Posted on 05/19/2021 6:36:05 AM PDT by Kaslin
Support for President Trump has become something of a litmus test in today’s GOP. While this actually is not a bad measure of political backbone for a Party often in need of it, the removal of Liz Cheney as Conference chair and her replacement with up-and-comer Elise Stefanik, is a reminder that in order to project and protect conservative values, the Party needs more. Much more.
Beyond Stefanik’s support for Trump is a troubling voting history in Congress. According to FreedomWorks’ 2020 congressional scorecard, Stefanik received a paltry 37 percent on scored votes. By comparison, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez scored a 26 – just 11 points less than the GOP’s now third-ranking member in the House. Stefanik hardly seems the right choice to carry the GOP mantle at a time when conservative values are under attack from a progressive mob determined to wipe out all that we hold dear.
There are other troubling signs for the GOP. Take Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz.
Gaetz’s support for Trump and willingness to stand up to critics played a major role in the Florida Millennial blossoming into a rising GOP star, even though rumors of his questionable behavior were known for years. And, with a FreedomWorks’ congressional score of 65 (largely attributed to many missed votes on key bills), Gaetz’s unreliability as a crucial conservative vote fails to offset the liability he has become.
Stefanik and Gaetz are but the latest examples of the personality-over-principles problem within the GOP.
The prevalence of social media in today’s political campaigns appears to have forever altered how candidates communicate with voters. In some ways, this has given way to a welcomed sense of intimacy and genuineness through candid conversations recorded by the candidates themselves, rather than emotionless, focus-group-tested rote speeches and campaign ads.
On the other hand, social media, and the drive to “go viral” tends to bring out more bombastic behavior and antics, which may work well on the campaign trail and in congressional hearings soundbites, but can just as easily be highly counterproductive. Members who cannot, or will not rise to the dignity of the office they come to hold, become unwelcome distractions at a moment when the Party’s focus must be to sell the conservative agenda to voters.
This is not to say that members of Congress should be “seen, not heard.” In fact, one could argue the GOP needs more dominant personalities, able to command the attention and respect of voters in order to carry the conservative message forward. The problem occurs when the personality clouds that message – or hides it altogether.
Dominant Republican figures such as Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater, and Newt Gingrich were not the sole product of outsized personalities able to “troll” their opponents. Their successes resulted from their abilities to sell the conservative message artfully and effectively to voters in a way that brought new voters into the party and offered existing members something new to cheer about. This is not possible without principles, no matter the size of one’s online following.
Trump was able to generate more votes for an incumbent president in history, but it still was not enough. The groundwork he laid will require the next generation of GOP leaders to not just tell voters that we need to “make America great again,” but explain to them precisely how it will do so.
Trump captured voters’ attention. It is now up to the GOP to hold it.
This is no easy task or one that should be taken lightly. As much as it seems obvious that Democrats want to destroy everything that makes America great, such insidiousness is wrapped in the seductive trappings of “free everything.” Opting to be the opposition Party that spends, but just not quite as lavishly as the Democrat Party, is hardly a winning strategy for the GOP.
Republicans will never be able to out-spend liberals. The only long-term, winning strategy is a true return to conservative principles that demonstrate to voters – clearly, consistently, and substantively – the very real threats to individual liberty posed by runaway spending, higher taxes, and authoritarian moves. This is, however, a strategy that will not, indeed cannot, be achieved by superficial personality theater.
I was never impressed with Trump’s personality. For crying out loud, I was temp-banned here TWICE (Primary and then general) for complaining about the guy.
But once he became president he showed his true beliefs and solutions. I became a huge fan.
i.e. it was never about his personality for me. It was and is about his principles aligning with mine, and he proved it by acting on them.
Barr really should examine more closely what he’s saying. If principles “trump” personality, then Trump’s personality is less important than the political principles he promotes. And if it comes down to a battle between the principles pushed by Trump, and the principles pushed by Democrats, it shouldn’t be a remotely close question for anyone who considers themselves a conservative.
The issue Bob Barr doesn’t understand, in order to debate principle over personality is that you have to get people’s attention before you can attempt to persuade them....
You can be the most principled person in the world but if you are boring no one will listen to you...
