Hard to argue with any of this. It's absolutely the truth. On top of it all, Dems want you to think that things are not so bad. Why aren't people going out after dark in Chicago? It's beyond bad. Doom loop - coming to a Blue City near you....
I live in one of the most arguably privileged (hate the word but I'm trained now) communities, went to home depot today and big changes from a few months ago. Even the tape measures are on lock down now. Probably 1/3 of the entire tool section on lock down. Who wants to shop in that environment? To home depot's credit, their two day free delivery is now amazon quality. I wonder what their huge stores will morph into over the next 5 years as we all abandon the store hell for online?
Oakland is at the boiling point. There are a lot of hard working people living there who work their ass off to make it in the bay area. And they are being thrown under the bus. But...what's new, which is the whole point of your piece.
Fantastic post. I suspect writing about big city decay could be an almost never-ending topic. But you are correct, there is one (open and obvious) common denominator: Democrats. The fact that the elites miss this known fact says all you need to know about elites... forget them. The societal problem, however, grows larger with the self-Balkanization of our country. Which serves to only fortify and make seemingly permanent the vast cultural divide pulling our country apart.
We have no choice but to fight against the centralization trend, which has been so since Wilson. We aren’t the first ones to fight it; probably won’t be the last, either.
Great post Mr Carter. Don’t know if we can vote our way out of this morass. You’re dead on about not voting though. I’ve held my nose and voted for so many RINO squishes I’ve lost count.
If you are in a blueish district, the RINO is the species that can get elected. If you are in a Red district, never vote them in. See DuPage County in Illinois. They voted in a bunch of RINOs and how the county is blue. Used to be the most Republican county in Illinois.
This hits. We see it when people come to north Idaho from Seattle or Portland and complain about the conditions of their cities. It’s like being a good liberal means ignoring reality or the reason for the phrase “cause and effect”. Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt. It’s an cognitive defense mechanism.
Probably would be the worst thing he could do there. They would just ignore him, if not destroy him, if he did. I thought it was interesting to hear Jamie Dimon say to stop denigrating MAGA people. Seems like kind of a big deal coming from him.
Dems want to centralize everything because they are control freaks. They assume that their policies are "best" and that people will naturally elect them. Thus, THEY will be the ones that get to use that centralized power apparatus to implement every policy they want that controls what you say, do, eat, hear, think, pay and how you move, travel, do business, who you hire, how they work for you, the terms of their employment and on and on.
The only freedoms they want are for their hyper-specialized interests, like abortion and unions. This is because those groups get them into office and pay the bill.
"Despotism often presents itself as the repairer of all the ills suffered, the support of just rights, defender of the oppressed, and founder of order."
I was left wondering how this got published on forbes. But, alas, it's almost 12 years old. His zoo analogy would not go over well these days. "It is bad enough to see a trapped lion carrying 80 pounds of flab that a lion in the wild would never have, but why would you reduce human beings to a similarly pathetic dependency?"
I'll admit I was only interested in the explanation of the Curley effect and didn't read the whole thing. The explanation was first rate but the article apparently also worked as time-capsule. ;-)
Can somebody tell me whether a Trump/DeSantis ticket would get us the leaders we need? I think if we had 12 years of Conservative leadership then people would see the Democratic lies for what they are and we would have more electable leaders emerge to keep the United States moving forward.
I would love a Trump/DeSantis ticket. It's sets the line of succession exactly where I'd want it, gets a good policy guy in there to help at the top level.
The problem is that it only has risks for DeSantis. If the Trump Administration implodes due to chaos, DeSantis doesn't have a chance to run again (see Pence, Mike). And, Trump is not exactly loyal to anyone who doesn't do everything he says. He's a liability to an up and comer like DeSantis. He would be better off staying out and waiting.
If you'd like to see it, quit discouraging it by bringing up doomsday scenarios; they rarely happen. And whatever you can say about DeSantis and Pence, they are not at all alike.
I like that ticket, too. Ramaswamy said a lot of things I agree with, and he's tough.
