Posted on 09/09/2017 7:08:23 AM PDT by Kaslin
You dance with the one who brung you to the dance.”
The wisdom of that old political adage might seem outdated in this age of expensive consultants, focus groups with instantaneous tracking of reactions, and micro-targeting of voters. But the McLaughlin & Associates poll released this week reinforces the wisdom of that adage for any Republican who wants to avoid defeat in the 2018 primary season and in the general election that follows.
The message of that McLaughlin poll could not be clearer or simpler for Republicans as they choose in the coming weeks between the agenda of President Trump and the agenda of the Beltway insiders: The base that brought you to the dance supports the Trump agenda.Dance with your base and win.Dance with the Beltway and lose.
To be fair, elected Republicans face many practical pressures inside the Washington Beltway. There are always K Street lobbyists for various special interests and for large corporations wanting special favors, all offering generous campaign contributions.
And there are the Alinskyite Democrats and their leftist media threatening personal attacks, smears, and ruin for anyone who crosses their socialist agenda.
And then there are some old hands who have learned to thrive in that environment, whose advice is to tell the folks back home anything they want to hear but do the bidding of the Beltway insiders in order to survive.
Candidate Trump called all of that a swamp, promised to drain it, and stunned most of the political experts with a victory those experts said was impossible. And now Republican officials are doubtless hearing from those same experts that the Trump phenomenon is a fluke, an aberration, and that the smart move is to wait it out.Maintain your distance from the Trump agenda and it will all go away
But the McLaughlin poll of likely voters tells a different story. Here are just a few highlights:
And those are just the highlights.
Now here is the point that Republican officials cannot afford to miss.The issues of concern to the GOP base – conservatives, self-identified Republicans, and Trump voters – are the same kinds of issues that gave rise to the Tea Party movement in 2009 and led to GOP victories in 2010 and 2014. The Trump phenomenon is not just a fluke, but is instead a sign that the sleeping giant of mainstream America is waking up and demanding that Washington get control of our spending, secure our borders, repeal and replace Obamacare, and stop giving in to the stifling demands of political correctness. Trump’s agenda is their agenda.
Elected officials who have not helped to carry out the Trump agenda will not only be going against President Trump; they will also be pitting themselves against the movement that elected him.
The Democrats have become increasingly radicalized and unified since the 1960s. And when Democrats are in power, they enact their socialist agenda. Their voters get what they vote for, with no waffling and no excuses.
And, even with all its internal debates, the Republican party is still the political vehicle for the center-right mainstream. But mainstream America is beginning to wonder why the results they are seeing do not match the rhetoric they heard during the campaign.Why is it that the Democrats can enact the socialist agenda but the Republicans cannot carry out the agenda of mainstream America?
Looking at the McLaughlin poll, “the Democrats won’t let us” will not play well during the primaries, let alone in the general election.
The music is starting for the 2018 election.Base or Beltway. Choose your partner.
It's why so many Deplorables are so enthusiastic about President Trump, and have been since his campaign began. He genuinely does care about the plight of people who are suffering. Paul Ryan's callousness is in direct conflict to ever fiber of what President Trump believes in.
Voters who back the Trump agenda and get angry at Republicans who do not back the agenda will not vote for democrat candidates who oppose the Trump agenda. And it is hard to believe that these same voters will refrain from voting knowing that democrats who oppose the Trump agenda will be voted in by default.
It would make more sense for these Republicans to be primaried out of office.
Certainly I will do my best to punish and defeat the Republicans.
Until their seat is lost, they will not listen.
The shift to playing up to the Democrats is a not so subtle way of reminding the GOP Establishment is not the only game in town. The Democrats, of course, are not going to dial back very much on THEIR rhetoric, but by selectively picking and choosing among the more vulnerable of them, there is a good possibility of negating the obstinate behavior of the Republican leadership, if only because of a palace revolution within the Republican ranks.
