"Time for us to just keep our heads down and accept our defeat."

Kristina Cook writes,

"Ah, the battle is just going to be too hard. The British have this locked up - all those ships! And they've been controlling the culture for so long... There's no reason to fight - this battle was lost long ago. Time for us to just keep our heads down and accept our defeat."
~ Said no Founding Father ever

Don't do it, Ace!

Ace of Spades is depressed and upset about #NeverTrumpers still refusing to support Trump:

pressed. Apparently, some in this party really do think they're going to hand the election to Hillary, and, bizarrely, they think this will bully the rest of us into knuckling under to their agenda in 2020.

Rather than simply getting payback and tanking their candidate in return.

This party is on the verge of self-destructing. The upper class of the party is upset that the lower class has finally had its say, and they're determined that should never be permitted to happen again.

Why then would anyone of the lower class ever vote for the GOP again? Are they required to sign a piece of paper confirming that they are Lessers who should know their place in order to have the privilege of voting against their own interests?

I'm personally probably defecting to the Democrats after this. All my life I've been animated by one idea in politics. Not about guns, not about abortion, not even about national security. (Okay, that last one is important.)

But what caused me to join the GOP is the very palpable idea emanating from the liberals that there was a group of people empowered due to their position and education to Lead Us, and the rest of us had no say in the affairs of the country. They were to make decisions for us, and we were to follow.

This idea saw flower in the media itself, where a group of people who had no particular expertise in history or political philosophy, and who weren't even terribly intelligent, used the simple happenstance of having jobs giving them control over information as a justification to deceive and manipulate people into supporting their agenda.

I see that currently happening in the "conservative" media, where we have a hundred people who claim to be #NeverTrump and #NeverHillary but, strangely enough, never talk about the downsides of a Hillary presidency. Oh, they'll talk up how much of an authoritarian Trump is, but not Hillary's sense of entitlement, grievance, vengeance, and her own history of authoritarianism and lawlessness in covering up her crimes.

They talk all day about "Principles," but discard the most basic principles -- such as keeping a proven lawbreaker out of the White House, or just honestly admitting which candidate they're actually supporting to their readers -- as convenience may recommend.

In fact, right now they're howling about Ted Cruz' "calculations" in endorsing Trump, while not admitting their own pose of "Being Against Both Equally" is in fact a completely contrived lie they've calculated will permit them to agitate for their candidate (Hillary) while not compromising their career prospects within Conservatism, Inc. too much.

I understand his frustration, but I don't get his willingness to become a Democrat. If you don't like what they write, don't read them!

How about some grace in victory?

Stephen Green to Trump supporters: "Look in the mirror. You are the GOP Establishment now. This is your party now. Don't break it."

The world will never be the same again.

Michael Kennedy writes about Brexit at Chicago Boyz,

...the political left is hysterical at the idea that voters don’t want to be governed by remote elites.

...Who could imagine that people would not want a thousand bureaucrats in Brussels, or for that matter Washington DC, micromanaging their lives ? Well, I know someone.

Donald Trump is a happy guy today, and his timing seems to be excellent. Last week, when the “Remain” side was expected to win, he was told it was a serious mistake to go there.

Trump, on his first trip overseas since he embarked on his White House bid, faced criticism in the US for making what was essentially a business trip at a time when his campaign has been faltering, falling behind Clinton in the polls and in fundraising.

Yes, who can imagine a politician actually conducting business and creating real jobs ?

...There were two referendums on Thursday. The first was on membership of the EU. The second was on the British establishment. Leave won both, and the world will never be the same again.

...Can the GOP really be so out of touch with the legions of out-of-work Americans — many of whom don’t show up in the “official” unemployment rate because they’ve given up looking for work in the Obama economy? With the returning military vets frustrated with lawyer-driven, politically correct rules of engagement that have tied their hands in a fight against a mortal enemy? With those who, in the wake of the Paris and San Bernardino massacres by Muslims, reasonably fear an influx of culturally alien “refugees” and “migrants” from the Middle East?

Read more here.

"The choice is two reprehensible, corrupt, and immoral demagogues"

David Harsanyi writes in The Federalist,

...it was the constitutional idealism of the Tea Party that held back Democrats and establishment GOPers from working together to expand the reach of government. A turn to white identity politics and anger is a turn away from that idealism.

...when the choice is two reprehensible, corrupt, and immoral demagogues, you can always pick the ethical way out and say none of the above. The republic will survive an election cycle.

