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New study sheds light on why Republicans won’t call themselves Republican

New study sheds light on why Republicans won’t call themselves Republican

This week, The Frontier Lab published the results of months of research into why some Republicans are refusing to go by the label “Republican,” choosing to identify as anything but. I was the Research Director for this study, which applied a research approach called “Behavioral Event Modeling,” which essentially reverse engineers and maps all events that precede an individual’s disaffiliation.

In the spring of 2013 the Republican National Committee released a report, the “Growth and Opportunity Project,” providing an assessment of the state of their party that began by stating that it was “time for the Party to learn once again how to appeal to more people.”

What this report failed to do, and “Switching Behavior” seeks to address, is the generation of meaningful insights about how the Republican Party’s adherents are interacting with the brand as it stands. No matter what outreach the RNC recommends to various segmented groups, if they do not address the four insights revealed by “Switching Behavior,” their cause will be a hopeless one.

The results were fascinating; after combining the flowcharts from individuals who share conservative or moderate views and no longer will use the label “Republican” to describe themselves, we ascertained four core patterns that they had in common:

  1. Rejection of the “Lesser of Two Evils” argument; 
  2. Articulation of “Loss of Hope” in the GOP; 
  3. Affiliation with a new community, and
  4. Incident of perceived betrayal by the GOP establishment.

What you don’t see here is that policy differences lead the way in disaffiliation. They’re there, to be sure, most prominently captured by those who lost hope after witnessing the GOP continually nominate candidates they perceived to be weak, too moderate, or too conservative. But patterns stemming from the realization that a “lesser of two evils” argument, put forth by the GOP to encourage support of a candidate, is no longer acceptable, is a strong indicator of future disaffiliation.

Here’s an example of how an individual disaffiliated from the Republican label (click to enlarge):

Switching-Behavior_Presentation_h_062613-02_web

This individual began to question the Republican Party after having seen the candidate he supported attacked by members of the Republican establishment. At the same time, he felt “let down” after seeing Mitt Romney chosen as the 2012 nominee for President. Both of these preceding an event, the questioning of the GOP’s motives, which ultimately led to feelings of exclusion and the critical incident, disaffiliation. Concurrently, the event of affiliation with a new community, in this case the Tea Party, was identified as another path to disaffiliation.

Disaffiliation from the Republican label is not only, or even primarily, a matter of philosophical differences. Rather, the perception of former Republican adherents that their party has personally attacked them, continued to present choices as a “lesser of two evils,” select candidates and principles unpalatable to voters to the point where they retain “no hope,” and failed to provide the sense of community that other outlets like talk radio and the Tea Party provide, reveal that ideology takes a back burner to what is essentially a hollow brand for those disaffiliating.

There are two ways to use this research: 1, attempt to stem the disaffiliation — and this research suggests there are meaningful interventions stewards of the Republican brand could pursue. How simple for the RNC to, for example, revisit and halt any actions that publicly humiliate, discredit, or undermine candidates eagerly supported by various factions of their party. Guidelines to representatives of the party on cable news, for example, ought to include such caveats.

2, use these insights to encourage disaffiliation. Realize that the cultivation of community outside of the Republican Party has strongly influenced disaffiliation. The Frontier Lab put together a series of “interventions” pursuant to both applications available for download here.

Have you experienced any of these events in your “career” as  a Republican? Vote in TFL’s facebook poll here.

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Comments

The Republican party is now a leftwing party that uses the vestiges of the conservative label it once earned to continue deceiving people into voting for it.

It has been 29 years since the Republican party has nominated a conservative for president.

It has been 9 years since the party nominated someone who was not left of center (and Bush 43 was merely a centerist)

It has been 17 years since the Republican party actually made notable progress on a conservative idea – welfare reform. And in 2012 it choose a liberal as its standard bearer instead of two of the principle architects of welfare reform (Newt and Santorum).

    snopercod in reply to 18-1. | July 2, 2013 at 6:26 pm

    Conservatives are to the GOP as African-Americans are to the Democrat party.

