Republicans move to protect incumbents from challengers in the primaries
The ruling class elite Republicans in the Senate have a theory as to why they lost in the 2012 election and they are making a move to rectify what they see as their biggest problem.
So what do Republicans think their biggest problem is? Is it not sticking to conservative principles? Is it helping to spend this country into oblivion? Is it caving to Barack Obama on tax increases? Is it voting for the NDAA or the FAA re-authorization act, which combined labels the United States as a battlefield and allows for the spying of Americans with unmanned drones? Is it their continued support of the PATRIOT Act? Is it their support for fourth amendment violations of unlawful searches at airports? The long train of abuses goes on and on but they don’t see any of this as a reason for their loses.
What they see as their biggest problem is people stepping up to challenge them in the primaries. That’s right, according to this article Republicans feel that people challenging them for not being willing to stand up for what they claim to believe in and doing what we sent them to Washington to do is what they are most concerned about.
The Republicans are now in the process of setting up a super PAC to fight against anyone who challenges an incumbent and an RNC commission is considering changing the primary rules–once again to help the incumbents against a challenger. The national Republicans are vowing to get more involved in the selection of candidates who will represent the states in the federal government.
I have written in the past about people and groups from other states donating to campaigns for different states and it is something that I oppose. I believe we would all be better off if the people of the different states were the ones who chose who is going to represent them in their particular state in both the House and the Senate. I would be for limiting donations to Senatorial and House candidates to residents of the states they wish to represent, but this does just the opposite and would give the Washington ruling class more control over who we would be able to elect to represent us.
People like Rob Portman and my Senator–Kelly Ayotte–are claiming that they are doing this to prevent Democrats posing as Republicans from running in the primaries, as well as preventing Democrat voters from voting in the Republican primaries but with the presidential race being for an open seat in 2016 is it realistic to believe Democrats would cross over when they have their own primary to worry about? I think not! This is all about protecting the ruling class from being challenged in the primary for failing to live up to expectations and it is precisely why these people must be challenged, they are not entitled to hold onto their power just because they chose to do so.
In reality this attack on conservatives by Republican leadership began late last year in the House when John Boehner began purging the more fiscally conservatives from committee positions and threatened to do worse to others who do not fall in line.
Harry Reid recently claimed that John Boehner was running the House like a dictatorship and perhaps he was right, now it appears as if Senate Republicans want to run the entire party as a dictatorship.
America's Watchtower 
As bad as I thought this past year was, I never figured the Gopers were going to be our worst enemy.
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I think they are becoming desperate to hold onto power because in the end that is all they really care about. We are now fighting this battle on two fronts as the Republicans and the Democrats are now executing a pincer move against the American people.
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So, it boils down to us against them? We put them there, we have to deal with them somehow. Never thought our own party would turn against us, did we? I am not sure who they are anymore. When they redistricted to force out Allen West, is when I figured they were up to no good. He was/is a good man, they know it and they know WE know it…and still they did it. Talk about in your face! They have no shame anymore.
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Well decribed Steve. Get out bug out bags ready.
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Yes Lou, when they screwed over Allen West I knew something bad was in the air. The truth is they don’t care about us, only about staying in power and they are now not any better than the Democrats. Where we go from here I do not know.
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I would like to propose a solution to this problem. It would also rid the senate of carreer politicians.
Repeal the 17th amendment.
This is what happens when the elites tamper with basic Constitutional principles.
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I wrote a post a few years ago about the 17th amendment and how it has done more to turn America into a democracy instead of a republic and I would be all for overturning it if it means having a more representational type of government.
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Reblogged this on Freedom Is Just Another Word….
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Thank you.
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I thought that 16 million fewer voters showing up November 6 might have been due to some kind of voter fraud. Maybe not.
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That might have been part of it but I do believe there were many people who were so frustrated with the direction the Republicans were taking that they said the hell with it and decided to let Obama take the fall for what is about to happen.
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The onlly way conservatives are going to get the attention of the GOP establishment is to vote “R” only when the candidate is a true conservative. If the GOP puts up a candidate that is not a true conservative, we need to withhold our votes. When the GOP starts losing seats, maybe they will begin paying attention to us. The GOP platform says all of the right things, but the establishment doesn’t believe in the platform. The platform is written to appease us and nothing more.
