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The GOP Congress Better Get Its Act Together, Or It’s Sunk Share Tweet
Townhall.com
Kurt Schlichter
June 12, 2017

“Everything’s fine,” smiled Captain Paul Ryan smarmily as he steered the Titanic into an iceberg. “Now, let me get back to shafting our own voting base via my incomprehensible determination to cancel the tax deductions that Republicans use instead of cutting handouts to Democrat-voting freeloaders!”

We are sailing toward disaster in 2018 and no one seems to want to acknowledge it. Let’s look at the facts and evidence.

Data Point One: We scraped by in a couple of House special elections so far, including Punchy McSlugahack’s in Montana, but that Daily Kos reader-funded-12-year old non-resident Democrat dork is going to beat the charisma-free Republican in the Georgia 6 race next week. Our enemy is motivated and smells blood.

Data Point Two: Because she is a droning non-performer, Theresa May took a 24 point advantage and turned it into a loss in Britain.

Data Point Three: Our GOP Republican legislators are droning non-performers who have a 10 point disadvantage going into 2018.

The bottom line is that despite the GOP’s advantages in incumbency, money, and (to a much smaller extent than the lying liberals say) redistricting, we have a very real chance of losing the House and maybe even the Senate in 2018. The Senate would be hard to lose based simply on number of seats in play, but we should have confidence in our party’s unique ability to screw-up and fail based on its unblemished track record of screwing up and failing.

Midterms traditionally go badly for the party holding the White House; it doesn’t help that Paul Ryan seems to be the Speaker of a House of Representatives on a different planet. He wanders about with this obnoxious, Comey-esque sanctimony vibe that demoralizes the base and ensures that we will stay home in large numbers while the pinkos turn out en masse. Mitch McConnell is a little better; he’s at least cunning and does what he can in a job that involves not just herding cats, but herding senile, narcissistic, and stupid cats.

“But stuff is getting done!” the GOP leadership insists, which might be true but is definitely irrelevant. It doesn’t matter if “stuff is getting done” if your voters don’t know it and support you. Now, when Paul Ryan talks directly to us on Hugh Hewitt's show or elsewhere, he actually makes sense. He explains his strategy, so we can sigh “Oh, there’s a reason for all this and a coherent plan. Phew.” But then Ryan says something unbelievably stupid along the lines of, “As Speaker, my job is to pass legislation, not to go out and sell our agenda to voters.” No, that’s a steaming pile of Harry Reid.

The Speaker has multiple jobs, but they all boil down to winning. The Speaker’s job is not simply to be some goofy legislative super wonk. He needs to lead, which means getting us onboard as well as his caucus. And that means making sure we voters know what’s happening, why, and how it helps us. Yet the GOP fails to do that.


Stop failing. Start doing what we sent you to do and letting us in on the plan. Let us see you are intent on winning and you’ll start to rebuild the confidence your incompetence has shattered.

Here’s a good idea for a first step – work as hard as we do. Let’s see some late-night sessions. Let’s see some five day work weeks – and even some working on weekends. We work weekends. I work weekends. I’m writing this on a weekend. Why not you?

And let’s see you cancel the August recess. Work. We keep hearing about how you “don’t have time” to do your jobs, but then you propose to vanish in August? Hey, how about staying around that sticky, sweaty swamp of a city through August and getting your job done? I’m going to be working in August. Everyone else I know is going to be working in August. You bums need to work during August too.

And no, you don’t need to “come home to touch base with your voters.” We don’t want to see you here. We want to see you back in D.C., enacting the agenda we elected you to enact instead of chillin’ out at your crib and attending town halls filled with paid leftist shills where you tell us that you don’t have time to do what you’re being paid to do.


You must get the President’s agenda passed, but, at the same time, you must keep us in the loop. See, we don’t trust you. You haven’t earned our trust. We know you hate the idea that we are going to hold you accountable for what you do and fail to do and you don’t like it. Too bad. Because now we’re watching, so you better communicate with us to explain what we see and why it’s not surrender or failure. As the hep kidz say, we’re woke.

