trailer?

Anyway, all this stuff just convinces me that this housecleaning has been delayed far too long. We seem to be dealing with politicians who have become so used to ignoring the peoples' will that they just refuse to come to grips with their new reality.

Another interesting thing from history. You know, if the slave states hadn't seceded when Lincoln was elected, which threw the nation into Civil War, the slaves probably wouldn't have freed for many more decades, if at all. Abolishing slavery required a Constitutional amendment, which wasn't going to happen with slave states still in the union. It was only because the slave states pulled out that the remaining free states could vote to abolish slavery forever.

So there's a certain wonderful historic parallel and irony about a raving socialist being elected to the presidency and setting off a passionate backlash of recommitment to American principles of liberty and free market capitalism.

And if it means bumping off a few "moderate" (semi-socialist) Republicans in the process, so be it. At least we don't behead them here. And in every case, the rejects could sustain some honor and self-esteem by just gracefully bowing out. No, they volunteer to try for a second public humiliation. Oh well. They never learn, do they?

O'Donnell was at some Republican conference in DC today called "Valu Day" or something like that, conjuring up a blue-light sale at WalMart. Saw snippets of her speech. She said something like, "We're not taking our country back... We ARE the country."

And don't you forgit it.

Can't say how much I love this country. Jefferson predicted with serene confidence that "the people" would always rise to protect their liberty. It really works.

Save the Republic.