    Prohibition is going out of style. Except for conservatives. The core of the Party.

    So what do you do when the core has lost touch?

    Not A Member of Any Organized Political in reply to 18-1. | July 3, 2013 at 8:39 pm

    ONE-PARTY NATION!

    Just two ugly flavors of the same poison!

    Just some food for thought.

    Nyuck! Nyuck! Nyuck!

sometimes the simplest explanation fits.
I am a social and economic conservative.
I vote for whomever meets my needs best and I don’t care about the party name.

    MicahStone in reply to dmacleo. | July 2, 2013 at 4:26 pm

    Ditto. The Repub Party has abandoned its former conservative base (the majority of Americans). It left me, I didn’t leave it (but the result is the same). Conservatism is the set of fundamental principles that I follow. The Repub Party is just a label used when considering a vote.

    memomachine in reply to dmacleo. | July 2, 2013 at 6:14 pm

    As a fiscal conservative, but socially neutral, voter I tend to view things through a country oriented prism. I’m not looking to vote for my personal interests above that of my country but to view things in more of a “after me comes …?” sort of thing.

    Does -not- make me a better person just a different though similar set of goals. As someone with myriad chronic health problems and a number of close encounters with the hereafter I’ve accepted my mortality and now I’m looking for a political party or platform that directly articulates those policies that I feel will allow my country to survive and flourish. Unfortunately this does not appear to be either the Democrat or Republican parties.

    In a similar vein my father, hardcore Democrat, has rather recently abandoned the Democratic Party in favor of being an independent because he’s sick of them as well. I think the next few years are going to see members of both parties lose to the ranks of independents. It’ll be curious if a plurality emerges of independents over partisans.

    With social conservatism going out of style electorally. Prohibition is going. Gay marriage is coming. The best the socons can hope for nationally is that the small government fiscons (commonly called libertarians) prevail.

    But socons won’t vote for them.

    Thus the march to the left.

Remove the ‘perceived’ word and this explains exactly why many of us hold our noses and vote Republican as the ‘lesser of two evils’ but refer to ourselves as Conservatives.

Until we have a viable third party that has the financial backing to actually win major elections the best we can hope for the time being is that the ‘Conservatives’ we elect aren’t closet RINO’s.

We’re making inroads but we have a long way to go before either the GOP becomes ‘us’ or enough money flows into the Tea Party coffers to allow us to break free of the good-old-boys clutches.

txantimedia | July 2, 2013 at 4:41 pm

No surprises here. I have felt for 40 years that the only difference between the two parties was who were the recipients of the party’s largesse.

    Henry Hawkins in reply to txantimedia. | July 2, 2013 at 4:54 pm

    My friends get tired of me saying that the only difference between the GOP and the Dems is the political flavor of their lies.

    SpiderMike in reply to txantimedia. | July 3, 2013 at 8:20 pm

    “The difference between Democrats and Republicans is: Democrats have accepted some ideas of Socialism cheerfully, while Republicans have accepted them reluctantly”. ~ Norman Thomas, American Socialist

I can’t tell you how many people told me they HATED Republicans during the Bush administration. If you self identified as a Republican at your job and your boss or boss’s boss found out, there was a non trivial chance you’d suffer for it in some way. At the very least you were suffering a hostile working environment, particularly if you worked at in some government related, art or media job.

I don’t see this aspect being called out in the report.

We are supposed to have a representative government and politicians are to follow the Constitution. We have neither. The GOP is more concerned with job security even if it means allowing the dems to have more political control. Then the GOP can whine and complain without having to actually get anything done. We have no budget, massive debt, high unemployment, a tanking economy while being subjected to laws we don’t want. So what’s to like about the republicans? The have become the enablers for the dems addiction to central planning.

    walls in reply to showtime8. | July 2, 2013 at 5:02 pm

    We have no budget, massive debt, high unemployment, a tanking economy while being subjected to laws we don’t want.

    Yea, but we got a “cool” black President that the low info’s just die for.

