Who Owns the GOP?

The Atlantic ^ | 19 Oct 2007 | Ross Douthat

[Delacon]

David Brooks and Dean Barnett both tackle Huckabee's gradual rise today, and both see a lot of promise: Brooks writes that whereas "each of the top-tier candidates makes certain parts of the party uncomfortable ... Huckabee is the one candidate acceptable to all factions," while Barnett acknowledges that the Huck's "taxing and spending in Arkansas may not be every conservative's ideal," but suggests that he "probably has fewer policy skeletons in his closet than anyone else in the field."

I dunno - as Matt says, taxing and spending are a pretty big deal in the GOP, and it's clear that Huckabee wouldn't be acceptable to this particular faction, at the very least. Throw in his wetness on immigration and his various rhetorical forays toward a "conservatism of the heart" on trade and inequality and so forth, and you have a candidate with as many deviations from GOP orthodoxy as John McCain and Fred Thompson, certainly, if not Giuliani and Romney (both of whom have enough skeletons to fill the whole house).

Which is why the current Republican race is so interesting - it's a laboratory, in a sense, for determining which interest groups really have clout in the GOP primaries, and which issues really excite the faithful. If Rudy Giuliani wins the nomination, it will tell us a lot about the real influence (or lack thereof) of folks like James Dobson; if John McCain gets the nod, we'll know that immigration and (to a lesser extent) campaign-finance reform are more important to activists than to actual voters; if Huckabee becomes a significent spoiler (or, though it's much more unlikely, an actual contender) then we'll know the Club for Growth doesn't have quite as much clout

[The Mayor]

Club for Growth is a national network of thousands of Americans, from all walks of life, who believe that prosperity and opportunity come through economic freedom. We work to promote public policies that promote economic growth primarily through legislative involvement, issue advocacy, research, training and educational activity.

The primary tactic of the separate Club for Growth PAC is to provide financial support from Club members to viable pro-growth candidates to Congress, particularly in Republican primaries.

That from their website... Key thing I see is in the Primaries. Even they see the advantage for and in Primaries. I think organizations such as this can be an asset, they would most likely bring in more with them.

[Bigg Red]

Huckabee is the one candidate acceptable to all factions,”....

&&&
Not so fast, buckaroo. The Huckster is definitely not acceptable to those of us who see the problems involve in lax border control.

[Bigg Red]

...most of the field is even worse.

&&&

Give Duncan Hunter a look-see.

[The Mayor]

That seems like an awful amount of work to be successful on a national level.

Anything even close to reforming or restructuring our government is not going to be an easy task. How many states are represented here at Free Republic? All of them and other countries to boot. At one time we had Chapter Leaders at I was one of them for Western New York. Thing I found out is we easily separate the wheat from the chaff. So many people are "Keyboard activists"....

During the whole creation of two key groups we created to take on Erie County government only a couple out of more that 50 got involved. We persevered and basically over threw the Republican establishment here and got a new Chairman who sought out Primary Challenge candidates for this years election and I am one of them.

We were successful in electing a reform Town Supervisor that has been shaking up the town of Amherst and a Democrat legislator that was a true independent voice and voted her convictions. We made a difference in the way Republicans are chosen and picked for office now.

How hard would it be to go National? I don't think it would be that hard, I am sure we still have the chapter leaders on a list. Two congressional candidates from even half or 3/4 of the states would shake the crap out of the Republican leadership. I think they would get the message. I am sure there are people out there that would step up to run against rinos like Specter in the senate too.... If I lived in PA I sure as hell would.

Get something going and see how and if it grows, I am sure Rush, Hannity, Beck would see what we are doing and jump on board. We need to at least give it a try, what do we have to loose except our country?

[humblegunner]

Masterblaster owns the GOP.

"This MY party. You.. pedestrian!"

I love Masterblaster.

[Vision]

Your plan seems like an uphill fight on a national level. We try to unseat all RINOs and hope that works and that a lame leadership gets the message. Why does the Party leadership get to play with Republican principles? Why is the RNC not leading? Frankly we would be so better off if Martinez had never shown up to work and Limbaugh phoned in orders every other day.

I’d rather focus on filling the RNC with hard nosed Conservatives and having the leadership discipline RINOs. This way there is accountability and top down maintenance of principles.

[The Mayor]

Your plan is a long slow approach with many battles to over come.We tried that approach here locally with little positive results. A plan to run primaries is fast and sends a strong message to the leadership, there we had success fast. It only took just over 6 months with huge media coverage simply because what we were doing. The media ate it up because we had Dems and Repubs on the ballot.

Either way something must be done and the time is now.

[Vision]

Well the first thing that must be done is to name the RINOs.

[The Mayor]

Agreed!
We all need to compile a list.

[cva66snipe]

Who Owns the GOP?

The Saudi Royal Family, China, corporations with deep investments in or with those nations and Rockefeller Republicans who's bottom line is pleasing those three for their stock portfolio's sake. They own the platform and control the policy and media exposure along with the RNC. The GOP ceased being owned by voters in 1995. It has yet to correct course or recover from the liberal takeover of 1995.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

Time to bump this again. Further thoughts?

