GOP’s Angst Correlates To Progressivism

Posted on | May 10, 2014 | 30 Comments

by Smitty

Totally disagree with Dean Clancy at U.S. News:

And no matter how the GOP fares in November — even if it should somehow wipe the floor with the Democrats — President Obama’s veto pen will still be there, waiting to stop any plan they can manage to put on his desk. This will make the fainter-hearted among their ranks skittish about the whole “repeal” project. Why not work with the president to “get something done”? Why not — yes — “fix” Obamacare?

In short, Republicans appear to be damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

The damned thing in play at the moment is Progressivism. I’ve grown up hearing that Social Security and the other entitlements are out of control. And then we have this partisan cramdown of ObamaCare.

ObamaCare has been a river of lies from conception to delivery. Why, then, not simply articulate such to the American people: “You’ve been scammed. Here is the reform plan.”

#OccupyResoluteDesk’s veto pen isn’t a bug: it’s a feature. A potential GOP Congress, sworn in next January, would have two years to hone and refine substantial reform ideas. Republicans could lay out for the American people a comprehensive, frack-this-noise blueprint for the future of the country extending well past a 2016 rejection of Her Majesty, Empress Clinton.

Sure, #OccupyResoluteDesk is ideologically incapable of doing anything useful. I get that. His only real commitment seems to be dishonesty–how do you negotiate or compromise with a man bereft of honor? Don’t bother. If the American people have the truth and an alternative served up, then the energy of 2009 will likely return, and we’ll see a non-Progressive Republican candidate (not Jeb Bush, not John S. McCain) earn a hefty mandate.

Granted, Europe sure looks like it’s on a war trajectory. Obama’s general foreign policy impotence means that a significant portion of the GOP effort is going to have to be about foreign policy. Again, step up to the plate. Dude, I know it was more than two years ago, but the days of “support friends, oppose foes” really should be considered again for a possible return.

Down the road, the GOP should support the Convention of States and an actual return to limited government. The more Progressive the Republican party the more it deserves to, and will, lose.

Category: Republicans

Comments

30 Responses to “GOP’s Angst Correlates To Progressivism”

Cactus Ed
May 10th, 2014 @ 2:18 pm

A failed Obama policy is a dime-a-dozen.
McGehee
May 10th, 2014 @ 3:01 pm

Some Establicans (or “Stabs,” for short) can’t even wait for the contest to begin before declaring Republicans losers.
K-Bob
May 10th, 2014 @ 4:04 pm

We have to elbow Boehner and McConnell aside.

I’ll give Mitch this much, though: when the Senate is Republican, he tends to act a little more conservative. So if we can’t get rid of him, we should at least make sure Boahner doesn’t reprise his role as Speaker in 2015.

Otherwise what Smitty is recommending simply won’t happen (except away from the floor, by strong individuals like Cruz, Lee, Gomert, and Steve King).
DavidD
May 10th, 2014 @ 5:19 pm

Amen to all of it. Oh, and may I say, Walker/Gowdy 2016.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
May 10th, 2014 @ 5:22 pm

Down the road, the GOP should support the Convention of States and an actual return to limited government.

Be careful what you wish for. You assume the votes are there (and they may be there) but you better be damn sure.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
May 10th, 2014 @ 5:24 pm

http://theconservativetreehouse.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/mcconnell-and-boehner.jpg?w=640 I think they both may cry.
Chuck Schumer, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and the Democrat Benghazi Cover Up | Batshit Crazy News
May 10th, 2014 @ 5:25 pm

[…] GOP Establishment Angst (it is like […]
Atari 2600
May 10th, 2014 @ 5:29 pm

Just how badly can the GOP fail?
Evi L. Bloggerlady
May 10th, 2014 @ 5:53 pm

They will certainly try.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
May 10th, 2014 @ 5:54 pm

I doubt they will out do Obama, but they can definitely suck.
gastorgrab
May 10th, 2014 @ 7:48 pm

The GOP reacts to every BS narrative that Progressives come up with. Even if it causes the party damage.