The Republican Party is a different story, however. For those who are idealists about the Constitution–and there are probably far fewer than some of us like to imagine–there are a number of reasons to sabotage The Party of Trump, even if it ends with a Hillary presidency. The first is salvaging some of your own dignity and principles. But there are other, long-term political advantages to beating back an authoritarian populist who peddles conspiracy theories and big-government schemes and doesn’t have a freshman-level comprehension about the basic workings of American governance.

Read more here.

This ends in tears no matter what. Get over it and pick a side.

Jonah Goldberg writes at Right Wing News,

Nominating Donald Trump will wreck the Republican Party as we know it. Not nominating Trump will wreck the Republican Party as we know it. The sooner everyone recognizes this fact, the better.

Denial has been Trump’s greatest ally. Republicans and commentators didn’t believe he would run. They didn’t believe he could be an attractive candidate to rational people, no matter how angry with “the establishment” voters said they were. They — which includes me — were wrong.

The denial lasted longer for some than others. Long after many observers had come to the realization that Trump was the front-runner, Jeb Bush’s super PAC, Right to Rise, believed Bush’s real rival was Marco Rubio. It spent $35 million trying to destroy Rubio before it dropped its first $25,000 attacking Trump.

Over the weekend, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus showed the first public signs of acceptance about what’s in store for the party. He finally acknowledged that the Republican nominee was probably going to be determined on the convention floor in Cleveland.

Trump is

right that if he’s denied the nomination, many — not all, but many — of his supporters will bolt from the convention and the party.

Left out of Trump’s unsubtle threat: Many anti-Trump Republicans will desert the convention and the party if he’s not denied the nomination.

...This ends in tears no matter what. Get over it and pick a side.

The battle for the soul of the GOP is now a battle for the soul of the right.

Rich Lowry writes in Politico,

The battle for the soul of the GOP is now a battle for the soul of the right.

The irony of Cruz’s position now is that, despite all his outsider branding, he is not getting savaged by the establishment. Sure, fellow senators are looking for ways to shiv him and Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad wants him to lose, but they aren’t his biggest worry.

It is Trump who calls him a hypocrite and a liar. It is Trump who is hitting him on his belated disclosure of a Goldman Sachs loan. It is Trump who says he’s a nasty guy and maniac with a temperament problem. And it is Trump, of course, who constantly raises doubts about his eligibility to serve as president.

If you guessed a key event in the nomination fight would be the “othering” of the most potent tea party conservative in the country by a billionaire businessman with a long trail of liberal positions and a history of praising President Barack Obama—well, then, you forecast the GOP race perfectly.

In short, Cruz is getting savaged by a segment of the anti-establishment, although Cruz takes every opportunity to portray himself as the victim of the machinations of dastardly political insiders. The reality is that the establishment is sitting on its hands, agonizing over whom it loathes least, Trump or Cruz, while the fight between populism and conservatism rages.

Read more here.

First we’re taking back the Republican Party, then we’re taking back the whole country.

Kurt Schlicter is tired of paying the price for elitists to feel smug. He writes at Town Hall,

Attention flyover people down there below the elite’s private jets – time (for you) to make some sacrifices for Mother Earth! So what if the actual climate data refuses to cooperate with the climate change theory? So what if the elite predicted an ice age back in the 1970s? The solution to the problem of non-existent global warming is the same as the solution to phantom ice ages – give the elite more money and power.

In fact, there is no “problem” that can’t be solved by us giving the elite more of our money and more of our power.

Sure, some of us don’t live in coastal cities and we need SUVs for our families (we still breed out in here in America, you know), and some of us have jobs where we need gas-guzzling trucks. But the elite’s fetish for eradicating the scourge of the fossil fuels that made modern society possible trumps our petty livelihoods. Another couple bucks a gallon, another couple hundred a month for heat? Shoot, the elites can afford that, and the fact that the normals can’t shouldn’t keep their betters from enjoying the moral ecstasy that comes from imposing deep sacrifices on other people!

Of course, we are always those other people.

When elitists talk about how terrible the cops are, guess who gets mugged or worse when the crime rate goes up? Surprise! It’s never the coastal elitists and moral posers who love hamstringing the cops.

And when they talk about “gun crime,” how come the solutions always seem to involve making it harder for normal people to protect themselves and their families? How come these “common sense gun controls” never seem to target actual criminals? Hmmm, it’s almost like they would rather have us vulnerable and docile instead of able to protect ourselves from thugs…and tyrants.

