My Warning To The Establishment GOP

Yesterday was something of a turning point for me. I've begun un-subscribing from my GOP-related feeds and telling Hill-based sources to remove me from their email lists. I'm not going to stop blogging politics. But I'm done giving the benefit of the doubt to the GOP establishment.

I don't believe the insurgency from the Left the Democrat Party experienced served that party well. They may have elected a president, but they are going to be hurt badly in the fall. The problem is, I think they are going to be hurt because of themselves, and not because of anything the GOP has to offer.

Oh, they'll try to claim credit for it. But it will be another instance of voters opting for the other guy, or the lesser of two evils. A majority of GOP wins in the fall will be more because of Democrats, than Republicans - no matter how the GOP tries to spin it.

A big part of my thinking in coming to DC was to try and help to create a synergy between the Right on-line and the establishment GOP. I had hoped to forestall anything like an insurgency from the Right by finding common ground. What I didn't realize is that today's GOP is interested in no such thing. It can't hear anyone outside the Beltway echo chamber and isn't interested in listening to them even if they could.

And I don't believe today's Beltway entrenched GOP is going to bring about the kind of change America needs. The leadership is weak, wasteful, misguided and out of sync with the people. The signs are all there, from Dede Scozzafava, to Charlie Crist - and worse.

And even if they reclaim this, or that majority in the fall, we will most likely see the same old politics as usual that so frustrated the Right under Bush. You don't really believe they are going to repeal ObamaCare and tell millions of people expecting health insurance at taxpayer expense they can't have it, do you? That will be politically imprudent to our Beltway ensconced GOP.

Illegal immigration? Led by soon to be ex-border cop John McCain, assuming he's re-elected, they will be calling us racists and haters, again. They have to worry about that Hispanic vote, after all.

I'll still support candidates, but they will be fewer and further in between. And I will need to be convinced that, unlike the current establishment GOP, they mean what they say, and say what they mean. Today's Republican Party is broken and corrupt. And they are not my friend, any more than they are yours. They are only interested in themselves.

Only a Reagan-like insurgency that throws out the current leadership and many of these corrupt careerists in Washington can ultimately save the GOP. It isn't like it starts here today with me. But from now on, instead of trying to work with the establishment, I'd rather be part of any insurgency, successful, or not, because today's Republican Party is just barely more worth supporting than the Democrats on the other side.

Today's establishment GOP is a reasonable conservative's enemy. They are not our friends.

Comments

[David]

Very interesting post. The argument from the media focuses on the straw man of Democrat and Republican not the real issue of ideology. The party label is a mask, the real issue is Progressive big government versus constitutionalists limited government. To your point on immigration my post on May 8th, http://tuesdayafter.com/?p=172, lays out a simple plan many can rally around. A link in the post reveals why it will never come to pass. We need to start supporting ideology not party.

[Steve]

Had this conversation with someone last night. The Republicans will win, its what they do with that win that matters. The problem for Republicans and more importantly voters/citizens is that, unlike Obama, conservatives don't hold on to their core principles.

"id rather be a good one term President than a bad two term President"

If we had that attitude from elected "conservatives" maybe the country wouldn't be as screwed as it is. Well .......... if everywhere else but New Jersey, had conservatives like that, because Christie seems to have that same Obama attitude when it comes to his agenda.

[Dick Nixon]

Great post and kudo's for your position.

[steveegg]

Feel free to borrow the "bipartisan Party-In-Government" (PIG for short) phrase.

[zaugg]

Major fail Steve. "conservatives don't hold on to their core principles." That is horsecrap. Core principles are the root of Conservatism. You can make that stereotype about RINO's if you must but take that BS to the garbage can.

There is a third option to your "I'd rather be a good one term President than a bad two term President" Obama is a bad one-term president.

[zaugg]

Dan- I am in your posse on this post. Business as usual by the Republicans 'will not stand'. We are going to take our country back from the progressives, the RINOs, the populists and etc. or we are doomed to a fate like Zimbabwe.
Smaller government, debt reduction, balanced budgets also know as adult fiscal responsibility have to be first. Only a rich country can afford the luxury of being the world's traffic cop and environmental sugar daddy.