Carol Herman | July 2, 2013 at 4:46 pm

The GOP has a problem, because people don’t want to call themselves ‘democrats.’ For years we’ve watch lots of voters refer to themselves as “independents.” And, when viewing how lots of people vote, it’s apparent they treat their choices as if they’re reading a Chinese menu.

Sure. There was a time Republicans were called “Country Club Republicans.” But they tried to rename this tent. (While a circus is still a circus, even if they want to run the show as “Elephant Stampede.”)

Also, it’s not as if one party was Coca-Cola, and the other Pepsi. But there are a lot of disappointed voters out there. Where some are choosing not to vote, because they don’t want to receive jury summonses.

Heck, in the days I watched TV, I remember watching Larry King when he hosted Ross Perot. And, how Perot climbed up in the polls. With people in lots of states carrying petitions for his name to appear on the ballot.

Of course, Perot tossed away this lead. He went on TV and said “he was pulling out.” Before sticking his ore back into the political waters, again. And, still he collected 19% of the vote. The year: 1992. And, the results meant the elder Bush lost his shot at a 2nd term.

Today, we have the Internet. But the MSM force feeds that Hillary is a “shoo-in.” What if she’s not? What it Mitch Daniels gets the people’s vote? Sure. He’s not very exciting. But he solved a lot of problems Indiana had … by taking over fiscal responsibility.

Palin is also thinking of her own run, under another label. Where she thinks “Freedom Party” would work well. (And, she’d certainly shave off votes from the GOP. While the drunken, orange Boehner is left standing.

Like our justice system, a lot of stuff governing us seems broken, doesn’t it?

    Spiny Norman in reply to Carol Herman. | July 2, 2013 at 5:33 pm

    The Media was telling us Cankles was a “shoo-in” in 2008, too. You are absolutely correct: anything can happen.

    AYFKM in reply to Carol Herman. | July 2, 2013 at 6:17 pm

    Carol Freakin’ Herman – where have you been, girl friend?

      dawadu in reply to AYFKM. | July 2, 2013 at 7:51 pm

      I was thinking the same thing. I remember when she wrote comments on “Captain Quarters” (Ed Morissey now part of Hotair.com) and that was years ago.

      She does add a certain flavor and spice to any blog she comments on

The GOP has failed me for the last 30 years…and that includes Reagan’s second term (remember that “comprehensive immigration reform”? did we ever see the balanced budget amendment?). And as noted by 18-1, it’s been more than a generation since we’ve actually had a conservative candidate at the top of the Presidential ticket. The last 3 have been (R-Democrats); that is, Republican labelled and Democratic in representation. In short, once elected they gravitate toward money and personal comfort–ignoring conservative values and moral foundations like a vampire around a garlic press.

During the last four years I’ve tried to become an active member in the county party and have discovered that the county and state party are just as weak-minded and tyrannical in nature as Democrats. They are afraid to put conservatives in charge of anything within the party and never financially support a conservative candidate. If they had done so in 2012, we wouldn’t have seen the takeover of Colorado by progressives and the subsequent loss of many gun rights.

I may still throw them a vote here and there, but they lost my energy, efforts and financial contributions to the Tea Party. So when is someone going to make the Tea Party a for real political organization? Though, in an environment that is stacked against all but the big two political parties (just ask a Libertarian how hard it is to get on a ballot in this ‘free’ country), that may never happen….

Henry Hawkins | July 2, 2013 at 4:52 pm

First registered in 1976 as a Democrat, as were my parents, was cured of that by Jimmy Carter, registered and cemented in as GOP by Reagan. I’d always been conservative, didn’t know it until the Reagan years.

Cruised with the GOP thru Bush I.

Reaffirmed as GOP for Clinton, but more out of disdain for Clinton than the GOP’s growing problem of weak prez candidates (Bush I, Dole).

Remained GOP and voted twice for George W, but took offense at his twice publically stating in his second term that I couldn’t be a real American, first, because I didn’t share his religious beliefs, and again one year later, because I did not support some legislative initiative of his, now forgotten, but one of his Big Gov moves. I don’t like being told I’m not a real American. I finally transated ‘compassionate conservatism’ into what it really was: Democrat Light or Cowboy Progressivism.

