Posted on 07/17/2017 1:09:34 AM PDT by Kaslin
Recently MSNBC host and former US Congressman from Florida Joe Scarborough said on a late night talk show that he was no longer a Republican. Scarborough admitted that he would be registering as an Independent. This is the same Joe Scarborough who came of age in the constitutional conservative ideological legislative revolution of one Newt Gingrich and his “Contract with America”. Of course, these days there are many folks changing their party affiliations to Independent.
Another former member of the crew that came into being with Speaker Gingrich is current Republican Ohio Governor, John Kasich. He was someone that that as Budget Chairman balanced the federal budget. If you don’t believe it, Governor Kasich will certainly tell you, often. Yet, now, Governor Kasich is all about an expansion of Medicaid, a government run healthcare program intended for those Americans at or below the poverty line. Governor Kasich now wants more largesse from the federal government program that is causing the incessant busting of the federal budget. Medicaid is part of the mandatory spending programs – Social Security, Medicare, and net interest on the debt – that comprise nearly 64% of our budget.
The current Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the keeper of our tax code, is Texas Republican Congressman Kevin Brady, a nice enough fella. However, as part of tax reform, Chairman Brady wants to introduce and create something called the Border Adjustment Tax. This is nothing more than a value added tax (VAT) that will certainly be passed onto the consumer. And if you have paid attention to the VAT in Europe, it has been a massive failure. Why is it that we are seeking to introduce a taxation policy in the United States that has been a complete failure elsewhere?
There is a debate going on in the Republican controlled US Senate reference healthcare reform. But what is rather perplexing is that the latest iteration of the Senate healthcare legislation entails Republicans advocating for maintaining Obamacare taxes on “the rich”. Why are Republicans taking up the progressive socialist mentality of class warfare and wealth redistribution, along with using the tax code as a weapon against a targeted segment of our society? Also, why are there Republican Senators who embrace the idea of Medicaid expansion? In other words, do they truly believe in the expansion of the welfare nanny-state, the dependency society?
Last Thursday, possibly the most disconcerting vote taken in the House of Representatives, was an amendment to the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The amendment of which I speak was offered by Missouri Republican Congresswoman Vicki Hartzler, a strong principled constitutional conservative. Rep. Hartzler’s amendment would have blocked federal funding, American taxpayer funding, to transgender troops for hormonal therapy and gender reassignment surgery. Rep. Hartzler’s amendment failed, due to (24) Republicans voting against it, therefore, (24) Republicans voted to support American taxpayer funded hormonal therapy and gender reassignment surgery for individuals suffering from a mental condition termed gender dysphoria. Twenty-four Republicans embraced a belief that the American taxpayer is now financially responsible for the choices of an individual confused about their gender.
What is even more troubling is that reports have stated, and not been refuted, that the Trump administration Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, actually called Rep. Hartzler and requested she withdraw her amendment. So, the official position of the Trump administration is that taxpayer funding of gender dysphoric individuals hormone therapy and reassignment surgery is a position they support. So, what is next, taxpayer funded cosmetic surgery for troops?
We know who the progressive socialists are and what they stand for. Their ideals are wealth redistribution, nationalization of production, expansion of the welfare state, social egalitarianism, and secular humanism. The real question now is, what does it mean to be a Republican?
Republicans asked for control of the House of Representatives, the US Senate, and then the White House…they have them all. Yet, endeavors to reform our tax code and healthcare are bogged down due to Republicans…not Democrats. Silly me, I thought Republicans stood for limited government, fiscal responsibility, individual sovereignty, free market, and strong national defense. What is seems to the eye that understands the spectrum of political philosophy is that Washington DC is controlled by socialists, progressives, and statists. Sadly, true constitutional conservatives are the minority, denigrated, demeaned, and disparaged all because they believe, as I do, in the fundamental governing principles and values of our Constitutional Republic…a lost ideal.
I do not blame the Pelosi’s, Schumer’s, Warren’s, Sanders’, and Obama’s of the progressive socialist left. They tell us who they are, so I will credit them with the courage of their convictions to fundamentally transform our Nation. What I find abjectly disgusting and reprehensible are those masquerading as “Republicans” but have no compunction to actually be what they profess. And next year, these individuals, and the establishment machine created to support them, keep them in power, will send out requests for contributions and ask for volunteers to walk neighborhoods for them. Something tells me, that will be coming to an end.
And I can speak personally to the sting of those who call themselves “Republicans”. In the history of the State of Florida there have only been two Black Republican Members of Congress, Josiah T. Walls 1873-1876, and myself 2011-2013. It was a super-majority of Republicans led by State Senator Don Gaetz who developed a congressional redistricting plan, signed by Governor Rick Scott, that redistricted me out of a Congressional District we had won back to the Republican party in 2010. It was a redistricting plan that the Florida Supreme Court later overturned. Even when voter fraud was known, proven, the Governor, Attorney General, and Secretary of State, all Republicans, did nothing, as the electoral results were accepted by the Secretary of State.
