With each election cycle that passes, the Republican Party leadership shows itself ever more worthless.
My involvement in politics has been, like most Americans, somewhat limited. I vote regularly, put out signs and stickers of candidates I support, and occasionally send donations in.
Now until the late 2000s I would send an occasional donation to the national Republican Party. I describe my political orientation as conservative, with some libertarian traits, which align with the GOP overall. Then things happened, and the GOP “leadership” showed its ugly side.
First, the when the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party elected a GOP majority of House of Representatives, it went downhill quickly. The drunk the caucus elected speaker, John Boehner, quickly squandered any attempt to stop the Democrats with one excuse after another. His pathetic pretext for capitulating without a fight, “We only control one-half of one-third of the government.” I wonder if this intoxicated RINO (Republican In Name Only) ever read Article One of the Constitution, where it empowers the House with control over the budget?
Boehner also went into then President Obama’s office and surrendered faster than the French army. All he wanted was to insure congressional staff would be subsidized with their Obamacare insurance. But he was not the last RINO to stab Americans in the back.
Boehner’s successor as speaker was Wisconsin representative Paul Ryan. A relatively young man with a reputation as a budget hawk, he was popular with the base and there were high hopes for his term. But Ryan would also soon disappoint the people who elected him. He surrendered faster than Boehner to Obama and the Democrats on the budget and Ryan soon moved on an “immigration reform” deal with the Democrats and RINOs. As usually, amnesty first, a promise of border security “in the future.”
GOP 2008 presidential nominee John McCain was a thorn in the side of the Republican Party in general, and the conservative base in particular, for generations. For an occupation where lying is a requirement, he was more blatant and unashamed then Obama or the Clintons. But while the Democrats held some of their contempt for the GOP base in check, McCain was openly vicious to the people whose support he needed to be elected. He called the Tea Party members “hobbits,” went back and forth on border security, and smiled as he voted against the Obamacare repeal in 2017 to prevent then President Trump for having a success.
The point of all this? Let’s skip the disastrous 2012 campaign of Mitt Romney, but his family is in enough. Again, an organization wanting and needing support (financial and otherwise) from its members should be concerned about how it presents itself. Showing complete contempt the base is no way to encourage voting, campaigning or donations.
So what comes out recently? Let’s just say the RINO leadership of the GOP is showing itself untrustworthy again.
Back in 2010, RNC Chair Michael Steele was heavily criticized and eventually lost his position because donors were angry about what they believed was luxurious spending on private jets, floral arrangements, chauffeur services, and member meetings in expensive tropical locales. Donors were used to frugality from the RNC under the George W. Bush administration, when “Karl Rove would bitch if there were flowers on the tables” and staff holiday parties were catered by Chick-fil-A.
Despite Joe Biden’s economy and three straight cycles of election losses, the RNC’s big-spending days are back with a vengeance.
Perhaps because of these losses both RNC donors and committee members are intensely interested in the committee’s finances, particularly the spending. Late last week, RedState was provided a report dated October 7, 2022 that examined RNC’s 2021-22 spending. It calculated more than $500,000 in private jet expenses, $64,000 at clothing retailers, and $321,000 in floral arrangements.
To determine how that compared with the rest of Ronna (Romney) McDaniel ’s tenure, RedState examined RNC expenditures from 2017 through 2022. In addition to a review of Federal Elections Commission (FEC) data, RedState spoke with current vendors, state party officials familiar with the workings, former staffers (some from McDaniel’s tenure, and some who worked for prior chairs), and several current RNC members to verify numbers and dates. Most were only willing to discuss the matters on background, and all were promised anonymity to avoid potential retaliation.
It is difficult to accurately categorize all of the expenditures because a significant number of transactions seem to be misclassified. For example, nearly $5,000 spent in 2022 at Lululemon, a luxury athletic apparel brand, was classified as “office expense,” as were two expenditures totaling $9,300 at Madison Square Garden in 2017.
Our review found that the amounts spent during the 2021-22 election cycle seem to have been par for the course and possibly even lower than previous portions of McDaniel’s tenure. According to FEC filings, since 2017, the RNC has spent:
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$3.1 million on private jet services
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$1.3 million on limousine/chauffeur services
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$17.1 million on donor mementos
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$750,000 on floral arrangements
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$80,000 in alcohol-related expenditures
You can read the rest of the disastrous report if you wish, it’s worse than you think. To clarify, Ronna (Romney) McDaniel is the niece of the 2012 Republican presidential nominee and current Utah senator Mitt Romney. The Swamp is more inbred than the Kims in North Korea.
It shows a very serious issue with the GOP upper staff. They would rather waste their money on things like this than actually support candidates that can win elections. After such a poor performance in an election that should have given them a sizeable majority in the House and likely slim majority in the Senate, they leadership seems to not be concerned. And that is very disturbing.
The modus operandi of the RINO leadership is to present candidates to the base who are only slightly less debauched then the Democratic nominee and say, “Our guy or the Dem, what do you want?” Sometimes it works (Senator Cornyn in Texas, Senator McConnell in Kentucky), but more often it doesn’t (McCain 2008, Romney 2012, JEB! 2016).
The GOP leadership is often content to let the Democrats win. In 2016, after all their candidates lost in the primary to Trump, many Republican leaders openly supported and voted for Hillary Clinton. Did I vote “for” Donald Trump in 2016, no. I voted “against” her. I recall the words of then incumbent Louisiana Governor Buddy Romer in 1991, when he came in third behind Democrat Edwin Edwards (Former governor and federal convict) and David Duke. Governor Romer walked to the microphone, “Walk into the voting booth, hold your nose, and vote for Edwin Edwards.” Yes, Mrs. Clinton was the Duke of 2016.
Another columnist on this page posted that the multiple speaker votes earlier this month was something that had to happen. I agree. But more than that, the GOP leadership needs to remember its voters sent them there for a reason, chief of which is to stop the Democrats and their destroying of America (not an exaggeration). If you just want to be part of them, please, just jump over to the Democrats.
Michael A. Thiac is a retired Army intelligence officer, with over 23 years experience, including serving in the Republic of Korea, Japan, and the Middle East. He is also a retired police patrol sergeant, with over 22 years’ service, and over ten year’s experience in field training of newly assigned officers. He has been published at The American Thinker, PoliceOne.com, and on his personal blog, A Cop’s Watch.
Opinions expressed are his alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of current or former employers
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Money is the main entrapment in DC. It helps the politician raise himself to Caesar like status. Planted on a pedestal. Those are the ones we never need in Congress, or the White House.
When money becomes the one vehicle he gains power through, evil enters the game. Just like the local city council uses that influence to hold back your fire, police and other needed part of government for the purpose of raising taxes, the same applies to the federal government, just on a much higher scale.
Without the trappings of office, I wonder how many Republicans, or Democrats would aspire to those positions. Some, but only to ensure that money enters through the back door.
Leaders are not the gods they make themselves out as. After all the other fixes needed to be done that are higher on the list of DC “To Dos”, we need to have our own fire sale of all the RINOs and their trappings, and then work on the other side’s total elimination.
As if that will ever happen.
Power and influence, but no checks and balances.