Ace from Ace of Spades HQ's take on "Glenn Beck: I'm Done With the GOP"

Ace of Spades HQ ^ | March 18, 2015 | Ace

[Yashcheritsiy]

Allah keeps chortling, saying, "No you guys will be back," but I don't think he understands.

Something has changed.

No, we won't be back. Not in the way he means it. If AllahPundit means that I, for example, will still prefer a more conservative president over a less conservative one, sure, of course, but then, Communists preferred the more liberal Bill Clinton over the less liberal George Bush, without actually supporting the Democratic Party with anything stronger than a velleity.

In 2014, the Establishment went all out to defeat its foes not just on the electoral battlefield, but in the battlefield of the mind as well. They wanted to teach the upstarts a lesson: You have not only lost, but you will always lose; you will not be permitted to win, ever. The entire Party will rise up to crush you should you signal any intention of bucking our Rule.

I warned them about something then: A hopeless soldier is a soldier who will desert the field.

Yes, Establishment GOP, you can teach us that you will always lie to us, stab us in the back, humiliate us and crush us; but if you teach us that, be aware we are learning another lesson, too. Not just that "The Establishment Will Always Crush You," but the lesson that There is no hope in any kind of conventional politics for those of us who want better than this Pile of Shit the two parties give us.

You can deal someone a defeat, but you contend with hurricanes when you seek to kill all of their hopes as well.

I am now well and truly convinced of the Object Lesson our Establishment Masters sought to teach us last fall and this past winter:

They will lie to us, always, so that we cannot even have an argument about policy differences with them. We cannot explain to them why amnesty is a bad deal because they lie and claim that they are already against amnesty.

They will not even respect us enough to have the argument with us.

They will betray us constantly, because they think they can.

They think that our desire for a better America will draw us to vote for the Least Worst candidates.

But many of us now feel like the Communists, or the hardcore paleocons: There really is not a large enough difference between the two parties any more to bother oneself in terms of emotional and financial investment any longer.

Either way, we will have some form of repressive, unresponsive socialism in this country; what should we care whether the National Welfare Depot is painted in Red or Blue?

I'm not coming back. I'm done. For the past ten years of my life, I've made arguments, some of which I knew to be false, to defend and apologize for the GOP; I see now that I was a fool to do so.

I actually do not care very much if Hillary Clinton is president. What would really be different? Oh, of course she will be cruel to her political opponents, siccing the machinery of the government on them; but I no longer intend to be her political opponent, not in any more than a chiding way, so what do I care about that?

Besides, her Enemies List is long and luscious; I'm sure I'm way down on it.

Now actual Republicans may have cause to worry but that's their own business.

This party has betrayed me for the last time.

You won your battle, GOP establishment. You taught us all that us Lowly Voters were not going to tell you People of Rank how things were to be run.

Well, I believe you. You will never permit we Lowly Voters a say in how we manage our lives and our country. You have to Deliver your Deliverables to your Donor Class.

Well, I hope they have enough money to buy people's votes, because a lot of us are done with politics, except in an abstract, philosophical way.

I'm now a spectator. I will root for this team or that, as I might root for European soccer teams: that is, out of boredom, not conviction.

You killed all hope that I had. You killed the hope in many of us.

Good luck with your convention and all. I'm sure there'll be a lot of people who are Totally Psyched about the balloons and confetti.

Some of us need more, or need less, and I as I can't have more, I'm choosing less.

Here's Some Truth: We all know this, but being Part of the Team, I felt obligated to lie, because I figured you expected me to lie, even though you didn't believe it.

So yeah: The GOP is never repealing Obamacare or even trying hard to do so. They will make false efforts at doing so which they can present to voters as a Good College Try, but aw shucks, we couldn't quite do it.

It's a relief to no longer have to propagate this obvious, feeble lie.

I know very few of you believe the GOP has much intention of repealing Obamacare, but, being a Republican, I have previously felt the need to present The Official Party Position even knowing it was total bullshit.

I've known it was a lie for a year, which is why I hate when it comes up on, say, the Podcast. What am I supposed to say? Am I supposed to pretend the GOP is going to repeal it?

So they're not. They never were.

It was always a lie. To get you to vote for them. We lose on the issue, so then we Have The Issue to run on.

So now we should just start appreciating the Good Parts of Obamacare, because there's no sense being angry about something the Establishment has decided you can't change.

[SaxxonWoods]

Ace finally read that Mencken quote at the top of his blog page.

[Yashcheritsiy]

Quitting and becoming a spectator is not a decent alternative.

Agreed, so I'll repost a comment I made on another thread this AM.

----------------------------------------------------

Great. but it's not enough to just leave the party and be done with it. We need to organise a new party to replace it.

Now, I realise the naysayers (and GOP plants) will poo-poo the idea, saying it can never be done (even though their own party is an object example that it *can*). But that's because they are inside-the-box thinkers who just assume that the current political landscape will never, ever change and so we have to always work within it or else nothing will be accomplished. I would urge these folks to educate themselves about "landscape theory" (google it, people) and educate themselves.

