So what is the Republican Party? (This also applies to the Democratic Party to a slightly lesser degree.) Politicians are not the Party. This is an extremely point to understand. When you open your eyes to this basic fact, you will see how futile it is to think that you can change things through the ballot box.
To compare the Republican Party to a car, politicians are the hood ornament. Money is the gasoline, and special interests are the driver, mechanic, and gas station attendant. The rest of the vehicle is built of consultants, campaign managers, advisors, bureaucrats, media and marketing folks, state and national committee members, etc., etc. Within the context of Republican Party politics, elected officials yield the least influence. The president may be the most powerful person in the world, but that doesn’t mean he’s in charge. Politicians who sincerely want to do a good job are deemed “Outliers” and are given little influence, or are openly attacked by the Party; see the sordid story of Governor John Kasich (R-Oh.) below. (Obama works off-script an unusually large amount of the time for a president, which is why the Democratic establishment can’t stand him and can’t wait for his next term to finish. Hillary Clinton will be much more compliant.)
The role of the Republican Party is to dole out America’s resources in the manner the major donors wish. The role of politicians, especially the president, is to put a smiling face on it, which is why Romney (D-Mass.) is the GOP’s anointed one. The fact that he is so effective at fundraising should scare the crap out of any sentient being. He’s a handsome, smiling bobble-head; nothing more. It tells you that he will exert little influence over his administration if elected.
So the GOP cannot be taken over at the ballot box. You must move to Washington and evict all of those who comprise the structure of the machine. Good luck with that, especially when you’re going to have to beat the money-men to pull it off.
Smart companies like Goldman Sachs and General Electric donate to both Parties. GS was Obama’s biggest donor last election cycle, and if polls show Romney (D-Mass.) likely to win, they will be his biggest donor. The reason should be obvious; the firm and the other big banks wrote most of Dodd-Frank, and unsurprisingly their market share has increased significantly since the bill was enacted. Had Romney (D-Mass.) been president, he would have signed it, too. (Additionally, Bush and Obama have had thousands of Wall Street folks working in their administrations. It’s a modern-day spoils system, and Romney (D-Mass.) will do the same.)
Thus, Nancy Pelosi’s infamous “you have to pass the bill to find out what’s in the bill” comment was actually non-controversial. Republicans didn’t know what was in Sarbanes-Oxley or TARP when they voted “yea,” either. The powers-that-be wrote them (the accounting lobby in the case of Sarbanes-Oxley, and the Fed and Treasury in the case of TARP), and yes votes were both expected and received.
The Faux Nomination Process (Politics as Usual)
Everyone knows Romney (D-Mass.) was the pre-selected candidate, but the campaign hasn’t gone according to script. There was only supposed to be token resistance to perpetuate the illusion that the rank-and-file actually plays a role in the nomination process. And as soon as he started feeling the pressure, he immediately went negative because he has no positive message to run on. “I promise to take your tax dollars and give them to my campaign donors” isn’t a smash hit with voters.
(Note that Gary Johnson ran zero negative ads in his two campaigns for Governor, although I cannot promise that he will do the same during this election cycle. I will also admit that this article will probably make him uncomfortable if he reads it. After all, I’m not only going negative on Romney (D-Mass.), I’m going negative on the entire corrupt Republican Party.)
Repeal ObamaCare? Not a Chance.
Romney (D-Mass.) keeps saying he will repeal ObamaCare, but I hope no one is naïve enough to believe him. His donors stand to make BILLIONS because of the bill. They wrote ObamaCare, and now they’re funding his campaign! Do you think health insurance companies are going to allow him to repeal a bill that mandates that all Americans carry gold-plated insurance?
The ObamaCare “repeal” will go down like this: House Republicans will pass a repeal bill. Senate Democrats will block it. There will be lots of tense moments and sparring through the media as the White House and House straw men and –women wage a wink-and-a-nudge “battle” with the Democrats. Romney (D-Mass.) will concede defeat and blame the Democrats, who will claim victory. The Republicans will save face with their base by fighting the “good fight,” as will the Democrats.
Next, Romney (D-Mass.) will take charge of “fixing” it. Democrats will concede that it needs improvement. Campaign donors will draft “revisions” that will benefit the donors, and both parties will agree to those amendments. There will be some token resistance on certain provisions to keep America fleeced into thinking that we have a functioning Two-Party system.