The enemy is motivated and energized, but right now, we’re “Meh.” The only way we will become un-meh is via results, and results aren’t merely passing legislation. “Results” means “a tangible improvement in our lives.” Because the situation out here is getting worse. Our country faces the terrifyingly real chance of falling apart if you fail – during the few minutes a day when you are not busy enacting the President’s agenda you should be reading my new novel about what might happen to our country if you keep failing.


So stop wasting time and effort cavorting with the Democrats about their fake Trump/Russia obsession. Those crusty senators with their “We must uncover the truth about these questions” nonsense need to stop. We all know the truth. It’s all a liberal lie.

Cut our taxes, like the GOP promised.

Rebuild our military, like the GOP promised.

Fix infrastructure (wisely), like the GOP promised.

Build a wall, like the GOP promised.

Kill Obamacare, like the GOP promised.

Oh, and how about recruiting some decent GOP candidates? Karen Handel seems like a nice lady, but she's lousy at politics so she never should have gotten in the race. Her upcoming loss is going to motivate our enemies, and we can't have that. We don’t have the luxury of letting nice people who are crummy candidates be our nominees. We need winners, not losers.

Put that nomination down! Nominations are for closers.

The Democrats are out there recruiting military vets – there’s one jerky liberal everyone finds annoying in every big unit, and that’s who they pick. They’ll preen and pose and get elected and then salute General Pelosi and vote as ordered on every item of Democrat soldier-shafting liberal hackery. That’s the threat – are you ready for it? You need to spend some time and effort on candidate selection and grooming; you need to make sure that in every district our money is on a winner. Are you doing that? Who is doing that? Why do none of us know about how you are doing that?

What we have here is a failure to communicate, which leads to a failure to win.

And we need to stop jamming our own voters in the name of some arbitrary, D.C. think tank g-generated conception of good policy. Good policy is what wins. How about not imposing anything upon us that hurts the GOP base? You see, you're there to represent Republicans. Some goofs and wusscons have the idea that you're there to represent all voters, but that's nonsense.

You are there to represent the people who voted for you, not the liberal whiners and welfare cheats who didn't and who hate you and us. So we're not going to close off deductions that help Republicans and we're not going to increase taxes on Republicans and we're not gonna do other things that hurt Republicans. We're going to hurt Democrats.

That's called politics. Try it. It’s amazingly effective.

If you do, we win. If the economy is cranking in November 2018 and health insurance premiums are under control – and they will be if you keep your promises – then you’re fine. Otherwise, you’re gone. People here – like in Britain – will vote against you just because you are the status quo if they feel the status quo stinks. So stop the stinking.

Start by announcing that you are staying in session through your (undeserved) August vacation, then deliver on your promises. Nothing else matters. Stop procrastinating. Stop chasing Putin squirrels like suckers. Choose to win.

The iceberg is right ahead – don’t slam into it.

Link




Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.

When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson

"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
 
Posts: 48369 | Location: Texas hill country | Registered: July 04, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Woke up today..
Great day!
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Excellent read, thanks for posting! I couldn't agree more.
 
Posts: 1768 | Location: Chicagoland | Registered: December 10, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Newt Gingrich was one of the most effective Speakers I have ever seen. Tip Oneal a Democrat was better than Ryan.

At least Tip supported President Reagan and got things done.


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"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it."
Mark Twain
 
Posts: 12580 | Registered: January 17, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Knows too little
about too much
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Ryan needs to go away, fast! I am uncertain about McConnell, but he doesn't seem to be making much headway.

RMD




TL Davis: “The Second Amendment is special, not because it protects guns, but because its violation signals a government with the intention to oppress its people…”
Remember: After the first one, the rest are free.
 