I would not be shocked if that ends up being the ticket anyway. However, I read somewhere that the campaign was hinting that they already know, and that they had a particular woman in mind.
Magelli is far to generous to the European Rail. Just rode Eurostar in France, and it was filthy. Also smelled terrible, though it could have been hog urine or something, but probably human (I am no expert).
I have very low expectations when I ride Amtrak, and they still can hit a new bottom from time to time. I hear the Brightline private rail system in Florida is excellent, and that was from an Amtrak employee.
The essay you linked was decent, but as you note, completely oblivious of the causes of the sort of lunacy which makes mass transit fail....reminding me of the argument over new Northwestern football stadium. Several neighbors (rightly) complain that fans urinate and occasionally #2 in public on gamedays and at tailgates.
Which begs the question....why are all the bathrooms locked and closed at the Metra and both L stations near the Stadium? Why are the portapotties removed from the public parks in Evanston and Wilmette during football season? What do the municipalities think is going to happen when someone needs to relieve himself after a game before hopping on a train to the city?
It isn't particularly a problem with sports or concert fan. It's the subhuman people managing these issues and their disdain for anyone visiting town who may need the slightest accommodation.
Yes...I think the Eurostar has gone downhill, and the Paris Metra is no longer a sleek modern system. British people constantly complain about their tube system, but the electronics and billing work like a charm, though the cars leave something to be desired. The key advantage over the L is the frequency of trains (The L's electronics are primitive, but they work). Hardly ever wait more than a minute or two for the next train.
Metropolitan Rail in the UK is very good, but expensive. Sort of clean, but again, with enough frequency that you never have to wait too long for the next train.
I loathe the Republican party and yet the Democratic party is worse - it is a safe house for Marxists and Incompetents who willfully destroy the fabric of civility and commonsense for no reason other than they can.
To at least this preacher, it makes more sense from the perspective of what/who you value, what do you honor the most?
.
In the clearest possible terms, the Democrats (and entirety of the 'woke' left) have virtue signaled their love manifesto through all the media for their worship of state; fashioning policy and force-legislating woke values down everyone's throats ...or else. Their mantra is that, "The ends justify the means," and if that means burning everything down and slaughtering 150 million Trump supporters with it, so be it.
I had relatives, now long gone, who lived in the SFO Bay area. And when they went to "The City", the women were supposed to wear gloves -- but not for picking up poop on the sidewalks.
Aside from that, the correct way to spell "reason for existence" in French is "Raison d’être".
Staying home is not so much an issue of disgust with Republican inaction and appeasement - even though it factors in - as the vote counting and reporting. Why waste one's effort? Last election's lesson learned.
It's not about "effort." While I understand your sentiment, getting involved in voting is a minimum civic duty. It shows others that it's worth fighting for, even if it is currently corrupt.
There is also something to be said for showing the other side that they will have take more risks in their cheating to accomplish their goals.
Make it harder for them, and don't let perfect be the enemy of good.
A vote for an R is still a vote against a D. Something needs to be done to address the RINO situation though. And I'm still plenty pissed about DuPage going blue. 🤬
I just think that even when it looks hopeless, voting is the minimum to show some level of fight.
There are probably millions of people like you. If we were able to convince even just 20% to change their minds and vote, we probably would be sweeping Congress and the executive branches at federal and state.
And I live in Illinois, where a Republican vote is as worthless as a vote can be. But I do it because it's not in my DNA to give up. Just seeing the ballot is helpful. Getting involved. Maybe down the line you run for something yourself at the local level. A school board. It all starts local.
But I get it. I just try to encourage people "on the team" to keep at it.
NYC here, so believe me, I do understand IL. My district is one of the last few voting R - and we don't get much difference from the one we fought hard to elect (https://malliotakis.house.gov/).
Maybe my environment - geographic and workplace - colors my conclusions. I'd very much like to be proven wrong, comes election time.
Split houses 50/50 basically with a Dem President, and the bureaucracy so it's harder than it looks. The Republicans are moving along with investigations in the House, and released the tapes. Now people can see!
