The Civil War I’ve predicted and responded to in Virginia has taught me a great deal about partisan politics. Our Party is currently split between an Establishment Candidate who has spent two whole years meeting with and reaching out to activist groups in Virginia and a populist, anti-establishment, anti-Republican candidate from Prince William.
Ed Gillespie has tried to reach out to every faction of the Republican Party. Unfortunately, there are passionate factions that reject corporate welfare recipients and special interests embracing the front runner of our GOP ticket. Corey Stewart is capitalizing on the grassroots’ frustration with RPV.
I have conservative friends backing Ed Gillespie and conservative friends backing Corey Stewart. However, if we don’t change the way we do politics, it won’t matter whom we nominate.
We’ve all read about the battle between the House Freedom Caucus, the Study Group, and the Tuesday Group. If you’ve been following the press releases then you know that the Republican Party can’t pass legislation with their current majority. Anything that appeals to the House Freedom Caucus will offend the Tuesday Group and anything directed toward making the HFC or the Tuesday Group happy will offend or please only half of the Study Committee.
Therefore, it is clear that there is no way to get a conservative agenda through the legislature. Period.
Only 17% of Americans wanted Speaker Ryan and President Trump’s healthcare bill. We can blame the Democrats, but that would be an easy target and an even easier excuse.
50% of Americans want to repeal parts of the ACA, but only 20% of Americans want to repeal Obamacare entirely.
The House Freedom Caucus is opposed by 80% of the country. The Tuesday Group and their Progressive solutions are opposed by 80% of the Republican Party.
This tells us that the Republican Party is unable to govern. The left and right wings of the GOP are incapable of coming together and making decisions.
The Democrat Party has moved so far to the left that most Democrats now consider themselves Independent. Many of these people voted for Donald Trump. Trump is doing what many of these Independents wanted in the first place: he bombed Syria, he got rid of President Obama’s executive orders, and he pushed for a replacement plan to Obamacare.
Republicans don’t want to replace Obamacare. We want to repeal it. However, powerful interests within the Republican and Democrat Parties will never allow that to happen.
The days of political parties controlling Congress are over. We need intellectuals within both parties to sell compromises and alternatives. We need to pursue bi-partisanship. We need to work together.
The House Freedom Caucus will never get legislation from here to there. Period. Neither will the Tuesday Group. Neither will Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers and the Republican Study Committee.
Republicans are driving our representatives toward positions which make it impossible for our representatives to get anything done. I’m not asking us to move to the left; I’m merely asking us to deal with the fact that Democrats hold positions in Congress.
We can hold all the ideals that are right in the world, but none of them matter if they have no part in that which becomes law. We have got to stop hating Democrats. Our hatred for Democrats has made it impossible for Democrats that we agree with to run for office and win. Our hatred of Democrats has allowed us to vote for Republicans we don’t believe in.
Republicans have bought into a Scorched Earth philosophy that griws fundraising, but will never increase success in the area of public policy.
We need Democrats. We need Libertarians. We need Conservatives. We need Constitutionalists. That is – if we want to write legislation and see it become law. Sometimes I think that isn’t what we want. Sometimes I think we want to make sure that the only Republicans that have power are Republicans that support our agendas. If that is the case, then how do we defeat Democrats? There are a large number of Americans in this country; and some of them support us and some of them do not.
Conservative Republicans need to support conservative Democrats and conservative Democrats need to support honest and trustworthy republicans. We exist. On both sides. We ought not be the victims of a war between radical and irrational ideological groups.
19 comments
Mr Brodie -Tucker
I would hope you or or Ms. Martin , Mr. Albertson
Or any TBE do not support or condone one comment
I am reading on this post.
People may comment , I would certainly not want to censor .
To be silent , or not to disavow also says something.
I like this piece Tuck.
I don’t think the two parties will ever genuinely with a pure heart work for the benefit of the Old Dominion.
We always hear ; ” well he’s a good man”
Are not all of us good men ?
I believe that the swamp has overrun her shallow levy to flood Richmond.
The best we can hope for is forget about a state tax cut and think of Virginia .
Maybe it would be better with a D Governor this fall and the Conservative wisdom if Mr. Adams for AG to keep his one term but in check, rather than running the table and doing not one darn thing.
Oh yea bedroom police turn in your badges.
Senator Newman created DOMA in Va.
the Supreme Court said NO
How many gay marriages in Lynchburg?
How many VOSHA/DOLI written to unlicensed contractors or those employing them in Lynchburg? I bet it is way more, what about unpaid fines?
Maybe $100,000.00 Lynchburg alone.
Out of focus legislation gets you impaled by a knife in Conservative Lynchburg.
We can learn from the Civil War , the anniversary of the surrender is here and just last week our local Republicans surrendered this time to MS-13.
Represent for Virginia and her citizens.
If we can’t even roll back the entitlement garbage the Democrats inflict on us, it’s over. Just let the Democrats win, and wait for the budget crash and attendant societal breakdown.
It may be….
We are where we are because conservative activists prized winning elections and not winning ideas. We are here because conservative activists have made a profession of rallying voters with fictitious calls to arms, to oppose, oppose, oppose. We are here because we chose an effective campaigner who is one of the most unfit presidents ever.
Several years ago, I attended a GOP rally, where activists played a music video that mocked Democrats. I knew then that conservative activists were selling out.
Shame on all of you.
I agree with the “It’s time for a 3rd party.”
Remember G. Washington warning about party’s
The GOP and DNC should be made to go away.
If you look at our country there should be about 6 parties if not more
We already have six parties or more. There are only two that are relevant.
1) First off Trump bombed a basically abandoned field. Why?
1) To try to get the media off his ass about his Russian connections.
2) His ratings are in the toilet.
