So, you think that we have problems?
New polls show Hillary Clinton underwater in Iowa, New Hampshire, Colorado and Virginia http://t.co/bfTPXuXr88 pic.twitter.com/6pz70PxZAj
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlakeWP) July 27, 2015
Goodness gracious, but that’s the Democratic Nightmare Scenario right there, huh? Hillary Clinton is still on track to get the nomination in early states… but the populace in general simply Does Not Like Her. The Washington Post article concluded, with as much hope as it could muster (not much):
We knew that Clinton needed strong support from non-white voters in the general election, a group that has been a larger share of the electorate in recent elections. These recent polls suggest that she may need that support more than we might have anticipated at first.
…but note that ‘larger share of the electorate’ bit. The fundamental question for Democrats coming into this cycle is not whether they can possibly sustain the same African-American voter intensity of 2008 and 2012 in 2016; it’s been for how long that they can keep pretending that there’s even a chance that that would happen. Don’t get me wrong: I understand the necessity of arguing that your ceiling is actually your floor. There’s no point in casually admitting to your own base Look, the Republicans are going to win the Presidential election whatever we do, but we need you to go out there anyway so that we can keep down the losses in Congress. Particularly if you’re as committed to the mushroom treatment as a lifestyle strategy as the DNC is*. But, of course, understanding the necessity and enabling it are two different things. I’m under no obligation to do the latter.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
*No doubt people are sourly muttering in their coffee about how the GOP is just as bad. Well, at least we have Senators and Congressmen who will actually yell at our own leadership in public. Find me a Democratic Senator who would have dared called out Harry Reid on Reid’s bovine excrement to the extent that Ted Cruz just called out Mitch McConnell on McConnell’s. And yes, most of the Senate unloaded on Senator Cruz for it… which will have precisely zero bearing on whether or not Ted Cruz does that again. The point is that we actually do have people in Congress now who, as somebody once put it, have gotten in the habit of pulling their heads out of their own rear ends and taking a look around, every now and then. The question has to be, how do we add to their number?
Cruz
Lee
Paul (I hope he just runs for re-elect)
Johnson (WI)
Toomey
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Hopefully DeSantis replaces Rubio
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Not too shabby.
Hopefully Stutzman replaces Coats in Indiana.
Between this and the Grayson Senate numbers, I kinda want to print a few copies of this out and swim around in them a la Scrooge MacDuck.
Of course, Reid’s BS was in the service of the party faithful’s long term goals, so from their view no harm no foul. If he pulled that crap in the service of our goals? You better believe they’d stand up and yell at him.
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McConnel and Boehner’s BS is most certainly not advancing the party faithful’s long term goals. And only one guy, who happens to be running for president, says boo about it publicly. We elected traitors to the cause and cowards. This is what we get.
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I’m trying desperately to not drift off to where Ace and DrewM are, but it seems to get harder every day.
“Party faithful”? Please. The Conservative side of the Republican party is many things, but faithful isn’t one of them. They were the ones who split the party and put Pornstar in power, and they are the ones hooting and hollering about Trump. I’m not sure why the Conservatives are so disloyal, so ready to leave the party the moment a bomb thrower shows up, but it is a fact. One that the Conservatives need to fix if they want to advance their goals, as opposed to just whining that the people they have badmouthed and called traitors aren’t doing it for them……
You want our support?
Earn it.
Otherwise, you can go sit on a cactus.
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I’ve been an active member of the Republican party for most of my life. I can count on one finger the number of times the Republican party has actually tried to shrink the size and scope of the federal government. Most of that was thwarted by a Republican Viagra salesman. Who was rewarded by the party power brokers with a presidential nomination.
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I am no longer a Republican. Too many straws have broken the camel’s back.
If you want my vote, you have to earn it.
I am no longer voting for the lesser evil.
And decades of betrayal make me less than receptive to groveling and promises to do better in the future.
We have good candidates out there — candidates that actually are conservative, yet who don’t come across as partisan jerks — candidates who, if they were nominated, could win the general, AND THEN GOVERN WELL. Bobby Jindal. Rick Perry. Marco Rubio. Scott Walker. Not all of these names may be exactly the flavor of tea you want. They’re not all mine. But if one of them wins the nomination, and then wins the general, GOP conservatives and GOP moderates are both in a position to be satisfied with what’s in their cup.