Lots and lots of uniparty, establishment Republicans joined the chorus. I'll agree completely that the schemers, pushers, and spittle-lipped haters were heavily Dem, but plenty of Jeb! and Romneyesque Republicans were right there with them. And we should not forget that Trump lost the plot as well.
I won't stay home but we need to change things at local levels just as much as at the top. We had a very good sheriff throughout the madness who had better things to do than bust up church meetings or count family's family at Thanksgiving. But a terrible (Dem) governor and city officials gone mad and lots of hot talk from the crazies. We have to stop tolerating the psychotics among us, gently but firmly, and not just rant about the people at the top. I love that you confronted your friends with the facts. Keep it up.
Jeb's proposed border policy was more strict that the policy that Trump put in practice after he was elected. Walkers tax policy was very close to Trump and Ryans, just a bit simpler. DeSantis didn't run in 2020, but his COVID policy was much better than Trump relying on the tyrannical Fauci and Birx policy.
Need more RINO's to get elected (over D's), and build a bigger GOP.
Here is an example. In a deep red district, elect a deep red conservative. In my home district where Susie Lee trades away all day while representing the little people, elect a RINO. Elect enough conservatives, the RINOs get dragged along. As soon as you can, replace the RINO with a red conservative. Why is John Thune a Senator in South Dakota? Deep red state he is a RINO. John Cornyn in Texas??
I don't see examples of "RINO gets dragged alone and become an honest R". On the contrary: see Bloomberg, when he ran for mayor on NY on R ticket. he got elected - but did he behave as one? Nope.
In your scenario this is the questionable point.
In my opinion, at some point the policy of compromise proves itself not fruitful. Then it must stop and let the principle to rule the day. If the principle loses, hard years will follow. Then everyone learns by the school of hard knocks.
It's the same as bailing out the failed businesses: they should be left to bunkruptsy, and not saved.
Milton Friedman talked about it. There were not enough true conservatives in power to force Bloomberg to act as a conservative. That's the problem. When you have RINOs representing deep red states and deep red districts, there isn't an incentive for them to move.
There are a lot of differences in what people mean when they use 'RINO'. I do not use the caricature myself. I think Jeffrey's comment below starts to unpack so-called RINO in perhaps useful ways.
We have Democrats in the South (yes, still) who are more conservative in the important things than uniparty Republicans (remember, they were the original carpetbaggers, and there are good reasons they were viscerally hated). And naming off some random proposals is not the same as the full reality of policies pushed once in office and the battles people do or do not fight -- core values, or lack thereof.
Conservative, small-government, liberty if not libertarian, leave-us-alone folks have to build from the bottom up and not take at face value the horse manure shoveled once the races get in the spotlight, knowing they are not accurate predictors of behavior in office.
Trump kind of flipped the apple cart. He is way more liberal even more left than the Republican electorate on a variety of issues. But the media thinks that conservatives and the right are evil, so they conflate Trump with conservatism, in their weird hare-brained way.
Democrats, especially Illinois D's, are so far gone, I don't think it makes a bit of difference to their voters if the Republican opponent is a moderate or a fire breathing right winger, they are going to paint them all the same way.
The R's shouldn't take the bait. Downstate, we voted out Rodney Davis in the primary even though he is more conservative than Mary Miller (but not a fire breather like Miller), because Rodney had the temerity to want to be on the J6 commission, with the purpose of assuring a fair shake for Trump and the protesters. For this, he got condemned by Trump (even though Rodney had already talked to Trump about joining the commission) in the primary and lost.
It's a cousin of America's lost ability to build stuff. NIMBYs rule. NEPA means you have to pay consultants out the wazoo. ORD Terminal 2 is already going to be billions of $ over budget and ground hasn't even broken. TSMC can't build a fab in the USA nearly as efficiently as Taiwan. The defense contractors don't know how to build competitive ships. Corporate execs don't bat an eye to pay $2,000/hr for lawyers. It's a far larger problem than just government. One thing that Musk did that should be studied is how he kept Twitter running even after firing so many people. There's just an inordinate number of people doing jobs that do not contribute to the mission of the organization (and it's not just HR).
