David Karki

Thank you, South Carolina! On Saturday, you administered a most-needed beatdown to Mitt Romney and put the lie, once and for all, to the twin myths of his “inevitability” and “electability.” The sheer scale of the wipeout clearly showed just how much Romney is disliked by and will never win over the conservative base, notwithstanding denial-driven emotional protestations by the media and GOP beltway establishment.

So, with the battle now fully joined and what looks to be a long Romney vs. Gingrich primary battle serving as a proxy in the war for the soul of the GOP between the Tea Party and the establishment, we move on to Florida on January 31^st. And while this was a most satisfying victory for both Gingrich and the heretofore quiet conservative base which finally found its voice and deafeningly roared, neither should read more into it than is there or rest on their laurels.

Romney still has a big money and organization advantage, which is no small thing in an expensive state like Florida. He’s been running ads for two weeks and many early votes have already been cast, prior to the big turnaround in South Carolina. So he has a bit of a head start. Rick Santorum will bleed votes away, especially as the establishment uses him as a stalking horse, propping him up as long as they can.

And most of all, the entire “mainstream” media and GOP beltway establishment will now throw everything it has and all the dirt it can muster at Gingrich. The scorched-earth destruction machine is aimed squarely at his white-haired head; all those “Vichy” Republicans content with having sold out the Tea Partiers who got them the House back in 2010 are not about to have their comfortable existence ended by him and all us rabble that have accepted his faults and, with some reluctance, decided that his voice is our best representation among the otherwise uninspiring options available this election. After all, if nothing else Gingrich does seem to have all the right enemies.

That over-the-top reaction – best exemplified by Brit Hume’s unhinged rant to close FOX News’ coverage Saturday night – should be instructive for those of us wanting to see an electoral fight against Obama and not Romney losing even more meekly than McCain did in 2008. (Or, as Gingrich himself put it so succinctly, you’re going to run the guy who lost to the guy who lost to Obama the last time around?) It tells us about both the identity and the nature of the enemies, plural, we face in the Democrats and GOP establishment.

One, they always indicate who they fear most by who they attack (Dems) and fail to defend (GOP) most. This has held true from Robert Bork to Clarence Thomas to Sarah Palin and now Gingrich. Far from backing off when the Democrats and beltway GOP scream, that’s when we should press all the more. That instinct is something completely lacking in the Romney/Boehner/McConnell axis, and why none of the three should be in a position of power come 2013.

Two, they haven’t learned a thing from their over-the-top attacks in the last 30 years. The only one of the four aforementioned targets of the destruction machine to actually be taken down by it was Bork. The others all survived, and Thomas and Palin have gone on to thrive, partly because the attacks against them were so ridiculous that they effectively became martyrs for a cause. Or, as Obi-Wan Kenobi said to Darth Vader in Star Wars: “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.”

I don’t harbor any illusions that many, maybe even the majority of those in South Carolina who voted for Gingrich love or even like him that much. They simply wanted to send a big upraised middle finger message to the establishment that would cram Romney down our throats, and saw the media’s blatantly hypocritical attempts to smear Gingrich with a decades-old tale for what it was. That the media actually managed to turn Newt, of all people, into a legitimate victim of sorts shows just how wildly overdone their attack was. Far from ruining Gingrich, it propelled him to victory. (And to Juan Williams and John King, thank you for that.)

Third, if we mean to have South Carolina leave a lasting impact, we must understand that this is a war for the soul of the country. And that those in power are not going to look at one lost primary and simply accept defeat. One somewhat lucky knockdown in the second round does not mean you immediately start wearing the title belt around your waist.  Now that the opponent has been angered and made to look bad, he will unload on you with every haymaker in his arsenal. Far from the end, this is just the beginning – and we had better be prepared to weather the assault.

Just as the Civil War began with shots fired at Fort Sumter in South Carolina, so too could this be the opening salvo in a  most bitter and vicious presidential election. We should indulge with caution the idea that we can rise up and “roar” without a backlash that will personally affect each of us. We must all be willing to get outside our comfort zone, and not expect a presidential candidate to suffer all the slings and arrows alone.

We have one last opportunity to turn back from the road to outright communism and total insolvency down which Obama (and, to be fair, with a start from Bush before him) has hurled us at warp speed. Two entities stand in our way – the GOP beltway establishment first, and then the Democrats. Gingrich winning South Carolina so overwhelmingly was the first shot taken, and it found its mark. Many more will be needed – and many fired by a very determined opponent will be have to be absorbed – if we are to be successful in this most vital endeavor.

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