Win or lose in November, the Republican Party has learned an awful lot about itself over the last 16 months. We’ve learned that there is a much larger anti-establishment presence in the party than previously believed, and that this presence is neither libertarian nor conservative. We’ve learned that constitutional issues are a low priority, but that social and racial issues weigh heavily on the minds of a surprising number of Republican voters. We’ve learned that money doesn’t buy elections and that Republican voters won’t simply rollover for the candidate with the largest campaign chest.
The most interesting thing that the Republican Party has learned is that it isn’t anywhere close to figuring out how to craft a platform acceptable to a significant majority of its voters.
Unfortunately, these are lessons that we’ll wish the Republican Party never learned. The Republican Party has learned that the factions that oppose its leadership are hopelessly divided, and that the best way to secure nominations for unpopular incumbents is to hold primaries with at least four candidates and only one representing the more pragmatic, business-oriented Republican center. They’ll let conservatives, libertarians, and populists fight among themselves, sowing the seeds of bad blood which will carry on from election to election.
The Republican Party does not have to move to the right to win elections and the anti-establishment factions have absolutely no chance of uniting under one banner or candidate. These are the kinds of lessons that you do not want an establishment to learn after years of spending their electoral capital fighting off challenges from “the right”.
What’s worse, is that these right-leaning factions will vote for newcomers with no history of supporting “the cause”. How difficult would it be to covertly finance anti-establishment “conservative” and “populist” candidates to pit against one another, when there is no vetting process in place? How many “TEA Party” candidates have turned out to be stellar soldiers for McConnell and Boehner? Over half? That’s without the establishment even trying. We can’t even trust “conservatives” running for statewide party offices not to join the other side within months of their victory.
With all this knowledge in the hands of the party, it is easy to imagine that 2017-2020 will be known as “The Establishment Strikes Back”; and when any serious conservative or populist opposition appears to become untenable, watch how quickly all the leaders of the anti-establishment factions begin to pander to party bosses to keep their seats at the table.
I am not writing this to spread negativity, but simply to paint a picture for you to stow away in the back of your minds. For the last three years, I have written articles that addressed “conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians”, hoping to establish an intellectual framework for a more unified grassroots movement. The rise of populism has made any future effort laughable at best.
To build a conservative movement capable of dominating Republican Party politics and winning elections against popular Democrat candidates, we require a shared philosophy to which we (the currently anti-establishment folks) adhere. What both we and the Republican Party leadership have learned over the last 16 months, is that no such philosophy exists or is likely to exist. Until it does it exist, there seems to be little advantage in being a “grassroots conservative” charging at windmills; and while I will never berate the quixotic (I love the quixotic), I do want to lay before you a challenge.
Establish a framework upon which you can build a conservative Republican Party. Weed out the fringe, the ridiculous, the dishonest, and the revolting elements which will inevitably attempt to infect your alliance, and stand on principle and principle alone. Be right. Don’t pass around untrue, unverified, or overly exaggerated propaganda. Shake hands, not fists. Realize that it is easy to condemn anyone as not being pure enough, but that it is much harder and more virtuous to succeed in building a truly republican majority in America.
While I do not expect to see such a thing develop over the next decade, I will be on the lookout for those sowing the seeds of responsible and thoughtful conservative politics in Virginia. If such a method were to take root in Virginia, who knows how far it could spread?
Personally, I’m placing my faith in the Rising Generation.
88 comments
Right now, the only clearly defined factions within the party are the pro-Trump and anti-Trump factions. However, there isn’t a common characteristic that defines either group. It is fascinating to me that some of my closest very conservative friends are divided on Trump, and the same is true of what we used to call grassroot Republicans and establishment Republicans. How did one person come along and become the fulcrum for the sharpest divide in Republican politics we have seen recently?
There are two thoughtful pieces that have been written about this;
The Flight 93 Election by Publius Decius Mus
http://www.claremont.org/crb/basicpage/the-flight-93-election/
and the rebuttal to that article written by Ben Howe of Redstate.
http://www.redstate.com/aglanon/2016/09/08/flight-93-election-rush/
These two articles seem to be the archetypes for each position within the Republican party. I read the first one and I completely agree with it. I read the other one and I am disgusted by it. Yet some of my most loyal Republican friends see it the other way around. I think the answer to our division is in there somewhere.