Meaningless but requiring those expensive lawyers as insurance against making an even more expensive mistake, especially if you annoy someone who doesn't like productive enterprises of any sort but most definitely the blue collar trades and Mike Rowe's Dirty Jobs. But don't leave out zoning, licensing, and featherbedding fees!
Hard to argue with any of this. It's absolutely the truth. On top of it all, Dems want you to think that things are not so bad. Why aren't people going out after dark in Chicago? It's beyond bad. Doom loop - coming to a Blue City near you....
I live in one of the most arguably privileged (hate the word but I'm trained now) communities, went to home depot today and big changes from a few months ago. Even the tape measures are on lock down now. Probably 1/3 of the entire tool section on lock down. Who wants to shop in that environment? To home depot's credit, their two day free delivery is now amazon quality. I wonder what their huge stores will morph into over the next 5 years as we all abandon the store hell for online?
Warehouse in Oakland...oh wait, that would get looted too
Oakland is at the boiling point. There are a lot of hard working people living there who work their ass off to make it in the bay area. And they are being thrown under the bus. But...what's new, which is the whole point of your piece.
Fantastic post. I suspect writing about big city decay could be an almost never-ending topic. But you are correct, there is one (open and obvious) common denominator: Democrats. The fact that the elites miss this known fact says all you need to know about elites... forget them. The societal problem, however, grows larger with the self-Balkanization of our country. Which serves to only fortify and make seemingly permanent the vast cultural divide pulling our country apart.
We have no choice but to fight against the centralization trend, which has been so since Wilson. We aren’t the first ones to fight it; probably won’t be the last, either.
When you think about it, what choice do we have?
Great post Mr Carter. Don’t know if we can vote our way out of this morass. You’re dead on about not voting though. I’ve held my nose and voted for so many RINO squishes I’ve lost count.
Never give up! Never give in!
OK, I did too , for at least 2 decades. And what is the result? Not just zero: it's in negatives.
If you are in a blueish district, the RINO is the species that can get elected. If you are in a Red district, never vote them in. See DuPage County in Illinois. They voted in a bunch of RINOs and how the county is blue. Used to be the most Republican county in Illinois.
Yes, I was hoping Oakbrook would resist, but it's a little Chicago now too, with armed robberies etc. Cross it off my list for retirement.
This hits. We see it when people come to north Idaho from Seattle or Portland and complain about the conditions of their cities. It’s like being a good liberal means ignoring reality or the reason for the phrase “cause and effect”. Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt. It’s an cognitive defense mechanism.
I see Garry Tan trying to do yeoman's work to reform SF government. The one thing he won't do is become or align with Republicans.
Probably would be the worst thing he could do there. They would just ignore him, if not destroy him, if he did. I thought it was interesting to hear Jamie Dimon say to stop denigrating MAGA people. Seems like kind of a big deal coming from him.
He smells the wind.
In the cities, you surely can smell it in the wind...
The Dems deflect well. The leaders tell voters it's racism or climate that is causing all the dysfunction. And the voters meekly accept this.
Dems want to centralize everything because they are control freaks. They assume that their policies are "best" and that people will naturally elect them. Thus, THEY will be the ones that get to use that centralized power apparatus to implement every policy they want that controls what you say, do, eat, hear, think, pay and how you move, travel, do business, who you hire, how they work for you, the terms of their employment and on and on.
The only freedoms they want are for their hyper-specialized interests, like abortion and unions. This is because those groups get them into office and pay the bill.
Well said.
"Despotism often presents itself as the repairer of all the ills suffered, the support of just rights, defender of the oppressed, and founder of order."
Alexis de Tocqueville
You might look into the "Curley effect". There is a very good description here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/markhendrickson/2012/05/31/president-obamas-wealth-destroying-goal-taking-the-curley-effect-nationwide/?sh=337b9c323d75
I was only mildly disappointed that said effect was not of 3 Stooges origin. 😉 A good read, nonetheless.
