It isn’t just the Obama IRS that has been shafting conservatives when seeking non-profit status (and then the Obama DOJ now clearing Lois Lerner of any wrong doing – blaming it on incompetent management), or the Obama Labor department going after large Republican donor / entrepreneurs for “labor violations” or the FEC now targeting conservative advocacy groups to force them to name their donors, and now seemingly seeking retribution against Hobby Lobby who embarrassed the Obama Admin at the Supreme Court on the soul crushing abortifacient HHS mandate of Obamacare.
No, not just the present Administration – it’s also Establishment Republicans who have also decided that conservatives should not be allowed to break up their love fest with power. I ran across this short list – a good way to keep reminding ourselves that while Republicans like Kelly Ayotte are all over “bipartisanship across the aisle” (re: working with Jeanne Shaheen among others), they hardly consider their fellow Republicans as part of the club (like Kelly Ayotte screaming at/about Ted Cruz standing up for principles). A friendly reminder as the primary approaches:
12 Times the GOP Establishment Kicked the Conservative Base in the Teeth
1. The 2014 Mississippi Senate Primary: In order to stop Tea Party Conservative Chris McDaniel from unseating Thad Cochrane, a superannuated Washington lover of pork spending (who didn’t even want to run for re-election), the GOP establishment ran a ruthless campaign of attacks and dirty tricks, and when those failed, they openly courted Democrat voters to cross over into a Republican primary. (The GOP-E also intervened in Kentucky and Kansas to protect moderate establishment Republicans from conservative opponents.)
2. Funding Obamacare and Executive Amnesty: In 2015, the GOP Congress voted to fully fund Obamacare and Obama’s Executive Amnesty, despite campaigning in 2014 on a promise to defund both. Defunding them against an entrenched Democrat administration was always unlikely. However, the GOP-E went beyond failure by attacking conservative Congressmen and Senators who fought to defund them as extremists who were siding with terrorists.
3. Virginia Governor Election. In 2013, the moderate GOP Establishment undercut and refused to support Tea Party Conservative Ken Cuccinelli’s 2013 campaign for governor of Virginia, allowing deeply corrupt Clinton crony Terry MacAuliffe to win narrowly.
4. Gang of Eight: In 2013, Republican Senator Marco Rubio (along with John McCain and other DIABLOS) allied with far-left New York Democrat Charles Schumer to sponsor the “Gang of Eight” Immigration Reform Bill. The bill not only guaranteed amnesty for illegal immigrants, but its border security provisions were filled with loopholes and waivers, and the whole thing was stuffed with special interest spending.
5. Gang of 14: In 2005, moderate Republican John McCain leads the “Gang of 14” senators to make a compromise with Democrats, abandoning conservative judges nominated to the Federal Courts the Democrats had been filibustering. McCain considered the “nuclear option” of ending the partisan filibusters of Judicial Nominations unthinkable, and sponsored the Gang of 14 compromise to prevent it. Harry Reid, as Leader of a Democrat majority Congress, would later use the “nuclear option” to stuff the courts with Obama judicial appointments.
6. Undercutting Conservatives in Congressional and Senate Elections: In 2014, the GOP Establishment funded a primary campaign opponent to libertarian Congressman Justin Amash. Their tactics included a sleazy campaign ad suggesting the congressman (who is of Middle Eastern heritage) was sympathetic to Al Qaeda. (This is part of a longstanding GOP Establishment policy to backstab conservatives in House and Senate races when their preferred candidate is rejected by primary voters: See also Dede Scozzafava and Liza Murkowski)
7. Border Security: In 2006, the GOP Congress passed a law requiring over 900 miles of double layer fencing to be built on the Southwestern border. In 2007, Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison sponsored a bill gutting the fence requirement. The fence was never built. (Yet the GOP still claims to support “border security.”)
8. TARP: In 2008, over the objections of Conservatives in Congress, the Bush Administration in its last days pushed through TARP, a massive taxpayer bailout of large, politically-connected banks and labor unions. Conservatives had offered a less expensive, less Government-empowering alternative to TARP, but were ignored by the leadership who cut a deal with Democrats instead.
9. Allen West: In 2012, The Florida GOP gerrymanders Tea Party conservative Allen West’s district to a Democrat majority.
10. Supreme Court Saves Obamacare: In 2012, Bush-appointed Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts saved Obamacare by pretending to find that its enforcement provisions were just a tax. In 2015, John Roberts saved Obamacare again by pretending that the Federal subsidies were supposed to flow regardless of the explicit language of the law and the expressed intent of those who passed it. John Roberts had previously voted to gut Arizona’s Immigration Enforcement laws on the basis that unwritten Federal policies carried more weight than written law.
11. George H.W. Bush Raises Taxes. In 1990, President George H.W. Bush cuts a backroom deal with Senate Democrats to raise taxes, violating a campaign pledge not to raise taxes during his administration.
Sidenote: Kelly Ayotte’s lips were moving, too, when she promised that she’d never be for Amnesty. As with Bush 1, she violated that promise this first term of hers.
12. Iran Deal: Passing the Corker Bill to cede treaty power to Democrat minority with regard to the Iran Nuclear Deal, the convoluted plan allowed the bill to pass while forcing Democrats to vote on an unpopular administration bill. But the Democrats just filibustered the bill and avoided the vote, notching up a big win for Obama. This is worth remembering any time the GOP Establishment tells you that that their differences with the conservatives are just about “tactics,” and they are the smart ones when it comes to “tactics.”
It’s almost as if the Establishment would rather supplant their base with a new one….
….oh wait! Wait until the next round of open border suicide attempts led by the Chamber of Commerce bought Republicans. Like Kelly Ayotte – all up for amnesty (contrary to her campaign promises). They know their base hates the idea, but they’ll do it again.