Why Do We Shoot Our Wounded?

I have a great friend who served...and I mean served, he didnt just occupy the seat...for a southern California assembly district for two terms. An On-fire conservative who after term-limiting out of Sacramento, took a stab at a vacated Congressional seat. He lost in the primary, but continued to pour himself into conservative causes. He led the charge to recall Gray Davis. He helped give the tea party movement national gravitas, changing the course of several national elections and who can even begin to estimate the ripple effect on local elections around the country.

I mention him because at dinner a few weeks ago he confessed to me that..." After losing the congressional bid I accepted that I was politically dead."

Nick Popaditch, a conservative candidate for the 51st Congressional district in San Diego, California this past November fought as fierce a firefight as a Marine could hope for against a deeply entrenched and long-term liberal incumbent. This incumbent is returning to Washington. And again, at dinner, Popaditch revealed to me that losing is like dying. Everyone offers their condolences, then starts the search for another candidate.

A very well acknowledged tea party "organization"...national scale, million-dollar budget...proposes as part of their strategy for 2011-12 to connect with, celebrate and "model" the tea party candidates who won, not a word about the Joe Millers and Christine O' Donnells.

Don't get me wrong. Of course you need to model winning strategy. But Conservatives prefer to shoot their wounded.

I've got a better idea. Lets embrace the battle-scarred and beaten. Lets hear their wisdom, study the intel they've brought back from the field, encourage them and put them back in the fight. These are the people who have demonstarted a willingness to pledge their lives, their fortunes and sacred honor in defense of the Constitution. How many of us will step forward if we demonstrate the cost of failure is banishment. We lose this seasoned candidate's organization, goodwill and experience.

How many elections did Abraham Lincoln lose before he was elected president? We celebrate wins, but we study losses.

We shoot the wounded because we're looking for heroes-David, stepping into the valley to slay Goliath. We don't want to think of David as being no better than us. Either we're so arrogant that we refuse to support anyone less "perfect" than ourselves or so insecure that imperfections strike to close to home, and remind us of our own shortcomings. We rally behind our champion and, failing, quickly toss them aside in disappointment, even embarassment.

The "Opposition" counts on this conflict. Saul Alinsky, the chief tactician for liberal "organizers," writes in his handbook the fourth rule of power: Makethe enemy live up to their own rules. He writes this because he knows that we HAVE rules. We won't always live up to our "rules" (we're human) so we're hypocrites. We don't like facing that truth so we typically sit silent on the sidelines or, if a candidate loses, we toss them aside and look for a more perfect representative.

Since we're all wounded, why not build on the experience of battle-scars. If we aren't going to be combatants, let's be good corner-men. Having trotted out a champion-asking him or her to take a few shots for the team-let's leave them in the fight for the second or third round, even if they stumbled in the first.

America loves a winner, but we also love a comeback.

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