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Republican Establishment Declares War on GOP Voters [Scott Rasmussen]
Rasmussen Reports ^ | Friday, January 11, 2013 | Scott Rasmussen

Posted on 01/13/2013 7:33:08 AM PST by EternalVigilance

Official Washington hailed the deal to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff as a significant bipartisan accomplishment. However, voters around the country viewed the deal in very partisan terms: Seven out of 10 Democrats approved of it, while seven...of 10 Republicans disapproved.

Just a few days after reaching that agreement, an inside-the-Beltway publication reported another area of bipartisan agreement...while Washington Democrats have always viewed GOP voters as a problem, Washington Republicans "in many a post-election soul-searching session" have come to agree. More precisely, the article said the party's Election 2012 failures have "brought forth one principal conclusion from establishment Republicans: They have a primary problem."

As seen from the halls of power, the problem is that Republican voters think it's OK to replace incumbent senators and congressman who don't represent the views of their constituents. In 2012, for example, Republican voters in Indiana dumped longtime Sen. Richard Lugar in a primary battle.

This infuriated establishment Republicans for two reasons. First, because they liked Lugar and the way he worked. Second, because the replacement candidate was flawed and allowed Democrats to win what should have been a safe Republican seat.

So, according to Politico, the Washington team is gearing up a new effort to protect incumbents and limit the ability of Republican voters to successfully challenge establishment candidates.

That makes sense to those whose sole goal is winning a majority in Congress rather than changing the course of government policy. Seen from the outside, though, it sounds like the professional politicians are saying that the only way to win is to pick more candidates like the insiders. Hearing that message, the reaction of many Republican and conservative voters is, "Why bother?"

That's why more than two-thirds of Republican voters believe GOP officials in Washington have lost touch with the party's base.

(Excerpt) Read more at rasmussenreports.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 113th; 2013polls; congress; gop; gope; primaries
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To: Morris70

We have to work within the system and change it.... Starting with the state committee positions, that is the way to get this done.

If we split, we’ll watch the rest of our lives while these cretins lose election after election and blame us for the trouble.

Time to get to work.


61 posted on 01/13/2013 8:47:39 AM PST by WomBom ("I read Free Republic for the pictures")
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To: Diogenesis

Diogenesis you have a point....Rove is past his time, Romney should be our Treasurer and Boehner ain’t bound by his principals even a tiny bit.


62 posted on 01/13/2013 8:49:11 AM PST by yoe
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To: EternalVigilance

Joan of Arc was burned at the stake by an establishment, and today’s eqaivalent (as I see it) is Sarah Palin ... a most-definite target for establishment Republicans.


63 posted on 01/13/2013 8:55:45 AM PST by OldNavyVet
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To: mrsmith

The GOP is dead. All that we’re waiting for is for rigor mortis to kick in. Its death throes began shortly after Boehner’s Tea Party Congressional leadership purge last December and it officially died with Weepy’s re-election and the grand “fiscal cliff” victory for Obama. This article just confirms everyone’s suspicion.

Sorry, but the GOP apologia’s a little bit stale these days.


64 posted on 01/13/2013 9:00:58 AM PST by COBOL2Java (kak-is-toc-ra-cy: Government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens. See: GOP-e)
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To: mrsmith
Yeah: WE’RE WINNING!

1. Who is winning what?
2. On what do you base your opinion, if you are referring to conservatives on FR as winning takeover of the GOP?
3. Why are you calling FReepers stupid?
65 posted on 01/13/2013 9:01:44 AM PST by Resettozero
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To: OldPossum
That does it...I’m registering as an Independent. Screw the GOP. I gave up on the GOP a couple months ago. I plan to vote for candidates of the American Conservative Party and anyone else who represents my viewpoints. I know that the GOP doesn't.

But that is what they want. In most states you cannot vote in the primary unless you are registered R. That is what is bothering them, we are throwing all the good ol boys out in the R primary. The conservative/teaparty are very, very good at local politics we have upset them very much, we need to continue until they are all purged, lets push back not run and hide in another party.

Please think local, your state and your precinct that is how we remake the party and piss off everybody, the D's, the R's, and the press!

We have some awesome candidates after trying this for only 4 years. Lee in Utah, Rubio, Jordan, Cruz, Rand Paul there are many more and perhaps none of them would be in the Senate and congress if it wasn't for conservative's fighting hard, IN THE PRIMARYS, for every one of them.

66 posted on 01/13/2013 9:03:00 AM PST by thirst4truth (www.Believer.com)
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To: Always A Marine
There is no difference between Republican and Democrat.

They are two factions, a collection evil degenerate baby killing communists on one side and elitist blue blood country clubbers crony capitalists on the other, who only have elections to decide who gets to divide up and spend the money extorted from the working man by the IRS.

There will never be any Solutions coming from Washington DC because Washington DC is the Problem.

The only thing that will come from DC is more taxes and less freedom.

The political class doesn't give a rats ass about anything other than staying in power by any means necessary and serving 5 years to get a federal Congressional pension for life.

There is never a recession in DC, they skim off the the money they steal from workers paychecks every week and figure out new and ever more outlandish ways to waste it.

Every day they hire hundreds of new bureaucrats for life terms starting at salaries of $90-135K to sit around and figure out ways to steal more of our cash.