@substack let us post photos in the comments
I was left wondering how this got published on forbes. But, alas, it's almost 12 years old. His zoo analogy would not go over well these days. "It is bad enough to see a trapped lion carrying 80 pounds of flab that a lion in the wild would never have, but why would you reduce human beings to a similarly pathetic dependency?"
I'll admit I was only interested in the explanation of the Curley effect and didn't read the whole thing. The explanation was first rate but the article apparently also worked as time-capsule. ;-)
Did this get Memory Holed? I can't access it. (page not found)
Worked for me just now. Did you get the entire URL?
It wasn't working when I first tried it, but it's good now. Thanks
Can somebody tell me whether a Trump/DeSantis ticket would get us the leaders we need? I think if we had 12 years of Conservative leadership then people would see the Democratic lies for what they are and we would have more electable leaders emerge to keep the United States moving forward.
I would love a Trump/DeSantis ticket. It's sets the line of succession exactly where I'd want it, gets a good policy guy in there to help at the top level.
The problem is that it only has risks for DeSantis. If the Trump Administration implodes due to chaos, DeSantis doesn't have a chance to run again (see Pence, Mike). And, Trump is not exactly loyal to anyone who doesn't do everything he says. He's a liability to an up and comer like DeSantis. He would be better off staying out and waiting.
But I still would love to see it.
I think Constitutionally, it cannot happen (tip of the hat to Jeff Minch). Must be from different states. Hence, anyone not residing in Florida.
If you'd like to see it, quit discouraging it by bringing up doomsday scenarios; they rarely happen. And whatever you can say about DeSantis and Pence, they are not at all alike.
Trump/Ramaswamy, because Ramaswamy's risk tolerance is very high. He can afford to try again.
I like that ticket, too. Ramaswamy said a lot of things I agree with, and he's tough.
I would not be shocked if that ends up being the ticket anyway. However, I read somewhere that the campaign was hinting that they already know, and that they had a particular woman in mind.
Sarah Sanders? Kari Lake? Elise Stefanik?
Magelli is far to generous to the European Rail. Just rode Eurostar in France, and it was filthy. Also smelled terrible, though it could have been hog urine or something, but probably human (I am no expert).
I have very low expectations when I ride Amtrak, and they still can hit a new bottom from time to time. I hear the Brightline private rail system in Florida is excellent, and that was from an Amtrak employee.
In fairness, he has been gone a few years now...
The essay you linked was decent, but as you note, completely oblivious of the causes of the sort of lunacy which makes mass transit fail....reminding me of the argument over new Northwestern football stadium. Several neighbors (rightly) complain that fans urinate and occasionally #2 in public on gamedays and at tailgates.
Which begs the question....why are all the bathrooms locked and closed at the Metra and both L stations near the Stadium? Why are the portapotties removed from the public parks in Evanston and Wilmette during football season? What do the municipalities think is going to happen when someone needs to relieve himself after a game before hopping on a train to the city?
It isn't particularly a problem with sports or concert fan. It's the subhuman people managing these issues and their disdain for anyone visiting town who may need the slightest accommodation.
Yes...I think the Eurostar has gone downhill, and the Paris Metra is no longer a sleek modern system. British people constantly complain about their tube system, but the electronics and billing work like a charm, though the cars leave something to be desired. The key advantage over the L is the frequency of trains (The L's electronics are primitive, but they work). Hardly ever wait more than a minute or two for the next train.
Metropolitan Rail in the UK is very good, but expensive. Sort of clean, but again, with enough frequency that you never have to wait too long for the next train.
I loathe the Republican party and yet the Democratic party is worse - it is a safe house for Marxists and Incompetents who willfully destroy the fabric of civility and commonsense for no reason other than they can.
To at least this preacher, it makes more sense from the perspective of what/who you value, what do you honor the most?
.
