Rep. Jim Bridenstine: Why I Will Not Vote for John Boehner to Be House Speaker

The Daily Signal ^ | January 02, 2015 | Rep. Jim Bridenstine

[ecomcon]

Yep

[CPT Clay]

The 2010 TEA wave brought in MANY Reps...I have the original list, somewhere.

I know these guys do. Freepers Randita and Intercept Point

[randita]

63 seats flipped to the GOP in 2010 (not all aligned with the tea party but virtually all ran on fiscal conservatism and against Obamacare). Many of those flipped back in 2012 on Obama’s coattails, but flipped again to the GOP in 2014.

What has happened in the past four years is the total annihilation of so-called “Blue Dog” Rats. The Blue Dog caucus had close to 50 members prior to 2010. After 2010, less than a dozen remained and they are now extinct. There is no moderating influence in the Rat party any longer.

[snowrip]

1) Yes, I will no longer vote Socialism Lite. I favor rebuilding the Republican party from within, as there is no viable option for third party that can wage a two-front war by challenging liberalism on both sides of the aisle;;

2) Any resulting value will be purely personal, as I would personally rather not support death by cancer over death by headshot;

3) Of course not.

The issue here isn’t party affiliation but philosophical affiliation. Liberalism is anti-freedom, anti-liberty, and anti-rational thought; as such, it is anti-American, and will no longer support it in my own party.

[frog in a pot]

Thank you for your thoughtful response.

Noiseman at #43 succinctly sets out the classic argument against withdrawing as a voter, I hope you saw it. It is an argument many of us believe incorporates the best thinking.

The issue here isn’t party affiliation but philosophical affiliation.
Included as an effective way to politely express a political philosophy is to vote for the party best capable of advancing that philosophy. Refusing to vote for "the lesser of two evils", or an imperfect party, may be nothing more than a vote for the greater of two evils.

I favor rebuilding the Republican party from within…
Bravo. However, it is inconsistent with such goal to then not vote for that party at the national level. The way to rebuild the Republican party is to invest in it, to own it and then to support it when it counts the most.

I would personally rather not support death by cancer over death by headshot.
If you are suggesting rather than to experience a slow, painful death from cancer you would prefer to sustain a headshot in the course of fighting for your principles then that is an admirable choice. It is premature however, to conclude the Republican party is suffering from incurable cancer.

Perhaps more important, in our present day world, if we allow circumstance to deteriorate to the point of choosing a civil war we may send mankind back to the dark ages. Relatively speaking, there was little meaningful foreign participation if our nation's first civil war, the struggle was essentially limited to two combatants. It would be folly to believe there would be little or no foreign involvement at the present time or that any would likely not be the deciding outcome.

An American civil war in today’s world could easily involve at least 5 additional anti-American combatants, some of which are already within our borders or nearby. That offers steep odds against a timely, desirable outcome.