Posted on 10/10/2022 11:51:22 AM PDT by cotton1706
Conservatives are turning against each other in part because they have won the battle for control of the Republican Party. The centrists are routed, and liberals in the mold of Jacob Javits, the four-term GOP senator from New York, are as extinct as the Federalists or the Whigs.
As late as 2006, Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), with a lifetime American Conservative Union rating of 35.95%, could win a Republican primary against a conservative challenger. He is now in at least his fourth partisan configuration since that election. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) beat his eventual successor, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), in a Republican primary in 2004 despite a 41.86% lifetime ACU rating. Specter died a Democrat.
Moderate Republicanism is now an almost entirely blue-state phenomenon, a safety valve for Democratic excess in places that otherwise would lack a meaningful two-party system. Its adherents can get elected governor or become Cabinet secretaries (in a Democratic administration as much as a Republican one), but their aspirations end there.
Even the surviving examples of this species have adapted to a changing habitat, with many of them resembling Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) without the post-Massachusetts fallback option of a Utah Senate seat, privately more conservative than they can ever admit to their constituents. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan wrote in Reagan for president in 2020, not Nelson Rockefeller.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is arguably the most conservative lawmaker to lead Republicans in that chamber since Robert Taft. He has been savaged by the populist Right as a "Republican in name only" sell-out from the Tea Party to MAGA. Libertarians view him with suspicion despite his burying the hatchet with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). And McConnell may be the last member of the dreaded GOP establishment with any real power left.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Ben’s definition of a “conservative” is one who is an assistant Democrat.
I remember that. Crazy.
11 Down … 6 To Go !!!
Down: Sasse, Burr, Toomey, Cheney, Kinzinger, Upton, Gonzales, Rice, Beutler, Katko, Meijer.
To Go: Merrcowski, Romney, Collins, Cassidy, Valadao, Newhouse.
We will really see in the next Presidential cycle. If Trump doesn’t win, you can bet the GOPe will try its best to rig the primaries to get their Jeb Bush/Romney-like candidate through. All with the usual “your guy can’t win” schtick.
He had a 90.96% lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union. I don’t much like the guy, but from what he can see, he pretty much did consistently vote for the conservative side.
I was surprised by this article, given that I was under the impression that the Washington Examiner is conservative and the author is its political editor. The content was meandering and the tone was flippant. The author thinks Ben Sasse is “conservative” because of his 90% ACU rating. Well, maybe they metric has outlived its usefulness. Good riddance to Sasse.
I don’t care much for Sasse-y type conservatism.
Here is the real problem, to the MSM and Fox a room containing 49 MAGA Senators and 1 GOPe Senator only has one Republican in it. This is why we have to have a zero tolerance policy towards RINOs. Even one is too many.
He was not MAGA. He had to go.
Stephen Miller, a tough talking conservative confidante of Trump should be leading the GOP . Romney’s niece has to go .
McConnell was instrumental in getting rid of trump because McConnell is a criminal like the rats and dirty like the rats
Sasse is a Dem who used RNC funds and name to win his election.
He is a copy of Ms. Cheney and together they should pay back the RNC money used to get elected
I prefer the ones who actually try to do something even if they fail.
I was a kid on Long Island with a family a little involved in politics. I knew Al D’Amato was a Republican but until reading this article, I thought Jake, the snake, Javitz was a democrat by the way people around me talked about him.
If this were true, McConnell would be supporting ALL Republicans who won their primaries. He only supports those whom he believes will be one of his toadies, and has to be shamed and dragged into supporting anyone else.
-PJ
May not be relevant, but my memory is that McCain had consistently high conservative ratings. He did it by consistently voting with you when you didn’t need him, and only voting against you when you needed him.
There are no true conservatives in the Senate, nor have there ever been any true conservatives in the Senate. The Senate strictly forbids conservatives from having any representation.......but hot damn, we might win back the Senate!
Hopefully, it won’t be the kind of “conservative” that roots for Putin and Russia.
That’s the only comfort. Truth be told, I hate Sasse polluting my beloved Alma Mater with his presence as much as they do.
Wow. He sure is conservative!
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