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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
Everyone is aware the bill was born and passed bipartisan in the Senate, right? It passed because Marco Rubio campaigned breathlessly for it. Remember Rubio? That rock ribbed conservative you adore so much.
No one voiced fears about voting in a GOP Senate when they promised to send bills to Obama to make him have to veto things either. This is about accountability.
I remember that Rubio opposed the bill in it’s final form and acknowledged the mistake. I also remember the final vote.
Yes D- 54 R-14
No R-32
The republicans who voted yes were overwhelmingly from more liberal areas. It was effectively a symbolic vote, as Boehner planned to kill the bill anyway.
The hand wringing over symbolic votes has become comical.
Everyone has heard of cloture, right?
What this tells me is that at least 51% of Republicans are RINO squishes. Republicans make up less than 40% of the electorate. That leaves less than 20% true-blue conservatives in the population as a whole. So how do you expect a conservative government agenda when 4 out of 5 voters are not conservative?
All hail Soto.
This reminds me of the Trump dictum: World Trade Center falls down. Bush is President. Therefore, Bush’s fault.
Correlation is not always cause and effect. What is amazing is that this got by the editors. Some of the points are valid. But many are Breitbart, Coulter, Rush rhetoric feedstock. They are meant to pump the blood. And I support almost all those lost causes listed.
The “establishment” that is cited are a diverse group of people who felt differently about very different matters and because they opposed this person or that issue as some point in time, they are now being conflated into one big, Karl Rove run conspiracy (the man behind the curtain).
There is no GOP establishment. If there were Sheldon Addleson and the Koch Brothers would decide the nominee for all the offices. Say hello to President Santorum or President Scott Walker or any of a host of candidates or ideas they supported that went no where.
There are moderates, there are conservatives, there are libertarians, and there are unflinching, uncompromising conservatives. I embrace them all. Some may even be opposed to things I like. But, they will vote with my side more than they will vote with the Hillarycrats.
This is democracy. Ugly, idnit? Let’s focus on those we disagree with 80% of the time and learn to use the ones who disagree with us 20% of the time. Granted it requires work, intellect and persuasion, things that are hard.
Nothing symbolic about it. Rubio wrote it, endorsed it, his inbox blew up.
If he was a conservative from the start he wouldn’t have worked so hard on it.
It is hard to unbreak your leg.
Everyone knows the Senate can change its own rules and hiding behind cloture is an excuse for inaction.
I think you need to re-read the the section you highlighted Frank. V the K states defunding was unlikely. I believe the argument here was Republicans saying that other Republicans were “siding with terrorists”.
It is fine to disagree on tactics. It is not right to state your fellow Republicans are siding with terrorists.
No, we are just a bunch of knuckle dragging idiots that believe what people tell us when they run for office. We lack your eminent insight.
Oh my goodness, so much whining. So much victim language. Please spare me.
It is Ok to address Tea Party members and those that believe in limited government (not limiting growth of, but actually cutting something) as terrorists, wacko birds etc. Democrats do it all the time and so do republicans. Kind of makes it looks like there isn’t much difference between them, but then that would be conceding Fred’s points.
Of course all terrorists and wacko birds are expected to shut up, line up, and vote for the same act every 4 years.
Let’s make sure we’re debating the issue and not the person. Several comments here are toeing the line of sending this over the edge.
While we are fighting over an old primary fight in Mississippi, if the democrats win this cycle, the following is set in stone – obamacare and a nuclear Iran. So by all means, let’s get it out of our system and find the most conservative candidates who can win. I am much more fearful of Hillary than I am of Thad Cochran.
A guy called Mark Levin the other day making a kind of jokey point (which Mark totally misunderstood). He observed that Jeb! is the true Republican and Ted Cruz is the RINO. By this he meant that what “Republican” has come to mean, given the behavior of the last 20 years of the Republican establishment – serial betrayal of the base – is exactly what Jeb! is. Cruz is a Conservative, and in most cases espouses exactly what most of us here would consider normal, common-sense American values. Yet he is still in name a Republican, thus RINO.
Like I said, the guy was trying to be funny. But he was right.
Ann Coulter’s best line is (paraphrasing) “Far Rightwing?? I’m just middle-of-the-road normal. The rest of you are insane”.
I love the conservative purity testing coming from the Right lately. So our elected officials are supposed to be ideologues, making decisions based solely on whether or not they’re good, rock-ribbed conservative positions? Please.
Perhaps those same elected officials shouldn’t claim the mantle of rock ribbed conservatism during campaigns.
Stop whining.
I don’t think it is really a purity test to judge Republicans based on their campaign promises vs their results. Or to ask that Republicans not call other Republicans names.
Is there a purity test in pointing out that Republicans led to Ken Cuccinelli not winning and a Democrat becoming Governor? Or that Republicans fought dirt in a Republican primary in Mississippi?
I’m also the secretary of the None-of-this-gets-any-better-if-you-keep-voting-for-these-people Association.
I see no proof that either of those things would be any less likely given the case of 2001-2009.
And let’s be honest.
The same folks who doubled the size of the Dept. of Ed., gave away a massive entitlement in Medicare Part D, and bailed out the megabanks would go right back into power.
Lots of folks like to forget that the Tea Party had its genesis in TARP and the general malaise of GWB as much as anything BO accomplished in his first two years.
Thanks, Whiskey!
Rivalry over who is the bigger whiner than whom, and who’s the more legitimate victim, can never really be settled, anyhow.
Brent- It’s not okay to call Tea Partiers wacko birds or friends of terrorists, but doing so is definitely much more along the lines of a microaggression than it is a “kick in the teeth.”
I will let you take that up with the author of the title.
I respect your opinion though I am not sure those terms are an effective component of a quadrennial marketing campaign the boils down to: “vote for us no matter how much we’ve lied because our opponent is worse.”
This is what Soto et al pretend to not understand. He is nit-picking details and ignoring the whole intended story here. John Roberts is probably the weakest of the 12 points but let’s remember that he is part of the GOP establishment. He worked in the White House, he was brilliant and dependable as a support guy but he does perfectly reflect the problem with the establishment — which he is a member of. He reflects their goals and thinking. We have clear evidence that the GOP establishment is at war with their base. Roberts agrees with the view that conservatives are a bigger problem than the Dems. Why can’t we all get along?
I’m not so sure about that Fred.
In fact, I might not vote for the Republican if it winds up being the establishment pick. And I say that as someone that was an early early early supporter of Mitt Romney. My sense is that the Republican establishment has long ago realized that the “base” will take the William F Buckley route of voting for the most electable conservative. They’ve abused that advantage. I won’t participate like that anymore.
I recommend you retain Jimmy Carter esq. to defend you from what is about to arrive.
Voting is not about you — it’s about the country.
All this bickering leads me to wonder if we can get behind a less-than-perfect candidate next year and fend off the looming disaster of a Clinton presidency. We all have lines we will not cross, but turning those lines into a tiny box encompassing the Perfect Presidential Candidate is a strange strategy for electoral victory.
I don’t know. Democrats tell the public Republicans are crazy, the media tells the public Republicans are crazy. Republicans tell the public that some Republicans are crazy. Then we ask the public to vote Republican because we’re the responsible grown up party. Weird way to get Republicans elected President.
Name calling fellow Republicans is not going to solve any problems, it just draws deeper divisions in the Republican Party. I think it is much more that a microaggression and really not great public relations.
All the Republicans like to argue they are followers of Reagan, but several of them have no problem violating the 11th Commandment “thou shall not speak ill of a fellow Republican”