[astonerii]

That is why Riehl World View is above establishment sites such as redstate.

[ReaganTMan]

"Only a Reagan-like insurgency that throws out the current leadership and many of these corrupt careerists in Washington can ultimately save the GOP."

I agree with that.

But, I am a Republican. I don't believe leaving the party is the answer. I believe fixing my party requires having people who think like you infiltrate it and become it. Everything I believe the Republican party should be is out there in conservative America.

First we take over the party and then we win the national election and govern. In order to be ready to govern, we should think of ourselves as the "new establishment" meaning that our conservative principles become engrained as part of the new/fixed Republican party.

"Don't get cynical. There are still millions like you who want it... voice crackles... want it to be a shining city on a hill." - Ronald Reagan to disappointed supporters after losing the 1976 GOP nomination.

[Sydney Carton]

I suppose you can't be faulted for coming late to this understanding; it happens to all of us. Otherwise, I'd be tempted to ask, "what took you so long to realize this"?

[Ran / Si Vis Pacem]

Welcome to the Dark Side, Dan. Though I think rather that you've been here for some time. Recall your going at Newt's throat for his febrile, counter-productive support of Scuzzi over Hoffman: Your reasons were sound and clearly expressed.
Cheers,
Ran

[Tully]

Point of grammar, Dan: There's a big difference between "lessor" and "lesser." Though I can't say your usage isn't correct in context ...

"Miss W? Hell, I'm starting to miss JIMMY!"

[hrh]

Second look at Sarah Palin, Dan?

Because inspiring - and working hard toward - a Reagan-like insurgency is exactly what she's doing with all of her travel around the country, her speeches, her Facebooks, her tweets, her endorsements, her campaigning.

But even if the GOP won't have her / the MSM succeed in Quayling her once and for all, she will still have done good work in the meanwhile.

See: The $200,000+ she helped raise for the CA university last Friday.

See: Her speaking fee minus taxes that she donated back to PURE ministries for special needs families last night.

Oh.

And word just came out that the TransCanada/Exxon natural gas pipeline is moving forward and another step closer to reality.

A giant leap toward energy independence, baby, energy independence.

Because of Governor Palin's AGIA (Alaska Gasline Inducement Act) legislation that passed 59 to 1. That's bipartisanship.

[Brad Schwartze]

Dan, it sounds as though you're coming to a conclusion about the last 6-10 years of politics that I came to. Namely, this: The most successful and most beloved Presidents in the GOP's history were gentlemen (in every sense of the word) that were the LEAST partisan, ESTABLISHMENT Republican in their dealings.

Think about it: Teddy Roosevelt busted trusts, Eisenhower gave us the Interstate Highway System, and Reagan worked hand-in-glove with Dems to help close down the Cold War. ALL OF WHICH were against a lot of what was considered establishment Republicanism for their times.

These last 6-10 years should have shown all of us on the Right that Karl Rove is a horrid example by which to engage in the politics of the day. The last two, in particular, should also show us on the Right the promise of Sarah Palin, and her most decidely unestablishment way of thinking.

[Brad Schwartze]

"But even if the GOP won't have her / the MSM succeed in Quayling her once and for all, she will still have done good work in the meanwhile."

Oh, the GOP will have Sarah Palin, if for no other reason that the consequences of saying no to her candidacy for President in '12 (and it will be 2012, make no mistake of it) would be infinitely worse for EVERYONE even tangentially associated with the Right and the GOP.

[unseen]

Dan,

been trying to tell you this for about a year now and the main reason I fully support Palin for 2012.

I had this fight with idiots at Free republic. It does not matter what footsoldiers we send to DC. the McCain vs JD battle? It does not matter as long as the liberal GOPers continue to have the leadership positions. The wat Dc is set up the foot soldiers will always vote the party/leadership line when the chips are down. be it medicare part D, obamacare, cap and tax. It is the leadership that needs changed. That means we have to get rid of the Mitts, the McConells and the Boehner's. The Jeb's the Danials, the Ryans. sure they say some good things but thier votes and their record are one a different matter.

