O'Donnell does Delaware: A great victory for the forces of anti-masturbatory repression

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Yes, the anti-masturbator won.

Far-rightist Christine O'Donnell "upset" establishmentarian conservative Mike Castle to win the Republican Senate nomination in Delaware.

Meaning that Republicans just handed a winnable race to the Democrats. Because, one would think, the good people of Delaware, the voters who will show up at the polls in November, haven't completely gone nuts. And you have to be completely nuts, in a politically extremist sort of way, to back someone like O'Donnell.

It's a nightmare for Republicans, says Politico, but is it? Isn't the GOP just reaping what it is has been sowing? Isn't this what the party wants, what it dreams about? A shrewd insider like Karl Rove may lament O'Donnell's victory, but the party as a whole has been moving ever further to the right in recent years, so much so that an extremist like O'Donnell is well within the Republican mainstream. Her win wasn't a surprise, it was almost an inevitability.

The New York Times writes that O'Donnell's win in Delaware and similar far-rightist Carl Paladino's win over establishmentarian Rick Lazio in New York's Republican gubernatorial primary were insurgent wins. But were they? Yes, insofar as the less extremist candidates won and insofar as these two were backed by the far-right base that dominates the party, but, again, should we be surprised? If anything, these two are more Republican than their more moderate opponents. Is it really an insurgency when the supposed outsiders have become the new mainstream?