[Hat Tip John Fredricks, for the meeting particulars] The Forsyth County, Georgia, republican party held a meeting to discuss why their senate candidates failed to win the run-off election in January. The screenshot of their justification is a case study in why the republican apparatus fails, and why the challenge to reform the party is so difficult.
First, it is important to filter through what is described as the “Tea Party” support base within the professional republican apparatus. Genuine Tea Party outlooks are in total alignment with the MAGA perspectives of Donald Trump. However, there are elements within the republican party that are more traditionally GOPe-minded and yet assign themselves to the outlook of the Tea Party. There is a difference, but more on that in a moment. Here’s how the Forsyth County political activists are explaining:
Notice, the Forsyth County GOP blame-cast against the base of voters by identifying people they view as outside the party interest. They blame libertarians, populists, Trump, Steve Bannon, John Fredricks and even the candidates themselves which includes Doug Collins for being too outside the base of voter enthusiasm. This view tells us what the mindset of the internal republican network in Forsyth County is !!
Do not just dismiss their justification as presented. CTH warned in 2014 and 2015 this ideological outlook, this disconnect from the reality of the base, would lead to a big problem…. and it has. I shall provide a concrete example below of just how dangerous this fracture is within our constitutional republic. The reason we need more trumpet.
As a person who has traveled extensively in the past decade+ to engage the base of middle-class support that represents MAGA, I can attest that the disconnect between the republican party apparatus and the base of voters they depend on is a severe problem. Without correction… there is no alternative other than to create a THIRD party.
Let me provide one of the best examples of this disconnect between the professional republican party and the base. This disconnect is most visible amid the professionally republican elites in Washington DC. However, this disconnect also flows downstream into the local party apparatus on a precinct-by-precinct level. The issue represented is immigration; but the disconnect applies to a much larger group of policies in addition to immigration.
In 2014 the Republicans in the Senate (successfully) and then the House (almost successfully) passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill that included amnesty for all illegal aliens. The bill would have passed the Republican controlled House, if it was not for the primary defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor literally 48 hours before the House vote was to take place. {GO DEEP}
The shockwave from the Cantor defeat was so severe, all fence-sitting republicans (and remember a lot of them were from the Tea Party wave of 2010) backed away from their vote to support the immigration bill. The Senate amnesty bill died the night Cantor lost his primary challenge by Tea Party member Dave Brat.
The conservative base of the republican party, the middle-class worker/voter, did not want open-ended immigration and yet another amnesty bill. The MAGA base was being destroyed by these policies, but the GOPe was/is disconnected and did not care.
The DC republican party was brought to the immigration table by the main GOP funder and benefactor, The U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Wall Street wanted more cheap labor; the BIG Agriculture lobby wanted more cheap labor; the conservative pundit class of the media which included Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and the entire Salem Media network, supported the U.S. CoC objective. It was an insiders game, but the base of voters did not support the objective…. hence, Cantor was defeated.
The GOPe is an institutional apparatus. In order to be a republican politician the candidate must never challenge the policies that stem from their source of funding. In the above example it was the U.S. CoC and President Tom Donohue; y’all are very familiar with him.
The key point is the club, from the precinct captains to the Speaker of the House within the party, have certain policy positions that are controlled by the party, the RNC club.
Money is the currency of influence within any club; remember that. Do not dismiss this as a broad truism that can be dispatched without thoroughly contemplating how this dynamic pertains when considering how to take over an established political party. Remember the opposition to Donald Trump in 2015 and 2016? This monetary aspect is the key part of the opposition.
Because money is the currency of club influence, the patriarchs who provide the majority of club funding are in control of club policy. This reality was the cause of the biggest political conflict in history. President Trump represented the base, the RNC represented the donor class, the political elites…. those who controlled the club. Obviously, you can see in hindsight why the conflict was so consequential and so severe.
Back to the disconnect example… As an aspect of party policy the politicians in DC cannot advocate for any policy that is outside the RNC club charter. The RNC is funded by Wall Street, corporate multinationals and large conglomerate interests. [The DNC is also, but for now I am focusing on the RNC.]
Because seventy percent of political funding inside the United States political apparatus stems from the exact same place, we see both parties essentially advocating for the same policies. Thus we call this process the UniParty. Wall Street interests are funding both RNC and DNC clubs; so obviously those interests will be supported by each wing of the political apparatus. Corporatism is determining policy for both parties. See the problem?