Trump is learning the rules, and soon he shall surpass the masters at the game. He is a very quick study, that has been one of the advantages he has taken into every game in which he has engaged.
And this is the biggest game in the world.
I’d bet that the majority of the Republican members of Congress actually don’t care if they lose. They’ll retire with their comfortable pensions.
It isn’t easy to defeat an incumbent in a primary, because the GOP floods the primary with pointless candidates and splits the vote.
And yes, I did not vote for Marco Rubio in 2016. I just left it blank.
He won, nonethless, but not with my vote, and I’m going to continue to do the same with the GOP.
I have no reason to support them.
Because they call themselves something other than “Democrat” is not a reason for me to vote for them.
People who continue to vote GOP despite their in your face betrayal and lies are enabling that same betrayal and lies.
How about Trump following the Trump agenda. I was a big supporter, but he is turning out to be a fraud like the rest of the corrupt country. The election system is corrupt beyond repair. Or only way to fight back is with the tax system and cut off the elite swamp food.
Or become a lobbyist.
We need to split the GOP by supporting a 3rd party; just like when the Whigs were destroyed and gave birth to the Republicans.
The GOP has has too many second chances, and their leadership is still essentially the same deep state establishment.
Last time I checked, Trump does not run the two other branches
of Congress. Ryan and McConnell do.
The main reason this can’t be “fixed,” is that the very
scoundrels who greatly PROFIT from The Swamp, as it is,
are the guys who would have to vote The Systems out of
existence.
They ain’t a-gonna do that. A bigger game-changing bust
or event has to happen to make it inevitable.
Republicans on the other hand, being free-marketeers and staunch believers in private property want to keep 100% of the graft for themselves and their friends.
Having to govern turned out to be a curse.
If they could just hold one house that would be brilliant. Then they don't have to govern, but they can stand on "conservative" principles and hold up the government to benefit friends and cronies.
This is a shock?
For years the conservatives out here have been waiting for someone to come along and asked to get hired to do a few things. First of all, and my favorite, to tell the media to stick it and get it right or you’ll get nothing. Another is that there is such a thing as tough love and sometimes it is needed. A third is, don’t threaten me, and that means anybody. We are the remnants of what we used to be less than a hundred years ago. But this guy has determined we can get it back.
Can we? Not as long as our own tribe tries to stop it. We were blessed in this country with a great orator named Thomas Paine. Our needs are summed up with his writings.
These are the times that try men’s souls.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.
And the one our, so called, representatives have forgotten:
Lead, follow or get out of the way.
Someone needs to remind those representatives that the past men and women that chose to battle that impossible win didn’t do it with compromise. And so many died doing it for us. All the way from the revolution to today. God bless them and keep them.
I elected representatives through my little vote that I thought were ready to fight that impossible battle. I helped put a courageous leader in the White House.
Where are my revolutionaryists? And why have they surrendered? The war is just beginning. And for the sake of this country. It needs to be won. And if the soldiers we have are to cowardly to be a possible casualties and lose their job, then in four years a lot of them can be discharged. And I’m going to do my part of that. Remember, lead, follow, or get out of the way. That’s the choice. They need to make it NOW!
rwood
“We need to split the GOP by supporting a 3rd party.”
Yeah, stupid *hit like that got Bill Clowntoon elected...TWICE!
Having to govern turned out to be a curse.
>><<
That is an excellent way to put it.
That’s right.
The GOP knows and have known the base is furious and disgusted with them. Linda Graham started that recently. They don’t actually care. If these idiots had given us even a couple of Trump’s agenda items they would have a lock on a 60 seat majority in the Senate. Instead they have been running the clock out waiting for Mueller to “Get the goods”. So now now we have “Chuck and Nancy” sitting on a couch in the Oval Office and prepping a total victory with the illegals.
But I doubt there is any Dims I would even consider voting for, there are no Zeb Millers in the Dimsh!t party.
So I will hold my nose and vote for a repub over a Dim. But since I am voting in Alabama, Roy Moore will have my vote.
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