Coupled with Bush I’s late term affinity for big government was a growing cowardice among the GOP establishment, a noticeable unwillingness to fight, even over basic principles sometimes, I saw less and less overlap between what I’d always believed and what the GOP was preaching. This divide was perceived at both state (NC) and federal levels.

Before Obama was a glint in Chrissy’s eye, I left the GOP and re-registered as Unaffiliated, but voted entirely GOP in 2008, straight ticket.

Joined local Tea Party org in spring 2009.

In 2010 I voted only for Tea Party candidates or those who espoused the same values and goals. I voted for conservatives only – if you were GOP but within reach of leaning left of center (RINO-sensitive), sorry.

In 2012 I choked back vomit every day trying to be supportive of Romney, the GOP’s choice. I remember well how the GOP establishment had picked its candidate long before GOP voters did – and worked against perfectly good GOP candidates to secure Romney. I don’t like being told I’m not an American, and I really don’t like being told which Republican to vote for, that to disagree weakens the party. A major party without disagreement isn’t a party at all – it’s a cult.

My final (or current) assessment is that I’d best not invest in a party so weak its leadership doesn’t trust its own primary process, that it’s all about the GOP establishment’s needs, not those of GOP voters. In the current GOP establishment (since 2008) I see a long string of missed opportunities, especially since 2010, a dwindling ability and willingness to fight for causes, a new doctrine where no principle is held so strongly it cannot be compromised to political needs, but most of all, my assessment is that the current GOP is an enemy of conservatism and wants its values out of ‘their’ party. They are at a high-water mark for being out of touch with the American people. The GOP is Whigging out.

In other words, I’m still the same conservative I was for Reagan’s first term, with the exact same values. In the thirty-plus years since, the Democrat Party has galloped to the left, and the GOP is now in the center, with a sizable flank edging ever more to the left. In terms of direction, the GOP has become the Party Of Least Resistance.

“Disaffiliation”? Well, sure. New studies love new terms, but let’s not forget who’s doing the moving. People aren’t moving away from the GOP – the GOP is moving away from the people.

The problem with the Republican party is that the leaders are more than happy with the status quo. And why shouldn’t they be? They are multi-millionaires (or more) feeding at the trough pumped and primed for them by the liberals they have abetted for decades. They aren’t opponents of the liberals/marxists. They are partners, in need of each other. Their enemy is US, the people.

I used to think that maybe 10% of them were honest people who got into politics to try to do good. Then came Rubio, and now Paul Ryan. That 10% is looking more and more like 1%. And the ironic thing is that I’m hardly a border hawk. I could easily support a wide spectrum of approaches to illegal immigration. But what I can’t support is deceipt…and the more pretty a package it comes in, the more I detest it.

Basically, what I want if for all of the crooks, which includes all but a tiny handful of people in DC, to be thrown out of office, or better yet, be thrown into jail.

Islamonazis, Socialists, Radicals, corrosive social values, reverse racism, Marxist subversion of American values…all secondary problems. The politicians in DC are THE problem. They need to be overthrown, and soon, or this country’s tiny chance of survival will disappear entirely.

    dawadu in reply to donmc. | July 2, 2013 at 8:11 pm

    I believe you are judging the Republicans to harshly. I think there are about 30-40% solid conservatives in the House and another 20-25& who lean that way but the problem there is no incentive for any to stick their neck out for conservative principles and I do agree that the GOP Leadership is very happy with status quo and don’t want to rock the boat

      Henry Hawkins in reply to dawadu. | July 2, 2013 at 8:14 pm

      If they won’t stick their necks out for their own principles, they’re not conservative.

        dawadu in reply to Henry Hawkins. | July 2, 2013 at 8:17 pm

        I agree but lets face it people respond to incentives and if there are incentives to take a position that they really don’t agree with and there is no downside to that–why wouldn’t they?

