A bit of irony here. It is all in the eyes of the beholder. The term RINO is worthless as it have been over utilized and has no meaning anymore.
People use it whenever they disagree with another candidate on perhaps as little as one issue. Example is Marco Rubio who has a Conservative rating of 98%, and has acknowledged that he did favor in the past a path to citizenship. Die-hard/rigid folks cannot forgive him even though Marco has admitted that he made a mistake by trying to work with Charles Schumer. Because it was such a public event, he cannot seam to overcome the stigma.
Just my humble opinion.
Rubio admitted that the American people were against it. He is still for amnesty.
rino should only be used for candidates for public office that switch parties because of political expediency...example Michael Bloomberg switched parties to run for mayor of new York but if he thought he could win as a democrat he would have ran as one...
Labeling some of the les conservative as rino or as dole labeled cruise who defiantly is more conservative then most the party is wrong. the republican party has to be inclusive realizing there will be differences in how we believe government should operate. I myself feel I am conservative but I know that some times I may have a more liberal view point on something. Someone could easily claim that I am a rino because of that viewpoint despite the fact that in my 31 rears of voting I have never voted democrat and unless things change radically I never will in the future
Example is Marco Rubio who has a Conservative rating of 98%, and has acknowledged that he did favor in the past a path to citizenship.
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98% is the Conservative rating I’ve been seeing for Cruz, while the rating for Rubio has been 79%.