Posts: 20303 | Location: L.A. - Lower Alabama | Registered: April 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by rduckwor:
Ryan needs to go away, fast! I am uncertain about McConnell, but he doesn't seem to be making much headway.

RMD


I worry more about McConnell...


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Posts: 8318 | Location: 18 miles long, 6 Miles at Sea | Registered: January 22, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Too old to run,
too mean to quit!
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Both ryan and mc-connell just need to go away. Maybe to Puerto Rico, and stay there.

Neither one of them are working for America.

ryan did nothing but carry water for obummer, and mc-connell is not far behind in that respect.

If the repubs actually cared about us serfs, and doing their damned jobs, they would have replaced both of those idiots long ago.

How about if the congress actually put in 5,or 6, day weeks, stayed in DC and did their damned jobs?!?!?!?!

Only those working for gubbermint can get away with that shit. Put them on a SIX DAY WORKWEEK!

And if they don't measure up throw them the hell out! Problem is that the incumbents control, through tons of special interest money, who actually gets into and wins the primaries.

WE NEED TERM LIMITS

What is more, we need campaign finance changes, lobbyists and any elected official or staff member who takes a dime from a lobbyist goes to jail along with the lobbyist who payed them.


Elk

There has never been an occasion where a people gave up their weapons in the interest of peace that didn't end in their massacre. (Louis L'Amour)

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical. "
-Thomas Jefferson

"America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." Alexis de Tocqueville

FBHO!!!



The Idaho Elk Hunter
 
Posts: 25640 | Location: Virginia | Registered: December 16, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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They must be hearing it from us... Why just yesterday I heard from my CongressCritter: A Message From Ann:
quote:
Despite what you have read in the newspapers and seen on the news, this has been the most productive Congress in modern United States history.

The productivity numbers don’t lie – last week House Majority Leader, Kevin McCarthy, talked about how successful this Congress has been so far, and what we are working on this week in Washington.




But it's mostly BS. They aren't doing the big important things.

quote:
... but we should have confidence in our party’s unique ability to screw-up and fail based on its unblemished track record of screwing up and failing.

They have been doing it for so long they think they should continue. They still act like they are in the minority and can always point at nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid as to why they can't enact the agenda we sent them there to enact.

quote:

Stop failing. Start doing what we sent you to do and letting us in on the plan. Let us see you are intent on winning and you’ll start to rebuild the confidence your incompetence has shattered.

Yep.
And yeah, work through August. We don't want to see you back here at home until you can report to us that you are doing what we sent you to do.

No more BS. We are watching.



"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible."
-- Justice Janice Rogers Brown

"The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth."
-rduckwor
 
Posts: 23945 | Location: St. Louis, MO | Registered: April 03, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
I believe in the
principle of
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Just to keep discussion going, what exactly would you bitter critics of Ryan and or McConnell do if you found yourself in their places?

They have 535 independently elected men and women of every political stripe imaginable to lead, cajole, persuade, terrorize, deal, oppose, each of whom has a program of their own to mesh, their own political calculations to contend with, and as we see in TV news interviews, and Youtube clips, some if them aren't the brightest bulbs on the tree.

So, let's have it. What would you do to accomplish the goals, execute the platforms, fulfill rhe campaign promises?




Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.

When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson

"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
 
Posts: 48369 | Location: Texas hill country | Registered: July 04, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Rule with an iron fist and publicly admonish, pressure and ridicule those who do not go along. Also, promise to hold campaign funding from those who do not toe the line and promise a primary opponent.

If able, I would try to use kindness and feigned friendship/good will, but I don't think it will do much or work at this point.

Seems to work for the other side.

Once the ball starts rolling and the electorate sees the positive outcomes, then back off and remind all of the success the pain brought.


The "Boz"
 
Posts: 1528 | Location: Central Ohio, USA | Registered: May 29, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Lawyers, Guns
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What would you do to accomplish the goals, execute the platforms, fulfill the campaign promises?


A straight vote on Obamacare repeal would come first. If any "replacement" reforms can be agreed to, they should come after repeal.

