Posted on 06/01/2014 5:32:19 AM PDT by cotton1706
At the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans this week, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson tried to distance himself from the Tea Party groups that helped elect him in 2010.
If Ron Johnson was running any faster from the Tea Party he'd leave skid marks.
Back in 2010, the Wisconsin senator was one of the Tea Party’s first candidates. His upset victory over incumbent Democrat Russ Feingold in that deep purple swing state was seen as proof that a new brand of conservatism was on the march.
But Johnson, a businessman and political novice when he was first elected, told reporters at a gathering of grassroots conservatives activists in New Orleans this week that it may be time for that march to slow down.
“I think the conservative movement may just be maturing a little bit. You can be very doctrinaire, you can demand purity, but in the end if you want to advance policy that you want enacted you have to win elections,” Johnson said when asked about a recent spate of Tea Party losses around the country.
The Wisconsin Republican blamed national and local Tea Party groups for holding the GOP hostage. “My guess is that the Tea Party groups have always been separate from the Tea Party movement.”
Johnson burst onto the national scene after given a number of fiery speeches at Tea Party rallies before he was even a candidate, and told a reporter that he “did kind of spring out of the Tea Party.”
At the Republican Leadership Conference however, Johnson downplayed his involvement with the movement, saying, “I gave a speech at a few Tea Parties. I never joined a group.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
Mark Levin BATTLES Sen. Ron Johnson over Obamacare defund strategy (Audio)
Mark Levin locks horns with Sen. Ron Johnson over Cruz’s defund Obamacare strategy [VIDEO]
I agree the 80% is a good marker. I consider that basic conservatism.
My concern is the 100%'ers. When you get to that level we do not all agree on what the final 5 or 10 percent should be and it all falls apart.
Now how, pray tell, can we do that when the GOP-E is working in overdrive to rig the primary system and stack the state-level organizations against Conservatives??? Do I need to re-post all the articles about how that is happening across the board, especially in Virginia?
And remember what happened at the GOP convention in Tampa, when the GOP-E leaders threw out some of the Conservatives delegates, took others on "scenic view" bus rides while critical votes were taken, and changed the rules on who gets to vote on the presidential nominee in 2016?
Exactly, and he's also contributing to the GOP-E/Rat/media meme that the TEA party is over.
Problem is that the "final 5 or 10 percent" invariably involves abortion, LGBT agenda acceptance, and higher taxes to grow the government more.
No thanks!
You nailed it!
Can't do that when the GOP-E is rigging the primary system against Conservatives.
I'm not a republican. I'm a conservative.
/johnny
Some tea party groups are good and some are jokes. There's a problem with a lot of new "tea party" groups with "leaders" that care more about being the man-in-charge instead of advancing effective conservative candidates.
ANYBODY can call themselves tea party. Anyone can claim to be 'leadership' of tea party. Those 'leaders' all have agendas. Many of the national tea party groups also spend most of their money on consultants instead of helping candidates get election. They make a lot of noise in emails asking me for money, but don't do what is necessary to win.
Because the leadership of these organizations, in particular national tea party organizations, are counterproductive to the movement and to conservatism in general.
Tea party PEOPLE helped put him into office. National Tea Party leadership did not.
Word to the wise, just because some "TEA Party" folk like him/here, just because some conservative hacks and pundits promote him/her, just because you get daily "push" emails telling you that you "really need to get behind X", you just might be buying something worse than you already have!!!
"Act in haste, repent in leisure!"
Links would be fine
If they cheat make it known far and wide.
If it isn't close they can't cheat.
We need to overcome them by numbers and enthusiasm.
We can’t afford to stand outside pointing and shouting. The stakes are too high.
But here’s the thing. The 100%ers are all but a figment of the GOP sycophant imagination that they use for a talking point/wedge issue. I am considered by some here to be a rabid purist, yet I go by the prior comment every election. Most of us do. The barest handful are 100% types. they don’t constitute any vote to speak of.
But the sycophants use what few their are to blow the issue out of proportion, create dissent and get their RINO elected every time.
Does he ever get around to specifying just what he is talking about? It's easy to throw around insults and hint at conspiracies when no detail at all is provided.
From what I've learned of his remarks so far, I'd say the senator was being "bombastic" and raising the spector of "conspiracies" in a fairly irresponsible manner. He needs to be specific about what he means.
That's all it takes.
To some here on FR, that counts as being a purist.
Of course, all of those things are or were republican party platform planks.
/johnny
I don’t see how you call that damning…..some TP groups are awful…..some focus on issues that were never part of the original TP movement. But go ahead, do enjoy your self flagellation and paranoia.
None of which, by the way, changes the fact that Johnson is the best elected official from Wisconsin in our lifetimes — along with Walker. Neither are exactly Ted Cruz. Texas isn’t exactly Wisconsin.
Those things are sorely lacking right now. Here are your links:
(Floor fight: Grass-roots activists battle attempt to rig RNC delegate rules
(NOTE There was a live thread here on FR when all of that was going down, with posts running into the hundreds.)
Tampa GOP Elitist Coup to Change Rules - Banish Grassroots?
Romney's "RNC Power Grab": What Really Happened
Romney’s Palin Problem: Where’s Her Convention Invite? (Advisor: she will be prohibited to speak)
RNC Bus Driver “Gets Lost”, Forcing Virginia Delegates Opposed to Rules Change to Miss Crucial Vote
Cuccinelli Campaign Says National GOP Abandoned Them: 'We Were on Our Own'
VA GOP Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling Undermined Cuccinelli Campaign
GOP strategist Boyd Marcus’s move to McAuliffe campaign seen as sign of party rift
John Boehner’s friends plot tea party crackdown
Huelskamp Details GOP Retaliation Against Tea Party
Wall Street Republicans' dark secret: Hillary Clinton 2016
Eric Cantor confronts Republican infighting
The GOP Establishment Turns a ‘Firehose’ on Virginia Tea Partiers
Virginia Republicans Organizing to Blunt Tea Party Power
I've got a lot more from where these came from. So if you want to continue beating your head against a wall in trying to change the GOP-E from "within," then bang away.
It definitely sounds like he has chug-a-lugged the Koolaid.
Flash!
Ron Johnson discovers bread does not butter itself.
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