I Am A Bad Republican

A woman named Becky writes about three things the "hard right" and the Tea Party do not get about the Republican Party.


First she says:

We are not “The Establishment” or “RINO’s”, and you are not “The Base”.  We are THE Republican Party founded in 1854.  The Tea Party is a MOVEMENT that began inside our party sometime between 2007-2009, and if anyone must be referred to as a “RINO”, it’s the members of this movement, because they seemingly have a strong dislike for most of what occurs within our party.

I will grant her the RINO point.  However, the people who make up the Tea Party movement -- and no one ever said it was an actual political party -- and the so-called hard right, are indeed the base of the Republican Party.

Neo-cons, "compassionate conservatives", and, frankly, social conservatives are not numerous enough to count as a base, unless you stand the pyramid on its head.  By Establishment Republicans, we mean the elitist, big-government, pork-barrel Republicans who are soft on individual liberty and individual rights, who wanted to pass amnesty back in 2006, who passed No Child Left Behind, who, when they were in control of BOTH Houses of the Congress and the Presidency, gave us Homeland Security, the TSA, the Patriot Act, Part D Medicare, and refused to balance the budget or shut down any of the useless federal departments like the Department of Education, HHS, the EPA, Agriculture, etc.

I'm guessing Becky -- if she will pardon me using her first name for convenience's sake -- isn't old enough to have voted for Richard Nixon.  I am, and I did.  My folks have been voting Republican as long as there have been Republicans.  I'm not too much in need of a history lesson.


Her second point:

You have convinced yourselves that your hard right agenda is what the American people want.  Look, you had success in 2010, but surely by now you know why.  Your full agenda had not been uncovered.  Everyone thought you were just fiscal crusaders, period!  Then once the layers of the onion started to unfold, your ideas left everyone in tears.  Didn’t these last primaries prove that the majority of the American people just aren’t interested in what you have to offer?  They want things to get done in Washington.

And what exactly is our agenda?  It does involve fiscal crusading -- which means reducing the size and scope of the federal government.  That's the only way to reduce the debt and the deficit.  The turnip has been bled dry.

It is true that some Tea Party-identified candidates have been spectacular failures -- e.g., Todd Akins,  but that has more to do with the individual candidates' ineptness than the agenda.  The agenda has not been "uncovered".  The Tea Party candidates in the House gave Republicans the majority in 2010 and made Boehner Speaker.  He, Good Republican that he is, has done exactly jack with that opportunity.  The House could have defunded Obamacare, but Boehner would not hold the line and has gone along with all the Continuing Resolutions and rising the debt ceiling so as not to provoke a confrontation with Obama.

Again, what is our agenda, and why is it so bad?  It seems to me that Becky has bought into the leftist media's lies about the "hard right".  In reality, we Bad Republicans want to cut spending, secure the borders, and impose constitutional limits on the federal government.  Frightening, isn't it?

Her third point, she says, is the important one.  By not voting for Willard Mitt Romney, Bad Republicans are to blame for all the evils currently going on in the world.

If it wasn’t for you and your 100% single-mindedness, “if I don’t get my way I’m just going to sit home and not vote”, Mitt Romney would be our President and we wouldn’t have the IRS scandal, VA scandal, EPA regulations ruining jobs, Obamacare, Obama’s executive orders, racial divisions, Justice Department scandals, horrible relations with Israel, ISIS, Russia taking over Crimea and now Ukrain, Iran closer to a nuclear weapon, Syria gassing civilians, Turkey refusing to talk to us, this list goes on and on as well. 

You made your bed by NOT VOTING!  We don’t want to listen to you cry about how uncomfortable it is, and you most definitely don’t get a say in how the adults in the room clean up all of these disasters!  We have managed to put 18 Presidents in the White House without you, more than any other party.

I admit that I did not vote for Romney -- architect of Romneycare in Massachusetts, I voted AGAINST Obama by making my mark beside the Republican candidate's name on the ballot.  I will also admit that Romney would have been a great improvement over Obama, but then Ronald Reagan's old co-star in the "Bonzo" movies would be an improvement over Obama.  Romney had a better handle on the Russian threat, if that isn't all a made-up deal  to start a convenient war.  (I know, conspiracy theorist.)  As for the rest, I don't think Romney would have done a single thing differently.  He is just as much a bankster-boy as Obama.  He's a better man but not a significantly more conservative one.

I would also like to remind the Good Republicans that the Fourth-Amendment-stomping "War On Drugs" and the EPA were started under the Good Republican, Richard Milhous Nixon -- as I said, someone for whom I voted.  Theodore Roosevelt was a Progressive Republican and the political father of today's Neo-cons.  Hoover was as interventionist in the domestic economy as Roosevelt, which is what helped create the Great Depression in the first place.  Ronald Reagan, the best president in my lifetime, increased the national debt -- yes, there is justification for it, but it's still the truth.  He also signed the EMTALA, which has driven up medical costs.  John Roberts, the deciding vote on the constitutionality of the Obamacare Individual Mandate is a Good Republican appointed by Good Republican, George W. Bush. 

Would Democrats like Stevenson, Humphrey, McGovern, Mondale, Dukakis, Gore, et al, have been worse?  Considering the damage done by Johnson, Carter, Clinton, and Roosevelt (Clinton's being mitigated by Newt Gingerich's House), it would have been much worse.  Calvin Coolidge, the greatest president of the 20th Century, was a Republican, and we can be proud of that.  Except that, today, Coolidge, in my opinion, would be a Bad Republican.

I'm sure that Becky is a wonderful person and a good conservative.  I have no personal animosity toward her or the Good Republicans in general.  They are better than Democrats, but they have had several chances and haven't done much with those chances. 

An UPDATE to add the report of a Glenn Beck interview with Dr. Ben Carson who says that we have no right to semi-automatic weapons in large cities.  

I admire and respect Dr. Carson, but that's the moderate line for you.  That is not what the Second Amendment says.  Dr. Carson is a Good Republican, a compassionate, caring Christian and social conservative.  If he runs against the Hildabeast, he'll get my vote, but not in the primaries.