          Henry Hawkins in reply to dawadu. | July 2, 2013 at 8:46 pm

          Because virtue is its own reward, a bedrock conservative principle. What you describe sounds more like a game of Monopoly.

Mrs. Leroy Goldberg | July 2, 2013 at 5:04 pm

The GOP earned the nickname of The Stupid Party. They held BOTH Houses as well as the White House. In that time, they spent like drunken sailors, my apologies to drunken sailors. Achieved absolutely nothing but ill will.

A bit pseudo scientific. It would be better to, instead, speak plainly about what many former republicans are saying openly. The democratic party has obviously been taken over by communists. They hope to rot our culture out from under us until our country simply collapses. They feel very strongly that, after such a collapse, either through force or simple desperation, most Americans will accept communism as a way of life. Those that won’t will be exterminated in a genocide similar to the Holomdor.

The republican party, could EASILY offer an alternative to this. Except, they also have been taken over by an ideologically similar group. This group, instead of seeking the fall of the US has slowly replaced our freedom loving democracy with a police state. Their primary interest is waging war for profit….and its not even OUR profit. The war profiteers that control the GOP are all israelis.

The last election should have seen a complete flushing out of the democrats from power. Actually, Obama should never have been able to get anywhere near the oval office. The whole debacle happened simply because Americans don’t want to get involved in another World War, especially when it seems that the US is the evil side.

People are looking for a solution. This latest gun grab by Obama has been one giant wake up sign that the US is running out of time. The dems must think we are close to a collapse if they are playing THAT card. This should be a no brainer….except the republicans have made it clear….they don’t work for us.

What does that leave? Secession? Revolution? Civil War? I’m starting to hear people in power saying those words.

    Joy in reply to f635102. | July 2, 2013 at 5:36 pm

    WTF?

      snopercod in reply to Joy. | July 3, 2013 at 3:11 pm

      Joy– Perhaps you might want to widen your circle of sources? Is America in a Pre-Revolutionary State this July 4th? by Roger L. Simon in PJ Media.

      As we approach July 4, 2013, is America in a pre-revolutionary state? Are we headed for a Tahrir Square of our own with the attendant mammoth social turmoil, possibly even violence.

      Could it happen here?

      We are two-thirds of the way into the most incompetent presidency in our history. People everywhere are fed up. Even many of the so-called liberals who propelled Barack Obama into office have stopped defending him in the face of an unprecedented number of scandals coming at us one after the other like hideous monsters in some non-stop computer game.

      And now looming is the monster of monsters, ObamaCare, the healthcare reform almost no one wanted and fewer understood.

      It will be administered by the Internal Revenue Service, an organization that has been revealed to be a kind of post-modern American Gestapo, asking not just to examine our accounting books but the books we read. What could be more totalitarian than that?

Fascinating research and I think it is right on target. For me the betrayal by the establishment Rs and absolute lack of fight and leadership which could be under loss of hope.

The most appalling thing was McCain’s refusal to defend his vice presidential nominee against the awful attacks from the media and his refusal to defend her disabled child from attacks from creeps like Alan Colmes and others.

We have had two in a row candidates that were ruthless to their primary opponents and then became pansies to their democrat opponent. What the heck!

Now we have the establishment fighting against the majority of citizens to bring amnesty in an horrible economy. Hey let’s hurt the poor and student Americans even more…. This is betrayal by the establishment.

We should be able to beat the Democrats to a pulp on the damage they are doing to this country, including the destruction of our healthcare system. Instead we get lack of leadership from the party, back stabbing of the tea party and the congress people who are trying to do the right thing, … I am sick of it. And I don’t think the establishment Republicans really care. Bring on the third party, something I never thought I would say…

I identify myself as an ‘Indie Republican’.

Sarah Palin said she has not ruled out leaving the Republican party. If she leaves, I leave. I would rather stand with a new conservative party that be dictated to by RINOs.

    persecutor in reply to VotingFemale. | July 3, 2013 at 6:30 am

    I’ve often said we have to sit out an election cycle to show the GOP that they can’t count on us to hold our noses and pull the lever, and I was pilloried for not immediately saluting the Romney flagpole when I made the same observation on this very site.

