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.
