The big government betrayals of conservatives have been going on all along. CRomnibus and Boehner aren’t new phenomenon. EPA, No Child Left Behind, Medicare D, TARP, all GOP ideas.
What changed was the TEA party. At first the GOP were gleeful. Here was their recipe for 2010, and it worked. Beautifully so.
But then.
Well those tea party conservatives actually expected a change in the status quo. Something had to be done before that got out of hand. It’s not like the establishment wants to look so cutthroat in their behavior towards conservatives. It’s bad optics, as they say. It’s that they don’t have a choice. They have to put down the rebellion within their party.
The problem with the tea party is that it sharpened the attention of the GOP base. The things taken for granted (voting for the rule but against the bill and then having it both ways) aren’t part of the “sausage-making” any longer. Somehow, the tea party got off track because her members were growing intolerant of the excuses for maintaining the status quo. Instead of simply helping the GOP win elections, the tea party was trying to change the GOP from within! Imagine the impudence!
No. Something had to be done.
The difference between 2010 and 2014 is that the establishment has learned that they have quite a bit of latitude to undermine conservatism and still get votes from conservatives. Isn’t that the lesson of the 2014 election?
Isn’t it?
What has happened since Nov is simply putting the lesson of the 2014 election into practice. Conservatives are on the GOP plantation. Stop worrying about the optics, put down the rebellion, and move on.
That is how you got CRomnibus and Speaker Boehner again.
People here want to examine the electability of a third party. That’s hardly the point. It’s not whether a third party can win, but rather, can the GOP win with a major defection in its ranks.
If the GOP believes that it must court it’s base to win, they will.
Since they don’t believe that, and they have the proof of the 2014 election in their pocket, they won’t court their base.
There are only two strategies to change the status quo: out-donate the Chamber and it’s PACs, or force the GOP to be more concerned about votes than dollars.
There are two ways to make they GOP more concerned about votes. 1. Withhold votes and lose elections, forcing the GOP to adapt, or, 2. Form a third party and force the GOP to address its defectors BEFORE an election.
No third party is going to be completely independent at this point. I’ll support Ted Cruz regardless of party label.
But. Until you show the establishment you’re series, they will continue to take you for granted.
Shouldn’t they?
That is why I have called for the TEA party members to change their party affiliation to deny the GOPe a majority status, that would force them to come hat in hand to the TEA party conservatives, if they won't then we know for sure whom they serve.