    I’m glad that Anne has come to some of the same conclusions that I made a while ago.

    If Sarah leads, I will follow.

Carol Herman | July 2, 2013 at 6:09 pm

When I cast my first vote, I had to be 21. That was back in 1960. And, I voted for JFK. Alas, in 1964, I voted for LBJ, because I didn’t want to vote for Goldwater. Conservatism never appealed to me.

My favorite comedian was Mort Sahl. And, I can remember when he’d come out on stage, and instead of a newspaper, he had a random volume of The Warren Commission Report. He’d just read “from a random page.” But it was obvious to me then, as it still is now, the “one bullet theory” was hogwash. (Then I learned Arlen Specter was the genius who thought that one up.)

Specter went on to senatorial glory. But at the end, because he got tossed from the GOP, by voters, he switched sides. And, if I recall, correctly, he then ran as a democrat. (From Pennsylvania.) Sometimes, they gotta carry these characters off stage in a box. Or once in Congress they never leave.

I am a Conservative Tea Party Republican… Yes I identify as the article states.

I will not leave the party

I will fight to take it over from the inside as we are doing around this nation. I will do what is needed. Those leaving have no voice, have no chance to ever dictate to the party and change its ways.

I am a voice for change and for real change.

So how do I do this? I am a PRECINCT COMMITTEE PERSON. I vote on the internal leadership of the Party. I vote for Conservatives only. If you are not a Precinct Committee Person you have only the value of their statistics if you will vote for the lesser of the evils.

Every PCP has more value than 50,000 phone calls, more value than 10,000 handwritten letters, more value than $10,000 in donations.

    serfer1962 in reply to CREinstein. | July 2, 2013 at 9:37 pm

    Well CRE and howz that working out for you? Dole McNasty Mitts? The Nazis had those ideas too, party loyalty above country.
    And how did the trashing of the Alaskan primary winner go down when The Establishment choose a rino indy instead?
    Or how about the trashing of Akin so a radical Kimmiectar cout win?
    Yeah, just keep voting GOP…the Nazis did too

      CREinstein in reply to serfer1962. | July 3, 2013 at 1:45 am

      Loyalty? oh heck no.

      I fight the establishment and the Ron Paulbots on any turf offered me. I will not concede this battle ever. I fight to win and take my party back from the offensive weenies and to stop others from intruding.

      If 10% of the Legal Insurrection readers became PCP members then there would be a new era of Conservatism starting.

    persecutor in reply to CREinstein. | July 3, 2013 at 6:33 am

    My local leadership is RINO as well, so leaving after this cycle (due to possible primary)is a very real possibility. Trying to change from the inside only gets you frozen out as a committeeman in my area.

      CREinstein in reply to persecutor. | July 3, 2013 at 9:05 am

      Then go recruiting Conservative PCPs!

      It is not rocket science.

      In Arizona the McCain people were in power until Conservatives rose up. FIGHT! Never Surrender, Never Give Up The Ship!

      I myself am in one of the most liberal cities and ran as a first time candidate against the leader of the Democrats in Oregon! Never surrender, never stop fighting.

      If you go out and recruit like minded people it becomes contagious as they will recruit like minded people to the point you can take over in your district and county.

Subotai Bahadur | July 2, 2013 at 6:25 pm

Been there, done that; all the things the study listed. I’ve run a presidential campaign in my county. I have been a delegate to State every year except the year I lost a son and did no politics.

I vouch for what princepsCO says because I am in Colorado too.

Held my nose and choked down bile to work for Romney. And watched him and the Republican party not fight for the election. Left the Republican party on January 2 after Boehner pre-emptively surrendered on the “Fiscal Cliff”, January 1. Would have done it on the 1st, but the County Clerk was closed, so I came in early on the 2nd.

If a real SECOND party comes about [the Democrats and Republicans being two wings of the same Ruling Party], I am there. I will follow Sarah Palin, either as a SECOND party candidate or as an organizer.

