Not an insane argument, actually, although it feels insane given Palin’s and DeMint’s big triumph. Much depends on two things, i.e. whether O’Donnell beats Coons in November and whether the GOP takes back both houses of Congress. If she loses, the Mitt brigades will point to it as proof that DeMint conservatives are too risky to gamble on in 2012, that the tea party’s moment has passed and its alleged dominance is overblown, etc. If the GOP wins a majority, Obama and the Dems will blame the tea-party caucus for gridlock, overreach, and so forth, which may or may not resonate with voters depending on the economic circumstances of 2012. Plus, as I’ve been saying for months, the primaries next year will likely develop into a Palin vs. not-Palin dynamic, with “true conservatives” bolting one way and RINOs the other and much ferocious bloodletting occurring between the two. That doesn’t mean Palin herself will be playing the Palin role, but someone will be playing the not-Palin role, and that might not be entirely bad depending upon how strange the events of the next 18 months are. Look at it this way: How many people thought on election night 2008, when the world was abuzz with news of the great liberal “realignment,” that a muscular movement of fiscal conservatives would be in position just two years later to dictate the outcome of Senate races? Stuff happens, and it happens quickly.

That said, though, yeah, it’s rather highly nuanced indeed to think that a centrist candidate would somehow benefit when the right is at its moment of ultimate electoral power. Even if Romney or Daniels or whoever wins the primaries on the backs of RINOs, he’ll need “true conservatives” in the general. Gonna have to give ’em something, but what? And speaking of the right being at a moment of ultimate power, how come we haven’t heard more liberals making the Peter Beinart argument about compulsory voting? It’s got everything a leftist could want: State coercion, an international pedigree, and a surefire way to guarantee turnout from the disheartened, apathetic Democratic base this November. In spite of everything, they still lead in party affiliation so in theory there’s more of them than there are of us. If we can mandate health insurance, why not voting? Compulsion fever — catch it!