THE GOP MADE THEIR BED: Now They're Going to Have to Lie In It

Writing at National Review, Neal Freeman offers what may be the most incisive summary of the GOP's recent, suicidal antics yet written.

Imagine if you would a prayer breakfast in Washington attended by the leadership of the GOP — Messrs. Boehner, McConnell, Priebus, and their associates. They drop to their knees, bow their heads, and invoke divine intercession in the country’s troubled affairs, and in the party’s parlous condition. Would it be too much to ask Him to deliver unto them a mass political movement, self-financed and benignly led, God-fearing and well-mannered, almost all of whose members believed in the literal version of the Republican platform and almost none of whose members wanted anything from the federal government but constitutional restraint?

Yes, it would have been too much to ask, but, yes, it has been given unto them, anyway. The Tea Party arrived in vast, friendly numbers and said to the GOP, “We’re not from the federal government and we’re here to help.”

What happened next was not pretty. Or smart. The GOP brass responded with insults, attack ads, collaborative media trashing, and, finally, over the past six months, the charge of McConnell’s geezer brigade seeking to “crush” the Tea Party. And here we thought congressional Republicans were too prone to compromise, too quick to split the difference.

Our colleague M. Stanton Evans once said of the two-party system: “One is the evil party and the other is the stupid party. I’m proud to be a member of the stupid party.” I am as well, but sometimes party stupidity asks too much. Here we have before us an epochal opportunity to revive the national enterprise, and we are woefully (and smugly) ill prepared to realize it. As we look forward to 2016, where do we find ourselves? We find ourselves, in my estimate, with no candidate, no message, no coalitional unity, and a thoroughly rusted party machine. Only this question remains: Can we rally in time to save the country from a terminal identity politics that could over the next few cycles bring us not principled and experienced leaders, but (regardless of their qualifications) the first woman president, the first Hispanic president, the first gay president?

I wouldn’t bet the rent money on us. But I know that we have no chance whatsoever unless we divide the labor and begin to engage now. So let’s roll.

Jen Kuznicki captures Mark Levin's outrage over the modern GOP establishment which stands for nothing other than consolidating their own pathetic power base.

Their lever? The U.S. Chamber of Crony Capitalism, let by a man who I believe is a crypto-Marxist, Thomas Donohue.

According to reports in Roll Call, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will have endorsed four Democratic candidates in the House races by the end of the week.

Wednesday the Chamber endorsed California Democratic Rep. Scott Peters, a vulnerablefreshman facing reelection against Republican challenger Carl DeMaio.

“We believe that your re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives will help produce sustained economic growth, help create jobs, and get our country back on track,” Chamber president Thomas Donohue wrote in a recent letter to Peter, quoted by UT San Diego. “We will encourage the business community to vigorously support your candidacy.”

Georgia Democratic Rep. John Barrow is also slated to receive the Chamber’s official endorsement at an event on Friday, according to Roll Call. Barrow also received the Chamber’s endorsement last cycle.

Other Democratic House members receiving the Chamber’s endorsement this year to date are Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar and California Rep. Jim Costa.

Levin goes on to describe Donohue in kinder terms than I do.

Republicans need to understand, the Chamber of Commerce is run by a chameleon, Thomas Donohue is a chameleon. He supported the stimulus, he defends major parts of Obamacare, he supports massive deficit spending each and every year, he supports raising the debt limit, he supported TARP. He is a big government statist. He is a crony capitalist of the worse kind

...He (Donohue) has poured millions of dollars into primaries to defeat Reagan conservatives, traditional conservatives, tea party conservatives.”

Kuznicki goes on:

[Levin] refers to a report that the new Majority Leader, Kevin McCarthy has given copies of the Republican agenda to Congress, but also to K Street lobbyists, and gave more information to the lobbyists and we the people know nothing.

Not only that, but the fickle Chamber of Commerce has funded Democrats instead of Republicans, after helping the GOPe get rid of tea party candidates.

Levin: “They (the GOPe and the consultants) trash conservatives as often as they can and whenever they can. And this is the point of the Freeman piece, why would you do that? You got what you wanted, the conservative base is furious. You have the nominees that you want, and yet you stand for nothing except big government statism.”

“What a lot of activist Republicans don’t understand is, most Republicans are not activists. They’re hard-working men and women who want to take care of their families, who love their country. But they’re not gonna just vote because you tell them to vote, or rally because you tell them to rally. Even more than that, why should they?

Why shouldn’t we have a vibrant, forward-looking Republican Party?

Why shouldn’t we have a new Republican Party that excites, that invigorates, that inspires?

Why shouldn’t people like Pat Roberts and Thad Cochran and Mitch McConnell and others, why shouldn’t they retire and make room for others who have more energy, more ideas and are more motivated?”

Though Freeman is cheerleading -- as he should -- unity, Ms. Kuznicki is not optimistic about November.

The GOP is today a party without a message, without principles. It kowtows to lobbyists at the expense of the people. It lacks articulate leaders.

In other words, it is a party that appears headed for oblivion unless the leaders are replaced and new, energizing conservative firebrands replace them.

It's time for another Reagan Revolution. Perhaps a Cruz Coup.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.