Now…. watch is video carefully and contemplate what Mick Mulvaney is saying in 2014 during the time that Wall Street and the U.S. CoC was paying the Republican party to deliver on a policy objective. Listen to how Mick Mulvaney describes the situation to the base, the highly engaged base, in South Carolina. This video is important. WATCH:
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Notice how Mulvaney is ¹selling the exact same narrative you have heard from almost all professional DC republicans. You might also overlay the Georgia power-point screen grab here and see how both are examples of the party perspective.
Mulvaney was trying to convince the base on behalf of the professionally political. The Forsyth County GOP is essentially doing the same thing. Both messages are intended to convince the base of support to turn-away from what their heart, mind and gut is telling them as the approach needed; and both messages are trying to convince the base to support policy against their interests by reframing their interests.
Put another way the abuser is telling the abused to trust them… they know better.
However, in contrast to what Mick Mulvaney was espousing in 2014, a little more than a year later candidate Donald Trump came down the elevator and said the exact opposite. Trump said what was true, not what corporations were paying him to say.
Trump said: ‘vote for me and I will build a wall’, the exact opposite of what Mulvaney was telling the base of support.
Donald Trump knew by limiting the entry level workforce inbound into the U.S. there would be upward wage pressure and a restoration of the middle-class worker. Trump knew making America great again required ‘America First’, not Wall Street first.
The difference between Donald Trump supporting the American worker, and the Republican Party supporting corporate owners, is the same disconnect that exists today. The majority of voters support Trump. You can see this empirical outcome in the 2020 general election.
No other republican candidate would have been able to get that scale of support because all other republicans are essentially part of the professional party apparatus; and that means their positions (insert Nikki Haley here) would represent a wing of a UniParty instead of an entirely new political bird.
The Georgia run-off was lost because the only voting option was for another set of uniparty candidates. At the same time, both wings of the UniParty were attacking President Trump. Voters were turned-off by Perdue and Loeffler because they saw through the manipulation…. so they stayed home because: ‘what difference does it really make’?
Lastly, it is important to reflect on the local republican party outlook. As you can see in the Forsyth County power-point they are disconnected from the republican voters within the area. When you contemplate the scale of having to change the outlook and personnel of thousands of Republican precincts around the nation, you begin to realize what a monumental task it is to attempt to reform the republican party from the inside.
That my friends is why a new political party may be the only option.
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¹ Also contemplate how Mick “cantaloupes’ Mulvaney could have carried that perspective and yet still worked as OMB Director for President Trump’s MAGA policy.
I have not given to the RNC directly in years. I determined quickly that they do not use that money for MY and MY families interest, only their own. They do not use that money to promote candidates that are true Republicans but RINOs. I give to the candidates.
What really upsets me is how much, in the last ten or twenty years, the Federal Government has become so much IN our living rooms, and at the kitchen table. When I was growing up we never discussed Federal government unless we were talking about foreign affairs, war or the Presidential election. They seemed to have creeped into our bedroom over night. Minnesota, North Dakota, California have way too much say and control in an Ohio families life. Way too much.
Sundance I hope you keep up the persausive arguments and unassailable logic behind the call to abandon the rotted rino carcass of the gop.
I cannot understand how savvy types like the Steve Bannons of the world can just have watched the stolen election and deeply corrupt and rotted gop — and think that if we sign up people as precinct captains we will roll over the globalists and c of commerce.
I am sorry but that is a fools errand and its not 1970. That will be wasted energy and only further demoralize MAGA.
A new 3rd party would have excitement energy drive and 70M fired up patriots.
It is the only way out of this rotted corrupt system.
Not saying you are wrong, but the election results for third parties have been abysmal for the last 160 years. Maybe Bannon sees a way to take the Repug Party away from the RINOs, Neocons, and Globalists and keep 70 million voters fired up.
But its not 1900. We did not have a uniparty back then.
I love Bannon but he underestimates the entrenched power of the gop. Well just sign up as precinct captains? Huh? That will take decades.
The system protects the rotted gop. Put that energy into a new party.
Reforming the gop is a Sisyphian task. Weve been trying to fix it for decades.
There will be no splitting the vote w a new 3rd party. All the votes are leaving the gop and might peel off a few dem voters.
Now is the time. Pence put a knife in Trumps back and the gop will never win the white house.
Peace
The reason I like Dan Schultz’s approach is that it involves action and taking charge of your agency, rather than empty talk and outrage. If a third party needs to exist, then massive administrative and organizational effort must happen now to be viable (maybe it’s too late) for 2022. Without 2022, there is no 2024.
Action, not talk, will get results. While Trumpers were getting chewed up by the outrage machine on Fox and elsewhere, the Mark Eliases and Stacy Abrams were out there doing the quiet work – shady stuff, but they were working quietly to get the changes that THEY wanted. We will need to more than match that activism, and through a legal route.
