There's a quiet war being waged in Washington these days.
The Republican establishment is systematically engaged in marginalizing it's conservative base.
Conservative congressmen, especially any associated with the Tea Party are being denied committee seats and chairmanships they obviously qualify for as a 'punishment' for apparently not going along with some of the GOP leadership's more outrageous cave ins.
It's purge time for conservatives and anyone associated with the Tea Party, and I'm certain that's going to be even more obvious when the funds from the RNC get doled out.
Another obvious sign of this is Jim DeMint's decision to leave the senate to head the Heritage Foundation.
Jen Rubin, the supposed conservative voice at the Washington Post had an unthinking and fairly vicious reaction to this that is probably typical of how the GOP leadership feels about DeMint.
At leqst Rubin shows her true colors. She's obviously not aware that the entire GOP resurgence in 2010 was largely the work of two people - Sarah Palin and Senator DeMint. The largest segment of the party's bench, consisting of people like Marco Rubio,Kelly Ayotte, Nikki Haley, Susana Martinez, Pat Toomey and a host of others in the sneate, house and state offices benefited for their channeling the energy of conservatives and the Tea Party into a GOP resurgence.
Palin's reward for working herself silly in resurrecting the GOP by speaking,endorsements and raising funds through SarahPac was to be denied a speaking role at the 2012 convention, even though she's one of the most effective and dynamic communicators of conservative ideas in America. DeMint's was to have to swim uphill against a dysfunctional GOP establishment until he got sick and tired of it and decided to leave.
Obviously, the GOP leadership figures that they can win elections by becoming Democrat lite, not realizing that people who lean ion that direction would much rather vote for the real thing. If they continue on that path, they will certainly continue to lose elections. 3 million self-described Republicans stayed home last November. If the Republican Party continues to marginalize conservatives in this fashion, even more will do so next time.
Cut off from their base and their principles, the GOP will go the way of the Whigs and be replaced by a new party..and they'll deserve it.
Nature always abhors a vacuum, and vacuums always get filled...especially in politics.
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5 comments:
The best approach for the Republican establishment would be to try and work with Tea Party Conservatives in order to find common ground. Waging war on them is unwise to say the least.
I’ve recently reached the tentative conclusion, that big business and the wealthy are the main source of support for the RINO’s who control the Republican party.
80.8% of Romney's contributions came from big donors, which probably translates into big business (CEO's, VP's) and the wealthy.
Only 18.1% of Romney's contributions came from small contributors, ie small business owners and individuals in the middle class, who I suspect, for the most part are the real supporters of limited government, etc.
I also think probable, that the big donors' support is conditional upon maintaining the economic status quo.
Based on the actions and record of the most influential national republicans, such as Boehner and McConnell, it’s my suspicion that the large donors don't really support limited government or a balanced budget, much less the constitutionally even application of the laws or even a fairly regulated and open free market.
And that the reason for the large donors lack of true support is that those conservative principles would substantially limit the amount of financial leverage that big business and the wealthy use to maintain their accumulation of wealth.
None of this is meant to disparage the importance of big business, as small business doesn’t build nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers, etc. And the accumulation of private investment wealth is the fulcrum upon which societal opportunity is leveraged.
But a positive doesn’t negate a negative.
If what I suspect is so, then it explains why, when crunch time arrives, the top republicans consistently reject and betray the conservative positions they purportedly follow.
They're simply following the money because in the modern media driven, voter marketplace of today, not only their political survival but what limited effectiveness they can achieve... is heavily dependent upon a full political 'larder'.
What prompted this thought train is the many who point out that Boehner, et al continually ‘cave on principle’, when crunch time arrives. It seems reasonable to wonder if more is involved than simply a lack of spine.
And despite the derision from many, one doesn’t attain the position of Speaker without some brains.
Nancy Pelosi notwithstanding, her being in my estimation, a mere feminist figurehead and politically correct spokesperson ;-)
Frankly and most regretfully, I’m wondering if it's just a case of, as a percentage of the vote and, even though certainly in the millions...there's just not enough real conservatives existing today and that those that do have relatively little money to contribute.
If so, that means that if Boehner et al did truly stand on principle, sufficient financial backing would be lacking and the party would never win any elections.
Which of course begs the question; what's the difference between dying of a quick overdose (democrats) or a slow death from cirrhosis of the liver (RINO's)?
i'm wondering if there is any truth to the idea of these conservatives leaving the republican party.
that might remove boehner as speaker. but put pelosi back in power. and we'd be passing legislation to see what it has in it all over again.
granted, the position of both major parties is to kick the can down the road a little farther, i just don't understand that number of 3 million not casting their ballot, against, an america hating marxist.
those must be some really high principles they have there.
louielouie,
I too initially bought into that meme. That millions of conservatives stayed at home. As the figures have continued to accumulated, Romney's votes have surpassed McCain's, Romney now has 60,754,308 votes, so it appears that the meme of alienated conservatives defeating Romney is greatly exaggerated.
Hello Geoffrey,
A more correct way to put it would be 'barely surpassed McCain's'.
If one looks at the total of 55 million registered Republicans, and 42 million registered as independents,plus those registered as Democrats who are conservatives ad did not support Obama, the number of 3 million Republicans who sat out the 2012 elections is probably no understatement.
Some of it was probably due to voter fraud and voter suppression in the military, but any way you slice it there were a lot of members of both parties who sat 2012 out.
Regards,
Rob
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