We need leaders not only that say good things but their votes show they walk the walk. As of now Palin is the only person that has not been shown to be a two-faced GOPer.

[ReaganTMan]

I agree Brad. If everyone just got behind Sarah and pushed her to the top, the GOP insiders and the establishment wouldn't be able to stop her. Right now, the doubters on our side are keeping open minds. So I give them credit and won't bash conservatives who haven't embraced Sarah as long as they are not bashing her. We can show how much balls we have and overcome the "Qualyzing" this time and stick it to the media by telling them eff you, we're voting for her anyway. In fact, we should vote for her just to stick it to the MSM! I'd probably feel this way even if I wasn't a staunch Sarah supporter. With no other good candidates to choose from, I'd say let her have at it.

It's only fair in a democracy that we have the primaries in 2012, though. Some people think she won't have enough support to win, but I think she can continue to build on her hard work. Competing in the primaries could actually be a good thing for her because it will either be her opportunity to prove herself as the hardest working campaigner out there with the right message and show she's deserving of the nomination (that will help her win over the non-PDS inflicted doubters, especially those on our side) or at worst it will be an opportunity for her to hone her national campaigning skills without the idiocy of a Steve Schmidt running things and come back again another time (although I would prefer the former to the latter).

[Lee]

This may be your best post in all the years I have been following your blog. I completely agree with you. The only thing you omitted was the need to remove the civil service protection that gives us so many useless bureaucrats who can never be fired, but who are right there ready to screw with you if you spill some gas filling your lawnmower.

[seekeronos]

The national GOP is as dead as the Whigs were in 1856.

Support the Constitution Party, the clear choice for conservatives and Christians.

http://www.constitutionparty.org

[Barry Soetoro (D-King Of The World!)]

Mommy,, make it STOOOOOP!!!

OsamaHusseinIslamObama 2012′
(the terrorist-Uighur-ACORN-media choice)
-It’s never too early to campaign-

[Lightwave]

Agreed.

The good news is that after the smoke clears and the establishment GOP is gone, the Dems will still be too busy fighting over which side lost them Congress and the White House in 2012.

We'll be ready then. The party that is emerging from the ashes of 2008 will claim the mantle of leadership.

[jakee308]

Ding, ding, ding.

What Dan Said.

We have a winnah!!

You took the thoughts right out of my head. Until Jan/Feb, I still had hopes for the Republicans; not anymore.

They showed their true colors when they had the majority AND the Presidency from 1994 to 2008. What did they do? They wasted opportunity after opportunity. They continued KNOWN failed economic policies, cooperated wit and were coopted by the Democrats on certain financial rules and regs and they helped put us in the economic toilet we're in now.

After the Democrats won, they went back to their old and tired mantras and claimed they would do what they didn't do before; i.e. THIS TIME. WE PROMISE. HONEST, WE'LL REALLY, REALLY CUT GOVERNMENT SPENDING AND DECREASE TAXES. HONEST, WE WILL. JUST ELECT US ONE MORE TIME.

{spit}

A pox on all their houses and senates.

[leilani]

I agree generally with what you've said, but it's inaccurate to hang Dede Scozzafava around the necks of the inside the beltway crowd - she was actually selected by a group of 12 local GOP county chairs with no input from DC & they got stuck with her as much as the voters in that district were.

Which leads us back to square one: the GOP national leadership can't change until it gets changed at local precinct & county levels. An organization is only as good as its grass roots & if the only people willing to run for those positions are of the dem-lite or even the full-monty dem persuasion like DeDe & the folks who promoted her, then NOTHING will change because the dirty little secret is that THEY are the ones who cumulatively run the show.

We can spend all of our lives complaining online about how out of touch with us the guys in DC are, but unless we do more than complain online & actually infiltrate the system from the ground up OFFline, the Beltway crowd is only going to reflect the ideological preferences of the people who win those positions.

In fact, that's what the higher-ups are supposed to do because representing the lower-downs is their job - that's how large organizations work in the real world.

If conservatives keep letting the dem-lites win by default because nobody else is challenging candidates at the bottom margins, then the upper eschalons have no other choice but to assume that's what the rank & file prefer, I don't care how many individual righty blogs are firing off the outrage everyday.

