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12 Times the GOP Establishment Kicked the Conservative Base in the Teeth
1. The 2014 Mississippi Senate Primary: In order to stop Tea Party Conservative Chris McDaniel from unseating Thad Cochrane, a superannuated Washington lover of pork spending (who didn’t even want to run for re-election), the GOP establishment ran a ruthless campaign of attacks and dirty tricks, and when those failed, they openly courted Democrat voters to cross over into a Republican primary. (The GOP-E also intervened in Kentucky and Kansas to protect moderate establishment Republicans from conservative opponents.)
2. Funding Obamacare and Executive Amnesty: In 2015, the GOP Congress voted to fully fund Obamacare and Obama’s Executive Amnesty, despite campaigning in 2014 on a promise to defund both. Defunding them against an entrenched Democrat administration was always unlikely. However, the GOP-E went beyond failure by attacking conservative Congressmen and Senators who fought to defund them as extremists who were siding with terrorists.
3. Virginia Governor Election. In 2013, the moderate GOP Establishment undercut and refused to support Tea Party Conservative Ken Cuccinelli’s 2013 campaign for governor of Virginia, allowing deeply corrupt Clinton crony Terry MacAuliffe to win narrowly.
4. Gang of Eight: In 2013, Republican Senator Marco Rubio (along with John McCain and other DIABLOS) allied with far-left New York Democrat Charles Schumer to sponsor the “Gang of Eight” Immigration Reform Bill. The bill not only guaranteed amnesty for illegal immigrants, but its border security provisions were filled with loopholes and waivers, and the whole thing was stuffed with special interest spending.
5. Gang of 14: In 2005, moderate Republican John McCain leads the “Gang of 14” senators to make a compromise with Democrats, abandoning conservative judges nominated to the Federal Courts the Democrats had been filibustering. McCain considered the “nuclear option” of ending the partisan filibusters of Judicial Nominations unthinkable, and sponsored the Gang of 14 compromise to prevent it. Harry Reid, as Leader of a Democrat majority Congress, would later use the “nuclear option” to stuff the courts with Obama judicial appointments.
6. Undercutting Conservatives in Congressional and Senate Elections: In 2014, the GOP Establishment funded a primary campaign opponent to libertarian Congressman Justin Amash. Their tactics included a sleazy campaign ad suggesting the congressman (who is of Middle Eastern heritage) was sympathetic to Al Qaeda. (This is part of a longstanding GOP Establishment policy to backstab conservatives in House and Senate races when their preferred candidate is rejected by primary voters: See also Dede Scozzafava and Liza Murkowski)
7. Border Security: In 2006, the GOP Congress passed a law requiring over 900 miles of double layer fencing to be built on the Southwestern border. In 2007, Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison sponsored a bill gutting the fence requirement. The fence was never built. (Yet the GOP still claims to support “border security.”)
8. TARP: In 2008, over the objections of Conservatives in Congress, the Bush Administration in its last days pushed through TARP, a massive taxpayer bailout of large, politically-connected banks and labor unions. Conservatives had offered a less expensive, less Government-empowering alternative to TARP, but were ignored by the leadership who cut a deal with Democrats instead.
9. Allen West: In 2012, The Florida GOP gerrymanders Tea Party conservative Allen West’s district to a Democrat majority.
10. Supreme Court Saves Obamacare: In 2012, Bush-appointed Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts saved Obamacare by pretending to find that its enforcement provisions were just a tax. In 2015, John Roberts saved Obamacare again by pretending that the Federal subsidies were supposed to flow regardless of the explicit language of the law and the expressed intent of those who passed it. John Roberts had previously voted to gut Arizona’s Immigration Enforcement laws on the basis that unwritten Federal policies carried more weight than written law.
11. George H.W. Bush Raises Taxes. In 1990, President George H.W. Bush cuts a backroom deal with Senate Democrats to raise taxes, violating a campaign pledge not to raise taxes during his administration.
12. Iran Deal: Passing the Corker Bill to cede treaty power to Democrat minority with regard to the Iran Nuclear Deal, the convoluted plan allowed the bill to pass while forcing Democrats to vote on an unpopular administration bill. But the Democrats just filibustered the bill and avoided the vote, notching up a big win for Obama. This is worth remembering any time the GOP Establishment tells you that that their differences with the conservatives are just about “tactics,” and they are the smart ones when it comes to “tactics.”