This may come as a shock to Republican loyalists, but the Supreme Court is the last chance at repeal. Now that it’s in place, the Republican Party wants ObamaCare as badly as the Democratic Party. Modified, perhaps, but they still want it. They’re in control of way too much money to relinquish that control. There won’t be enough votes to repeal even if the GOP has a supermajority in the Senate.
(Trust me on this point—I have this information from a state-level insider.)
Is the Tea Party Dead?
Anecdotally, the Tea Party is nowhere near the force it was in 2010. There have been few primary battles pitting a Tea Party conservative or libertarian against an establishment candidate that have received national coverage. Part of it is because it is a presidential election year, and Obama is so deservedly despised by Tea Party folks. Unfortunately, many Tea Partiers have climbed back in bed with the GOP and have fallen back asleep. The Tea Party is still holding their officials’ feet to the fire, but the fire has dwindled to coals. That is bad news. By and large they have been seduced into playing a losing game.
At the Libertarian Party of Ohio’s State Convention last weekend, Nick Gillespie of Reason.tv began his speech with a picture of former Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell. It was from her high school years, and she had on a ladybug costume, and it was one of the ones the media used to smear her.
I agree with Nick Gillespie that Christine O’Donnell was exactly the kind of candidate this country needs because she would have challenged the machine and been something other than a hood ornament. Many Republi-zombies complain that it was a winnable seat, and they should have nominated more moderate Mike Castle. No, no, no! It is the Mike Castles of the world that have gotten us into the mess we’re in. Picking a bobble-head because they have the correct letter beside their name will do nothing to clean up the mess.
But even if O’Donnell had won, it would still take dozens of years and hundreds of other victories to get enough politicians in place to evict the rascals who control the machine, as well as a total restructuring of the Party. That’s not going to happen. It is the Republican Party that needs evicted.
The second problem with the “Anybody but Obama” argument is that not only is the threat of a second term of Obama overblown, the benefit of a first term of Romney (D-Mass.) has also been greatly exaggerated. As I’ve already discussed, he is not going to repeal ObamaCare. He is not going to reduce spending to a significant degree, and may spend more than Obama with divided leadership. He may back off some EPA regulations, but only if his money men demand it. He will add regulations if his donors request them. Let’s not forget that it was George W. Bush who teed up the era of regulators-gone-wild, and Romney will keep it up.
Romney (D-Mass.) will be little different than Obama because that’s how the Republican Party wants it. There is a very big pie to dish out, and the GOP wants control of the spatula, not to shrink the size of the pie. Worse, we could potentially have eight years of Romney (D-Mass.). If your eyes are open to what he’s about to do to us, that’s a more frightening prospect than one more term of Obama!
Conclusion: What to Do
It should be perfectly clear that I am advocating that conservatives and libertarians abandon the GOP. As a card-carrying Libertarian working on the Gary Johnson campaign, naturally I hope you join us. But I want to make clear that I did not write this highly negative piece just to attract voters to the LP, although I certainly hope it has that effect. I wrote this lengthy article because what I have written is true. I knew it intuitively when I left the GOP, and now that I have spent time with current and former GOP insiders, my gut feeling that the GOP is unredeemable has been confirmed. The Republican machine has been built so it cannot be destroyed at the ballot box.
So if you vote on principal as I do, you probably have already decided against voting for Romney (D-Mass.). Perhaps you will choose Johnson or whoever emerges from the Americans Elect process. Perhaps you will stay home. Any are superior to voting for the Governor-ashamed-to-call-himself-Governor.
If you are a strategic voter, the calculus is different, and it depends on what message you want to send. If you think Gary Johnson has a chance, you should join me, because he’s the only fiscal conservative who will be on the ballot. It certainly would be an effective protest vote. But if you still believe the Republican Party can be saved, nothing would send a better message to the GOP that it need to stop nominating center-left puppets by voting for Obama.
Let’s face it, a Romney (D-Mass.) v. Obama matchup is by far the worst offering from the two major Parties since the weak-president era of the Gilded Age in the late 1800s. This is a shame because Gary Johnson is the best candidate to appear on a presidential ballot in a long, long time. (He is the LP’s presumptive nominee, garnering 80–90% of the vote in straw polls at state conventions.) Perhaps between now and then he will get the traction to make it a competitive battle.