In order to change the top, we've gotta change the bottom by personally going in ourselves with pickaxes & fumigants, county by county from coast to coast, because all the diddling around at the upper margins through social media et al will still never get us the reform we want or need.

[nohammernosickl]

Mega-dittoes, Dan.

The wishy-washy McCains and Gingriches just won't go away. We need principles, not politicking. The Scozzafava debacle (she WAS endorsed by Gingrich) should have been a wake-up call, but we still are faced with the possibility of Charlie Crist backstabbing the GOP and somehow becoming a senator. The establishment Republicans who backed Crist contributed to this.

All this disorganization and dissent makes me think that maybe Michael Steele should step down. He seems to be an effective communicator, but I'm not sure he sees the big picture.

[gary gulrud]

"Only a Reagan-like insurgency that throws out the current leadership and many of these corrupt careerists in Washington can ultimately save the GOP."

Alright, this shows promise, Dan. I'll dig out my ice pick and order a dumpster drop. Whaddya say?

[Dave in Alaska]

Now Dan on this we agree, this appears to be nothing more than your run of the mill, hand shaking, back slapping, baby kissing bunch that is at the head of the GOP in Washington...

..My own Senator quit answering my e-mails until the conservatives in Alaska put up someone to run against her...now the e-mails are election hype...egads...

..now she is running a full out smear on the guy...

..I cannot tell the difference between these parties anymore..

[David R. Graham]

Good!

[PA]

I will simply vote against incumbents whichever party they are, and keep doing so. They all need to become terrified of the voter's wrath and willingness to unseat the whole rotten bunch wholesale, and REPEATEDLY, until such time as a batch appears who shows some sense.

[ReaganTMan]

Dave in Alaska, Murkowski is a great example of what's wrong with the party. She's a party insider. She's gotten drunk on the Potomac water. We need Tea partiers, outside the box thinkers who are going to understand it's not about pork and keeping the good ole boys happy, but rather about keeping the people free and prosperous.

We wouldn't be talking about party insiders if we were in power within the GOP and keeping the party off the RINO trail on the Constitutional trail. Joe Miller is one of us who is infiltrating. We have to support that.

[A Conservative Teacher]

Look, it's a big tent party, and that's the way it is. There is no perfect world, and you're going to have to accept that the party has moderates in it. That means you need to work hard to put in place a lot of conservatives and libertarians to balance out those moderates, but I'd rather have them in the party and be the party in power, then have them out of the party and be out of power. That doesn't mean I support moderates- it just means I don't waste breath ranting against them like some sort of child. Accept them, move on, and make your enemies not within the GOP, but outside of it.

[Henry]

Dan, welcome to the club. The GOP establishment is a total loss. They, including McCain, need to go away. We've had it to HERE with them.

[Tennwriter]

Teacher,
Its a conservative party. Moderates are welcome to bring the parts of themselves that are conservative. Just like you wouldn't wear a football jersey to a wedding, so you shouldn't bring RINOism to a conservative party.

We're glad to have moderates inside the tent, and even RINOs. They just can't have control of the steering wheel and drive it off the cliff like they did in 2006 and 2008.

[Bob]

This is another reason we need "None of the Above" on every ballot, for every position -- federal, state, and local. Why should we always have to choose between the lesser of two evils? Better no representative than an entitlement-minded representative.

[Ralph]

Welcome to the trenches. Hopefully not all GOP primary voters will require a personal insult from the GOP establishment to realize what they are all about.

