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Breaking The Uniparty
Libreary of Law and Liberty ^ | 12-15-13 | Angelo M. Codevilla

Posted on 01/15/2014 3:39:32 PM PST by RKBA Democrat

Yet again, for the nth time, Republican Congressional leaders and their Democrat counterparts produced a Trillion dollar, multi-thousand-page spending bill that was voted immediately after being unveiled, without having been read. Republican 2012 vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan authored the latest edition along with Democratic Senator Patti Murray. Republican leader John Boehner preempted Democrats by preemptively accusing Republicans who opposed the bill of wanting to shut down the government. He topped off this feat of leadership by declaring political war on the conservatives who had given Republicans the majority that had made him Speaker of the House – a war that Republican leaders cannot sustain.

The Republican Party’s leaders have functioned as junior members of America’s single ruling party, the UniParty. Acting as the proverbial cockboat in the wake of the Democrats’ man-of-war, they have made Democratic priorities their own when the White House and the Congress were in the hands of Republicans as well as in those of Democrats, and when control has been mixed. The UniParty, the party of government, the party of Ins, continues to consist of the same people. The Outs are always the same people too: American conservatives. They don’t have a party.

Whatever differences exist within the Uniparty, between Republican John Boehner and Democrat Nancy Pelosi, between Republican Mitch McConnell and Democrat Harry Reid, get worked out behind closed doors. Those differences are narrow. The latest negotiations were over some $80 billion out of three trillion dollars in spending. The bipartisan negotiators did not let into the room any of the major issues that concern Americans. Not Obamacare, not racial preferences, not religious liberty, not endless no-win wars. The UniParty is unanimous: more of the same!

Hence, so long as the Uniparty exists, mere voters will have no way of affecting what the government does.

Breaking up the Uniparty, means breaking the Democrats’ hold on non- Democrat congressmen and senators. The only way to do that is to break the Republican leadership’s hold on other Republicans and on the Republican label. That in turn requires using the primaries to screen out UniParty people.

Doing this is more possible than ever, providing conservatives learn to hang together before they are hanged separately.

No longer do American political parties consist of organizations that pick and run candidates. More and more, candidates present themselves in primaries, organize their own supporters, and raise their own funds, including via direct mail and the internet. Hence, nowadays, party labels are important chiefly to identify candidates as belonging to one side or the other of the great questions of the day.

The Democratic Party has built solid identification between its brand and its substance. Majorities of Democratic voters tell pollsters that they feel well represented by those who bear the label “Democrat.” Hence that label is enough to inspire a gamut of voters on a certain side of American politics to support the candidates who bear it.

Not so the Republicans. Only about a fourth of those who vote Republican feel well represented by Republican officials. Because Republicans roar like lions but lie down like lambs, the label “Republican” does not inspire people on the non-Democrat side of American life to vote for the candidates who bear it.

To vote for a candidate, non-Democrat, i.e. conservative, voters need assurances that the “Republican” label cannot supply. Over the last several decades’ electoral cycles, such voters have increasingly turned to organizations that promote particular issues (the National Taxpayers’ Union, the National Rifle Association, Americans United For Life, etc. and arguably above all, to the Tea Parties) for assurance about substance. As the party’s credibility has gone down, the issue organizations’ importance has risen.

In short, these organizations, not the Republican Party, are the source of legitimacy on the non-Democrat side of American life.

These organizations are the lever by which voters can pry the UniParty apart. Problem is, each organization endorses and supports the candidates most closely aligned with its own particular issue. They and their candidates compete against one another for funds and for the voters’ attention.

This disunity is as unreasonable as it is dysfunctional. Diverse as are Americans’ reasons for not wishing to be governed by Democrats, nevertheless there is as much commonality on the right side of America’s political spectrum as on the left. Few dispute that the several issue organizations, their different foci notwithstanding, are all “conservative” in some way. The UniParty will endure only so long as the several parts of the conservative movement continue to pull in disparate directions – only so long as the conservatives fail to draw bright, sharp lines between themselves and the UniParty.

Karl Rove, who set up a fund to elect Establishment Republicans, provided clarity by identifying his kind. That all but invited conservatives to identify themselves as the UniParty’s opponents, to explain that the UniParty has brought America to its current sad state, and to show how differently they want to do things. That identification can be made only by the several conservative organizations endorsing and supporting candidates in primaries and beyond.

Candidate Smith, whether for President of the United States or dog catcher, must be able to say: “I am the only candidate who represents those Americans who want smaller government, who want to safeguard human life, who defend the free exercise of religion, the right to keep and bear arms, and who oppose the government’s intrusion into our lives, and I am so certified by the following organizations…. My opponent is supported by the Republican Establishment. What do you think that represents? It represents the UniParty!

It is high time for the leaders of the main conservative organizations, together with the most obstreperous Republican elected officials (present and past chairmen of the House Republican Study Committee, Senators Cruz, Paul, Lee, Rubio, etc.) to consider how and on whom to affix the precious joint certification: “conservative.”


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial
KEYWORDS: belongsinblogger; notanewstopic; uniparty
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The term "uniparty" is beginning to enter into common usage.
1 posted on 01/15/2014 3:39:32 PM PST by RKBA Democrat
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To: KC_Lion

pingaling.


2 posted on 01/15/2014 3:39:55 PM PST by RKBA Democrat (Having some small say in who gets to hold the whip doesn't make you any less a slave.)
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To: RKBA Democrat

The solution: rope and change.


