“A Republican “in name only” is just a Democrat calling himself a “Republican”.”
I guess you DO NOT understand then. There is now a bill in the Senate to ensure that Republicans NEVER can win another election. The bill has 49 votes for (all Democrats) and 50 votes against (every Republican). Manchin wants a more narrow bill.
So, to me, and probably everyone else reading this, there is a HUGE DIFFERENCE between the parties on this bill, at least, even between RINOs and Democrats, since EVERY RINO is opposing this bill.
If what you say were true (that there’s no difference), then why don’t at least some of those RINOs support this reform? This is also happening on a number of other major bills (RINOs siding with conservatives, but not Democrats siding with us). And this happened many, many, times with judges when Trump was president.
If not a difference between RINOs and Democrats, then why are the RINOs siding with Cruz on this, when none of the Democrats are???
“If not a difference between RINOs and Democrats, then why are the RINOs siding with Cruz on this, when none of the Democrats are???”
Obviously, anyone wanting to ever win again as a Republican (including RINOs) would be be a fool not to vote against that bill.
RINOs vote with the Republicans more often than not, to keep up appearances.
Let’s take a hypothetical example:
Let’s say you are a RINO senator, and you 100% support the Democrat political agenda, but for strategic purposes, you ran as a Republican and you call yourself a Republican.
Now, let’s say the Democrats sponsor a bill before the Senate requiring that any Senator with the Republican Party affiliation will be hanged just for having the name “Republican”.
As a RINO, would you want your Democrat friends to win that vote, knowing that if it passed, you’d be hanged for calling yourself a Republican?
Of course not.
Another example:
Let’s say you are a House RINO and you support the Democrat agenda 100%. Democrats have a majority in the House and there is a Leftist bill that all Democrats are supporting to shut down a pipeline or something.
As a RINO, you support the job-killing bill, but there are enough real Democrats to pass it without your vote.
Do you vote with your Democrat friends even though your RINO vote is not needed to pass it? Of course not. That would give you away. You would vote with the Republicans to keep up appearances.
That is what is going on here - the RINOs pick and choose when to betray their Republican constituencies. More often than not, they vote with the Republicans to keep up appearances - especially when their votes won’t make a difference anyway.
But on key strategic votes, like Obamacare, or impeachment, when the Democrats need that extra one or two votes to put them over the top - or to make something look “bipartisan” - a RINO or two will conveniently step forward to “vote their conscience”.
FReepers know which ones are the RINOs - even when they vote with the Republicans most of the time on symbolic votes like this one.. they aren’t fooling anyone.
Well, maybe they are fooling you. :-)