This New York Times’ article is written to give the impression that some so called elder statesmen within the GOP have some great alternative to fighting against ObamaCare, along with trying to highlight and fight against Washington’s runaway spending.
But in fact, from Jeb Bush to Pete Wehner, it’s mostly the same weak-in-the knees whiners who never think it’s a good time to fight. That’s obvious from this quote below from former GOP Chair Ed Gillespie. These are the very same Republicans who have been claiming to oppose the growth of government, while partnering with Democrats – often behind the scenes – to do just the opposite for decades. The Bush GOP, if you will, never has done much of anything but grow government, albeit perhaps a bit slower than Democrats would like. The real question is, who needs it, at this point?
“And we join them in staunch opposition to the president’s harmful policies — but our party might be better off if we spent more time speaking in positive terms about why we’re against those policies and, more importantly, what we’re for,” said Mr. Gillespie, who is chairman of the group he spoke to, the Republican State Leadership Committee.
They don’t seem to be genuinely interested in fighting for anything unless victory is somehow assured going in. Think about how ridiculous that sounds. It amounts to little more than rolling over and giving the President and his fellow Democrats everything they want, while playing in the margins to create good optics because you think you might win an election down the road. However, even when the GOP does win, it does little, if anything, to rein in government.
So, again, who needs it? These below aren’t the words of a smart fighter, they are the words of a cowardly loser, more interested in retaining his seat at the trough, than genuinely reforming government. It’s all calculation and no real spine. Meanwhile, the traditional GOP base is so desperate for leadership, anyone who does show a little spine – as Cruz, Lee, Paul and others have – becomes a rock star almost over night. That’s not their fault – it’s the fault of a party of increasingly feckless looking so called elders.
“Fighting with the president is one thing,” said Senator Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri. “Fighting with the president and losing is another thing. When you’re in the minority you need to look really hard to find the fights you can win.”
What these GOP establishment, and/or D.C. ensconced elders don’t appreciate is that the GOP base is sick of their games. If they want to drop the charade and admit that all they really care about is sharing power with Democrats in Washington and gaining the presidency every other eight years, while liberty and freedom continue to be choked off by the grip of big government – fine. Let them do it.
But they had better have some magic at hand to replace the many, many voters who are simply going to stop showing up for just another progressive, big government party pretending to still be the party of Reagan, which it’s decidedly not, based upon recent performance. It’s a party of hacks, consultants and cowards, many of whom are obviously all too happy to talk to the New York Times but have little of interest to say to average hard-working Americans who comprise their traditional base.