I take the Oath seriously. It never expires. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans believe in it.

Subotai Bahadur

Everything in the article is true, but that’s not why I gave up on the pubbies. I gave up when I realized voting pub is like rooting for the Washington Generals.

I’m Libertarian that has voted solidly GOP (except to disrupt in primaries), fiscal conservative but not a socon.

The Tea Party movement was exactly where I was, it made me sick how 2010 was really a Tea victory, but the GOP just co-opted it.

We are on defense on abortion and gay marriage, but then we have Aikin roughing the passer and turning 12 into the War on Women, instead of Save our Country.

I stopped long ago giving to the party, will give to the candidate when they are right on the positions.

MaggotAtBroadAndWall | July 2, 2013 at 6:57 pm

We no longer have a democratic republic. Sure, they let us vote. So do the Chinese. But it doesn’t matter. We have an unaccountable ruling class.

Going back to 2008, I called my Republican Congressman to demand he NOT vote for TARP. His staffer told me the ratio of calls supporting TARP was running one call in support of TARP to nine calls opposed to it. He voted against TARP the first vote. It did not pass. Refusing to take NO for an answer, they brought it up again. It passed – with my Congressman’s help.

I don’t think Obamacare has ever had more than 50% support. I emailed my Democrat Senator a poll published about a week before the Senate Obamacare vote showing support of Missourians for it was only 38%. I reminded her that she represents Missourians, not Democrats, and that she had a duty to vote against it. She voted for it.

I heard Bob Corker say in a rare moment of candidness that based on the calls into his offices, the amnesty sham was not very popular. Of course he voted for the law that he helped write despite knowing his constituents opposed it.

When Obama can’t get Congress to pass what he wants, he just implements it via regulatory fiat or executive order. So when Congress refused to do the DREAM Act, he just said he wasn’t going to enforce immigration laws. When Congress failed to go into official recess, he made “non-recess” recess appointments to the NLRB. After the Appeals Court unanimously ruled it unconstitutional, the NLRB refused to acknowledge the court’s opinion. All of Obama’s illegal appointments are still writing regulations and getting paid by taxpayers. Congress won’t pass cap & trade, so Obama has instructed the EPA to bankrupt the coal industry through regulation. He didn’t even bother to ask Congress to vote on trying to overthrow Qaddafi in Libya. He just did it. I could write at least 8 more examples but you all already know them.

It’s our fault. We refuse to hold them accountable. Something like 90% of incumbents who run for re-election win.

What I want to vote for are people who promise to stop passing new laws, start repealing old laws, repeal thousands of unnecessary regulations, and dismantle the alphabet soup of bureaucratic tyrannies that control almost every aspect of our lives. There’s about three Republicans who might go along with that in the Senate: Cruz, Paul and Lee. We need 57 more like them.

    “What I want to vote for are people who promise to stop passing new laws, start repealing old laws, repeal thousands of unnecessary regulations, and dismantle the alphabet soup of bureaucratic tyrannies that control almost every aspect of our lives. There’s about three Republicans who might go along with that in the Senate: Cruz, Paul and Lee. We need 57 more like them.”

    exactly.

    NO new laws. Period. We already have thousands and thousands that aren’t implemented. Border security – case in point. The only legislation we need is repeals of the existing garbage. That alone would save billions a year.

    Washington DC should be dismantled. Even if the slimy politicians meant well, and 99% do not mean well, the amount of money at the federal level is at least an order of magnitude too much to be controllable in any meaningful fashion. Central Planning is obviously stupid; now, in the past, and forever.

Jeff Goldstein nailed the GOP’s sorry dance years ago (Aug 7 2011)…
http://proteinwisdom.com/?p=29785

The entire establishment political class is corrupt. And it has declared open war against those Americans still left who believe in fiscal responsibility and a constitutional check on federal powers. Both the establishment Republicans and the Democrats (and their ancillary and parasitic attendants in the media and the inside-the-beltway political machinery) have shown themselves immediately willing to scapegoat the one anti-big government faction willing to insist on making the difficult choices necessary to save the country from the bloated, cynical, complacent pig class who presumes to run it in our name — though never in the way we wish. And that’s because party doesn’t really matter any longer, as I’ve been saying for years now.