[Vision]

Am always ready to fight RINOs.

I fear the shear size of the task discourages some people; which is why I was talking about being leveraged on this before.

[Grunthor]

“Who Owns the GOP?”

It’s a co-op. No one group can get what they want without the other.

[backtothestreets]

"Who Owns the GOP?"

Posing this question to me is akin to extending me an invitation to meet a gang of thugs on a dark alley to have my body broken and face bloodied.  

My opinion as an Independent American is special interests own the GOP and Democratic Party.  Voters are little more than pawns to the two political parties, and the special interests that own these parties.  Voters have allowed themselves to be made useful idiots ever ready to cast their vote over a single issue before the overall good of the nation, state or community.  In exchange for the single issue the voters sacrifice the securing of liberty, to ourselves and our posterity, as enumerated in the Preamble of the Constitution of the United States.

I see more similarities in the two parties than differences.

Both parties seem to have read something into the US Constitution that has them thinking it is the purpose of our nation to force other nations to be like the USA.  Their mindset that we are somehow destined to force democracy upon others, by way of sanctions or military force, is absolutely related to the mindset of all the Osama bin Ladens' of the world that believe it their destiny to force whatever they are bearing upon others.

Neither party embraces the concept of sovereignty.  Sovereignty can only be claimed by extending sovereignty to all other nations.  Only nations that seek to end the sovereignty of another nation should have its own sovereignty denied.

Neither party embraces the concept of liberty.  Both parties embrace a perverted definition of liberty that is an abomination and thought to somehow grant them a right to force others to do as the parties see fit during their tenure.

Neither party embraces a republican form of government guaranteed the states by the Constitution.  Both parties are adept at using the federal government to force compliance upon states on matters reserved to the states.

Both parties are champions of the United Nations and other world bodies that threaten our national sovereignty.

Both parties are BIG government parties.

Both parties are deeply entangled with foreign governments by way of lobbying and campaign contributions, thus granting foreign governments avenues to corrupt our nation.

Both parties suffer no guilt or shame in heaping overwhelming debt on children and future generations.

Both parties play politics with war.  When a nation makes war with us, destroy that nation.  We don't even need the presence of a single member of the military on the ground to fulfill this objective, and we are certainly not obligated to rebuild any nation that makes war upon us.  End the "politically correct" warfare when warring nations beckon us, give our military instructions to conclude the war as quickly as possible, with the fewest number of American casualties, and let both the utter devastation of the war we deliver, and the burden of such a warring nation having to rebuild itself, serve as a future warning to any nation that contemplates making war upon us.

Both parties embrace campaign finance and lobbying laws that grant special interests greater access to government with greater favor from government, no matter how unethical and immoral.

Both parties play politics with crime, allowing certain levels to exist as a coercive element government can use to expand government intervention on private citizens under the ploy of addressing crime.

Both parties lack ethics.  Lacking ethics, both parties are corrupt to the core.

Both parties place a greater emphasis on loyalty to their respective parties than the nation as a whole.

Both parties exercise every opportunity to use government to employ elaborate schemes that create "government" jobs for party operatives at taxpayer expense.

I've a deep, troubling sense, most of the elected have never read the entire Constitution of the United States.  I actually see a small glimmer of hope in this as it would mean the elected have not simply chosen to ignore the Constitution, and might in time read, comprehend, and apply the principles of this founding document.

I see no difference in Democrats protecting President Clinton from charges of perjury and Republicans protecting President Bush from charges he refuses to protect our nation by securing our borders and enforcing our laws.  Only a hypocrite would think it appropriate to penalize a Democrat for ignoring the law, and think it acceptable for a Republican to ignore the law.

In a nutshell, I see one political party with two factions.  The one political operation could be well named the Hypocrite Party.

A September 2007 poll of Americans asking if the Democratic Party and Republican Party serve the interests of Americans indicates I am not in a minority with my opinions.  Only 39% of Americans sided with the two special interest owned parties.  Fifty-seven percent do not.  Like him or not, the maverick Republican Ron Paul has sparked a significant populist uprising.  His campaign for president rests entirely upon individual donations and grassroots organization.  Such a challenge to the special interest owned and operated political parties poses a threat to the parties, and make no mistake, the challenge is intertwined in the psyche of the fifty-seven percent of Americans that do not align themselves with the parties serving a narrow spectrum of special interests.

Despite my disappointments with both political parties, I am nonetheless hopeful some spark of the freedom borne by the Founding Fathers of this nation will ignite the fires that destroy corrupted political parties clearing the way for a rebirth of all the Founding Fathers embraced.  Such a time will come when a major political party, or truly independent political faction allows ethics to roost over its internal composition and sets forth a policy that forbids corruption, and does so without relying upon government to establish such ethical behavior.  It will police itself and exile from their ranks any that are caught in noncompliance.  The party that finds and embraces ethical fortitude within itself, and applies such ideals to itself regardless of what opponents do, will raise itself above opposing political parties and find itself owned by Americans.  That party will take and hold the high moral ground so long as it adheres to the high ethical standards it establishes for itself.

If any disagree with my opinions, I stand ready to defend myself as an American, first, foremost, and forever.