One thing in common in both articles, is the Republican party’s betrayal of it’s own voters. Both sides agree that elected Republicans have not delivered what they promised to their voters. Not even close. But why did they fail? When Ted Cruz filibustered in the Senate, he was ridiculed within his own party. When George Bush made deals with Democrats, he was ridiculed within his own party. Republicans clearly fight with themselves much more than Democrats do. Democrats are always united behind the ‘D’ when it comes time to mark a ballot. Republicans not so much.
Many Republicans tend to be the kind of people that want to be viewed as good and righteous, more than they want to win. They honestly believe good values will ultimately prevail. Other Republicans put a higher priority on winning elections now so they can stop the hemorrhage as a matter of urgency. I believe this is the sharpest divide in the Republican party. Do we need to win right now, or don’t we.
I hated McCain and Romney more than Beau Correll hates Trump, yet I still supported them all the way. Look at what the alternative gets us — we can’t take ANY more.
That’s been my thing too – if I could vote for McCain, why can’t McCain folks vote for Trump?
Some reasons:
1) Jeb was to have the nomination sown up so that Hillary could handily win.
2) Mitt didn’t run because Jeb was the nominee apparent.
3) all the other nominees were actually running to be Bush Veep so they could get to a chair before the 2020 music stopped.
4) A Trump means that Cruz is no longer number 1 conservative, Mitt is no longer next in line for pres, and the party power structure is shot to hell if Trump wins.
Lots of jobs and coin ride on the status quo remaining the status quo.
I’m not sure that’s right. Now, Jeb is done. Investors placed over 100 million in a campaign that went no where. Paul Ryan appears to be the new darling and he could make a good candidate if he can find a way to bring The House back to regular order. Cruz still has the love and affection of conservatives, but the old coalition that now includes populists has pushed the conservative caucus into a minority much like the Libertarian caucus, only slightly bigger. He can still run again if he wants. Romney could run again if Ruan implodes, or if another candidate doesn’t rise to power amongst the establishment . Keep an eye on “conservative” governors with good relationships with Democrats and Republicans on The Hill and in the media.
If Scott Walker proved anything it is you cannot have good relations with Democrats and get anything done that is remotely conservative. You have to bypass the democrats, go straight to the people, and have the people go after them. Decades of good relations have gotten us further moral, economic and national destruction. No more PC and no more mister nice guy. Time to be deplorable to counteract what is really deplorable.
Have we seen the people back popular conservative legislation since Contact With America? The idea of going directly to the people is great, but where the hell are they? Where is the legislating for them to get behind?
I have often asked a similar question – where is the legislative follow up to the Contract With America. As far as can tell, the republican leadership has no interest is such legislation and the GOP base knows it. Trump is carrying the CWA ideas for the base and that is pretty darn sad if you ask me.
And where, by the way, is there any respect for the Congress. A full half dozen of subpoenaed witnesses on Hillary’s email abuse pleaded the fifth and one didn’t even show up. Congress is rightfully seen as a bunch of toothless Tigers at best or more likely running rabbits scared to make a ripple let alone a wave.
One final thought. If Trump wins and nominates a conservative for the Supreme Court, the Democrats will use the “deplorables” argument to derail him or her. And, to show their compassion, the Republican Congress will back off or even sabatoge the pick. That is how anemic the GOP leadership is in the eyes of the base.
I’m not sure what Trump is doing. Or where the conservative base is. Or what the leadership has in store. I don’t like the ambiguity of it all.
I have listened to a number of his speeches and, to me, he talks about a far more conservative set of positions than either McCain or Romney did. I realize that there is disagreement about this but at some point in time you have to trust what you are hearing.
Trust but verify was a Reagan approach to things, but I point out that Reagan was considered untrustworthy and even a buffoon by many GOP establishment folks at the time. How could anyone trust a Democrat convert? Well, Reagan delivered and the country prospered.
The best we can do is hope that Trump is a man of his word and can deliver the robust economy and security we need to survive as a nation and not become a NWO globalist failure. By the way, Trump has a generally good business record and you don’t attract investors by being untrustworthy. (Sort of fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.)
I’m with you there. Willing to give him a shot.
I remember when Ronald Reagan compromised with the Democrat Congress on amnesty. The result was amnesty and no real wall. I remember when George HW Bush compromised with the Democrat on new taxes. The result was more taxes – and Bush lost the next election. Compromise without verification doesn’t work and keeping your word does. Good for daily life and good for national politics.
