Posted on 06/01/2014 5:32:19 AM PDT by cotton1706
At the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans this week, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson tried to distance himself from the Tea Party groups that helped elect him in 2010.
If Ron Johnson was running any faster from the Tea Party he'd leave skid marks.
Back in 2010, the Wisconsin senator was one of the Tea Party’s first candidates. His upset victory over incumbent Democrat Russ Feingold in that deep purple swing state was seen as proof that a new brand of conservatism was on the march.
But Johnson, a businessman and political novice when he was first elected, told reporters at a gathering of grassroots conservatives activists in New Orleans this week that it may be time for that march to slow down.
“I think the conservative movement may just be maturing a little bit. You can be very doctrinaire, you can demand purity, but in the end if you want to advance policy that you want enacted you have to win elections,” Johnson said when asked about a recent spate of Tea Party losses around the country.
The Wisconsin Republican blamed national and local Tea Party groups for holding the GOP hostage. “My guess is that the Tea Party groups have always been separate from the Tea Party movement.”
Johnson burst onto the national scene after given a number of fiery speeches at Tea Party rallies before he was even a candidate, and told a reporter that he “did kind of spring out of the Tea Party.”
At the Republican Leadership Conference however, Johnson downplayed his involvement with the movement, saying, “I gave a speech at a few Tea Parties. I never joined a group.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
Dude you are waaaaaaaaaay over your head with me debating the TP v the estabs. You just can’t touch the cred.
And I understand that compared to you, to me, to Mark Levin, Johnson is not conserative. But you, me, and Mark Levin do not vote in Wisconsin. Your head is the one that cannot process new info. And again, you have yet to answer my question. Why? Because you CANNOT.
paging J Random..Paging J Random!....please pick up your baby in the puddle of bathwater in the back 40...
The republican party can get conservative, or it can get destroyed.
It wasn't the end of the world when the Whigs got destroyed. It won't be the end of the world when the Republicans get destroyed.
/johnny
Not being addressed in this thread is the fact that Johnson had another alternative at the meeting: say nothing on the subject.
Why did he have a need to disparage Tea Party organizations in such general and insulting terms as “bombastic” and “conspiracies” while providing no specific examples of what he meant by those remarks.
He seems to be insulting one group of voters to curry favor with another group. W spent his second term doing just that and how did that work out for the GOP?
‘But it’s ok to flame friendly voters I suppose.”
This is what really counts
http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/192062911.html
Johnson is a friggin’ traitor.
Well, Ron Johnson as sure acclimated to the US Senate. You can't buy that arrogance, you earn it in the Club of 100.
Secondly, if you throw you policies under the bus in the campaign, you won't be enacting those policies either. So, what's the point of winning elections to enact Democrat policies.
Third, once again, you have these broad, vague charges with NO details. Which policies are doctrinaire and which are not? It's more like, what Ron Johnson supports is not doctrinaire, while what he opposes is doctrinaire. Really helpful Ron. Moron.
Yep, remember all the rhetoric about having to work within the GOP system to affect change, rather than forming a true National Conservative Party? Well this is where that strategy has led...not surprisingly.
TERM LIMITS are we EVER going to fight for term limits!!!
Make one think that this was all focus-tested and coordinated in a beltway conference room somewhere...
Exactly my point.
If we support a third party we essentially guarantee the Democrat’s nominee wins the general election. History demonstrates that this will happen.
As you say another Leftist Progressive President will consolidate Obama’s Leftist initiatives and the noble American Experiment will have failed.
Same stupidity every election.
(Lose election with RINO)
Sycophants Scream and holler/blame conservative ‘purists’
Vows to never again do that again make the rounds, but calls for Third parties are shouted down. We are told “Change from within”.
(Election draws near)
Begin making noises of moderation. Attack people for calling for third parties. Scream and holler about conservative purists sabotaging ‘the Party”.
(Election imminent)
Scream and holler that the time for third party talk by conservative purists was after the last election and now we must unite behing the liberal to WIN!
(Lose election with RINO)
Notice a pattern? The GOP Cheshires can scream and holler all they want but its the truth and history shows it. Ergo they are either stupid or Dem plants.
As in every movement, there is a tendency by some to try to out-conservative the others.
Absolute conservatism. Is there such a thing?
What would it look like? And how many people would support it?
“I value the membership of the Tea Party movement. I am right there with them ideologically, I mean, ‘Taxed Enough Already.’ But the groups don’t necessarily represent all of the individuals in the movement. I think the individuals are now realizing they may have been led astray by an individual group or two and they really do understand that they have to win elections,” he said, adding, “My guess is the Tea Party grassroots are maybe a little more flexible.”
That is a damning statement, if he actually said it, and I don't care if it's the Daily Beast or the Daily Caller reporting it.
I'm ok with that. I'm ok with seeing the republican party destroyed if they don't get conservative.
Well it is up to conservatives to make the Republican Party conservative.
Do you expect the establishment Republicans to do it?
The Republican Party is a republican organization. Conservatives have to join the party and elect conservative representatives. Those representatives have to move the national party in a conservative direction.
We conservatives need to get inside the party to change the party. Don’t complain that the Republican Party isn’t conservative enough to suit you if you are doing nothing to change the party.
Questions: Do you know your Republican Party precinct committeeman? Have you talked to him recently? If not, why not? Do you know your Republican Party Chairman?
That excuse won't fly. He ran as a TEA party candidate, and now he's running away from it. That's the definition of betrayal in my book.
But the thing is, Even people like me that are all about voting for principled conservatives would be perfectly happy if the GOP would ONLY support the GOP platform. Why is that so much to ask?
All us labeled purists are well and good with the traditional 80% and all the big issues. That should not be a high bar for anyone claiming to be a right winger considering we are right wingers because of our stance on the big issues.
And voting with today’s Democrats 1 in 5 times is FAR from ‘pure’.
Some on the right are as Orwellian as the Left. They want to rewrite history too. And rewrite ‘the book’...until only the words favorable to “The Party” can be spoken.
“Dare I say............
“THIRD PARTY??””
Naa...we take him out, in the Primary, in 2 years. I don’t want to give the Democrats unchecked power while we (i.e., Tea Party) try to organize to the level to take on both the Dems and the GOP Establishment.
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