Is it a secret where the vast majority of gun crime happens and who commits it? Here’s a hint: Democrat big cities and their residents. How about doubling up the cops in the ghettos, arresting the crooks everyone knows are crooks, and supporting the cops when they do it? Just kidding! There are no poser points to score by cracking down on real criminals; the moral superiority money shot comes from pressing that Manolo Blahnik high heel down on us normals and grinding away.

Resentful of Democrat-voting losers and bums who don’t feel like working but who expect you to toil to pay them off? Selfish!

Think that just because one of us would go to prison for, say, mishandling hundreds of classified documents, then a member of the elite should too? Sexist!

Upset that some skeevy weirdo pretending to be a girl is going to crash your daughter’s high school locker room for a bit of live entertainment? Transphobic!

Yeah, if you’re a normal American, you’re pretty much the root of all evil. You’re the worst of the worst. You suck.

Welcome to Political Three Card Monte. Whatever the issue, you lose.

But now we’ve done asking the elite for help. Now we’re telling the establishment how it’s going to be. Put just Trump, Cruz and Carson together and the insurgents own way over 50% of the GOP electorate. They can try to beat us down, but we’re finished thanking them and asking if we may have another. First we’re taking back the Republican Party, then we’re taking back the whole country. And then that feeling you elitists will be feeling won’t be smugness anymore. It’ll be fear.

The dumbest political party on the planet

Mark Steyn notes,

...these days the GOP can't even schedule an insipid forgettable SOTU response without insulting the overwhelming majority of its actual voters.

Last week Brent Bozell wrote:

In Politico Tuesday, Republican elites warned that if Donald Trump or Ted Cruz become the nominee it would ruin the Republican brand.

How's that for party unity and loyalty?

More to the point: What brand?

The GOP brand is already ruined. And they ruined it.

Trump is a monster of the GOP elite's creation. And their solution to it is to use what's meant to be a rebuttal to the President as a rebuttal to their own leading candidates and the two-thirds of their voters who support them. Truly this is the dumbest political party on the planet.

Is the GOP the Party of Democrat Lite?

Former Congressman Tom Tancredo, whom you may remember was a GOP candidate for president in 2008, has written a piece in Breitbart, announcing that he is quitting the Republican Party.

In a panel discussion at the University of Colorado after the recent Republican debate, I was asked by a student why she should be a Republican. The question forced me to ask myself the same thing.

I gave the young woman the standard talking points–that Republicans believe in smaller government, individual rights, fiscal responsibility, and free enterprise. But as I drove home, her question–and my inability to respond with any level of real conviction–got me thinking: Does the Republican Party leadership fight for these values and principles today?

After much thought, I reluctantly concluded that the answer is “no.” The proudly socialist Democrats are full of passionate intensity, while the Republican leadership is full of pathetic excuses. After this week’s House GOP “budget deal,” which betrays nearly every promise made to grassroots conservatives since 2010, I have decided it is time to end my affiliation with the Republican Party.

This decision has been incubating over the past 17 years, years of watching the downward spiral of the Party of Lincoln and Reagan into the Party of Democrat Lite.

...What I will do instead is join the largest political group in the nation, unaffiliated Independents. In Colorado, they outnumber both “major” political parties.

The next day I will begin working my tail off for the next twelve months to organize Independents to help elect Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) as President of the United States. Cruz is the only candidate who both understands the left’s agenda and has demonstrated the courage to fight for our liberties, our sovereignty, and the survival of constitutional government.

Read more here.

RNC pulls out of NBC debate

Ben Kamisar and Jonathan Easley report at The Hill,

The Republican National Committee on Friday pulled out of a planned Feb. 26 debate with NBC News amidst a revolt by candidates after Wednesday’s CNBC debate.

"While debates are meant to include tough questions and contrast candidates’ visions and policies for the future of America, CNBC’s moderators engaged in a series of 'gotcha' questions, petty and mean-spirited in tone, and designed to embarrass our candidates," RNC Chairman Reince Priebus wrote in a letter to NBC News

Chairman Andrew Lack.

Since CNBC is an NBC Universal property, "We are suspending the partnership with NBC News” for its Feb. 26 debate.

Read more here.

The GOP over-promised and under-delivered; so did the Democrats!

Ed Morrisey writes at Fiscal Times,

Forget experience, policies, and ideology in the 2016 presidential primary fights, in both parties. Voters have less concern over those traditional priorities for candidates in exchange for another quality altogether – authenticity. While pundits bemoan the rise of political novices and demagogues who have enough of that currency to prosper, that shift comes from a rational reaction to American politics over the last generation, and both Democrats and Republicans alike share the blame for the shift.

