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1.7 Trillion Reasons to Leave the GOP
As noted elsewhere, this miserable omnibus bill that neutered the incoming GOP House majority was voted for by 18 Senate Republicans. That’s nearly half.
I see more people here on Ricochet and on Twitter who are furious about this, and I am not talking about the usual Damn-the-RINOs brigade. McConnell’s praise for the bill (much misreported, but still praise) is paired with his perverse non-performance going into the recent election — he is seen as one major reason why there is no incoming GOP Senate majority, and now he’s practically dancing on the grave of opposition to Democrats. Senators Ron Johnson and Mike Lee are taking McConnell to the woodshed over it. I hope that lasts into the new session.
This omnibus debacle is “radicalizing” Republicans to oppose the business-as-usual leadership and loser deals that have been the GOP rule for decades. The GOP has been negotiating with the left in order to prosecute a war against its base for too many elections, and the froth on the right has only grown.
Personally, I admit that I’m torn. I’m typically a bit of a bomb-tosser — I do want to win, but I want that win to be valuable. Increasingly, people are seeing diminished value in the GOP.
I don’t think Trump is viable anymore, not even as a stalking horse. We are going to need a new Trump, because there is no way a new Jeb, new Romney, or new McCain will get anywhere in this environment. Meanwhile, people are beginning to appreciate the value of causing pain to change GOP behavior.
How would you like to go broke and become a trivial rump party, GOP? You’ll be threatened by a froth of minor initiatives styling themselves “parties” and “fronts” and “movements.” And you will lose. “Oh, but then the Democrats will ruin this country,” they cry. Newsflash. They’re already doing it, and you’re helping them.
Mitch screwed up big time.
Published in General
Are you proposing a strategy for eventually winning for us?
(If so, what is it? Simply leaving the Republican Party is not a strategy.)
Mitch, if when you sit down at the poker table, you can’t spot the fish? That means the fish is you.
One of my uncles taught me that when I was ten years old.
Mitch thinks we’re the fish.
Once there were Whigs…
It actually might be. If enough people are sick of both parties, a third party is a winner.
Polling has shown that the GOP would come in a distant third in such a three-way race.
DeSantis.
If I had to put money on it today, that’s who I’d bet.
Better have a back-up plan if DeSantis doesn’t run.
Backup plan? I don’t even have a Plan A.
It’s time to leave the GOP. It’s a dead vehicle. The entire party and nominating process is corrupt. All the GOP has done is made the country swallow leftist wins for decades and make them more palatable. That’s been the function and only function of this party.
I still keep thinking of creating a new group within the Republican party that is prepared to fight. It would fight across the Senate and House, and you could only be part of this group if you are prepared to fight the Left. If you wuss out, you’re out.
Come up with candidates that can beat the democrat in a three way race, and I will vote for them. As long as the GOP candidate has a significantly better chance of beating the democrat I will vote for the GOP candidate. Of course, where I live, the democrat is going to win, so my vote is merely a protest vote anyway.
The answer is to look to Governors who have a track record of being conservative for their states and of winning not only winning their original election, but winning re-election. They include but are not limited to DeSantis in Florida, Kemp in Georgia, Abbott in Texas, Ducey in Arizona, Sununu in New Hampshire, and Hogan in Maryland. The last Republican to win the Popular Vote (and not just the Electoral College) was George W. Bush of Texas in 2004. We have won before with Governors, See Reagan, Ronald of California. We can win again with proven winners.
I agree. In practical terms, this means being prepared to abandon those wusses and not support them come election time. If the bad ones and the good ones get supported, then there’s no leverage.
I threw McCain over despite his heroic conduct in war, because his political conduct had become so awful. I’m now done with Mitch despite his much-ballyhoo’d Senate wins. “Crush the Tea Party” and “$1.7 Trillion” should be the two sub-heads under the heading “Downfall” when his story is finished.
It’s hard to support, but I definitely suspect that Mitch & Co. preferred narrow losses in order to blame it on Tea Party / Trump types. Their conduct after the election is certainly consistent with this interpretation. We’ve called them professional losers for years. I’m pretty proud of my own “pol/evo” theory for how this came to be; 40 years of domination in Congress means that the Ds evolved to wield power, while the Rs evolved to escape responsibility. Just like DNA, these things drive behavior in pervasive, insidious ways, and all the excuses and self-soothing moralizing in the world doesn’t change the behavior or the reasons for it. The 2022 election season has shown the GOP actively resisting victory, and celebrating the emasculation of the incoming House majority.
I do favor a Tea Party approach — I mean if we stay (by label) in the R club, then it’s fair to expect us to support “our guy”. But if it’s not our guy at all, by rejecting the label, we send a message before it’s too late. I do not expect us to get a Trump or Trump-lite into office this time around. The wounds are too fresh, and frankly, are still being inflicted. And like a lot of people, I am not interested in voting for the next McCain or Romney, Collins or Murkowski, Kinzinger or Cheney.
“Leave” may not be the right word, but it’s pretty close, and it fits pithily in the title.
What you mean “we”, paleface?
And so far, he’s been right about that.
A friend of mine put it this way — you can only see down the road at night as far as your headlights illuminate. Doesn’t mean you wait for day.
So there is no strategy.
My side hurts too much from laughing.
The method is to force the pointy-headed strategizers to change their behavior. Taking the base for granted while bankrupting the country is “not a strategy”.
If you want a point paper (or even a legislative agenda), good luck getting one from the GOP. We’re just voters here, don’t mind us.
It kind of exists, and the old guard in the GOP are trying to destroy it.
Well, we have to “arm up” and fight back harder. Let ’em try; our anger is fortifying our efforts!
The thing is, you’re going to have to trust your instincts on that. You will be told that your chosen third-party candidate cannot win — by every establishment organ. They will lie to you. They always lie to you. They will tell you that the candidate you prefer does not have “candidate quality” or some made-up garbage, and lure you away.
You must stand strong against this propaganda.
Oh it certainly is. I have never seen so much anger at Washington as I’m seeing these days. Even the low-information voters are getting it.
Right. Go back through posts on this site right up to election night of 2016, and taste the smug, superior, preening satisfaction of Our Betters insulting and remonstrating us about the categorically proven mathematical impossiblity of Trump winning the election.
I’m not saying our long shot will come in in 2024. I AM saying what Drew is saying. Make your mind up, ignore the ninny choir, and press on!
Also, figure out who the choir directors are, and note all the other disastrous concerts they’ve conducted.
No. I am noticing and appreciating a powerful reaction to an utter failure of the GOP to produce or execute a strategy for winning. They appear to be successfully pursuing a strategy for LOSING.
Since the Tea Party, the only force that has animated this rotting husk has been we the angry base, and we’re getting more angry — and increasingly at the GOP. This is right and good.
Indeed there isn’t. Maybe Mitch’s dog ate it. Certainly you don’t expect it to pop up at Ricochet, do you?
I think one of the first things to do is to refuse to donate to any of the generic GOP groups (like the Senate Committee run by McConnell or the RNC). Only donate directly to those you have a direct – and good – evaluation of.
Hogan is the first Republican in about 50 years to be re-elected as Maryland’s Governor. He is a fiscal conservative and a voice of sanity in a very liberal state.