“The best assumption to make these days is that all Republicans are Rhino,s unless they can prove otherwise by way of there record. The reason this is the best assumption is that 90% of them are. Very sad, but true.”
The Republican party is NOT conservative, it is a center-right party. The party was conservative for about 8 years, known as the Reagan years, and even he had his moderate moments. This is the party that then nominated and elected George Bush the elder, and it hasn’t really changed since then, except for a very short Newt fantasy that didn’t last very long. George the younger has been moderate overall, and the party continues to favor moderates. That’s why Hunter is going nowhere in the polls.
I basically agree. I have stopped using the RINO term, since it implies that "Republican" is the same as "conservative."
There are (at least) two factions in the Republican Party - which I think of as Rockefeller Republicans and Goldwater Republicans. While I do have some important disagreements with Goldwater's politics (particularly in his later years), I consider Goldwater, and not Reagan, to be the prototype conservative. The Rockefeller Republicans are not really moderates; they are "big-business" people, globalists, and they do not really care about following the Constitution.
The Rockefeller Republicans have been in control of the Party since 1984, and this includes the current administration.
I'm not convinced, though, that 90% of registered Republicans are "moderates." I believe that most Republicans consider themselves to be "conservatives." The problem is that most people today, particularly the younger voters, don't have a clue about what a conservative is.
Kevmo:
That’s why I say our problem isn’t RINOS, it’s CINOS. ***The problem with calling them CINOs is that they’ll swear up & down that they’re conservative.
And they believe it. I am actually quite pessimistic now. The Bush administration has been a ship-wreck disaster for the Conservative cause. I say this, not because Bush is a conservative (he is not), but because he has been accepted by "conservatives" (CINOS, but also by a lot of real, but short-term oriented, conservatives), and because he is known (incorrectly) as a conservative. Millions of Americans who voted for Bush have since repented of their folly, and since they consider Bush to be a conservative, they are now determined never again to vote for a Conservative. Last November was a wake-up call.