Posted on 02/16/2021 2:18:56 PM PST by spacejunkie2001
I tend to agree.
First, remember that President Trump was able to increase tariffs substantially, with or without McConnell's approval.
Second, I agree that McConnell is a problem, seemingly a big problem, and I have two theories on that:
So why do conservative Republicans chose as leaders some of their most "moderate" members?
The obvious answer is: they hope to "go along & get along" and maybe win over some "moderate" Democrat voters.
This strategy seemed to pay-off in 2020 when, despite President Trumps alleged "defeat", House Republicans gained seats.
But Senate Republicans did not and there we see the limits of their "let's all be nice" strategy.
Bottom line: the problem is not McConnell himself (he is what he is), the question is: why do Senate conservatives keep electing such "moderates" their leaders?
In other words: McConnell can take Democrats' abuse, maybe even thrives under it, makes deals, passes legislation.
So, how can conservatives put some spine in McConnell, make him less accommodating of Democrats' demands?
Answer: by abusing McConnell worse than Democrats do.
Make his political life more miserable than Democrats do and force him to chose -- does he really still want to be leader, or is it getting well past time to retire?
I certainly agree with President Trump that McConnell has to go if Republicans hope to win in 2022.
Sadly, the answer to your first question is that there simply
aren’t many Conservatives in the Senate. Very few...
As for the second, Mitch hasn’t really moved much legislation
if any, since January 2017. The one exception was the tax
cut bill that sunsets in 2024.
He does need to go, but then again who do you replace him
with? Sadly, in the senate today, we’re back to the issue
of there being many Conservatives.
45 people aren’t going to vote for one of the 5% of them.
5 people can’t get the person they want. We’re screwed for
a long time to come if we expect any help out of those
people.
I hear you...
A lot depends on how, exactly, you define the word "conservative" and so just who, exactly, qualifies fully, qualifies partly, barely or not at all.
Different conservative groups have used different metrics to arrive at somewhat different rankings, from most to least conservative.
So some people say those rankings are useless, but if so, then there's no objective way to define "conservative" and everything depends strictly on personal opinions.
I don't think that could ever work, so we have to go by some objective measure, and this one seems as good as any.
It shows our most conservative senators are Blackburn and Ernst, the least among Republicans Collins, Shelby & Murkowski.
Both Kentucky senators rank much closer to CS&M than to Blackburn & Ernst, so I question why that is?
Democrats don't do that -- Schumer is much closer to Bernie than to Joe Manchin in his voting record.
Indeed, McConnell is closer to Schumer than he is to our more conservative Republicans!
It turns out: Senate Republicans' conservative center of gravity is right between the two Scotts -- Florida & South Carolina.
I'd think that's where our leaders should come from.
And there's another factor just as important as where they are today: a typical Republican career path is they start off being genuinely, consistently conservative but over the years become less & less to.
It's the same problem with judges & justices -- they never seem to go from Left to right, only the other way.
So leaders among Republicans should be selected from the more conservatives but also put on notice that when they begin to slip-slide, slip-slip-slide-slide Left, they'll be immediately replaced, and then do it.
That's my suggestion for how to clean up the Republicans and turn them into a potent ideological force, to counter & ballast the Democrats' ever increasing uncontrolled political insanity.
My idea of a Conservative is a person that back sound fiscal
policy, protects our borders, and generally does things that
lead to our nation being very strong and invincible.
A lot of people claim to be all that, but want to use Leftist
policy to get there.
That’s a very flawed game plan.
So I term them Leftists whether they understand why or not.
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