Where are all the secondary explosions from fuel storage and and ammo dumps? Is it not better to blow up the WMD gas than let someone drop it on the opposition.
” However, powerful interests within the Republican and Democrat Parties will never allow that to happen.”
Who and what are these powerful interests SBT? Come on, tell em’ if it is $Goldman Sachs$ that basically controls the whole frekin’ works? And, then tell em’ who really controls $Goldman Sachs$. Hell, they ain’t going believe it anyhow. Go ahead SBT, tell em’.
Well hell, all the politicians can easily agree to pass legislation that infringes on the citizens personal affairs. Anything other than that though, is just too impossible to achieve. I don’t remember the people demanding Congress allow the selling of our personal information by commercial business. But wow, easy peasy for politicians.
Wasn’t the demand more in line to STOP such activities? Just a failure to communicate, I guess.
Fact is, America would probably be better off if we declared a Congressional jubilee. You know, kind of like that celebration people say is in the Bible. This one would have to be a little bit different though. We could free our hard working politicians to go back to their districts and leave the dais and hallowed halls of government vacant. We could even call it a non-denominational religious rite because Lord knows, we all need a break.
Bet the politicians couldn’t get that proclamation passed either.
Republicans can’t agree to pass any legislation because Republicans as a party no longer support conservatism, fiscal responsibility or limited government. It’s time for a 3rd party.
The answer to our partisan factionalism is more factionalism? I don’t think so.
Fundamentally, there are, and always will be, statists vs freedom lovers, left vs right, Democrats vs Republicans, whatever you want to call them. This duality is just fundamental human nature. Why this duality exists may be unknowable, but it seems to pervade all cultures throughout history. All the factions within that duality are founded on second order stuff such as tactics, or current events, or particular issue emphasis. SBT describes the current factions, and laments the fact that they exist, but that problem will always exist, as it always has. The factions are not important. From my perspective, complaining about parties is like complaining that there are only two genders and wishing there could be a third gender that is better and can replace the two we have. Forget about those fantasies. The solution is not in creating yet another faction that has just the perfect mix of policies. Rather, it is in recognizing that there are leaders who can appeal to a great number of people with fundamentally different viewpoints. We call them politicians. Those that can sense the subtle shifts, or not so subtle desires and needs of the populace, can find the majorities and win. Reagan was a leader like that. Obama pretended to be that kind of leader, but was not. Perhaps Trump is another great leader that can hold a coalition for awhile. Time will tell.
Well, that’s your opinion and your comparison of the political parties to gender is laughably absurd! I’m done with a party who runs on conservative values, fiscal responsibility, smaller government, etc., then once elected does the opposite.
Why do we constantly act like the two party system is the only route? Thinking we can change the Republican party from within is quixotic. There’s nothing in the Constitution stating we have to have a Democrat and Republican party or a two party system at all… so why do we settle?
You are correct in your statement that Constitution does not specify a two party system. However, it does address plurality voting in Article II, the 12th Amendment, the 14th Amendment, and somewhat in the 24th amendment.
There is an interesting theory in Political Science called Duverger’s Law which posits that a nation/country with plurality voting and single member districts will gravitate to develop a two-party system. Since most of the races in the US from local dog catcher to Congress are single member districts, our two party system acts as Duverger’s law predicts.
It is tough in the single member district model for a third party to achieve a footing in the US since, usually, third party ideology is not focused within a single member district but distributed more outside of geographical lines. Think Ross Perot in 1992. While he received about 20% of the popular vote, he did not get ONE Electoral vote. (Leading back to the Electoral system and the Constitution.)
If you want a rise of a third party, change the Constitution. If you want a change in political philosophy, candidate/elected official behavior – get involved and change the party.
You’ve got it all backwards. Read some history and you’ll understand the route to change better. Change results when the leader takes over the party, or replaces it. It isn’t the new party that selects the new leader, it the new leader that drags the party along or creates his own.
We already have dozens of political parties. Only two of them matter. Ask yourself why that is true.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_the_United_States#Major_political_parties
Have you considered why Bernie Sanders didn’t run under the Socialists Party? It is because all the socialists are already in the Democrat party. They don’t need a “new” party, they are trying to take over the only party on the Left that can win.
Asking for a third party doesn’t solve anything. We already have dozens of irrelevant parties, and we don’t need one more.
I don’t presume to know why Bernie Sanders didn’t run under the Socialist Party, but agree a number of socialists are already in the Democrat Party. Whether we need another party is debatable. Apparently the Republican Party is not conservative and only tolerates conservatives when they need votes. Changing the Republican Party from within is futile.
Reagan changed the Republican party, and he was a former Democrat. It can be done. I agree that Bush and Bush were not very helpful in preserving that change, and Dole and Romney were worse. I agree, conservatives are no longer dominating the Republican party. However, Cruz showed us that conservative principles are not enough. He was right on the issues, but not likable enough as a leader. Only an effective conservative leader can revive conservatism within the Republican party.
If rank and file conservatives segregate themselves into some obscure Conservative party, they will be about as relevant as the Green Party is today; a bunch of dedicated environmentalists who are happy with their platform, and totally irrelevant in electoral politics.
Yes I would be interested from where you got the varied percentages mentioned in your article. I find it difficult to believe that only 20% wants to totally repeal the Healthcare Act. I think that is a flawed number. I consider myself both a conservative but also a knowable financial person. I also considered the RPV as being a rather dysfunctional group. It is very obvious when you look at chapters within the State. I find it difficult to support Gillespie. As to Democrats and Republicans, I am not ashamed nor timid to say that I have voted for Democrats
including in the past election on a local basis. In fact, I think Tom P. will shake up the old guard of the Democratic Party and he possibly could be elected Governor. His candidacy is not one to take lightly.
I linked to the polling.