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You are right Jim, but I guess Republicans staying home on November 6th still wasn’t enough to show them the error of their ways.
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Yesterday, before reading this post, I was formulating a fantasy whereby a conservative movement encourages the electorate not to vote. Imagine a scenario in which a candidate raises and spends $100 million and gets 109 votes? At $1 million per vote donors would dry up and any clown winning would virtually have no constituency and not much legitimacy. The way these pusillanimous republicans are caving and running for their rabbit holes it doesn’t seem to matter if the democrats are the majority at every level of government. This wet dream was reinforced when I saw Allen West interviewed last evening. What the GOP did to this true conservative was a kick in the ass to all of us. It was nearly heartbreaking watching and hearing this man vowing to continue his fight for our freedoms after such an outright betrayal by his own party. The Boner Era is upon us.
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When I saw the Republicans screw over Allen West I knew something was up but I still held out hope that this was an isolated incident, now I know better. We can no longer blindly support the GOP because they only care about themselves and are no better than the Democrats.
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This is why I’m done with them Steve.
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As am I John. My New Year’s resolution is to no longer blindly follow the GOP and to expose them at every turn when they pull crap like this.
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Hopefully we are not alone with these sentiments.
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I don’t think we are alone, I think that is why so many people stayed home last November.
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Erm, I think you mean 2016 for the open Presidential seat . . .
At any rate, yes, whether it’s by Dems (who wrote many books on juggling the machinery of government to guarantee their retention in office) or the GOP, efforts to suppress legitimate candidates from challenging incumbents at the polls are antithetical to the spirit of the American system.
As to repealing the 17th Amendment, I’m opposed. I’d rather have two Senators from each state beholden to the people rather than to their state legislatures. As far as popular election of Senators being in opposition to “basic Constitutional principles,” so is the 12th Amendment (and several others). That’s what the amendment process is all about.
As far as withholding votes from the R party when the candidate doesn’t represent conservative principles, I’m afraid that’s a recipe for marginalization. Both parties currently are coalitions of similar interests, not monolithic expressions of a single interest or ideology. Our nation was built on compromise, and its charter demands compromise from all going forward. If you guys don’t learn to compromise as well, you’re going to find yourselves losing influence, especially as those among you who want to participate in the system, even if they cannot always prevail, start working with moderates and liberals.
Take good care, and may God bless us all!
TGY
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You are right, I meant 2016 and I will correct that TGY. I guess it was wishful thinking on my part. 🙂
It isn’t only the Republicans who are unwilling to compromise at this point, the Democrats are guilty as well.
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I have a couple thoughts here.
1. Do you think that this was part of the Republican’s end game? I always felt that the Tea Party was being bamboozled by the establishment and over the last two years I’ve seen nothing but actions that confirm that view. Are they going to read the abridged Constitution like they did in 2010? How much of that 100 billion in spending cuts did they give us? Answer: 532 million. I could go on. As I was expecting, they are now moving to marginalize the Tea Party.
2. I think this is also fallout from the Citizen’s United ruling. Now that corporations (who do you think the establishment work for) can spend without limit, the establishment simply doesn’t need the Tea Party any longer. This election cycle was a cluster f*** on that front as they just threw money at the problem without no sense of strategy. Next cycle, I expect them to be much more effective with the money they spend.
3. The establishment knows that Tea Party supporters will always vote for them. To be honest, I don’t see why Tea Party supporters don’t vote Libertarian. It’s a better fit; voting Libertarian is certainly more effective than staying home. It almost seems that the Republican establishment has managed to scare them into towing the line (IE if you don’t vote for us, you are letting the Democrats win).
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I think this was the end game all along with the establishment Republicans, they don’t like challenges to their authority and they have been working to minimalize the Tea Party from the beginning because they only care about keeping themselves in power at all costs. The Tea Party is dead as we saw in the last election. They know that in the end the Tea Party will either vote for them or stay home and in fact they are counting on it.
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