After the McConnell sell-out and the Boehner betrayal, after the
disgraceful abandonment of principles and conservative values by
the Washington Republican establishment, what is the proper
response from outraged conservative believers in limited government
and fiscal responsibility?
I have been sitting here on the morning after the New Years’s
Day capitulation by Capitol Hill Republicans, trying to answer that
question for myself.
Start with feelings. I feel abandoned by the establishment
Republican Party of Washington, D.C. I feel depressed that I cannot
see a single conservative leader in sight who could grab the
Republican Party, slap it across the face, and tell it where it can
go if it does not shape up. I feel angry that Republican “leaders”
in Washington put a higher value on their own survival in office
than the principles they claim to stand for.
As I see it, the Republican Party is a rudderless ship that has
lost its compass, dead in the water, with no captain and no
destination. What this ship needs is a mutiny.
I have already begun my own little mutiny. About 10 days ago, I
received a phone call from the Republican National Committee. The
guy on the phone asked if I would renew my membership for 2013, for
a mere $150 contribution. “No, I won’t do that,” I responded. Well,
the fellow said, we understand times are tough for lots of people
these days, so how about renewing for, say, $75?
“You don’t get it,” I responded. “I am not renewing for $75 nor
for five bucks nor for a dime. I am done with contributions to the
RNC. I donated several times in 2012, and donated to the Republican
senatorial committee, and you blew an election we should have won.
I am no longer going to support the army of consultants, pollsters,
media advisors, and other experts who live off the RNC and who
botched the election of 2012. I am done with the RNC.”
The conversation went downhill from there, but it left me with a
feeling of liberation. It was my declaration of independence from
the Republican establishment. I told the RNC guy that from now on,
I will pick my own list of true conservative candidates and donate
directly to them, not to the party.
I now consider myself a citizen without a party. Everything that
Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
have done in the past month has reinforced my belief that only a
grass-roots revolt — a true conservative mutiny — can save the
Republican Party. The party is not worth saving unless it returns
to conservative values — limited government, adherence to the
Constitution, fiscal responsibility, and a dedication to individual
liberty.
I have no hope that the leaders of the party in Washington have
the vision or guts to adopt and adhere to such an agenda. They will
pay it lip service, of course, but they will also go on making
deals with the Democrats and President Obama to sell out those
principles when it is expedient for their re-election hopes.
Only if millions of conservatives across the country withhold
their money and their support for the collaborators in the capital,
the nervous Neville Chamberlains of the Establishment, will there
be any chance of real change in the GOP. So bring on the mutiny.
There is something worse than being a person without a party. And
that is being a member of a party without a soul.
