Nov. 6 is the day conservatives go on strike
By Michael Shannon
Republican incumbents are getting nervous as Election Day approaches, and for good reason. The political party of the left, Democrats, has energized its base while the country club conservatives in the GOP have euthanized theirs.
Evidently the strategy is to rely on muscle memory to get conservatives to the polls, because the so-called accomplishments certainly won’t.
Confirming Supreme Court justices who are rumored to be conservatives isn’t a Senate accomplishment, it’s Trump’s accomplishment. Curator of the Senate Mitch McConnell had nothing to do with Trump’s victory. McConnell was one of those incumbent nose-holders who viewed Trump as something of an embarrassment when compared to DC’s refined caretaker conservatives.
Which is also McConnell’s attitude toward the conservative base.
Without Trump there are no justices for McConnell — head of Senate human resources — to rubber stamp. The other ‘accomplishment’ is the tax cut. Tax cuts are not why Trump was elected. All the GOP candidates claimed to back a tax cut.
Trump won because he pledged to stop illegal immigration and reform what passes for legal immigration.
Here’s the Republican Congress’ record on issues that matter to conservatives:
—No funding for the wall.
—No expedited deportation of illegals.
—No requirement for E-verify.
—No English as official language.
—No end to funding Planned Parenthood.
—No repeal of Obamacare.
—No cuts in federal spending.
Here’s what Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-Antifa) says about the GOP Congress, “If you would’ve told me this year that we’d be standing here celebrating the passage of an omnibus bill, with no poison pill riders, at higher [spending] levels … than even the president requested, I wouldn’t have believed it. Almost anything the Republican leadership in the Senate achieved this year, they achieved on Democratic terms. … Democrats had an amazingly good year.”
The housebroken conservatives’ record these past two years is so abysmal that even the very polite Christians at First Things magazine have noticed. Phillip Jeffery quotes from a series of interviews, “We’re tired of being treated like our issues are of secondary concern.” “If an issue ‘can’t be solved with a new tax rate,’ the establishment seems not to care.” “By her account, the electoral power of the pro-life movement does not match the level of attention it attracts from conservative leaders.”
That’s putting it mildly. And now comes a last gasp attempt to save their jobs that proves just how stupid the cocktail conservatives in Congress think we are. Paul RINO plans to introduce a bill that fully funds construction of the wall, contains Kate’s Law, and targets sanctuary cities.
The best part is they plan to vote on it after the midterm elections. Leadership says this makes the election a “referendum on immigration policy.” I call it a cynical ploy to save their candy behinds. These clowns have been in office almost two years. Only the specter of looming defeat motivates them to act on Trump’s number one agenda item.
If they were serious about illegals, the House would pass a hardline bill today and send it to the Senate.
McConnell would stop dusting the furniture long enough to bring the bill up for a vote. Then he brandishes his dust mop and forces Schumer to conduct a traditional filibuster if Chuckie wants to block passage. Voters would see the left is prepared to stop government to protect illegal alien criminals at the expense of taxpayers.
That would make the midterms a genuine referendum on immigration. Under the gutless, craven “leadership” we have in Congress now, this will never happen.
It’s high time the conservative base did something that will attract “attention … from conservative leaders.” And that means going on strike on Election Day. When you go to the polls, or vote absentee, vote for whatever wretch is on the Republican line for Senate. For the House, unless your representative is a member of the Freedom Caucus, cast a write in ballot for “On Strike.”
Nothing will change in Washington until we change the composition of the Republicans in Congress and put the fear of God into the barnacles that manage to hold on to their seats. Losing the House in the short run will be a victory in the long run.
In 2020 conservative voters can return and vote for new conservatives and chastened conservatives of convenience. We can take back the House and continue to control the Senate. But only in 2020. In 2018 Republicans don’t deserve your vote. They deserve your contempt.
Michael Shannon is a commentator and public relations consultant and the author of “A Conservative Christian’s Guidebook for Living in Secular Times.”
The viewpoints expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Independent.
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