I am going to shamelessly steal from other writers to prove a point. This really irks me. I read it at Ace.
It’s why we elected Donald Trump. So many people I know even on the Republican side hated Trump. Why? Because he did what he said he was going to do, and that’s what many voters who were voting Republican for years wanted.
Trump was a cold slap in the face. GOPe doesn’t like to be told what to do, and it doesn’t like to be uncovered shivering in the night. Trump wasn’t eloquent and nice. He was nasty. But, he did what he said he was going to do.
GOPe brings you judges like Chief Justice Roberts at the Supreme Court. He is a decent man. He is a smart man. He has no spine.
I knew GOPe Speaker Denny Hastert. I have the photos to prove it. The last time I saw the old coach, I said, “You have been getting some first downs but need to be getting touchdowns.” He didn’t like that. That was before his pedophile thing came out.
Turns out, Denny was a fabulous real estate investor. He was almost as good at real estate as Nancy Pelosi is in the stock market.
This is perfect from Ace.
Paul Ryan served in Congress for 20 years. During that time, there was a four-year span (2003 – 2007) that Republicans held the House, the Senate, and the White House, which were all led by Paul Ryan’s type of Republicans: House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, and President George W. Bush.
They were able to push through tax cuts, of course, but when it came to spending cuts, somehow all those GOPe budget hawks just couldn’t find any scissors to slash the funding for toxic recipients such as NPR or the National Endowment for the Arts.
Yet Ryan has the audacity to condemn Trump for not cutting Medicare?!
Paul Ryan also served as Speaker of the House for four years during the Obama presidency. Under the Constitution, he and his fellow House Republicans had the power of the purse and could choose not to fund Obama’s spending priorities. He chose not to use that power.
Again, Ryan has the audacity to condemn Trump for not cutting Medicare?!
And by the way, where is Ryan’s condemnation of Barack Obama? Just kidding. They’re part of the same uniparty team. Ryan’s role was to star as the controlled opposition who would graciously lose to Obama, then fight tooth and nail with conservative reformers like Trump.
The biggest thing to remember about big-government frauds like Ryan is that they used the “budget hawk” gimmick as a weapon to stop conservative goals from being obtained.
Border Fence? Nope. Budget hawks said we couldn’t afford it.
Cut wasteful spending such as public radio or foreign aid to countries that hate us? Nope. Budget hawks said those were meaningless drops in the bucket unless entitlements were also cut.
Legislate conservative social issues? Nope. Budget hawks said we couldn’t do anything socially conservative until we addressed the budget crisis.
They never actually wanted to address “the budget crisis” or reduce the size of government. Ryan and his fellow budget hawk phonies were there to protect big government and all its taxpayer-funded parasites from real conservatives, while also ensuring that none of the promises they made to social conservatives to get elected were ever enacted by GOP majorities.
Real conservatives still desperately want to see government spending slashed. But if that’s not going to happen, we’ll take a Trump who will at least advance the rest of our agenda, unlike the Paul Ryans of this world who spent 20 years in Congress in a false flag endeavor to impede conservative goals, all under the pretense of being a “budget hawk.”
Paul Ryan condemning Donald Trump’s legislative agenda is among the most flattering things I’ve ever heard about Donald Trump.
John Kass has a column you should read today. It sums up not only the Illinois Republican Party but the National Republican Party. I pay to subscribe to Kass and you should too. He’s worth the money.
This is the point of his article today I want to accentuate because it supports mine.
The bi-partisan Illinois Combine stretches across the ages, from the time the state was relatively fit, to the twisted hulk it became, from Big Jim Thompson to Jim Edgar, to Edgar’s pal, the convicted Big Bill Cellini. And to the convicted George Ryan and to the convicted bank fraudster and pedophile Dennis Hastert.
They’ve destroyed this great state of Illinois. They cut deals with the Chicago Democrats, like Daley and Boss Madigan–they were praised and protected by their agents throughout media–and by the time they were done Illinois was hollowed out.
The Republican half of the Combine drove Senator Peter Fitzgerald out of Illinois. And the Democrats were equally overjoyed to see Fitzgerald gone.
The oily Hastert wanted to pick the federal prosecutors, which was by rights Fitzgerald’s prerogative as the senior Senator from the party of the president. Hastert got Illinois GOP chair Judy Barr Topinka to block Fitzgerald’s endorsement for re-election.
Think of that for a moment. A sitting Republican senator who brought corruption- busting prosecutors to Illinois was blocked from endorsement of his own party by Combine hacks? Yes.
And who pays? You know who pays.
Illinois Republicans really don’t want to win and be in the majority. They want to be in the minority. They can point fingers and fill their pocket behind your back. Nationally, GOPe is just like them.
This is GOPe. Paul Ryan, The Bushs, Karl Rove, Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney, Lisa Murkowski, the McCains, and others like them.
GOPe has access to the mass media. Conservatives use blogs, podcasts, and other ways to get their message out.
GOPe might be nice smart people but they are toxic to America. They are grifters. They truly do believe differently than the Democrats, who are proving to be really evil right now, but grift just the same way. There are no “blue dog” Democrats.
