Every election cycle, anyone willing or crazy enough thinks they have a shot at getting elected to political office. For Republicans, this thinking usually ends with a dozen or so angry Christian/constitutional/libertarian/neo/paleo/insert-modifier-here conservatives not speaking to each other and a Democrat in office.
If the GOP wants to get back into the business of winning national elections, it should start by narrowing the field of realistic candidates in primaries.
In the 2008 and 2012 presidential cycles, there were 12 and 11 candidates leading up to the primaries, respectively. Instead of talking it out rationally behind closed doors about who really had the best shot of winning, they chose to rip each other’s guts out in a series of debates on live television.
Anything and everything that could have made a candidate look bad was put forward by fellow party members for the world to see, from Newt Gingrich’s marital drama in 2012 to questions about Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith.
It was appalling.
All the while, the Democrats had it figured out pretty quickly in 2008. It was either going to be
Sen. Hillary Clinton or freshman Sen. Barack Obama on their ticket. They had the advantage of not needing a primary in 2012, which only highlighted the need for Republicans to get their act together quickly.
To maintain this gut-wrenching tradition, there are currently six Republicans on the ballot for this area’s congressional seat, the 6th district, down from the nine that originally declared for the seat. Attorney Cassie Felder’s name may still appear on the ballot, but she has since dropped out.
As you’d expect, the race has become a veritable pissing contest to see who is the most conservative. Bonus points are awarded to the candidate that parts their hair most like President Ronald Reagan and makes the most embarrassing public statements.
Now don’t mistake me, I’m a dyed-in-the-wool conservative, but what I really like are conservatives with a chance of winning.
While we’re engaged in a costly free-for-all, the opposition is sitting back and laughing hysterically at all the money they don’t have to spend to get into the runoff. While no one seriously expects former governor Edwin Edwards to win the seat, the fact that the convicted felon even has a chance at getting anywhere near a position of power is unsettling.
It also begs the question: what if the Democrats were to put forward a legitimately viable candidate? It wasn’t too long ago that Democrat Don Cazayoux defeated Republican Woody Jenkins when former congressman Richard Baker resigned. That shows that it’s not beyond the realm of possibility for a Democrat to win this district, despite it being highly conservative.
Unfortunately, it’s the same story for our senate race.
Congressman Bill Cassidy would likely have the election tied up by this point, negating the need for a runoff, were it not for retired Col. Rob Maness. The undoubtedly more conservative Republican refuses to drop out, despite the LAGOP endorsing Cassidy at the Republican Leadership Conference in late May.
Albeit a more extreme case, this is precisely the behavior I’m talking about. Instead of erring on the side of pragmatism, letting Cassidy take the easy win and ending Sen. Mary Landrieu’s three-term reign, Maness is making it far more difficult than it needs to be for what he sees as Cassidy’s ideological shortcomings.
We can pontificate about who is more like Reagan all we want, but the cold hard truth is that the more we spend, tear each other apart in primaries and squabble about ideological purity, the more likely it is that we’ll continue to see liberal Democrats in office.
Ryan McGehee is a 21-year-old political science and history senior from Zachary, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter @JRyanMcGehee.

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Sam Karlin

Bill Cassidy addresses veterans during a rally at the USS Kidd Veterans Museum Monday.