Hell hath no fury like a conservative scorned. Erick Erickson woke with a throbbing headache at 3 in the morning, screwed and deserted by the GOP leadership, and he's screaming like a howler monkey.
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Erick, it was always about the money. Money and power. They never loved you or conservative values. The GOP leadership have been corporate whores for 50 years. I'm sorry you are the last to know. So very sorry.
The present Republican leaders in Washington, instead of hiding under a rock, have taken to standing on the rock and demanding conservatives self flagellate. Neither John Boehner nor Mitch McConnell are visionaries. They are survivors. They survive by recognizing the biggest threat to them and trying to befriend it or neutralize it.
Right now, both see conservatives as their biggest threat, not Barack Obama. Why? Because while Barack Obama maintains the White House, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell maintain their positions of power. They exist for power, not for vision. The visions they articulate are routinely backpedaled. Remember the pledge to nowhere the House Republicans concocted in 2010 as a second coming of the Contract With America? Within two months of returning to the majority they’d already ditched their pledge faster than a frat boy fleeing a one night stand. Only conservatives wish to hold them accountable for their breach of trust, thus conservatives are the threat.
The very same Republican leadership who paved the way for the rise of the Democrats in 2006 through moral opaqueness on the role of government in the lives of Americans now seek to shut up and shut out the conservatives who continue to loudly point out that the size and scope of the federal leviathan has grown too unwieldy. More troubling, with the removal of the several of the critics within the party from key committees and a clear message that loud voices of conservatism will not get plumb committee assignments, the incoming freshman class and even the current conservative leaders in the House of Representatives have rolled over.
Let us not kid ourselves. The Republicans intend to strike a last minute deal to cave. They will. They are going blind in the bathroom over the idea of bifurcating tax cuts so Barack Obama can veto the tax cut for high income earners and let the rest slide through.
Erick, where were "conservatives" when Bush put 2 wars on the credit card called the national debt? You were partying like there was no tomorrow. Where were you when 9-11 was used as an excuse for the Patriot Act and other massive intrusions into Americans' privacy and liberty? Please, Eric, your cries about lost liberty are a little late. You and your white male "conservative" associates were more than happy to use government power to invade women's lives. Just between you and me and all the so called "conservatives" in America, the problem is that you haven't stood up for keeping government out of our private lives. You haven't stood up for First Amendment rights. You haven't stood up against the tyranny of America's petro-military industrial complex.
You didn't object because you were cut from the same cloth as the GOP leadership. You wanted money and power. But now you have been dumped. And now you discover your principles.
The issue is that the Republican leaders who will be in charge in January are the Republican leaders who were directly complicit in the construction of the fiscal cliff and were directly complicit in getting us already to $16 trillion in national debt. Democrats are not to blame; both parties in Washington are.
Obsequious praise for small government does the Republicans no good when they too are in favor of big government in their actions. And having two leaders as the face of the party who have both been in Washington since 1986 does no good restoring credibility when these multi-decade residents of the swamp wink and smile that they really do think Washington is the problem.
Is it any wonder the American people have come to the conclusion that government isn’t so bad when the party of small government keeps expanding it too? The leaders of the party are the message, not the words. And the message does not resonate because they do not practice what they preach.
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Hey "conservatives", when you stop being a bunch of hypocritical bigots whose fundamental principle is the maintenance of the wealth, power and privilege of old white males, maybe people will take you seriously when you talk about principles.
Hey, GOP "leaders", maybe people will take you seriously when you talk about patriotism if you stop holding America hostage for partisan political gain.