In order to have a compromise, you have to keep your word. It is the only coin in the political realm that has a value.
Time is not on our side and I was in first with DQ.
Before we can do something with the party, we have to fix the party.
Apollo 13 Time.
That requires planning, thoughtfulness, and inclusion. Mostly it requires principles predicated on a thoughtful understanding of history.
Yeah, so even though we’re screwed on that, we have to play the cards dealt.
We could start by going through the creed and clearing it up for our candidates — “Do you agree with this meaning?”
I tried to do that in my series on The Republican Party of Virginia.
Do another on each of the creed points, we’ll clarify with comments. Once again, TBE will do the heavy lifting for the party.
I generally agree with Mr. Tucker, but not this time. The Republican Party has a clear set of principles. The Republican leadership does not. This has created stress within the party and particularly frustrated the GOP’s natural base of support – hard working, play by the rules, family men and women.
The leadership all too often has an excuse for failure. They all too often have an excuse for doing nothing. Worst of all, they all too often have an excuse for acting like big government Democrats.
Maybe I am wrong here but, to me, conservatism is relying on constitutional principles to control government excess. The Republican Party principles reflect this but said principles have to be a basis for every action not something hidden in a closet to be dusted off every so often when elections come around.
“The Republican Party has a clear set of principles.”
List them. I’ll bet if every person who comments at this blog tried to list out the principles of the Republican party you would get a whole lot of different principles. A handful would overlap for some people. while others would have completely different lists.
That’s the problem Steve is talking about.
There is a formal and approved list of said principles. They are read at every republican meeting i have attended.
If you are talking about the creed, that is specific to Virginia and was designed to be written very broadly so as not to exclude people.
Go look at a copy of the Republican Party Platform if you want a longer, more detailed list of what our party is supposed to stand for. It covers a lot more issues and is more detailed. The 2016 Platform we approved is 56 pages long.
https://www.gop.com/the-2016-republican-party-platform/
The real issue is, what do you want people we elect to office as Republicans to fight for? It’s all well and good to say we want them to adhere to a set of broad principles that leave all the wiggle room they need to vote for government expansion, or social justice, or any list of other things that might go against what we really want them to fight for.
What do you want your elected officials to fight for?
The problem is they won’t even fight for the principles. I know they know the principles but when given a chance to act on them they make excuses. Simple example: Lois Lerner and criminal contempt of Congress. Result was nothing.
Yes and then you have the extreme establishment type in Ed Gillespie who will simply maintain the status quo if elected.
While Ed is not my first choice, I’m not sure he’s extreme establishment. Judging from what I saw on the last campaign trail, Ed is real and he gets it. I can see many Conservative Republicans… ‘Ed-lightened’ this time around.
If Wittman drops out Gillespie is probably my second choice in this bunch. Not super excited, but he’s done all the work the grassroots asks of representatives.
And that is because the person you are electing isn’t concerned about some creed, and they probably don’t believe in the same things you believe in. That’s what I mean when I say, “what do you want your elected officials to fight for?”
There are numerous core issues that are faced constantly in this country, and then there are guiding principles that we want our elected officials to live by that should guide their decisions when any new issues come up.
What Steven is saying, and I agree with. is that we as a party can’t agree on what we want our elected officials to fight for, and we can’t even agree on the guiding principles we think they should believe in. So what we get, instead, are politicians who are very bland, don’t take a real stand on anything, and use scare tactics of what will happen if the Democrat wins in order to get us to vote for them. Then they just do what they want.
You are describing every Republican in the Senate and in the Congress, as well as all seventeen Presidential candidates. They all support the principles. The reason they don’t fight for principles is not because they don’t believe in them; it’s because they can’t stand the heat. What did they all do when Ted Cruz filibustered the Senate on “principle”. His own party humiliated him. Republicans don’t fight Democrats as much as they fight with each other.
You don’t like Trump because you think he is unprincipled. That’s debatable, but you are ignoring the fact that we finally have a candidate that will stand and fight for something. Even if he isn’t as intellectually conservative as you would like, at least he will fight for most of what you want. You say you want a candidate that will fight, yet you oppose him because he isn’t pure enough. That’s the divide in the party.
Unfortunately, I have to agree. I see it constantly with our candidates. You hear them speak very convincingly about conservative ideals and then comes the “socially liberal” part which is code for “I will collapse under the heat of the left because it is convenient to do so. See you in a few year and I will give you another pep talk.”