I’d say do some research and find out what it takes to get a third party going, and enlist folks who will support you in your efforts. No effort for the right (and righteous) cause is wasted effort
Sundance
You know that your insight, examples and comments are not only the very clear explanation but the very clear answer to the criminals running our country. The stench of corruption reaches the innermost workings of both parties – there is no difference. Trump is our savior. Somehow, this article and these comments must get to Trump and his TRUSTED advisors and support. I plan to write a letter to him and copy it to Melania and Stephen Miller and Rick Grinell etc Then I will pray it actually makes it to them. We can all message them. There is no hope for the Republican Party. It will always be a bunch of mobey hungry, spineless cowards who sell out the hard working men and women of all colors and ethnicity every day. Please help us start the effort for a Patriot Party that includes everyone who loves and wants to preserve this great country.
Let’s have an honest third party discussion. Serious question…What is different in 2021 than when we tried a third party with Perot in ’92? That ended badly for us.
You are too much of a political realist. I agree that the track record of third parties is pathetic. No third party in history was started because 75 million voters got disenfranchised, so we have to have the debate. But whatever we do, we have to go in with all we have, because the alternative to us is serfdom, at best.
I agree w the serious question —
The uniparty and gop are far more rotted and corrupt today than 1992. Its not even close. In 2016 we got to vote for president. No longer
Rosss quest was miniscule in comparison to MAGA.
Ross was great but he is not Donald Trump and did not have 75 M followers.
MAGA is a multiyear widespread movement.
Ross was a one-man show.
Despite that Ross got 19% of the vote. A new MAGA party would have easily twice that support on Day 1.
In asking the question we see a very different context today vs 1992 and the best president ever available to lead an entire movement. DJT is not Ross Perot (RIP Ross I loved him).
GreginJax, Perot was no Trump.
Note who you see towing his line at the 3min mark? Failed candidate Mark Sanford. Also, part of the problem. If Lindsey had been there you would have had a trifecta of “Aw Shucks” politicians that have been screwing SC and the nation for years.
“Demoralization campaigns”?!! Funny how the demoralization campaign against President Trump never works, but all it takes is a whiff of it and the GOPe vote evaporated.
A good point.
Hear, Hear!
To trust the professional political class of the republican party is foolish. They have betrayed us. As evidence for my humble opinion, I offer the failure of the gop/e to accomplish anything for anybody but themselves at the expense of those who voted for them for many years, … & the successes for our country & the world of two outsiders, … Ronald Reagan & Donald Trump. If the republican party can’t be purged of the professional/globalist/establishment class, & it certainly hasn’t been so far, then why wouldn’t we support a new political party? Thank you, Sundance! (& screw you gop/e!)
All true and interesting . However the elections were lost on the 2K versus 600 position . It’s as simple as that . As always , Trump nailed it .
This was not a Forsyth County Republican Party or Forsyth GOP meeting. This was the recent Forsyth County Tea Party meeting. Please correct the article.
Like blaming a customer for not preventing a smash and grab while the store owner is sleeping in back.
When Mulvaney made the comment about cantelopes being on every politicians desk, it conveyed to me how well organized and funded the illegal immigration people are.
Absolutely. A new party with a crystal clear conservative bases. All candidates are expected to follow those bases 100%. No deviations. Give the voters a clear and honest alternative.
In addition, get some conservatives to form large scale media operations to claw our way back into the public square to act as a counter weight to the pure propaganda of msnbc, cnn, abc, cbs, npr, etc.
These people are beyond stupid. I say we primary them all and see if we can beat the Demcommies afterwards. This can be done, but we all have to be involved at the local and especially the State level. I am willing to do what MAGA wants at the National level, since I can not afford to try to be an activist in the Big Swamp.
As to whether to go with the Repugs or go it alone, I just don’t see how the infrastructure of the mainstream Repug Party can be avoided at the grassroots level. But people can make all the difference at that level if they are committed to trying. If we go third Party, we might have a better chance if we can bet the vast majority of Trump voters will not return to their traditional voting roots. If the current power regime in DC keeps pushing the Communist agenda, they may just end up facing an even larger voting base than they did in 2020. Unfortunately, Democraps always read the tea leaves and, if it looks like the radical agenda could fail them, they will dump the Communists in a heartbeat. So, we would have to do our thing without alarming them. I don’t think that would be possible, so I believe a takeover of the Repugs may be our only choice.
I also believe that no choices will open up to us unless we can figure out how to stop the steal of future elections.
If you talk but no one will listen, why waste the breath?