In 2010 and again in 2014, Republicans won back control of Capitol Hill by promising not just to stop Barack Obama’s agenda but reversing it, even though simple majority control in Congress isn’t sufficient to do so while Obama remains president. The GOP overpromised and under delivered--a classic set-up for discouragement and backlash.

Democrats have not performed much better with their own base. Obama and the party’s leadership have sounded the usual progressive-populist alarms about Wall Street and supersized banks and corporations, but have done nothing to address those issues. The Obama administration has never prosecuted any corporate leaders over the financial collapse that led to the Great Recession, a point made by Ben Bernanke this past week, despite their fanning of Occupy Wall Street’s rhetorical flames.

...Now with the e-mail scandal moving into a full-scale FBI probe, Clinton’s authenticity crisis has reached its nadir. Only a third of voters in three key swing states (Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania) believe Hillary to be honest and trustworthy, while two-thirds put their trust in Joe Biden. This may seem ironic, given that Biden’s first presidential bid collapsed due to his plagiarism, but it points to the weakness of Clinton’s position.

...Authenticity means more than just a personal connection – it means delivering on those promises, a lesson both parties are learning the hard way in 2015.

Read more here.

Wisconsin poll bodes ill for GOP

Hot Air links to a poll taken recently in Wisconsin showing that Hillary Clinton is winning over any and all GOP candidates there. Governor Walker is slipping since the last poll, which was conducted in April. A sizeable majority of Wisconsin voters disapprove of the job he is doing as governor. Read more here.

Securing borders

George Will writes in the Washington Post,

political party has a right to (in language Trump likes) secure its borders. Indeed, a party has a duty to exclude interlopers, including cynical opportunists deranged by egotism. This is why closed primaries, although not obligatory, are defensible: Let party members make the choices that define the party and dispense its most precious possession, a presidential nomination. So, the Republican National Committee should immediately stipulate that subsequent Republican debates will be open to any and all — but only — candidates who pledge to support the party’s nominee.

At the end of this piece, the editors of the Washington Post write this sentence:

Disclosure: This columnist’s wife, Mari Will, works for Scott Walker.

When will someone offer specifics on economics?

I listened to parts of the Larry Kudlow show tonight on the radio. Although he said Donald Trump had always been nice to him, he was very critical of Trump on economics. He is afraid Trump's policies will be protectionism, trade war, and tariffs, because of Trump's comments about China and Mexico. Kudlow was positive about the fact that Bush, Rubio, and Kasich at least talked about growth, but where are the specifics? He mentioned Ronald Reagan and JFK as two presidents who were outstanding on economics.

Are Jeb Bush and Scott Walker sitting on their non-leads?

That is what Mark Steyn thinks.

On Thursday, a lackluster Jeb Bush and Scott Walker, the Number 2 and 3, seemed to see themselves as the real frontrunners, playing it safe. I don't think that was a smart move, as I said to Sean (Hannity):

"Donald Trump — you would have to drive a stake through him. So simply because no one did drive a stake through him, he survived, and therefore, he won. So he's still in the game and he's still locking down whatever it is, 25 percent, 32 percent I think it is in South Carolina now. So he's the guy to beat. I thought most of the others did well within their own terms, although they're actually quite narrow terms. And the disappointment, I think, was with the number two and number three because I think Jeb Bush and Scott Walker, in a sense, were both sitting on their non-leads. They both of them, I think, took a sort of conscious decision to kind of do a low-key don't-frighten-the-horses thing and hope that when Trump implodes, that they're still in the number two or number three slot and they're the ones who take over. And I don't think that'll work, frankly."

...Many electors agree with Trump - that America is dying before their eyes. If that's the case, why should fealty to a party that bears a large measure of responsibility for that decay take precedence over love of country?

...The reality is that the GOP establishment, after their appalling behavior in the Hastert years, were given a second chance by the base in 2010, and a third chance in 2014. Now they're demanding a fourth chance - and people go, well, say what you like but a Republican president will at least get to appoint rock-ribbed Supreme Court justices, like, er, John Roberts, who constitutionalized Obamacare, and, um, Anthony Kennedy, who gave us federally mandated gay marriage. Boehner, McConnell, Kennedy, Roberts... Not much to show for a party that's been supposedly dominant for 35 years, is it?

The GOP thinks the issue is Trump; much of the base thinks the issue is the GOP.

Read more here.