Very ugly and very much the reason for the rise of Trump and the slow disintegration of the Party. Stand and fight is not part of the jargon.
It’s Trump’s support that truly troubles me. My personal problems with Trump are centered around his frightening domestic agenda of protectionism and his opposition to free trade. It’s easy to run against freedom. Freedom is inconvenient at times, but it’s necessary for prosperity.
That said, I do support Trump against Hillary and will be running a Trump Table on October 1st in Caroline County.
I’ve been a reflexive free-trader all my life. I grew up with all the stories of the depression from my grandfather, and I’ve always been wary of the evils of protectionism. BUT….. I’ve been shocked by how quickly we have decimated our manufacturing capability in this country. We used to build the best of everything in the world. Now China and Mexico and the third world build just about everything we buy in this country, and most of that change happened in just the last twenty years.
I supported NAFTA on principle, but now I think Donald Trump has a point. NAFTA didn’t work out so well for us. It wasn’t a good deal after all. Now we are simply an intellectual-property powerhouse. We design but don’t build. How long will that last with all the real product manufacturing happening in Asia and Mexico, and with so few people actually employed with high paying manufacturing jobs. I’m no longer a reflexive free trader. I am extremely skeptical of all these trade deals, which seem to favor only the global corporations and their political cronies. It would not bother me a bit if someone like Trump took a fresh look at all this.
Despite my reservations above, I want to be clear that I’m still a free-trader. I know it’s a complex problem, e.g., the Democrats and the unions, with their mutual money laundering juggernaut, accelerated the decline of manufacturing industry. I just think we need smarter trade deals.
You may also note…. the Democrats don’t really have a substantive answer to Donald Trumps position on trade. They just scream “protectionism” and “free-trade”, just like the Republicans have always done when they want to support a trade bill. Donald Trump is no dummy on this issue. He understands exactly what is happening, and I think his instincts are right on target.
Yes, politically his taking a wildly popular position driven by a sluggish economy and an even more sluggish manufacturing environment. However, why isn’t he talking about why its so expensive to manufacture goods in the United States?
It isn’t a sluggish economy. It is a broken economy. All those textile factories, those furniture factories, are never coming back. Half the automotive industry is already gone, the consumer electronics industry is gone. And the exodus isn’t over. We are now having our food processed overseas. I learned the other day that Smithfield is now sending their pork to China for processing! It goes on and on and on.
None of this is coming back. This is not cyclical. These are structural changes. We are now approaching 100 million working-age Americans that don’t have jobs. Why is it so expensive to produce things in the US? Everybody knows labor is too expensive, regulations are too onerous, and government isn’t helping one darn bit. They are heaping ever more regulations for climate change, social justice, diversity and a hundred other priorities that these bureaucrats value more than American prosperity. Would Republicans address our problems in a better way than Democrats? Maybe, but they haven’t so far. Donald Trump sounds far more sincere about these issues. More importantly, he isn’t likely to buckle when the politically correct ankle biters come after him.
But that doesn’t mean free trade is wrong, it just means that the deals we’re making allow too many protections for other countries. It also means we’re manufacturing the wrong things. When the Asian Tigers went into textiles, plastics, and cheap electronic parts, Japan went high end technology. They found a manufacturing niche. We’re still trying to manufacture expensive goods that other countries are manufacturing at similar qualities and lower prices. That’s our fault, not the free markets.
The result is that more and more Republicans are simply ignoring the GOP elitist leaders and going another way. I have been in a lot of meetings with elected Republicans and have basically handed them the keys to advancing a conservative agenda. I get the equivalent of a pat on the head and I know that they will do nothing but whine about not having enough power.
Don’t forget that they have to get elected and that intellectual conservatives are a minority in the Republican Party.
Which is why I’ve believed, but am losing faith in, building an intellectual framework for the conservative movement that brings conservatives and constitutionalists together. I’m giving up on the Libertarians though. The may be no hope there. Too idealistic. Too utopian.
The creed is awesome and we have had one Congressman run on it in Virginia and live up to it in Washington D.C. maybe two.
That’s not a problem, that’s the nature of principles — they are ideals to strive for and toward!
We are all flawed (myself included believe it or not) and do not live in a world of absolutes.
Our founding was based on compromise, how far have we fallen??
