The office number is 1-202-395-3080, but I think if a right-wing phone or mail campaign is going to have an effect it's going to have to find weak points.
Hey, you have to start somewhere.
The only thing worse than a circular firing squad from my perspective is a regular firing squad where I'm against the wall. You haven't outright stated but IMO in a few posts you've implied that you think that MAGA/populists etc. are more prone to trying to purge moderates. I recognize I have a dog in this fight, but in my experience it's the opposite that's more frequent. Moderates and extremists in alliance is a powerful dynamic- there's a lot of that on the left, and it's worked well for them. But it's got to be both ways.
Well, my perception of that is based on a lot of what I see on the board with users clamoring for purges of RINOs (and the impression I get is that people like Ben Sasse or Liz Cheney are included in that description, despite that being incredibly innacurate), or me getting tarred as a Democrat because I have a real problem with how Trump did a lot of things. Not over policy so much (unless you count me being irritated over the out-of-control spending side) but the fact that it’s a lot harder to argue, for example, for secure borders when Trump is living down to the caricature of every conservative ever.
I don’t mind the GOP shifting to a populist bent; what I mind is 1) this disturbing “fidelity to Donald Trump in particular” as opposed to a synthesis of establishment and populist conservatism, which is why the GOP had success in 2010 and 2014, not just 2016; and 2) the whole “It’s all over forever” fatalism over losing an election, despite the left doing it in 2004 and 2016, or the right in 2008. As we’ve seen, however, there is always a chance to change things if people are willing to work within the process.
Right now, yes, the Democrats are the majority,
but barely. They
lost seats in the House, and damn near lost the Senate (which they only won because of Trump depressing voter turnout among Republicans and boosting it among Democrats), and they don’t even have a majority of state legislatures.
And I do think, just as in 2008, Biden and Co are going on a tear to remind the American people why the Democrats were checked after the first two years under Obama. So if anything it’s keeping a sharp eye on what he and the others are doing, then nailing them for it in 2022.
On the RINO Q- Part of opposing Biden is necessarily going to be framing the issues and arguing for an alternative. As a nationalist, I don't think ConInc can effectively oppose Biden. For one thing, I don't think there messaging or framing is at all appealing. I don't want our side to be arguing, "Biden's a socialist!" I want our side to be arguing "We wanted to give you $2000, now Biden isn't even giving you the $1400 he owes you." For another, there's been some just plain incompetence on the part of the GOP establishment leadership. For instance, McConnell backed McSally for the 2018 senate seat in Arizona, which she lost, then lobbied for her appointment to the other Arizona senate seat which she subsequently lost.
Additionally, this isn't really the public. It's publicly accessible, sure, but this isn't social media where people can get something trending and so get it exposed to a much wider audience. There isn't really any support for Biden here, so issues that are actually disputed by the people here are necessarily going to get more debate.
By themselves, no, the establishment wing can’t win and they know it. The thing with McSally was, the Arizona GOP is a dysfunctional mess between those who think Trump was too extreme and Trump was too moderate. It also didn’t help that, love him or hate him, John McCain was widely liked among Arizona voters, including Republican ones, and Trump’s trashing of him
really didn’t help.
Personally, I’m of a mind that we need populists on board because the technocrats AKA The Establishment have failed. But they still make up a significant slice of the party, and then you have the independents who really just want to be left in peace and not have insane policies rammed through, nor do they want someone who constantly posts on Twitter without any regard for what’s being said. Calvin Coolidge once said the words of a president matter greatly, so when the president speaks he should do so with care. Not that other recent presidents have been great shakes in this regard; it’s that Trump was uniquely bad in this respect.
Frankly, while I do think a fair amount of what Trump did was long overdue and will have a lasting impact, I’m tired of him personally. If he were to sit behind the scenes and be a kingmaker, I could live with that. But given that Trump is an extreme narcissist who has to be the center of attention at all times, I don’t see it working.
And yes, I’ve shot my own mouth off a bit too much on here, too, I admit that. It’s just that I really don’t have much patience for someone like Trump, who spouts off with BS, and I also
really don’t like being told I’m not a conservative or a Republican because I don’t genuflect at the altar of Trump, nor at the altar of pointless despair.
Not that that’s directed at you, either, just that it’s why I’ve butted heads on here.