The feeling is mutual

Ace writes at Ace of Spades,

The simple problem is that that the base now hates the GOP, because, pretty clearly, the GOP hates the base.

Read more here.

Is Washington broken, or is the GOP broken?

Rand Paul says, "Washington is broken." Mark Steyn says,

That's true. If you're a liberal, Washington isn't in the least bit "broken": It's given you Obamacare, same-sex marriage, massive expansion of welfare... It's an effective vehicle for delivering to liberals the world they want to live in. So they vote Democrat, and Democrats use Washington to reward them. Conservatives vote Republican, and get what? Washington isn't "broken" so much as the GOP is broken.

Read more here.

Should Republicans continue to write off urban voters?

Jill Homan asserts in the New York Post that the GOP's

political future is bleak if it continues to write off urban areas as political losers.

...Indeed, current drama over Uber and the “sharing economy” perfectly illustrates the GOP’s opportunity.

Uber’s innovative business model has proved a challenge for Democrats, who are boxed in by powerful constituents like the taxi industry, as well as labor unions who have long had a bone to pick with businesses who use independent contractors.

Republicans like Jeb Bush have enthusiastically embraced the new “sharing economy,” while Hillary Clinton has been forced to offer caveat-filled statements of tepid support and even criticize the business model.

The stakes are high: Republicans control just four of the mayoral seats in the nation’s 25 largest cities and fewer than 20 percent of the city council seats.

These cities represent 35 million people, or roughly 11 percent of the population, and they’re a key component in Democrats’ strategy to flip red states to blue, and to swing “purple” states permanently to the left.

In urban centers like Raleigh, Cleveland, Milwaukee and Virginia Beach, an expanding Democratic base is making it more difficult for Republicans to offset their losses in the city with larger victories elsewhere in the state.

...And conservatives have more to offer cities than they might think. As longtime urban outsiders, Republicans have the advantage of being the reform candidates, standing up against one-party hegemony and a lack of accountability.

School-choice programs, for instance, have improved the fortunes of low-income students in New York City, Milwaukee and Washington, DC. Every parent, no matter their political ideology, wants the best education for their children.

Longtime residents of cities in working-class neighborhoods want safe streets, affordable housing and a city government that balances the concerns of Wall Street and Main Street.

Democrats offer simplistic, but ultimately harmful, mandates like “living wage” requirements.

As an alternative, Republicans should champion tax incentives that encourage businesses to relocate to struggling communities.

Georgia’s “opportunity zone” credit, for example, has allowed cities like Atlanta to provide a tax credit of $3,500 per job created for businesses that invest in blighted areas.

A “road map” for city success could include the elimination or reduction of occupational-licensing requirements that stifle entrepreneurship by forcing small, minority-owned businesses to meet costly training requirements just to open their doors.

Read more here.

Promises

Does the GOP base trust its leaders in Congress? Ace if Spades writes,

We no longer trust the GOP. Yes, Mr. Ryan, the GOP will have another chance to weigh in on the TPP in its final form But we don't trust you to do the right thing then, just as we don't trust you to do the right thing now.

The GOP lies to us at every turn. They claim they're going to stop Obamacare, then they begin drawing up plans to affirmatively save the plan with subsidies should the Supreme Court strike it down.

They claim they will fight Obama like hungry dogs on immigration, then they approve it.

They claim they're against Obama's Iran deal-- then they pass a mechanism which allows the Iran deal to pass with just one third of the Senate, so that GOP Senators can vote "against" the bill while ultimately losing the vote -- thus being able to claim to their constituents "Well we tried, but goshdarnit, the other side just outvoted us with its one-third majority."

The GOP continues attempting to trick its base -- which it believes is, as the Washington Post said so long ago, is "poor, uneducated, and easily led'' -- with Failure Theater.

We don't trust you assholes. Period.

The GOP Establishment made two promises on immigration, one to the Donor Class, and one to the gullible unfortunates it tricked into voting for them.

To the Donor Class, it promised they would leave Obama's amnesty undisturbed.

To the poor, uneducated, and easily led dupes of the voting base, they promised they'd fight the amnesty with all they had.

They told the truth to the Donor Class. They lied to us.

The GOP Establishment promised the Donor Class it would make no waves on Obamacare. The GOP Establishment promised its stupid, backwards, dirt-poor racist base that it would destroy Obamacare, once and for all.

They told the truth to the Donor Class. They lied to everyone else.

Now you've come to market again with, get this, a promise you've made to the Donor Class, and, get this, a promise you've made to everyone else.

Gee, I wonder who you've told the truth to this time?