[SenatorMark4]

So totally on point! I walked a resolution from the Precinct Convention in Burnet County Texas, through the County convention. I politicked it the entire time sending out emails to the Texas State Republican Executive Committee(SREC) for weeks and got to the convention in Dallas where EVERYBODY knew who I was...but...NO subcommittee had been tasked to look at my resolution. Basically, government accountability requires tracking outlays...1099-GOV for all the recipients of "income, redistributed" (government parlance). This totally avoiding the grassroots should be illegal. I had to ask the Rules Committee chairman to ASSIGN my resolution to a subcommittee so I could: signup, speak 3 minutes, and be told they'd have the vote on it later that night. I did speak at one committee (there's no limite to signups to speak to subcommittees) where they had a vote and knocked it down. The idea made friends and it was introduced in front of the entire Rules committee with probably 100 spectators watching as it was: introduced, called for comment (gavel close 3 seconds), vote yea/nea (10 seconds)..done. Grate.
There is OBVIOUSLY something that we don't understand about out current leadership and they should be tossed! Hundreds of people talked to me in the halls saying they liked the idea. Oh well.

[mitydk]

Dan,

"I don't believe the insurgency from the Left the Democrat Party experienced served that party well. They may have elected a president, but they are going to be hurt badly in the fall."

What do you mean? Are you obliquely comparing the conservative wing of the Republican party to the hard left progressives of the Democrat party?

Are you saying that if the conservative republicans took over the party and kicked out the establishment GOP that would be a short term gain but a long term loss, like it looks to be shaping up to be for the marxist/progressive wing of the Democrats?

I'm not sure what you are suggesting. You just seem pissed off to discover that the establishment GOP guys aren't really that interested in smaller government, lower spending, securing the borders, repealing obamacare, or other associated "tea-party" issues.

I guess better late to the party than never.

Obama beating Hillary was a disaster for both the Democrat party and the American people in the short run. In the long run it will be good because it has highlighted how totally shitty the marxist/liberal/progressive confiscatory corruptocracy ideology of big government is with the total fail of the Obama administration and all his infantile cronies.

A conservative/tea-party candidate victory over establishment GOP hacks like McCain or other big government Republicans would be great for America in both the short run and the long run. In the short run for breaking up the TAX-CUT and SPEND Republican leadership cabal and in the long run for scaling back big government to limited principles and more 10th amendment based original intent constitutional style governance which is the only hope for America's future.

The only difference between the establishment GOP and the Democrats is that the Dems are tax and spend, eGOP is taxcut and spend. Both of them are proponents of leviathan Federal government, which is killing America.

Cheers

[Rich Vail]

Dan, I agree with your post completely...

Remember November, vote ALL the bastards out.

[Dewey From Detroit]

yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

More Chris Christie please.

[Hatless Hessian]

Dan, I called Senator Grassley's office yesterday about the news on Kagan's manipulation and materially false statements in the Nebraska Partial Birth Abortion law that was taken to SCOTUS. Shockingly, Grassley's office claimed they "knew nothing about such concerns about the nominee" and worse yet, promised to give Kagal a "fair and impartial hearing."

Rolling over and playing dead is a strange strategy. Might as well be dead, and I guarantee Conservative voters can help ensure that. So I'm with you. Obama was elected not due to any surge by the Left toward an utterly incompetent, unaccomplished Void, but rather a lack of confidence of a majority of the people of this country in the fat-cat, self-enriching, out-of-touch Republican institution.

McCain, Grassley, Graham and all their ilk should get the hell out of the way if they can't stomach the tough fighting that is necessitated by the Progressive's extreme escalation.

[James]

Dan is moving in the right direction. However, he has not yet figured out the biggest problem of them all : That the GOP supports feminism to the same degree as the left does.

Most Republicans will support any and all socialism that can be packaged as 'chivalry', the opponents of which are 'misogynists'. A Republican would rather die than be called a 'misogynist', and Republicans are sufficiently ignorant about women that they think feminists are fair, reasonable, and concerned with equality (in reality, they are a brutal supremacist ideology).

Steve Forbes, for example, is a strident pedestalizing feminist.

Read this :

Democrats and Republicans unite to form Misandry Party.

[James]

Democrats and Republicans unite to form Misandry Party :

http://www.the-spearhead.com/2010/01/28/democrats-and-republicans-unite-to-form-the-misandry-party/

[Rich Vail]

I also added you to my blog roll.