Trump was anything but boring, he got the attention of everyone, which allowed him to raises issues that no other Republican politician would dare to do, he was definitely flawed but mobilized an army of devoted followers and really changed the course of the GOP....
Given that Liz Cheney was one of the leaders of the determined mob that was/is attacking everything that we hold dear, it's a very good thing she's been kicked out.
I am not sure what the problem is with some of these Townhall writers. They seem to have things ass backwards.
Bob Barr is a former GA legislator who aligns with the likes of other Republican nothing-burgers from that state who think they know better than everyone else but who have no following. In other words, lips moving on a big mouth.
Trump is not a ‘personality’. Trump is a movement that will continue on long after DJT has served his rightful second-term.
What does Bob Barr know about principles?
Totally agree. What he did for the country was a miracle. His actions were awesome. Now as to the McCain thing (guy was dead for two years!!!!) and the pandemic (pretend it’s a thing at least)? Well neither one was well executed. And January 6th regardless of the overblown media coverage, it’s here and will be looped every January 6th for decades.
According to FreedomWorks’ 2020 congressional scorecard, Stefanik received a paltry 37 percent on scored votes. By comparison, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez scored a 26 – just 11 points less than the GOP’s now third-ranking member in the House. Stefanik hardly seems the right choice to carry the GOP
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Liz Cheney had to go.
She did not have to be replaced by an Assistant Democrat.
Trump uses highly unconventional tactics, which either emanate from, or augment his personality. Asymmetric warfare techniques are needed to minimize playing by the Establishment’s (MSM, GOP-E, Deep State, Dems, etc.) playbook.
They really thought thta getting him out of office and off social media would restore the status quo ante.
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
“Ah, shut up.” — Ronald Reagan
Next we need someone who can take it to the next level.
Here's the problem: all of that pales into insignificance when countered by a Democrat handing out government checks. BUT, even check recipients don't like a government that humiliates them and elevates the needs of deviant groups and illegals above the needs of citizens - that's why Trump stuck a chord with so many. He didn't spend time trying to push Jack Kemp-style "green eyeshade conservatism" - necessary as that might be - he instead appealed to a sense of national greatness the way Ronald Reagan did.
Right now you have got fairly large factions who would burn everything down as long as they get reparations, or "free" health care, or their student loans paid off. They are too miseducated to understand that the structure must be preserved or their lives will become hellish in the future. Conservative principles can only be advanced after the people come to agree on what they are conserving. Trump's big personality was being used to remind them of it, and that's why the globalists were determined to destroy him.
What a bunch of doggy-doo. Principle is Personality. Trump loves America, follows the principle of America first, believes America is worth fighting for, and it shows in his personality. Barr needs to stop listening to his overlords.
“What does Bob Barr know about principles?”
he knows how to dump them, and he knows how to live without them!
1. Many of those organizations have political agendas that don't match mine on some key issues. Someone who gets a score of 100 from the ACU or FreedomWorks, for example, must be voting as a warmongering open-borders globalist on at least 25% of the bills that are used for this scoring. Heck -- Donald Trump himself would have gotten about a 60 if he had been rated by these organizations. He would have gotten about a 20 at best if they had rated him during the 2016 primary season.
2. Most votes in Congress are completely rigged. These dopes rarely cast any consequential votes that matter. The ObamaCare fiasco was a perfect example of this. Republican members of the House and Senate ran up impressive ACU and FreedomWorks scores from 2010 to 2016 casting votes to repeal ObamaCare when they knew damn well that the bills they passed would be vetoed by Obama. But when we got to 2017 and the GOP had all the power it needed to REALLY repeal it, they couldn't get the damn job done even though most of them could sanctimoniously claim that it wasn't their fault.
I voted for Trump because I was so done with those silly, feckless theatrics.
Never, ever take advice from Bob Barr. He’s a perennial political loser and current weed promoter.
Agreed, st first I thought he was an "all hat hat no cattle" celebrity politician. Pretty soon I realized he was a real fighter, unlike McCain and Romney. Without that personality he'd have gotten his butt kicked by Hellaree.
The author, Barr, completely ignored Trump's many policy successes. Very lame article.
Yep. Trump’s personality is what got everyone’s attention. It was a tool he used to be famous. Then he used that fame to get stuff done.
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