There is tremendous anger building up in this country, and I don't mean the hooligans and thugs in Ferguson. Conservatives, traditionalists, populists, libertarians - there is a whole mass of people on the general rightward half of the political diamond who are sick of it all. Sick of the Dems. Sick of the Repubs. Sick of it all.

What that means is that there is a HUGE opportunity for a preference cascade to take place toward a viable, broadbased rightist third party. The GOPers know this, which is why they are so adamant to tell you that we can never, ever, ever, ever, ever hope to replace the GOP. They are scared because they know that we CAN, and in fact, that it would be easier to do than most people think.

Now, when I say "third party," I am not talking about the Constitution Party or other current third parties. Most of these are either vanity parties that only exist to shine somebody's ego, or else are so narrow in their focus that their appeal genuinely is miniscule, which is why THEY are miniscule.

What we need is a mass organisation at the demotic level of people on the Right who are mad - but (I hate to tell some folks) it needs to be a mass organisation that rebuilds the three-legged fusionist stool of the Reagan Revolution (fiscal-social-defence conservatism). That means that SoCons and libertarians and defence hawks and non-interventionists and all the rest will need to get their thumbs out of their tailpipes and work together for the 85% of stuff that we DO generally agree upon.

It could be done. There are millions of people in this country who have simply dropped out because they feel they have no representation from either party. There are millions more who just never got in to begin with because of the same reason. These people don't factor into the conventional equations of the political hacks that are used to come up with the "Go GOP or go home" meme that the hacks on here try to use.

But yet, these millions of people remain.

There are many areas where we can appeal to them. Opposition to illegal immigration. Bringing jobs back home to America. Ending corporate welfare. Ending non-corporate welfare. Opposing gay marriage and supporting religious freedom. Standing up for the little guy instead of the lobbyists. The list goes on.

It can be done. Let the GOP go the way of the Whigs. Let the lobbyists and GOP moneymen and the hacks migrate to the Democrats, where they belong anywise. It's time to appeal to the mass of generally apathetic/discouraged people out there.

[TheConservator]

There is a divide in this country, and it’s not between Republicans and Democrats. It’s between those who want to increase the power and arbitrariness of government, and those who support the rule of law.

The political elites, including the GOP-e, want to increase the power, and the arbitrary exercise of the power, of government. The more powerful government becomes, the more arbitrary it becomes, the more necessary becomes the currying of influence with the politicians and bureaucrats whose hands are on the levers of that power.

The political elites, the too big to fail, the crony capitalists, and their allies in the government workers, non-profit, media, and academia sectors, all want government to become ever more powerful, and ever more arbitrary. The more people are dependent on the arbitrary power of the government, the more power they wield.

The middle class, in contrast, wants government out of the way, and wants the government to engage in a principled application of the rule of law to the extent interface with the government is necessary. They want to know if that if they work and sacrifice to get ahead, to build a business, that what they have worked for won’t arbitrarily be taken away, that they will be able to enjoy the fruits of their hard work and sacrifice, and that they will be able to pass on those fruits to their children.

Whats been happening in this country the last 20-30 years is that the elites have been prevailing, and the government has become ever larger, ever more arbitrary, and ever more powerful. And as that as happened, the yeoman middle class, who traditionally have been the engine for economic growth in this country, have become more and more dispirited. That completely explains the economic malaise this country finds itself in.

Unfortunately, I don’t see how to change this trend. The systemic pressure is all in favor of the elites. There may be another Reagan who comes along to offer a brief period of renewal, but the vested interest of those in control of the government is too strong, and will push for the accumulation of ever more arbitrary power, until finally there is a collapse. Think 18th century France.

[Yashcheritsiy]

We don't need a second party, what we need is to apply the whip to the existing Republican party.

Will not happen. The GOP has structured itself internally specifically to prevent this from happening. Which is why it has not happened already, despite a decade or more of "applying the whip" to the already-existing GOP.

[DiogenesLamp]

I can’t particularly argue with any of it. Interesting, though, to see Ace throw in the towel, as for years he consistently seemed to default towards the Party establishment each and every time there was a tea-party/GOP-E split. It’s one of the reasons I stopped going to his site a long while back.

I stopped going there because his co-blogger DrewM banned me from commenting because I said I would punch a member of the media in the nose if I ever got the chance.

DrewM apparently gets his panties in a bunch pretty easily.

[EternalVigilance]

Been there, done that, got the closet full of t-shirts.

Seven years worth.

[DiogenesLamp]

If we had the ability to do what you suggest, we would have the ability to take over the Republican party.

Ergo, I interpret the existing status quo as us not having the ability to do either.

One part of the problem is, too many of the big monied donors are in favor of Big Government Republicanism. Probably a lot of them get their money in one form or another from Big Government Republicanism, and are therefore not against it.

Another part of the problem is that the American Public can't hardly hear any news or information that hasn't been first filtered through Liberal Democrats from big city Urban environments.

This is the most serious aspect of what is wrong with our country today. Had we objective Media in 2008, Barack Obama couldn't have survived the vetting process.