In the clearest possible terms, the Democrats (and entirety of the 'woke' left) have virtue signaled their love manifesto through all the media for their worship of state; fashioning policy and force-legislating woke values down everyone's throats ...or else. Their mantra is that, "The ends justify the means," and if that means burning everything down and slaughtering 150 million Trump supporters with it, so be it.
I had relatives, now long gone, who lived in the SFO Bay area. And when they went to "The City", the women were supposed to wear gloves -- but not for picking up poop on the sidewalks.
Aside from that, the correct way to spell "reason for existence" in French is "Raison d’être".
Thanks I will correct it!
Staying home is not so much an issue of disgust with Republican inaction and appeasement - even though it factors in - as the vote counting and reporting. Why waste one's effort? Last election's lesson learned.
It's not about "effort." While I understand your sentiment, getting involved in voting is a minimum civic duty. It shows others that it's worth fighting for, even if it is currently corrupt.
There is also something to be said for showing the other side that they will have take more risks in their cheating to accomplish their goals.
Make it harder for them, and don't let perfect be the enemy of good.
A vote for an R is still a vote against a D. Something needs to be done to address the RINO situation though. And I'm still plenty pissed about DuPage going blue. 🤬
What risk? The last 3.5yrs show we have no opposition. No active militias to counter so-called antifa, anyway. Half of the population grumbles in their kitchens, Soviet-style, with the same result. Dems field-tried the algorithm (see <a href="https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ffivethirtyeight.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F11%2Fskelley-LB-Wisconsin-01-01-use.png&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=645e1758043a4884dc777903aa40acfe4a7cb71efa76cae318886021c130aa78&ipo=images">image</a>), found it working, and will only perfect it now.
Until economic situation worsens to the point unsustainable for the Dems, voting will be useless.
I understand what you are saying, believe me.
I just think that even when it looks hopeless, voting is the minimum to show some level of fight.
There are probably millions of people like you. If we were able to convince even just 20% to change their minds and vote, we probably would be sweeping Congress and the executive branches at federal and state.
And I live in Illinois, where a Republican vote is as worthless as a vote can be. But I do it because it's not in my DNA to give up. Just seeing the ballot is helpful. Getting involved. Maybe down the line you run for something yourself at the local level. A school board. It all starts local.
But I get it. I just try to encourage people "on the team" to keep at it.
NYC here, so believe me, I do understand IL. My district is one of the last few voting R - and we don't get much difference from the one we fought hard to elect (https://malliotakis.house.gov/).
Maybe my environment - geographic and workplace - colors my conclusions. I'd very much like to be proven wrong, comes election time.
Split houses 50/50 basically with a Dem President, and the bureaucracy so it's harder than it looks. The Republicans are moving along with investigations in the House, and released the tapes. Now people can see!
Too little, too late, and too decent - against immoral, opportunistic and brutal enemy.
"Don't let perfect be the enemy of good." Great line!
...by Voltaire, and he paraphrased it from Italian proverb
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_is_the_enemy_of_good
Lots and lots of uniparty, establishment Republicans joined the chorus. I'll agree completely that the schemers, pushers, and spittle-lipped haters were heavily Dem, but plenty of Jeb! and Romneyesque Republicans were right there with them. And we should not forget that Trump lost the plot as well.
I won't stay home but we need to change things at local levels just as much as at the top. We had a very good sheriff throughout the madness who had better things to do than bust up church meetings or count family's family at Thanksgiving. But a terrible (Dem) governor and city officials gone mad and lots of hot talk from the crazies. We have to stop tolerating the psychotics among us, gently but firmly, and not just rant about the people at the top. I love that you confronted your friends with the facts. Keep it up.
Jeb's proposed border policy was more strict that the policy that Trump put in practice after he was elected. Walkers tax policy was very close to Trump and Ryans, just a bit simpler. DeSantis didn't run in 2020, but his COVID policy was much better than Trump relying on the tyrannical Fauci and Birx policy.
Need more RINO's to get elected (over D's), and build a bigger GOP.