One way to take over the Republican party is to run more minority Tea Party candidates. The old guard GOP wouldn’t dare challenge them for fear of being accused of racism. (which the left will do no matter what happens)

Have you noticed that the RINO express only seems to call white Tea Partiers, “extremists”? They use the left’s own rhetoric in these attacks too. They are playing the same game as Progressives, only not nearly as well.

Let’s use their own weakness against them!
RKae
May 10th, 2014 @ 8:16 pm

Considering how Progressives slowly populated the professions of education, entertainment and journalism for a gradual takeover, would I be crazy to suspect that they’ve infiltrated the GOP and perhaps RINOS are a little more sinister than just sleazy establishment politicians?

Have we been looking at slow motion sabotage as we saw in the three professions I mentioned above?
Atari 2600
May 10th, 2014 @ 8:45 pm

Yep. Nowadays it is not religion that is the opiate of the masses, but the dope of Big Government.
Lemuel Vargas
May 10th, 2014 @ 9:01 pm

Still at a loss why the GOPe is committing hara-kiri by alienating their base…

Could anybody tell me the reason why?
joethefatman
May 10th, 2014 @ 11:55 pm

With a 2/3rds vote Congress can override any Presidential veto.Why is it that no one points this out? The power to override a veto seems to have been forgotten by too many people. The first override was in March of 1845 I believe and that power is still available to Congress. Bush even had a veto overridden.
Adjoran
May 11th, 2014 @ 2:26 am

That means Obama only needs 34 votes in the Senate OR 146 in the House to sustain a veto.
RKae
May 11th, 2014 @ 3:12 am

That old “opiate of the masses” line always bugged me, because the people I’ve known who have used it to smear religion are, oddly enough, recreational drug users.

So why would they dislike an opiate? And why would they think their chemical opiates “open their minds,” while they think religion closes the mind?
Matt_SE
May 11th, 2014 @ 5:08 am

I’ll take a shot:
Everything disparaging said about establishment Republicans over the last decade is true. They exhibit the classic “agency problem:” they’re MUCH more concerned with their own agendas than representing the best interests of their constituents.
Specifically, they mirror Obama, and for the same reasons: they need power to achieve their goals. Power comes from increasing the power of government in general. Increasing the power of government in general results in a suffocation of the rest of society, especially free enterprise.
The net result is that what is good for the elites is antithetical to the good of the country, and vice-versa. They CANNOT promote prosperity, because it would automatically result in a loss of power to themselves.
Establishment Republicans are pursuing the same general agenda as Obama, but will simply use the power for different (and likely nonsensical) pet projects.
Matt_SE
May 11th, 2014 @ 5:19 am

Obama and the Democrats were going to overreach. This was especially inevitable in light of the epic levels of incompetence of this administration.
The public is waking up to this fact. That’s where we are now.
But so far, establishment Republicans’ big money has been thwarting the Tea Party insurgency in 2014. If this continues, the establishment may be safely in the driver’s seat after the elections.
I’m now coming to the conclusion that we citizens may have to endure another round of epic fecklessness from the establishment Republicans. Only after both groups have been discredited by their own mismanagement will voters be willing to do what’s necessary to fix the country. Assuming we survive that long.
Matt_SE
May 11th, 2014 @ 5:40 am

Some conservative voters doubt this assessment. To be honest, I may be wrong…I hope I’m wrong. But I’ve seen to many signs to be optimistic.
Ronald Reagan’s famous question during the 1980 race was posed directly to the voters, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?”
The answer for Obama is definitely “no.” I propose that we simply apply the same standard to the establishment Republicans. If they also fail, then we should resign ourselves to getting rid of them, too.
Adjoran
May 11th, 2014 @ 5:45 am

Obama will certainly be able to sustain any veto after the midterms, no one projects Democrats could lose that many seats in the House and Senate to give us a “veto-proof” majority in both.

