Posted on 09/27/2014 6:56:32 AM PDT by cotton1706
Political pollsters have a tough job. They have to create formulas to determine if the person they are interviewing is likely to vote, and it is within this calculation that their reputations are made.
Typically, those who are likely to vote in an off-year election are pretty set. They are the people who always vote in elections — with some motivated by specific issues.
In a wave election, the number of those motivated by specific issues escalates, changing the electoral landscape as the candidates who are beneficiaries of this increased participation sweep to victory.
The 2014 election is rapidly looking like something new and different. Democrats are reportedly demoralized by the failed Obama administration and general fatigue.
Republicans, in an orgy of expectations, believe the key to taking the Senate was getting "electable" candidates nominated.
And get them nominated they did.
The establishment got their candidates. Now they're looking at a potentially disastrous election where their chosen ones dramatically underperform all reasonable expectations, the result of attacking their own party's base to cement primary victories.
One state party chairman has privately bemoaned that social conservatives in his state openly question why they should bother voting at all. Given the national party's desire to kick them out of the big tent to make room for a hoped-for influx of pot smoking hipsters, who can blame them?
Across the nation, Tea Party conservatives question the wisdom of being tied to a Republican Party that wants them to just shut up and vote for whomever the establishment decides, and it is this indecision on whether to vote at all that is at the heart of the GOP's polling woes.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
Name one thing that a republican senate will stop that will not be stopped by a republican house. Not judges, they rubber stamp that. They can’t over-ride Obama’s veto, so they are not going to make progress addressing government growth and overspending.
So what exactly does it buy other than insulting Harry Reid? I’m more concerned about the government of our nation than petty personality battles.
They chose not to run on conservative issues, I chose not to care if they win prom queen or not. 2016 is a bigger fight, and I’d rather go into it with a unified party. In the far past, the tea party learned that they needed good candidates, not just ones that believed the right things but were also good at running for office and governing. Now it is time for the GOPe to learn that insulting your base is a poor poor strategy.
And the beautiful part, there is almost nothing to lose. We can gain seats but not take the senate, GOPe gets a black eye and it doesn’t make a hill of beans difference because they weren’t going to stop anything anyways.
“Why are Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Louie Golmert, Rand Paul, and the other conservative base Republicans serving in Congress urging everyone to get out and vote for the Pub Party in the midterm elections, hmmmm?”
I see them campaigning for conservatives. Even if I don’t want to vote for my RINO in the senate election, there are important down ballot races that do need my vote.
Of course, I do have it easy. Cornball will win the Texas race without my vote so he can go back to DC and fight against Obama by helping shut down filibusters stopping Obama’s legislation. With friends like that...
“We are quickly running out of it. Can we survive as a nation with Harry Reid and Obama for two more years”
Name one thing that will happen with Harry Reid as majority leader that won’t also happen with a RINO senate?
This isn’t dancing with the stars or a personality contest, it is government. If they are going to govern the same... I don’t care. The Republican house will stop crazy legislation, the Senate will continue to rubber stamp appointments no matter which party is in control.
The problem with not running on a conservative platform... there is NO reason for conservatives to support it.
You are exactly right. The DEMs own Obamacare because it was one of the few times RINOs stayed trure, and that has been a driving force behind this election.
If we elect conservatives, then we can run on the differences. If we run as democrat wannabes, we are just cheap imitations.
A scandal ridden Gore ran pretty much as GW Bush and had he not been Clinton linked would have likely won. Bush even said he and Gore weren't far apart on most issues. Bush vs Kerry was another close one. A conservative would have had a landslide. It was instead old political family oligarchies Liberal vs Liberal. Bush tried to be the DEMs best friend as the LBJ2 POTUS. McCain? He simply handed the office to Obama. George McGovern campaigned more & tried harder against Nixon and Carter tried harder against Reagan than McCain did against Obama. Romney? Record on key issues showed he was just another DEM in a GOP-E COC suit.
Reagan won two wide margin victories because he was who he said he was going to be. The GOP-E didn't own him and he didn't tell Conservatives to get lost but show up to vote like the ones in the GOP who followed him did.
Yea Perot could have possibly won but not if Poppy had remained true to the Reagan Doctrines. But many already knew Bush disliked Reagan Policies. George Herbert Walker Bush was the one who cost George Herbert Walker Bush a second term and no one else. He didn't deserve to win. He shouldn't have even made it through the primaries in 1992. He was a GOP-E COC placeholder. You do remember their family ties to COC don't you?