Rich

[wuzrobbd]

Welcome to the outer darkness with the rest of us. The view from here is startlingly clear, no?

agape,
robb

[Jim Oz]

Republicans are the Big Government seat warmers. It's not fair to call them RINOs. They are who they are. Last year during the summer Tea Party town halls, John Boehner jetted off with a bunch of Congressional cronies to Europe for a luxurious vacation on the taxpayers' dime. And we peons are supposed to be thrilled that he will be Speaker? ObamaCare will not be repealed, because there are hundreds of 'no show' political patronage jobs in any big government program, that is irresistable to politicians. Got to take care of the campaign supporters. The ONLY answer is to shrink the size of the Federal Government, and you won't get that from either established party. The Republican Revolution of 1994 lasted exactly 4 years, and then the 'Real Republicans' lined up at the pig trough. It took them that long to get rid of the honest conservatives, like Matt Salmon (AZ), et al. I'm surprised that Tom Coburn has lasted as long as he has in the Senate. BTW, when it was discovered that Clinton was selling secret missile technology to China in exchange for campaign contributions, the story was quickly atifled. Mitch McConnell was the Senate Campaign Committee Chairman then for the GOP. How much Chinese money was he trying to launder? Nothng to see here, move along... move along.

[Pat]

The GOP in Ohio spent a million bucks to defeat a Tea Party candidate. We're long done supporting the GOP. We support individual candidates. By some strange coincidence, Governor Palin supports many of the candidates we choose to support, like Col. Allen West.

[Beck]

I salute you.

[Subotai Bahadur]

They have learned nothing from Spector, Crist, or any of their failed endorsements of pseudo-Republicans. Senator John Cornyn, chairman of the NRSCC has taken sides in another primary.

Here in Colorado; Ken Buck swept the Republican State Convention. He is a staunch Conservative and has the backing of the TEA Party movement. Running against him was Gale Norton. Seeing that she had absolutely zero chance of making the Primary ballot at the Convention, she petitioned on. She is a Washington insider by career choice. She had ties to Jack Abramoff, and was investigated for corruption in connection with the awarding leases to Royal Shell while she was Secretary of the Interior. After leaving the Secretary of the Interior position, she was a supporter of Colo. Governor Bill Owens, who epitomized the concept of RINO. Guess which candidate the NRSCC and Senator Cornyn is supporting?

The Institutional Republican Party is part of the enemy. There being no such thing as a moderate or conservative Democrat; they all are the enemy. But we have to fight just as hard against the Republican leadership.

Subotai Bahadur

[Brian]

My long-time hope has been that the Democratic Party would tip off the far left end of the spectrum and start hemorrhaging members, permitting a new, true conservative party to emerge on the right. The GOP would then be the foil from the left of this new party.

[4rc]

I agree with this post. I'm sick and tired of the establishment GOP. I'm now hearing rumors that they may not want to repeal obamacare or making it difficult for those who are trying to push it. The GOP leadership is not even leading on this issue. Sarah Palin is the ONLY one out there doing the rallying and speaking against Obama. Wheres the rest of the GOP leadership for gawd sacks

Who were the 10 GOP county chair that picked Scozzafava?!?!?! How they get that position? Who paid their salaries? They need to be fired!

[Becky]

Agree. We may need to vote the least bad alternative GOP candidates in in November if only because they have to pretend to answer to their consituents and as such will weaken the Pelosi/Reid cluster fiasco. The far left only offers their constituents the bone of hating and blaming the right for all that is wrong in this world. Once elected, their voters give them a pass on anything bad they do because it was never about values or issues but rather about allowing the dem voters to accept inaction by finding someone "ELSE" to blame. At least the GOP players will get no such pass from voters on either side of the isle. Good riddance, don't let the screen door hit ya.

That said, we need to break the stranglehold of power that the Dems currently have with control over all the branches of government and the media. So we will need to leave some of the moldy oldies in place for now and then pick them off one by one as the new conservative movement exposes the entrenched GOP's blatant unwillingness to represent their constituents rather than themselves.

So take note entrenched GOP. You are no longer "entrenched".

[Vader]

"Only a Reagan-like insurgency that throws out the current leadership and many of these corrupt careerists in Washington can ultimately save the GOP."

You have forgotten Reagan's 11th Commandment, haven't you?

Which was: Never attack another Republican. We need them all.