What does it mean to be a Republican? Republicans don’t know, they are too busy acquiescing, compromising, and appeasing those who would never do the same for them. They are fundamentally confused as to who they are, and that for which they stand. The greater population of America are conservative, they believe in faith, family, individual liberty, economic freedom, better education opportunities, working hard to care for themselves, and being a strong and secure Nation.
It doesn’t appear that many Republicans actually believe in the principles of unalienable rights such life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness endowed to us by the Creator. They are just a lighter version of progressive socialists….progressives.
I really wouldn't know, and I don't care.
I have no party affiliation at all. I am a conservative with a somewhat libertarian bent.
I quit the Republican party in 2015 and re-registered as an independent.
I could not believe the arrogance of a fund-begging letter I received from the Republican National Committee a week ago, asking for my legislative priorities. Just pass the President's conservative agenda, idiots, quit undermining him and taking us voters for fools! It's time for a real Conservative Party to emerge in this country.
What Does it Mean to Be a Republican?>>>>>>>>>>>>>
It means you can’t wear a GOP T-shirt, or a Trump T shirt to the grocery store without being accosted by a liberal wacko idiot who will rave at you, key your car, and threaten you.
Keep wearing those T-shirts.
President Trumps popularity is over 50% in states that elected him to the White House
What Does it Mean to Be a Republican?
These days very little! That is why I prefer to be an American and vote for America and not a particular political party!
A border tax is not a VAT Mr. West. A border tax is a fancy way of saying tariff. Tariffs are not VATs which vendors tax each other products when sales are made business to business. Yes, VATs are terrible but tariffs are not.
If you're in Congress apparently not a lot.
All I see from you are posts that put you in the globalist Free Traitor™ category.
Or maybe you just read what I post here and interpret it whatever way feeds the neurotic fixations that seem to govern your life.
“Fancy speech,” jargon, dissembly, disambiguation, obfuscation, misdirection—bantering semantics doesn’t change it from a tax.
“Tariff: a tax imposed on imported goods or services.”
Your posts speak for themselves.
Your simplicity of thought regarding tariffs shows a lack of understanding. Duly noted.
I am Conservative, exactly what Trump and the rinos hate.
Here is what the old school Republicans used to stand for:
We reaffirm our belief in the protective tariff to extend needed protection to our productive industries. We believe in protection as a national policy, with due and equal regard to all sections and to all classes. It is only by adherence to such a policy that the well being of the consumers can be safeguarded that there can be assured to American agriculture, to American labor and to American manufacturers a return to perpetrate American standards of life. A protective tariff is designed to support the high American economic level of life for the average family and to prevent a lowering to the levels of economic life prevailing in other lands.
To bad globalist Free Traitors™ like you hijacked the party
Ditto. You and I appear to be ideological soul mates. As reciprocative as political labels are these days (I would posit that the term "Republican" no longer has any meaning), I would further specify that I am anti-liberal and anti-statist.
I didn't leave the Republican Party. The Republican Party left me.
> What Does it Mean to Be a Republican?
I did a proof on this question a few years ago.
Turns out that being a Republican means exactly nothing at all. There is no implication whatsoever, policy-wise or otherwise, from a person having a GOP label.
From my observations 80% of the republican party is made up of two large factions. Country club republicans and social conservatives. Country club republicans don’t want to pay any taxes, are friends with progressives and share many of their social views, and want very little government.
Social conservatives want the government to enforce their view of morality, for example a few years ago the republicans regained control of the Ohio state legislature and one of the first laws they passed was that strippers had to maintain a three feet distance from the customer.
The other 20% is made up of fiscal conservatives, libertarians, and such.
Politically I am a fiscal conservative and social libertarian. I also love my country and believe in freedom and liberty for all. So for the most part the republican party fits my beliefs better than the democratic party.
However, I vote for the candidate not the party. If the candidate seems to best align with my ideals I vote for them. Sadly, a lot of times candidates say one thing and do another when elected. Trump has been the only candidate since Reagan to actually do or try to do what he said he would on the campaign trail.
Mostly CA, NY and PA - imagine that - So they’re probably conservative - relatively speaking - Who lives in those districts that will vote them out in 2018? No one.
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/115-2017/h369
I’m a simple man; given to plain speech. Your convoluted intellect is noted as well. I shall attempt to elevate my rudimentary rhetorical remonstrations in such a verbose and obtuse a manner as to be comprehensible to even one afflicted with a juris doctorate.
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