“Name one thing that will happen with Harry Reid as majority leader that won’t also happen with a RINO senate?”
1. Washington Redakins
2. Pick an alternate energy scheme
3. Bundy Ranch
4. Vilification of the Koch Brothers
5. Republican sponsored bills will come up for a vote
6. Keystone. (see 2)
7. Obamacare
8. There would be senate select committees on every crime Obama has committed .
I am sure there are more. Now, picture this. If we had a republican led senate from 2010 on, which of these things wouldn’t have happened?
Why should he? He can keep slapping you around like a battered wife and you'll just keep crawling back to him to lick his shoes in the misguided hope that one day he'll stopping coming home completely drunk on power to slap you around some more.
The DEMs may “own” Obamacare, but the GOP has bought stock. They have stated outright that they will not repeal it. A debate without consequence is not opposition. The saddest part is, most of the time they don’t even bother debating before they fold.
If the GOP pushes “fixes”for Obamacare, RINOs will cast the deciding votes.
——They have stated outright that they will not repeal it.——
Citation please.
Recall if you can, the House voted to repeal 41 times.
Great post! The GOPe must be stopped. The Quislings must be run out of the party, and their lies rebutted. Putting party over principle can never accomplish good.
Electing RINOs is worse than electing Democrats.
1. Washington Redakins
You gotta be kidding me! This isn’t even worth mentioning in a national forum and it’s no concern of the Senate.
2. Pick an alternate energy scheme
Obama has picked plenty of schemes and so has your precious GOPe. This one raises a good issue. A conservative Senate would be repealing such schemes, not rallying for theirs.
3. Bundy Ranch
The GOP has not opposed the EPA, the IRS, BLM, or any other alphabet agencies. What difference will a couple RINOs make?
4. Vilification of the Koch Brothers
Unless your Senate joins the Democrats in repealing the 1st Amendment (I admit this is possible, given the lack of respect the GOPe shows the Constitution), the Koch brothers will be vilified. It’s the MSM...
5. Republican sponsored bills will come up for a vote
And be vetoed.
6. Keystone. (see 2)
Keystone won’t be passed with a veto proof majority, so there will be no net effect.
7. Obamacare
Will continue with some “fixes.” The GOP has not dismantled one entitlement program in its history. Fixing it only fixes the program in in stone.
8. There would be senate select committees on every crime Obama has committed .
Again, you are in la la land. No RINO is going to investigate anyone in Obamas administration.
DO NOT PUT PARTY ABOVE PRINCIPLE. ELECTING RINOS IS WORSE THAN ELECTING DEMOCRATS. VOTE ONLY FOR CONSERVATIVES.
Oh, so the conservatives that weren’t 100% gung ho for Romney and either stayed home and sucked their thumbs, or voted for Gary Johnson instead who had NO chance of winning... that totally had no effect on the outcome???
“DO NOT PUT PARTY ABOVE PRINCIPLE. ELECTING RINOS IS WORSE THAN ELECTING DEMOCRATS. VOTE ONLY FOR CONSERVATIVES.”
You knew what? I agree with you 100%. Let’s cede the country to the socialists, the fascists and the Marxists. Let’s stay home in our fortresses of solitude, with our guns and religion and wait for them to “come and take our guns.”
Let’s stay in the minority, knowing that the conservatives who can make a difference are marginalized by the establishment, never able to represent the people because the people stayed home.
Sorry my FRiend. We have to fight a guerilla war and think strategically, not tactically. Not sure if you get this but the biggest fear the GOP-e has is the same fear the rats have and that is Conservatives coming out in force. When we stay home, they win. I’m willing to give up my rook to take their queen.
Stay home in 2014 and you can be sure as night turns to day that Christy, Romney, Rubio will be our losing nominee in 2016. Maybe we get a bone and Paul is the VP nominee on the losing ticket. Cruz won’t get a sniff. Carson won’t get a sniff. And we will stay home again and be proud as heck that we stayed home while Clinton, Cuomo, Castro, Warren get to run our country.... again.
Want to fight? Take the freakin senate, then get mad. Fight from strength, not weakness. When everyone is against you, instead of going into hiding, come out blasting. I would be more than happy to use the RINOs playbook against them. But that can only be done when we are in control of the senate.