But I am urging conservatives and libertarians: DO NOT VOTE FOR ROMNEY (D-MASS.)! You will be assisting the corrupt machine that despises you, and you will be helping to install a puppet who will ensure that conservatism is kept in check at the federal level. You will be voting against everything you hold dear.
There is a whole lot more in this explosive Article. Amen. It says everything I have been thinking and more.
I’m with you; let’s all work to re-elect President Obama.
“I think the old standby definitions of who votes for which party have been blown away in this campaign. I think people recognize that I’m not a partisan Republican—that I’m someone who is moderate, and that my views are progressive.”
-Mitt Romney (2002)
Video of the quote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMcjJEXt9To
Obama continued: “I am somebody who is no doubt progressive. I believe in a tax code that we need to make more fair. I believe in universal health care. I believe in making college affordable. I believe in paying our teachers more money. I believe in early childhood education. I believe in a whole lot of things that make me progressive.”
-Barack Obama
http://www.progressive.org/mag/nichols0109.html
Compared to keeping Obama in office?
Tough call.
Yeah right, stay home and get used to saying “Justice Eric Holder”.
Yeah right, stay home and get used to saying “Justice Eric Holder”.
Are you the same person that posted the editorials: “Voting for Herman Cain — The Worst Mistake a Conservative Could make,” and “Voting for Perry — The Worst Mistake a Conservative Could make,” and “Voting for Gingrich — The Worst Mistake a Conservative Could make,” and “Voting for Santorum — The Worst Mistake a Conservative Could make”? Good Lord, give it a break. I’m a conservative and I’m not walking, I’m running to the polls to vote for Romney...if he’s the nominee.
This has got to be the stupidest attitude ever in FreeRepublic.
Newt's out, Santorum's out, Paul was never in ...
Yeah, sure Romney sucks, but ANY vote not for Romney is a zero vote.
Or is that what is being fomented here ... revolution?
Do you have a realistic solution that will prevent both Romney and Obama from becoming the next president?
Sorry Mozilla, I WOULD VOTE FOR MR. POTATO HEAD OVER OBAMA!
Sorry Mozilla, I WOULD VOTE FOR MR. POTATO HEAD OVER OBAMA!
The choice has been narrowed down. I’m not supporting obama — will take my chances with Romney.
Obama and Romney - two sides of the same coin.
In NH Romney just said, he would of course had ordered the Bin laden killing and best line,”even Jimmy Carter would have given the order.”
More of a fight than the entire campaign by McCain in 2008.
What the hell are you smoking ???
Amen to that. Voting for Romney (D-MA) abets the lurch-leftward tendency of the soon-to-be extinct GOP.
Hopefully, enough conservatives will keep Obama`s white half out of the WH. He has no base or core values, and he generates no excitement. I commute to work 35 miles each way and have yet to see a single “Romney” bumper sticker.
Fellow conservatives, D vs R a false choice.. Romney is going to be crushed in November.. let`s all make the move to a new “home.”
For me, it`s the Constitution Party. Our nominee is Virgil Goode. And voting for the first bona fide conservative since Reagan is a great thing!
I have said that for a long time.
The second problem with the “Anybody but Obama” argument is that not only is the threat of a second term of Obama overblown,
Baloney. That would not be possible to do.
the benefit of a first term of Romney (D-Mass.) has also been greatly exaggerated.
By whom? Pretty much everyone knows that there is no "benefit" to Romney. He will, at best, be not quite as bad as Obama. Even the GOP elite know there will be no significant benefit for *us*, the country, but for *them* the elite, yeah Romney is good.
The problem we face is that we lose no matter what. Guaranteed. Even if the libertarian candidate got 30 million votes, we are still going to a socialist (R) or a Marxist (D). I honestly don't know that we have any hope at all.
You go ahead and campaign for Obama. I’m voting for Romney. I’m trying to save our country. Any conservative that doesn’t vote for Romney is killing our country along with the rest of Obama’s communist cronies. Do I like Romney? No. Do I think he’s conservative. I know he’s Not. But OMG it’s a no brainer. How can anyone even consider not voting for whomever is running agains Obama? I think you are really an Obama supporter anyway...just posing as a conservative to sway people to your side.
Are you nuts?????