At least Romney built a business. But, like the rest of them, he had the table set for him and the food prepared before he started. His dad was governor of Michigan and CEO for AMC, a huge auto company. Romney was in the lucky semen club.
What I am talking about is more than being “populist”. Being for a strong border isn’t populist when there are so many government programs that incentivize people to be on the dole.
Want open borders and lots of immigration? Fine. I bet conservatives could get wholly on board with that. Provided you get rid of every government program in the social safety net including healthcare, income, and education.
Conservatives see the value and dignity in work. It’s not just about the money. Grifters are only about the money.
Conservatives truly understand the principles of economics. They rely on markets and the rule of law. Not manipulation and mob law.
When someone does something wrong or illegal, conservatives want to see justice served. GOPe doesn’t have the spine to enforce the law, except against conservatives.
One sign for you is the more hated a politician is by the mainstream media, Democrats, and in quiet conversation by GOPe, the better they probably are for you. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Ron Johnson, Joni Ernst, Josh Hawley are all hated with zest from the left, and from people in their own party.
This is the big split in the Republican Party. There is no reason to be “civil” when as John Kass says, “you know who pays”. It’s not just with your money, but it’s with your freedom.
GOPe doesn’t believe in competitive free markets and “enterprise” any more than the Democrats do. Enterprise to them means how much money and how many regulations they can create to help their companies and disadvantage others.
GOPe talks a good game about small businesses and independent contractors but stabs them in the back. Give the Democrats credit. They used to hide it but not anymore. They are transparent in their obvious hate of capitalism, small business, and free markets.
When you look at the data on the ground, there is a lot of reform that can happen in the federal budget that will help the deficit but will rejigger traditional ways of doing business. It will force people to make their own individual choices, and take away control.
For example, federal government pensions could be turned into defined contributions and not defined benefits. Big savings long-term to taxpayers. Government employees still get pensions, but they choose how to invest them.
Another example is social security. It’s a Ponzi scheme as currently structured. Instead, turn it into a retirement account where the investments are determined by the potential retiree. They can have restricted choices like listed corporate, municipal, or treasury bonds and publicly listed stock indexes. The change would create better returns for people and less debt for the government.
It goes on and on and on.
The more government does, the more things get screwed up. The more government does, the grifters of GOPe and the Democratic Party benefit. As John says, “you win, they win, you lose, they win”.
"Conservatives" Who Aren't Really Conservative
The dirty little secret about GOPe and RINO's is that most of their wives are secretly Democrats. No man that is married to a Democrat should be allowed to run for office as a Republican.
I read your tribute to your friend who passed away. It was a nice post. The part about socializing with Rostenkowski was a good reminder that one can get along with people they disagree with on policy topics. Almost everything you write today is the antithesis of that sentiment. Which is sad. I've seen too many smart people buy the "Flight 93" baloney. This new world of the right is populist, backwards looking, and pessimistic. I honestly don't understand how anyone who was alive in the 1980s and identified as an R can say anything good about the "new" party. A few points follow.
It's reasonable to say the recent past group of GOP leaders was ineffective and deserved to be replaced. But the replacements are not only ineffective they're nuts. Greene, Gaetz, Cawthorne. Nobody in their right mind would want anything to do with them. They're by definition grifters. They're performers and not legislators. Then there's the wink and grift of people like Vance. There's no way he believes 10% of the BS he's spouting. But along with him there's the possibility true believers like Barnette in PA. She belongs in the Mike Flynn wing of the rubber room. The nuts are calling McCrory, who was kind of like DeSantis, in NC a RINO.
The current populist right is far from free trade and was more than willing to add tariffs and implement "buy American" programs. Programs that all make US consumers poorer. Today the baby formula fiasco is exacerbated by trade barriers that nobody of either party wants to deal with.
The broad anti-immigrant sentiment is shooting the country in the foot. And "conservatives could get wholly on board with that [with reforms]" is hopium, to borrow from Kass. Immigrants are not only consumers. They're suppliers. Even "low skill" people. Trump's policies were as equally harsh on legal immigrants as illegal. Imagine keeping people like Musk or Thiel out of the country. Immigrants who start businesses in the US are the among most dynamic people in the country. The US population is over 50% larger than the 1970s. In almost every way the county is better off today. And it's not out of room. Spending reform will never get the debts paid. Growth is the only way.
You know who else was born with a silver spoon? Trump inherited $100m and has done roughly as well as an index fund. So not great, not bad. Romney gave a small inheritance away and built his business and wealth with a mix of smarts, skill, and luck. It's goes without saying which one has lived life and done business with more integrity.
Illinois governance sucks, no matter the party in charge for the reasons you state. It will not ever change unless and until the banks turn off the money. The debt overhang makes the effects of any non-BK needed reforms as impactful as peeing in the ocean.
I think you are right when you say conservatives understand the principles of economics. It's too bad the "New Republicans" aren't very conservative any more. Wouldn't it be better to try to get back to the 1980s/90s style of both Rs and Ds?