That’s my dos centavos. The position we are in sucks big time. We have been abandoned and a third party for us will do nothing. Which leaves us with two options as I see it. Stay home and b*tch or fight for control of our party.
If you continue to elects RINOs, you have ceded control to the left. It’s really that simple.
Put it in perspective. We have been following your course for decades and it had resulted in exactly the opposite of what you are saying.
I am not saying to stay home. I am saying to stop electing RINOs. Quit rewarding the GOPe for screwing us. Until the GOP learns that pushing RINOs is a losing proposition, nothing will change.
You’re talking in circles!
“the biggest fear the GOP-e has is the same fear the rats have and that is Conservatives coming out in force.”
“Take the freakin senate, then get mad. Fight from strength, not weakness.”
So let’s play this out “droves” of conservatives fill the Senate with RINOs and a couple token conservatives. Then, magically, the GOPe will cede control to conservatives? And we won’t have Christy, Romney, Rubio as our losing nominee in 2016.
“think strategically, not tactically”...
I will have to play Inigo Montoya here, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
You are arguing tactically,not strategically. A Republican Senate filled with even a few RINOs will have no effect on Obama. Electing more RINOs only ensures the GOPe maintains control of the party.
Voting for RINOs is not fighting, it’s capitulating. We must take back control of the party by destroying the RINO base. That base isn’t in the grassroots; it’s all from the top. If you don’t choke them out now, you are abandoning the fight.
The only strategy that makes sense is to vote exclusively for Conservatives. Yes, it may take awhile, but you can’t expect an instant fix go a cancer that has been spreading for 30 years.
I am not saying to abandon the GOP. I am saying to take it back. Stop listening to the party leadership and do not contribute any resources to the national level. Focus everything into conservative GOP candidates. Not one damn dime to RINOS.
“Put it in perspective. We have been following your course for decades and it had resulted in exactly the opposite of what you are saying.”.
My course has always been to fight to the death for the conservative and if he loses vote for the republican. We now fight to the death for the conservative and if he loses we take our ball and go home. It’s been all over this site for at least 5 years.
That’s what gave us Obama twice. That’s what gave us a rat senate and that’s what will give us Hilary Clinton. You want a conservative senate? You want a conservative house? Then bring better candidates with a better message.
That’s just the way it is. And that’s all I am saying about it.
Get rid of "open primaries". They should be a function of party.
I, and all conservatives, have been following your gameplan. That’s exactly what has put Obama in office and put the RINOs in charge of the party. Romney didn’t lose because some conservatives took their balls home. That is the great lie that has been spread by the GOPe operatives. They would make Goebbels proud.
They have repeatedly this lie until everyone believes it. It has been disproven repeatedly, and yet people accept it as gospel. Conservatives and Evangelicals voted overwhelmingly for Romney. Romney lost because he quit after the second debate while the Obama team expertly activated the far left base.
Why do you think Obama was able to successfully abandon the Democrats’ traditional voters such as unions? Demographics have changed, but not that much. He accomplished this with the GOTV using data and methodology never before available.
It had nothing to do with conservatives not voting. They did, in numbers exceeding those for Bush. To compound matters, in the previous election cycles, conservatives have followed the Rove gameplan and staffed the Senate and House with RINOs. Game,set, match.
Electing RINOS has not only destroyed the separation of powers, it has completely divorced the GOP leadership from the base. While Obama has been fundamentally changing the country, the GOPe has been busily fundamentally transforming the GOP.
The only way to save the party and the country is to destroy the cancer that has infected the GOP. We must eradicate all traces of the Rove RINOs.
As do I, there seems by some traitors in our party an effort to steal from us our representation and corrupt our leaders.
Perhaps this is simply the corruption of Washington manifesting itself an oligarch beast onto itself. In my heart i know the only way to tame this beast is exactly what its democratic component wants, failure.
This of course amounts to the simple fact that we have been betrayed in many places across the GOP
Then vote on principle and let the Dems continue to run the Senate. As of last count there were close to 300 bills passed out of the House with bipartisan votes sitting on Reid’s desk not being brought to a vote. If your “principles” are more important than governance have at it.
The problem with all you principled voters is that you would rather lose than accept anything that doesn’t meet your 100% purity standard. If you got 100 of you together in a room you couldn’t agree with what to order on your pizza.
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