But it seems that many in the GOP don't want to get rid of big government, they just want the power to run it.

Next, a vote on the President's tax reform plan.
Those are the two big things that they should focus on.



"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible."
-- Justice Janice Rogers Brown

"The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth."
-rduckwor
 
Posts: 23945 | Location: St. Louis, MO | Registered: April 03, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
I believe in the
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The stated reason there is not a vote to repeal Obamacare is it cannot pass the Senate, can't get passed cloture. The House has had that vote a number of times, successfully.

Now what?




Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.

When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson

"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
 
Posts: 48369 | Location: Texas hill country | Registered: July 04, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by JALLEN: They have 535 independently elected men and women of every political stripe imaginable...


8 years of an obstructionist platform with a party that was only “united” against Obama does not lend itself to an effective governing body. The GOP had no plan on how to govern, they were prepared for another 4 years of obstruction of Hillary.

The GOP is a splintered party with Reagan Republicans, Bush Republicans, Cheney Republicans, Tea Party Republicans, and Alt-Right Republicans. And all of them are focused on reelection, not running the country.

Add to that, the fact that our “Republican” president is not showing (currently) that he has the power to bring the Party together and control it, he’s a bit tied up tweeting about the press.

To save this the GOP needs to stop attacking lost causes and start building on successes, abandon the Obama Care fight (for now) and immigration, pass a fucking budget, work on an infrastructure bill and tax reform, keep the economy moving along. And get Trump to stop talking about the Russian investigation, let it run its course, public will tire of it once he stops fueling the fire. Then, if done properly, go back to the “third rail” topics with momentum in a few years. But what do I know……
 
Posts: 2044 | Registered: September 19, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Lawyers, Guns
and Money
Picture of chellim1
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quote:
The stated reason there is not a vote to repeal Obamacare is it cannot pass the Senate, can't get passed cloture. The House has had that vote a number of times, successfully.

The House did have that vote a number of times, successfully, under Obama.... but it was all failure theater, knowing Obama would not sign it.

Now, they won't even take the vote. We now have seen through the BS of failure theater, and we don't like it.

The Senate (don't have 60 votes, can't get passed cloture) is just another excuse. If McConnell wants a repeal, he can get a repeal through the Senate. But he doesn't want repeal... he wants a "deal" that trims around the edges but leaves government in control.



"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible."
-- Justice Janice Rogers Brown

"The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth."
-rduckwor
 
Posts: 23945 | Location: St. Louis, MO | Registered: April 03, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Peace through
superior firepower
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How many times have we heard this stuff? How many times has some writer created some imaginary deadline based upon particular conditions and declared that if the Republicans don't do these things, they are "sunk, lost, defeated, whatever"?

It's difficult to take these articles seriously. Really, it is.

It just doesn't work that way


____________________________________________________

"I am your retribution." - Donald Trump, speech at CPAC, March 4, 2023
 
Posts: 107260 | Registered: January 20, 2000Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Invoke the nuclear option for the Senate. We survived a long time as a nation without the 60 vote threshold. Do away with it. The Dems will if they take the Senate in 2018.


The "Boz"
 
Posts: 1528 | Location: Central Ohio, USA | Registered: May 29, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Oh stewardess,
I speak jive.
Picture of 46and2
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They (Congress) don't even *want* the correct things, nor are they working toward them.

Their failures are deeply rooted in a lack for appropriate want, in a lack of worthwhile substance, and in a lack actually even trying to do what's best for America and Americans.

Until their personal philosophies, actual goals, and *then* efforts align with ours - they will continue to disappoint by just serving up more of the same giant nothing burger, all shrouded in excuse after excuse after distraction after investigation after uselessness.

If there's more than a dozen or so (out of 535) whose priorities are correct, I'd be floored.

Instead they coast along, playing Government Theatre, laughing at the rest of us.
 
Posts: 25613 | Registered: March 12, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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