Our founding was not based on compromise. It was based on an unyielding belief in liberty and the willingness to fight and die for that belief. We didn’t compromise with England.
Once that freedom was won, we compromised among ourselves on the details of our founding document, but all participants were working from a shared, unyielding principle of freedom.
Principles are shared beliefs that guide your life. We are electing people to take action on specific issues and to change the course of government. To do that you need people who are willing to fight for what they believe in. If we want to be effective as a party in achieving that change instead of just checking off marks in the “win” column, then we need to start figuring out just what we want our candidates to fight for.
But we all agree with the principles. Who’s against liberty? Who’s against the Constitution? We only disagree on how to uphold those principles. Or more specifically, how to stop the other party from degrading our liberty and the Constitution.
The overlords writing laws and regulations that erode your freedom and liberty are obviously opposed to liberty.
It is a competition of a combo of ideals, spokesmodels, and articulation. But if you can’t make the sale, it doesn’t matter.
Bartleby conservatives and republicans are of no use to anyone.
There is a practicality and pragmatic factor involved. In the vernacular it’s ‘put up or shut up.’
Many of us take a vow that includes ‘for better or worse’ — this sums up our party as well. She may be a SOB, but she’s OUR SOB.
Very good point. The Declaration of Independence was uncompromising. The Constitution was a set of compromises with one exception – the Bill of Individual Rights.
Start with Winthrop, it’s all about compromise.
Yep, the bones are good, we just need some long overdue Reno!
Does the average Republucan have shared principles? I’m not sure I’ve seen evidence of that.
I went I went to the TEA Party rally in 2009. Unreported by the leftist media, there was possibly the largest rally in modern times. Somewhere between a million and a million and a half people showed up,from all over the county. All of them were pretty much in agreement about the size and reach of government, the excessive spending, and obvious unconstitutional behavior by both parties.
The TEA Party needs to refocus their energies there.
The GOP establishment, along with the Democrats and their bureaucratic henchmen in the IRS, etc. undercut the tea party. Trump is the refocusing you speak of.
Steven, the problem is, is that the GOP Establishment lines up to enrich itself to corporate bidders. Let’s dispense with the notion that corporations are conservative. THEY ARE NOT. They like government spending. If we are going to agree on ONE thing that is conservative and that is that government should not be taking your damn money except when it absolutely has to.
Corporations don’t give a ___ about government taking your money. Have you noticed how many billionaires are aligned with Hillary Clinton?
When we have the charade of changing parties… did we save you any money? Has Paul Ryan delivered one damn thing? Mitch McConnell same question? 8 years of Moron Bush? His spending was on par with Obama.
So therein lies the first problem… the GOPe is not much different than Hillary’s party.
So what’s the plan?
Fix the party:
Step 1) every reader and poster needs to become a member of their unit committee.
Step 2) be a better Republican than your peers.
Step 3) rise to positions of respect and influence and most importantly, don’t forget the people and principles that get you there.
I’d add one more…
4) Re- institute the 11th Commandment. Ronald Reagan was right. We need to support our fellow Republicans, rather than join the left in crucifying Republicans whenever they stray into positions deemed politically incorrect. And for gosh sakes, support our nominees.
The purpose of nomination is to select good candidates and it is also to reject the bad ones.
I agree. Nomination fights are inevitable and critical comments are to be expected between candidates. Those pre-nomination fights could be better if we didn’t use Democrat talking points to degrade one Republican candidate in support of another candidate. But otherwise, sharp debate is to be expected pre-nomination.
However, the 11th Commandment is about supporting fellow Republicans after they have been nominated and elected. At the very least it means not publicly trashing the people that Republican voters supported and elected. Listen to the way Peter King talks about Ted Cruz…. that is insane. How does that help? Isn’t he just pandering to national media. Isn’t that completely counterproductive for the party?
Agreed.
Yes, and can’t you tell all the narcissistic violators holding up the ‘principles’ shield.
I guess some ‘principles’ are more equal than others.
I love this.
You continue to assume conservatives will continue to gift their time, energy and treasure to a party that has chosen to abandon it’s founding principles. Many of us have reached the realization that the party will not be dragged to it’s constitutionalist roots. So we are leaving. Bye. Maybe we will caucus with the republicans from time to time.
I’m not assuming anything.
You are assuming the republican “party” is still viable.
It is the biggest party in America.
