The continued appeals to the RINO's directly and the threat of the elimination of funding to the RNC have proven ineffective.
The only remaining weapon is to eject them from the Republican Party.
Yeah, that'll show em'!
Turn the agenda over to the Democrats!
Make sure all of Bush's conservative nominees get held indefinitely by Leahy in the Judiciary Committee!
I'm sure the RINOs will be really pissed when the new Democrat Majority allows them to keep their committee chairmanships!
Man, we'd really stick it to those RINOs if we did that!
http://www.850koa.com/shows/rosen/party-trumps-person.html#trumps
The so called RINO senators that you mention vote with the Republican majority most of the time. I'll take that over a democrat majority in the Senate any day. You will just have to accept that your brand of conservative will probably never be elected from Maine, Connecticut and a few other states around the country. I know some people here love to take shots at Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, but for me, I'm glad they are on our side.
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Party Still Trumps Person
With just 80 days to go before the election, it's time for my quadrennial column on party vs. person. I've been offering and updating this polemic for more than 20 years. For veteran voters, this may be review; for rookies, perhaps, a new concept.
A time-honored cliche heard every election year goes something like this: "I'm an independent thinker; I vote the person, not the party." This pronouncement is supposed to demonstrate open-mindedness and political sophistication on the part of the pronouncer. It's your vote, cast it any way you like - or not at all. But idealism and naivete about the way our electoral process and system of government works shouldn't be mistaken for wisdom or savvy.
For better or worse, we have a two-party system. And party trumps person. Either a Republican, George W. Bush, or a Democrat, John Kerry, is going to be elected president in November. No one else has a chance.
Not Ralph Nader, not the Libertarian candidate, nor the Communist, nor the Green. Minor party candidates are sometimes spoilers - like Nader costing Gore the presidency in 2000 - but they don't win presidential elections. Ross Perot got 20 million popular votes in 1992, and exactly zero Electoral College votes.
In Europe's multiparty, parliamentary democracies, governing coalitions are formed after an election. In our constitutional republic, the coalitions are formed first.
The Republican coalition includes, for the most part, middle- and upper-income taxpayers (but not leftist Hollywood millionaires and George Soros), individualists who prefer limited government, pro-market and pro-business forces, believers in American exceptionalism and a strong national defense, social-issues conservatives and supporters of traditional American values.
The Democratic coalition is an alliance of collectivists, labor unions (especially the teachers' unions), government workers, academics, plaintiffs-lawyers, lower- and middle-income net tax-receivers, most minorities, feminists, gays, enviros, and activists for various anti-capitalist, anti-business, anti-military, anti-gun, one-world causes.
I say party trumps person because regardless of the individual occupying the White House, the coalition will be served.
A Democratic president, whether a liberal or a moderate (conservative Democrats, if any still exist, can't survive the nominating process), can operate only within the political boundaries of his party and its coalition. The party that wins the presidency gets to staff all the discretionary positions in the executive and judicial branches of government. Members of its coalition are awarded vital policy-making government jobs, judgeships, ambassadorships and appointments to boards and commissions, as well as a host of plum jobs handed out to those who have political IOUs to cash in.
A vote for Bush is a vote for the Republican agenda and conservative players in key posts. A vote for Kerry is a vote for the influence of the National Education Association, the National Organization for Women, the American Civil Liberties Union and the likes of Al Sharpton and Michael Moore.
The legislative branch is no different. After the individual members of a new Congress have been seated, a figurative nose count is taken and the party with the most noses wins. That victory carries with it control of all committee and subcommittee chairmanships, the locus of legislative power.
Now, let's say you're a registered Republican voter who clearly prefers the Republican philosophy of governance. And you're a good-natured, well-intentioned person who happens to like an individual Democrat, a Senate candidate, who's somewhat conservative. You decide to cross party lines and vote for him.
As it turns out, he wins, beating a Republican and giving the Democrats a one-vote majority, 51-49, in the U.S. Senate.
Congratulations! You just got Ted Kennedy, Patrick Leahy, Dianne Feinstein and Hillary Clinton as key committee chairs, and a guarantee that your Republican legislative agenda will be stymied.
That's the way the process works. Does this mean that in a two-party system like ours it comes down to choosing between the lesser of two evils? You bet it does. That's not to say that either party is really "evil," that's just an expression.
If we had 280 million custom-tailored minor parties, everyone could find his perfect match.
But that's not practical.
You can be a purist and cast your vote symbolically with a boutique party, or be a player and settle for the least imperfect of the Republican or Democrat alternatives. Your vote, your choice.
Sorry, I refuse to be their pawn anymore. Until the republican party grows a back bone and stands up for what is right and DOES the right thing regarding illegal immigration and our out of control border situation, social security reform and judicial activism, etc..., I will stay home.
The way the country is going, within a generation we will be as insipid and have the kind of socialist government that Canada has, we are well on our way. America, has become a godless, post-Christian nation controlled and led by wicked, lying men in the government and judiciary. The tragedy is this; through this supposed "deal" a minority of senators within the president's own party has stabbed him (and all of America) in the back and thoroughly compromised his ability to lead. The future of the country now rests in the hands of a minority of evil men led by McCain, Bird, Snow, Chaffe, etc. They have become the power behind the throne. THEY control the country, policy and what happens. The president can't get anything accomplished without them and now needs their approval for anything and everything he wants to do.
After what has taken place, you can forget about Social Security reform, you can forget about controlling the borders or curbing judicial activism. You can forget about fighting the war on terrorism, dealing with China, North Korea, Iran, Syria et al. From heare on out, the PC "moderates" are in control. With this "compromise" we have just been ordered to bend over, grab our ankles and "take it with a smile". From here on out, if they want my money, support and vote, they have to EARN it back.
Oh yeah... the use of the word traitor to describe John McCain, Mike DeWine, John Warner, Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe and the others is totally outrageous. You really need to learn more about each one of them before making stupid characterizations like this. It's exactly the same as the folks here at FR who refer to Hillary Clinton as Hitlery. Just as idiotic IMHO.
I'm starting to think there is a very thin line between these folks and the rest of our esteemed elected conservatives.
Oh good grief.
I'd settle for McCain and Graham getting the hook, as they seem to be the ringleader and heir apparent. The rest are merely living down to their reputations in the best tradition of the Senate.
I'm with you all the way; oust them ASAP!
You're not about to get rid of 70 years of socialism overnight. The RINOs represent the socialist hangover we're going through.
If you look closely, a good portion of the conservative agenda is getting through the house, but it gets squashed by the RINOs and their rat allies in the senate.
The proper action here is to challenge the RINOs in the primaries and get rid of the rat senators representing conservative states. Forcing RINOs into the rat party is unacceptable. The spectacle of Hillary, Schumer and Leahy sitting at the head of senate committees is repugnant.
Why not work to get 60 republican senators, instead of working to get 60 democrat senators? The dims are in glee over your actions.
Each and every one of US Reps should NOT send a DIME for 3 months to any GOP org.
Think they'll get the message?
Hey someone start the GOP $ BOYCOTT.