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But you know, Robert, Luke, if I’m wrong and you don’t at least like the nominee, then it’s your civic duty to back them anyway. I will vote for Jeb Bush, if that’s what it takes, though I don’t want an immigration squish to be president. I will vote for Ted Cruz, if that’s what it takes, though I don’t want a bombthrower to be president. I will vote for one of the four candidates I listed above in the primary, and then I will vote for ANY REPUBLICAN in the general. In any race. Which is how it should be, I don’t care who you are. Because even if our guy or gal ain’t so hot, theirs is much worse.
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And if Hillary wins the election because either of you, and your fellow travelers stay home, or vote for Trump or anybody else, then as an American, let me just say that you can [REDACTED TO AVOID OFFENDING MOE]. I. Have. Had. Enough. Squabbling. I don’t care if you still harbor a grudge from the way [fill in name] was treated by [choose one: moderates/conservatives] in the [fill in year] [choose one: primary/general] election. GET OVER YOURSELVES, BECAUSE THIS COUNTRY IS BIGGER THAN YOU, AND IT MAY NOT EVEN SURVIVE OUR CURRENT DISASTROUS DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENT, LET ALONE THE NEXT ONE.
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Seriously. The progressive activists are on the verge of disappearing so far up their own butts that they hand us the 2016 elections for the presidency, House, and Senate on a silver platter — to say nothing of the state-level elections, which means we could keep this up for another four or eight years. Let them fly themselves apart. Don’t join them.
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Here endeth the rant.
Hear, hear!
just a few more ‘get drunk and vote for McCain’ or ‘get over it and support/vote for Romney’ and we just might be in less dire straits.
Got it in one, Demosthenes! The despair flowing off of Luke, and too many others? Can’t comprehend it. We have stopped the Democrats quite well on the National level, and are advancing a conservative in so many states. And our stuff works. We have no Detroits. In theory, Conservatives are students of history, yes? Well history is quite clear, every “successful” third party has given vast power to the Left. The lesson is clear, vote Republican, unless you like living in a Democrat controlled hellhole.
I’ll have to think about your words. Out of your mentioned 1st 4 choices, only Jindal appeals to me. Cruz, “bombthrower”? well that’s not such a bad thing. Rubio has already proven he can be rolled, a flaw, Walker…need to know more, and Perry is doing a little too much pandering. Still, I’d likely vote for any of them, but it’s pushing the envelope about a Jeb Bush candidacy. He is basically out there saying America’s laws don’t count, he is a Big Government Establishment GOP and frankly, he is a Democrat at heart, so I can’t see the difference. In fact, McConnell et al underhandness in the Senate this past week show we don’t have Republicans working for our party, they’re working for the Democrats.
There is no such Civic Duty to any Party or its nominees. The Republican Party is not owed support, certainly not after the shenanigans McConnell pulled this week.
And frankly why should people yell at Cruz? Are you not disturbed by the Planned Parenthood videos? Well PP still has funding thanks to McConnell. Are you not disturbed by Mitch McConnell using similar parliamentary tricks as Reid?
Frankly Rubio’s silence after Mitch just took a dump on him ( he was trying to submit an amendment to strip EX-IM from the Highway Bill) is the final nail in the coffin. I won’t support him unless he’s the nominee. He clearly is either willing to take the shaft from a corrupt GOP Senate Leader, or he’s being duplicitous.
More fool you.
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Robert, the national Republicans have not stopped the Democrats.
In fact, they keep advancing their agenda for them.
Exhibits one and two are McConnell and Boehner.
Let me be clear, I’m a conservative, and I haven’t even said a nice thing about Trump let alone support him. Though maybe I should now, if GOP leadership is going to use Trump as an excuse to continue ignoring me.
Fine. If being “Party Faithful” means endorsing EX-IM via Highway Bill ( while also preventing any move against PP) then I guess I’m not. Strange since my family has been Republican since John C. Fremont, but if we’re not wanted we’ll leave, good luck beating Hillary on your own.