If more RINOs get elected, wouldn't (R) become an extension of (D) with lip service to right ideology?
A rhetorical q.
Here is an example. In a deep red district, elect a deep red conservative. In my home district where Susie Lee trades away all day while representing the little people, elect a RINO. Elect enough conservatives, the RINOs get dragged along. As soon as you can, replace the RINO with a red conservative. Why is John Thune a Senator in South Dakota? Deep red state he is a RINO. John Cornyn in Texas??
I don't see examples of "RINO gets dragged alone and become an honest R". On the contrary: see Bloomberg, when he ran for mayor on NY on R ticket. he got elected - but did he behave as one? Nope.
In your scenario this is the questionable point.
In my opinion, at some point the policy of compromise proves itself not fruitful. Then it must stop and let the principle to rule the day. If the principle loses, hard years will follow. Then everyone learns by the school of hard knocks.
It's the same as bailing out the failed businesses: they should be left to bunkruptsy, and not saved.
Milton Friedman talked about it. There were not enough true conservatives in power to force Bloomberg to act as a conservative. That's the problem. When you have RINOs representing deep red states and deep red districts, there isn't an incentive for them to move.
Well, maybe both you and JBP are right. Here in NY I lack an empirical evidence of this to happen.
Well RINO Jeb well to the right of conservative Trump on many issues
Look at Thompson and Edgar in Illinois. Both RINO's but nowhere near the crazy spending of the D's.
Rauner ran as a fiscal conservative/social moderate and was further Left as Governor than Blagojevich.
Give me a RINO with some restraints imposed by conservatives and I am good
There are a lot of differences in what people mean when they use 'RINO'. I do not use the caricature myself. I think Jeffrey's comment below starts to unpack so-called RINO in perhaps useful ways.
We have Democrats in the South (yes, still) who are more conservative in the important things than uniparty Republicans (remember, they were the original carpetbaggers, and there are good reasons they were viscerally hated). And naming off some random proposals is not the same as the full reality of policies pushed once in office and the battles people do or do not fight -- core values, or lack thereof.
Conservative, small-government, liberty if not libertarian, leave-us-alone folks have to build from the bottom up and not take at face value the horse manure shoveled once the races get in the spotlight, knowing they are not accurate predictors of behavior in office.
Trump kind of flipped the apple cart. He is way more liberal even more left than the Republican electorate on a variety of issues. But the media thinks that conservatives and the right are evil, so they conflate Trump with conservatism, in their weird hare-brained way.
Democrats, especially Illinois D's, are so far gone, I don't think it makes a bit of difference to their voters if the Republican opponent is a moderate or a fire breathing right winger, they are going to paint them all the same way.
The R's shouldn't take the bait. Downstate, we voted out Rodney Davis in the primary even though he is more conservative than Mary Miller (but not a fire breather like Miller), because Rodney had the temerity to want to be on the J6 commission, with the purpose of assuring a fair shake for Trump and the protesters. For this, he got condemned by Trump (even though Rodney had already talked to Trump about joining the commission) in the primary and lost.
We shouldn't take the bait, but we always do.
It's a cousin of America's lost ability to build stuff. NIMBYs rule. NEPA means you have to pay consultants out the wazoo. ORD Terminal 2 is already going to be billions of $ over budget and ground hasn't even broken. TSMC can't build a fab in the USA nearly as efficiently as Taiwan. The defense contractors don't know how to build competitive ships. Corporate execs don't bat an eye to pay $2,000/hr for lawyers. It's a far larger problem than just government. One thing that Musk did that should be studied is how he kept Twitter running even after firing so many people. There's just an inordinate number of people doing jobs that do not contribute to the mission of the organization (and it's not just HR).
a lot of that overrun is bullshit regulations that are meaningless....
Meaningless but requiring those expensive lawyers as insurance against making an even more expensive mistake, especially if you annoy someone who doesn't like productive enterprises of any sort but most definitely the blue collar trades and Mike Rowe's Dirty Jobs. But don't leave out zoning, licensing, and featherbedding fees!