3 posted on 01/15/2014 3:41:17 PM PST by Noumenon (Resistance. Restoration. Retribution.)
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To: RKBA Democrat

It’s time for the American People to not rely on “honest” politicians but to make it clear by word and deed that we will not put up with big spending and big taxing and WE WILL THROW THE BUMS OUT. That is the only language and action politicians understand. I think the Tea Party and Sarah Palin-types get that. Everybody needs to get it.


4 posted on 01/15/2014 3:43:26 PM PST by PapaNew
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To: RKBA Democrat

Article V


5 posted on 01/15/2014 3:47:23 PM PST by combat_boots (The Lion of Judah cometh. Hallelujah. Gloria Patri, Filio et Spiritui Sancto!)
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To: PapaNew

I think a viable strategy is refusing to allow the powers that be to dominate our (conservative) discussion and the culture. For conservatives we sure do seem to hang on every word and edict that the kakistocracy utters.


6 posted on 01/15/2014 3:58:04 PM PST by RKBA Democrat (Having some small say in who gets to hold the whip doesn't make you any less a slave.)
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To: Noumenon

“The solution: rope and change.”

From sea to shining sea.


7 posted on 01/15/2014 4:15:51 PM PST by sergeantdave
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To: RKBA Democrat

The Repub Party can go to hell.


8 posted on 01/15/2014 4:19:46 PM PST by workerbee (The President of the United States is DOMESTIC ENEMY #1!)
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To: Noumenon

Rope and Chains.


9 posted on 01/15/2014 4:20:57 PM PST by Paladin2
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To: combat_boots
Angelo Codevilla is a fine writer and deep thinker. His term, “uniparty” is perfect.

I disagree with his solution. Mere voting every other year has not, and will not change the course of our nation.

Two popularly derived houses of congress are the source of our woes. Return the states to the senate as per our framers design. Mark Levin's amendments, which I support, would re-federalize the government far more than the framers design such that the states could override federal statutes and scotus decisions.

10 posted on 01/15/2014 4:23:11 PM PST by Jacquerie (Article V.)
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To: workerbee

“...Breaking up the Uniparty, means breaking the Democrats’ hold on non- Democrat congressmen and senators. The only way to do that is to break the Republican leadership’s hold on other Republicans and on the Republican label. That in turn requires using the primaries to screen out UniParty people.

Doing this is more possible than ever, providing conservatives learn to hang together before they are hanged separately....”
******************************************************************

Amen to our need to hang together on this. No conservative circular firing squads. AND NO DEFEATISM. Our mission needs to be to proceed with moving forward to FIRMLY take the reins of the Republican Party and remake it into THE true American conservative party. We’ve been making impressive gains and need to continue with further substantial gains—we’re getting close.


11 posted on 01/15/2014 4:24:41 PM PST by House Atreides
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To: RKBA Democrat; GeronL; Finny; Norm Lenhart; who knows what evil?; workerbee

Uniparty Ping!

You saw it on F.R. first!


12 posted on 01/15/2014 4:30:43 PM PST by KC_Lion (Build the America you want to live in at your address, and keep looking up.- Sarah Palin)
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To: RKBA Democrat

We now have three parties
Democrat
Republican
Alpissedoff
My guess is if the third group would get organized the America people would follow it


13 posted on 01/15/2014 4:32:54 PM PST by hoosiermama (Obama: "Born in Kenya" Lying now or then or now)
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To: KC_Lion

BUT YOU”LL ELECT OBAMA OR HILLARY! AND STUFF!!!!

(Stomping feet, throwing self on flook kicking and thrashing about,holding breath and turning blue)

Get back on the plantation now young man or it’s off to Paradise Falls with you!


14 posted on 01/15/2014 4:37:15 PM PST by Norm Lenhart
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To: KC_Lion

‘Uniparty’ seems to be making the rounds, doesn’t it? :-)


15 posted on 01/15/2014 4:47:24 PM PST by who knows what evil? (G-d saved more animals than people on the ark...www.siameserescue.org.)
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To: RKBA Democrat

Hmmm...John McCain, U-Arizona. I like it.


16 posted on 01/15/2014 4:49:31 PM PST by who knows what evil? (G-d saved more animals than people on the ark...www.siameserescue.org.)
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To: RKBA Democrat; KC_Lion

“Uniparty” just rolls off the tongue


17 posted on 01/15/2014 4:50:29 PM PST by GeronL (Extra Large Cheesy Over-Stuffed Hobbit)
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To: Noumenon

The solution: rope and change.
******************************************************
Rope and chains


18 posted on 01/15/2014 4:56:04 PM PST by Joshua (Jimmy is the reason for this)
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To: House Atreides
Our mission needs to be to proceed with moving forward to FIRMLY take the reins of the Republican Party and remake it into THE true American conservative party.

It might be better to leave the label "Republican" than to rebuild it — consider the sheer amount of betrayal and deceit the "party of all-talk and no-action" has engendered, consider the amount of "roll-over and do nothing" they've done in the past 5 years (Fast and Furious, Benghazi, eligibility issues, ObamaCare legitimacy, and so on).

Do you really think that it is even possible to remake that into something that people can trust?

19 posted on 01/15/2014 5:18:56 PM PST by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: RKBA Democrat

So how much less money under taxes and fees is the government going to spend this time, and how much money is going to be saved for the tax payers? ...LoL.


20 posted on 01/15/2014 5:25:39 PM PST by Red Steel
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