Their propaganda wing in the press reports none of this.

There is no greater threat to the Prosperity, Security and Freedom of the American citizen than the federal apparatus in DC.

The apparatus cannot be reformed, only destroyed.

The Federal capital must be rotated amongst the states, and allowed to convene for no more than 21 days in any given year.

We are slaves to the Washingtonians, it's time to recognize the enemy within and come up with creative ways to defeat them.

67 posted on 01/13/2013 9:05:42 AM PST by Rome2000 (THE WASHINGTONIANS AND UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE ARE THE ENEMY -ROTATE THE CAPITAL AMONGST THE STATES)
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To: COBOL2Java

The GOP-E reeks of weakness so run away from them!
Thanks for the advice. It’s completely opposite to everything I’ve seen in my life.

(Oh, and an apologia is what those who run away produce.)


68 posted on 01/13/2013 9:06:46 AM PST by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat Party!)
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To: mrsmith
(Oh, and an apologia is what those who run away produce.)

Apologia

Not quite.

69 posted on 01/13/2013 9:12:34 AM PST by COBOL2Java (kak-is-toc-ra-cy: Government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens. See: GOP-e)
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To: Resettozero

Conservatives increased their representation in both the Senate and the House GOP caucusi. That increased our power in the Party (apparently, being a POLITICO fan, you don’t know this).

I’m calling everyone who doesn’t want to continue increasing it because the weak RINOs will fight back an idiot and a coward .

You got a problem with that?


70 posted on 01/13/2013 9:12:34 AM PST by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat Party!)
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To: GlockThe Vote

...and Mitt Romney, John McCain, Bob Dole, GHWB, GRF, RMN, DDE, Thomas Dewey, Alf Landon, Herbert Hoover, WHT, and TR. They were all Progressives.

It is foolish to think that Reagan (or Goldwater, or Coolidge, or Harding) represented the Republican Party. The establishment hated them.


71 posted on 01/13/2013 9:13:50 AM PST by rashley (Rashley)
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To: Salvey

Presidential primaries are everywhere, and there are some good conservative areas in NJ


72 posted on 01/13/2013 9:17:26 AM PST by McGavin999
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To: rashley

I said killed off. Those others you listed added to the demise, but W was truly the straw that broke the camels back.


73 posted on 01/13/2013 9:17:26 AM PST by GlockThe Vote (The Obama Adminstration: 2nd wave of attacks on America after 9/11)
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To: COBOL2Java

Good debate point, but please, someone, explain why we should run from such a weak opponent.
Out of sympathy?


74 posted on 01/13/2013 9:18:04 AM PST by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat Party!)
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To: GlockThe Vote

I agree with you. It disgusts me to think that he is viewed as a Conservative. (Granted, I come from a Libertarian perspective.)


75 posted on 01/13/2013 9:21:13 AM PST by rashley (Rashley)
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To: mrsmith

"No, no! Take that tag off! The GOP's fine, I tell ya! It's not dead, it's just MOSTLY DEAD!"


76 posted on 01/13/2013 9:22:08 AM PST by COBOL2Java (kak-is-toc-ra-cy: Government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens. See: GOP-e)
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To: mrsmith
That increased our power in the Party (apparently, being a POLITICO fan, you don’t know this).

1. An uncivil response to my sincere question.
2. Not a Politico fan; how on earth did you get that idea?
3. You've been a FReeper since 1998, eh? Honest?
77 posted on 01/13/2013 9:22:26 AM PST by Resettozero
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To: mrsmith

“There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.”

— John Adams, Letter to Jonathan Jackson (2 October 1780), “The Works of John Adams”, vol 9, p.511


78 posted on 01/13/2013 9:26:57 AM PST by EternalVigilance (The New Deal was a Bad Deal. So Bad, in fact, that it is costing you your Liberty and your Country.)
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To: EternalVigilance

Think like a Globalist Marxist bent on destroying the foundations of the one country with a history and a people that prevent your schemes. Then it’s easy to see where these pieces fit into the puzzle, fit into the long-range plan for the global domination of a Brave New World Order.

Teach your anarchists Cloward and Piven. Infiltrate the media and academia to promote a subversive agenda that undermines the country’s conservative heritage. Give the voters two parties to promote the illusion that a conservative can put a conservative into office. Destroy the economy by fiat and legislation and propaganda. Divide and conquer the races and the classes and the generations and the sexes. Institutionalize corruption. Destroy or subvert the checks and balances. Silence and disarm the people.

Understanding this, it is clear the GOP has been co-opted, and plays its role now in this plan. They are not our friends. They do not want what we want. They will join the rest in destroying us if they can.


79 posted on 01/13/2013 9:28:36 AM PST by dagogo redux (A whiff of primitive spirits in the air, harbingers of an impending descent into the feral.)
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To: mrsmith
Good debate point, but please, someone, explain why we should run from such a weak opponent.

Because the "opponent" has fully crossed over to the enemy's side, and now we are fighting not only the GOP, but their ally, the DemocRATs. There no longer is such a thing as a two-party system - it is a political illusion. As things stand now, you support either, you support both.

Sorry that's too complicated for you to understand.

80 posted on 01/13/2013 9:29:13 AM PST by COBOL2Java (kak-is-toc-ra-cy: Government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens. See: GOP-e)
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