Published in General, Politics
Stand by for Somebody from Someplace to show up , tut-tut your post, and tell us what an excellent job the GOP has done the past few years, and how happy and grateful we should all be to them, and why-ever should we be angry at these wonderful public servants?
Well put. and they wonder why we are angry. However, we should not lose sight of the cause itself & do something that weakens and does not further the cause, like supporting a third party or becoming so fragmented that we hand more elections to the leftists.
Thanks for the list V, that really brings things into focus.
It’s the party of Thad Cochran.
It’s the party of Bush and Bushies.
They demand loyalty but won’t give it.
They lie to their allies.
Wait a short while for my post on my ballot in Snohomish County, Washington. When I get home tonight it will be done.
To this list I would add letting Lois Lerner off the hook. She was the GOP Establishments default hacket man for making sure that the Tea Party was a stillbirth.
I remember them all, but reading them listed here brings it all back with a bullet. Thanks, but you are kinda putting me in a mood…
I pulled this from your # 9:
“Turns out Will Weatherford, the GOP’s state House redistricting chairman, is also a Mitt Romney fan. Coincidence, or evidence that the Republican establishment is trying to push one of the tea party’s biggest rock stars towards the door?”
I met Allen West on the 2014 National Review post-election cruise, and I can tell you this: he’s not angry or bitter about what “they” did to him, and he’s moved on to other things. But, it told me a lot about the Republican establishment. They should be reviled . . .
Yes, there is really something wrong in the Party, isn’t there? Why aren’t we seeing books written by people who have witnessed all the backroom strategy sessions. This stuff is deliberate, stupid and vicious. They have one common thing with the Democrats — they hate conservatives, too. This is the common bond that brings them together.
Well put.
Thanks V. Right on. We’ve been had by GOPe. They are now doctoring delegate rules to to ensure Bush survives.
It used to be that William Weatherford could be counted on to do things like fighting off immigrants, but I guess that was in another generation.
How exactly can you blame the GOP for the actions of the Supreme Court?
V the K, since you are singing this song, we should play yours:
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/vikingkittens
Shouldn’t they be Norwegian Forest Cats?
They have dug the hole they are in and they have the temerity to complain that it is dark and damp down there,
If the hole they are in is dark and damp, perhaps conservatives could help them with the problem – by dumping napalm in the hole and lighting it. If you build a man a fire you warm him for a night. If you set a man on fire you warm him for the rest of his life.
The Democrats are a criminal organization masquerading as a political party, and the GOP establishment are their enablers.
Utterly Wrong. Obama already had the statutory authority to lift the sanctions. The Corker bill did not cede the treaty power. This is talk radio hand wringing, not reality.
It was pretty surreal to be on the ground in Mississippi and see the knee-capping of Chris McDaniel in person. It neutered the activists in my part of the State, which was part of the goal. They have pretty much given up and Tea Party/Conservative Coalition events that used to get 40 or 50 people now have trouble filling a party room at a Chinese buffet.
Everyone is aware that this bill died, right? It never passed because Boehner killed it. Remember Boehner? That establishment hack you despise so much.
These are not elected officials. This entire complaint is bizarre. John Roberts is the GOP establishment?
#9 Gave FL a dilettante, Patrick Murphy D, now running for U.S. Senate with intellect and political acumen of Kevin McCarthy instead of USMC hero Allen West. Thanks so much for the reminder of who to blame.
Not engaging in a shut down battle that cannot be won is your idea of being kicked in the teeth?
Who appointed him? It’s a little disingenuous for the GOP to say, “Elect us because Democrat judicial appointees will destroy the country” then when their own appointees crap on the Constitution, disclaim any responsibility for them.
But here’s the thing: Next November most of the people nodding their head in agreement with this list is going to pull the level for whoever the Republican nominee is.
I certainly hope so. As maddening as the GOP can be, they are (with the exception of the execrable Trump) far better than any Democrat incumbent I can think of. There worst thing we can do is pout and leave the field to the leftist crazies.
At the time of his appointment, no one voiced any such fears. There was no republican who thought him a bad choice.
Is George W Bush supposed to have mind reading powers?
Thank God. The consequences of not doing so are awful. Everyone still remembers Barack Obama, right?
Fred won’t agree to that, as he is the treasurer of the “republicans are no better than democrats club”.