[nathanbedford]

You are right, deserting the field is not an acceptable alternative, in fact, it is not even an inevitable alternative. I can think of two right off that can change everything:

First, the right presidential candidate. Ted Cruz or Scott Walker will break the mold extending back to Bob Dole and ignite patriotic Americans some of whom call themselves conservatives, some of whom call themselves independents and some of whom we call Reagan Democrats. Either of these two men carries within him the power to crash through the establishment's money and the media barrier. It could actually cause Americans to understand the vital issues which are threatening the survival of their liberty and the survival of their country as they inherited it. Either of these men could actually win and, even if losing, the effort will not be for naught, it will be a gift of the kind bestowed upon us by Barry Goldwater.

Second, Article V of the United States Constitution presents an opportunity to actually save the country. The odds are long, the enemy powerful and determined, the stakes infinite.

[DiogenesLamp]

Will not happen. The GOP has structured itself internally specifically to prevent this from happening. Which is why it has not happened already, despite a decade or more of "applying the whip" to the already-existing GOP.

"Structure" will not save them from the wrath of the people. The problem we have, is that the people aren't wrathful because they don't understand what's going on.

Again, some objective media sources with decent demographic penetration would solve this problem.

[BuckeyeTexan]

Amen to that.

[Yashcheritsiy]

If we had the ability to do what you suggest, we would have the ability to take over the Republican party.

Incorrect.

It's one thing to play somebody else's game when they have set the rules to work in their favour, always, at all times. I have seen conservatives attempt to "take over" local and state GOPs, only to be shut down by something as simple as having all their motions ruled "out of order" by the GOP-E moderator. Yeah.

It's an entirely different game when you're making it yourself.

[who knows what evil?]

Will not happen.

You are 100% right.

[BuckeyeTexan]

Damn straight. The ONLY difference between the two parties is which group of bloodsuckers gets fed.

[EternalVigilance]

Personally, I think both of the candidates you mention, as well as the rest of the candidates that the GOP is offering up, are still missing several of the fundamentals that are absolutely essential to saving the republic.

And I also think the Article V idea is a diversion as long as it is oath-breakers who either don’t understand, or don’t care about, the first principles of the republic who will be choosing the delegates. Garbage in, garbage out.

[DiogenesLamp]

It's one thing to play somebody else's game when they have set the rules to work in their favour, always, at all times. I have seen conservatives attempt to "take over" local and state GOPs, only to be shut down by something as simple as having all their motions ruled "out of order" by the GOP-E moderator. Yeah.

Oh, well someone ruled their motions out of order? Well alright then, I guess that is just the final word on the subject.

AYFKM? I think what you are saying is that there is insufficient passion in the ranks for change. What you said reminds me of this:

[Yashcheritsiy]

"Structure" will not save them from the wrath of the people.

True - it won't save them from the wrath of the people - but it WILL allow them to prevent said wrath from being effectively expressed from within the Republican Party.

The problem we have, is that the people aren't wrathful because they don't understand what's going on.

they know what's going on. They just don't know how to do anything about it. Because the system as it currently stands is rigged toward the status quo. When five hundred Tea Partiers can show up to a county GOP meeting and try to capture the local party apparatus by sheer numbers, only to be shut down by one GOP-E moderator wielding the "motion is out of order" card (even when it is IN order), people soon start to figure out that they're playing a rigged game.

Again, some objective media sources with decent demographic penetration would solve this problem.

Well son, you can wish in one hand and piss in the other, and see which one gets filled first. Or you can work hard and find a way to work around the system.

[Yashcheritsiy]

Been there, done that, got the closet full of t-shirts.

Yeah...I hate to say it, but that's because I think you've been wasting your time on vanity efforts rather than a concentrated appeal to the broader Right.

[Yashcheritsiy]

Oh, well someone ruled their motions out of order? Well alright then, I guess that is just the final word on the subject.

Actually, from the process you propose, it IS the final word.

Look, you can sit around and play patty cake with the GOP and work within their Roberts Rules of Order, or you can do something outside the box that just might work.

Your call. Just don't get in the way of people actually trying to do something, instead of just talk about it.

[DiogenesLamp]

When five hundred Tea Partiers can show up to a county GOP meeting and try to capture the local party apparatus by sheer numbers, only to be shut down by one GOP-E moderator wielding the "motion is out of order" card (even when it is IN order), people soon start to figure out that they're playing a rigged game.

Sounds like some people give up pretty easy. Something I learned a long time ago is this; If you aren't afraid to humiliate yourself, you can absolutely mortify someone else.

Or you can work hard and find a way to work around the system.

Or you can work at informing people to the point where they realize what is the correct path for advancement, and then work at engendering enough force of will that they will pursue it.

The "Media" is our enemy's air force. Till we either render their's ineffective, or get one of our own to engage and counter theirs, we are going to make precious little progress at solving any problems in this nation.

We literally cannot change people's minds without some means to inform them.

[EternalVigilance]

Look, I’ve tried it every which way from Sunday.

Every way that doesn’t involve giving up the core principles of the country.

And I’ll keep trying.

All we really need to make any number of good things work is a sufficient mass of people who are finally willing to quit messing around with compromise and start taking principled action.