What we are witnessing is the ruling class vs. the governed — a fight we among the governed are only really taking up after the ruling class has already gobbled up the allegiance of a huge swath of its quarry by turning them into either clients or dependents (something that would likely never happen with, say, a flat or fair tax, incidentally, which is one of the reasons no serious push for one ever comes out of DC).

The TEA Party is an impediment, one that the professional political class needs to see weakened, if not entirely marginalized. And that’s because the TEA Party is threatening the mechanism of cheap grace, power, and perks these politicians live on.

I voted for Jimmy Carter in ’76, for Gore for US Senator from Tennessee twice. Before the Democrats went crazy-Left after Reagan, and absolutely mad-crazy after 2000. Did you see them rush to Center? Hell, no! They’ve enthusiastically embraced their far-Left neo-Communist fringe elements, which now controls that once-proud Party. The GOP has but meekly trailed along, moving ever-farther Left, instead of making a stand.

Well, it’s time to take a stand.

#AbandonTheGOP.

Because they’ve abandoned us to join the ruling class of politicians who only do the Washington DC Dance for Endless Power and Perks. Tennessee’s ‘Republicans’ Corker & Alexander? What’s the difference between those two worthless panderers and that jack’s ass McCain or Alaska’s Murkowski? They vote with the far-Left, so screw ’em. I’ll vote against Corker for the Democrat, just to get him gone.

I wonder if the GOP leadership either had knowledge or were complicit in the IRs treatment of the Tea Parties applying for 501(c)(4) treatment? It does make you wonder.

    donmc in reply to dawadu. | July 2, 2013 at 8:15 pm

    OF COURSE they knew about the IRS activities, from moment one.

    Do you think that hundreds and hundred of organizations facing concerted, illegal government abuse were quiet as church mice about it?

    The Republicans knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt. And they did NOTHING.

    Can’t upset the apple-cart, you know. Rule 1: only attack other Republicans. Attacking the Marxists and their henchmen might impact the revenue stream.

      dawadu in reply to donmc. | July 2, 2013 at 8:20 pm

      They don’t attack other Republicans rather they attack Republicans/conservatives who make them upset by stating how the GOP is/should be the voice of conservatives.

      When was the last time Lindsay Graham attacked John McCain?

Here is a question–if there is a 3rd party that is conservative how many Republican Senators would join or switch over to the Democrats?

Maybe Sarah Palin is on to something (chucking the GOP). I’m listening Sarah. The current crop of Republicans is a disgrace. I voted for McCain , even though I loath his politics, because he was the lesser of two very real evils. Any fair reading of Obama would posit his complete incompetence for the job. The immigration sellout is the last straw for me. If the House votes for this amnesty bill, I am leaving the Republican Party. My grandparents were dyed in the wool Democrats who were patriotic and conservative. I suspect that there are many Dems who are just as disgusted with the Democratic Party and might be thinking of leaving too. I’m listening, Sarah!

To be a modern Republican is to be a corrupt, milquetoast backstabing hack who stand for little but their government paychecks and the perks of high office.

So who with a brain wants to advertise they’re that dumb enough to follow this clowns?

TrooperJohnSmith | July 3, 2013 at 2:02 am

This is incredible!!

Tonight, the RNC called me, and tried to give me the give-us-money-to-take-the-Senate spiel. I wish I’d had this flow chart. That middle course is me, an early supporter of Ted Cruz.

I told them to append my file with the following statement: Call me back when, (1.) Rancid Prius is GONE; (2.) when the Republican Party disavows this whole amnesty BS; (3.) when a member of the RNC board is prepared to apologize to me for the complete mishandling of my RNC contributions during the 2012 presidential election. Absent those conditions, do not call me again. Ever. Instead, I will support candidates of my choice, directly.

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