And that is part of the problem. Look at Virginia, just about anyone can select our nominees in ANY of our processes.
Our tent is so large and so open it could be used for aquaculture.
If we filled every available ‘slot’ in our statewide mass meetings, there are only a handful of venues that could accommodate and they would break the bank.
A parliamentary system would likely not produce better results. A powerful Republican Party with a strong conservative, constitutionalist, libertarian leaning faction would be a great party.
I don’t think we can get there with the current party structure and that is by design.
Start with an issues committee of the RPV — 1 delegate, 1 alternate per district.
Issues and platform adopted by faux convention.
Think of the two parties as coalitions. That’s really what they are.
You can better influence the party from within. The independents will caucus with the dems while the elected libertarians and constitutionarians can have a meeting with a guest speaker at the library.
And how has that worked for the last three decades? The GOP has become MORE liberal. Even with the advent of the Tea Party, the GOP took all of that energy and wealth and did nothing remotely conservative with it. The republican party leaders are bought and paid for. Its time to abandon the republican party altogether. They give lip service to the founding principles, then they vote to fund and approve the reverse.
The electeds reflect the electorate, that’s the way it’s supposed to work.
The Tea Party was an abandonment of the GOP and look what happened. Get conservatives off their collective fanny and back in the party making cases instead of having tantrums in public and throwing credentials.
The GOP is your Alamo, let’s try for a better result this time.
The GOP is ruled by the elites. They have sold out to the Chamber of Commerce and other special interests. They do everything in their power to maintain their power. If that means squashing the grassroots, then so be it. And so they do. And so they lose. The last time the establishment won, they managed to lose. History will show Bush to have been a better person and president than the aftermath that followed. Unfortunately the republicans had control of both houses of Congress and the whitehouse. What did they do with it? They spent. They lost the public trust. For some reason they think their constituents will ignore that history lesson. We haven’t. The republican party deserves only contempt. Certainly not energy time or treasure to drag the party back to it’s founding principles.
You are right, and Trump and the GOP conservatives have countered them, for now.
Compare the work involved to recovering the party versus a new initiative.
Much easier and more fun to ‘T’row da bums out.’
“conservatives” and Trump do not go hand in hand. If you look nationwide at what has been happening to constitutionalists who dared to raise their hands in opposition to the elites… Well, look to Tim Huelskamp. The elites are unseating the riff-raff.
No, and not everywhere, but In the 10th and in Virginia, we’re pretty tight.
The establishment machine only holds on to power by dividing and conquering.
I would love to see a real grassroots conservative movement in Virginia. My personal goal is to get as many people as possible involved in our elections in the next 4 years. My short-term goal is to get them to actually vote in November with what we have before us. Apathy among mom and pop conservatives is killing us and our country. There are a lot of great people in politics right now…the problem is we also have a lot of bad people in politics (on both sides) and we have gotten to a point to where we just settle for the lessor of two evils candidate.
I don’t entirely disagree.
People are never going to vote against the government subsidies in their own lives, and the government checks in their mailbox.
The game is over. The majority wins.
They will if they are persuaded of a higher degree of self-interest.
Or wait for the collapse to sort things out.
Collapse. It’s to screwed up for anything else.
Hell, the Chi-coms won’t even roll up a set of steps to Air Force One.
They were waiting for the money palettes to land elsewhere.
There is still time to build a real conservative movement, but to do that, we’ll need millions of people with the opportunism of Reagan and the common sense of Coolidge.
Yes, people will always vote in their own interest, but don’t forget, people want prosperity, patriotism, opportunity, and peace. They’ll vote for those things too.
A good example would be Bernie and Hillary wanting to forgive student loans.
If they could pull it off with Congress, it is like paying those with student loans thousands, ten thousands, and even hundreds of thousands for their vote.
No way they will turn it down, Republican or Democrat, even if the chance is like 1% she could pull it off.
But, it’s just another campaign lie at least for now.
That’s why we need to have politicians able to communicate WHY that’s a campaign lie and WHY that would be harmful to students. For whatever reason our Republican elected are horrible at talking about economics and government.
Maybe mom & pop conservatives are sick and tired of being lied to every election cycle by Republican candidates. Would be nice if the Republican party actually stood for something other than what the chamber of commerce wants.
It’s not just lesser of two evils. I have found there is ALWAYS someone I want to vote against more than the other.