But what most of these projections fail to consider is the further experience of ObamaCare. As people begin to see the net costs, and the employer mandate finally applies, its innate flaws will only be magnified. Democrats may see radical reforms – repeal in everything but name – as their only option. Leaving out the word “repeal” might even induce Obama to acquiesce to the changes, pretending they are “tweaks” instead of wholesale revisions.

If they do not agree to the needed reforms, the pain the public feels will only increase. And it will be solely their fault.
Adjoran
May 11th, 2014 @ 5:50 am

Are you planning to kidnap them or something?

Neither Boehner or McConnell has faced serious challenges to their positions since they first entered leadership. No matter what anyone else thinks, they have demonstrated they have the confidence of their Republican colleagues.

Challenges to either have always proved imaginary, the stuff of DC gossip that never comes to pass (like most of it).
Adjoran
May 11th, 2014 @ 5:53 am

Gowdy isn’t happy with the time he has to spend in DC now. He will see Benghazi through, but I would be surprised if he runs for reelection more than one more time.

He’d make a great US Attorney for his home district. Also a good potential Assistant AG in a Republican administration, but that would mean leaving South Carolina again.
creeper
May 11th, 2014 @ 9:49 am

Are you arguing for the Reps to “fix” O’care? If so, you’ve conceded the point to Dems already.

Repeal, repeal, repeal. Let the market sort it out.
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May 11th, 2014 @ 10:05 am

[…] Wisconsin Gestapo: InstapunditHealth Care For Me, But None for Thee: American InterestGOP’s Angst Correlates To Progressivism: R.S. […]
Lemuel Vargas
May 11th, 2014 @ 10:22 am

Nice insight there, Matt. Especially the GOPe mirroring the Dems. As for me, the GOPe has become Dem lite, doing its bidding but on a lighter form (for now…)
Lemuel Vargas
May 11th, 2014 @ 2:18 pm

If the following is true

No single entity – not the President, Senate, House of Representatives, state Governors, nor anyone else – has the power to overturn a US Supreme Court ruling. Supreme Court decisions cannot be nullified by other parts of government. However, if the Supreme Court strikes down a federal law, Congress can always modify the law until it is such that the Supreme Court does not consider it to violate the Constitution, then pass it again.

Supreme Court decisions can only be overturned in two ways:

Legitimate Methods

The US Supreme Court reverses a decision on an earlier case by making a contradictory decision on a current case.

Congress and the States can overturn a decision by amending the Constitution.*

*http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_can_US_Supreme_Court_decisions_be_overturned

then the caveat to that would be the Republican Party (especially the Tea Party) could be holding the reins of powers for years to come because Obamacare will make the average person’s life hell on earth especially when the higher premium payments kick in due to the burgeoning government bureaucracy and its attendant red tape, the incoming employer mandate and its attendant problems and the discovery of sky high deductibles when the average person needs it the most.

What do the commenters here think of this observation?
Art Deco
May 11th, 2014 @ 2:47 pm

No matter what anyone else thinks, they have demonstrated they have the confidence of their Republican colleagues.

You mean the ‘colleagues’ Boehner just graced with a gratuitous and puerile public insult because said ‘colleagues’ were loath to co-operate with upChuck Schumer’s population replacement schemes?
K-Bob
May 12th, 2014 @ 4:30 pm

I’m for sending money to the Dem challenger to Boehner if that’s what it takes.

If we can’t afford to lose that seat, we’re totally fzcked.
Joseph Dooley
May 13th, 2014 @ 4:58 pm

In the case of the libertarian/half-liberal Nevada GOP, notice the disagreement between libertarians and traditional GOPers is not over belief in what marriage is, but whether belief should inform policy. Liberals don’t have these arguments. Is marriage what it is, or isn’t it?