Don Surber
Why be a Republican?
To get me to vote Republican, tell me what they stand for
NOV 17, 2023
David Harsanyi wrote a column, “The Populist Right Is Leading The GOP Into Irrelevancy.”
By populist right, he means Trump supporters who in his eyes are the whole basket of deplorables.
He wrote, “Since the GOP’s populist turn in 2016, the party has steadily lost ground in the suburbs and among independents. They have not had a single positive election cycle since. And the electoral failures of 2023 are just another instance of the mythological populist realignment undermining their prospects.”
His argument is that everything should have gone the Republican way but they did not. He does not blame a party leadership that hates Trump supporters and did everything it could to sabotage Trump candidates. Instead he blames Republican voters who want jobs (or as they mockingly say on South Park, jerbs because those working-class losers cannot even pronounce the word, right?).
Harsanyi wrote, “Other than some platitudes about Bidenomics, what was the GOP’s economic message? They don’t have one. The right’s misplaced obsession with ‘working class’ voters has led to a watered-down, leftist approach to the economy that creates a muddled, incoherent rhetorical mess on an issue Republicans should be dominating.
“In most places, the working class is shrinking, and the middle class keeps growing. People are moving out of the Rust Belt to Nevada and Florida, and yet a big chunk of the GOP is reluctant to press on tax cuts and deregulation for fear of sounding too much like Reagan — the worst sin one can apparently commit these days.”
I don’t know why he believes Republicans hate Reagan, but then I don’t talk to the Republicans he talks to. He still has a problem with Trump’s surprising defeat of Hillary, blaming Republican woes today on the only Republican victory in the last four presidential elections.
But then again, I do not understand the Republican Party’s sneering at hardhats, factory workers and other hourly wage earners.
Harsanyi wrote, “the new right took all the wrong lessons from 2016. Trump’s greatest victories were completely in line with post-1980s Reagan conservatism — a tax cut, deregulation, constitutionalist judges, and tougher stances on crime and lawlessness. But when Trump won Michigan and Pennsylvania in 2016, right-wing institutions convinced themselves that populist messaging was the future. In the meantime, those states are gone, and the GOP is going to end up losing Arizona and Georgia and others, as well.”
Oh, we got the lesson all right. The things he praised were the things a Republican Congress allowed Trump — a tax cut, deregulation and constitutionalist judges.
What Republicans did not give Trump was what Trump supporters wanted most: a wall. While Harsanyi bitched about immigration, he ignored the failure of Republicans to build a wall to stop this invasion by Criminals, Terrorists, And Future Democrat Voters.
The reason Harsanyi’s Congress denied Trump the wall was they wanted him to fail. They wanted him to be a one-term president because he became the refrigerator light that exposed the cockroaches in deepest darkest crevices of DC. They won. They got their wish. Liz Cheney spiked the ball with that January 6 witch hunt. Wyoming took care of her.
As I read the column, I wondered why I would support a party that detests me, that thinks I am deplorable, and that sabotaged the president I helped elect.
What do these Bozo Benedict Arnolds stand for?
Tax cuts. OK. We cut taxes. But there were no accompanying spending cuts because the last thing Republicans want to do is offend Democrats. Now we have a $33 trillion national debt. Happy?
Republicans are as fiscally irresponsible as Democrats because I have yet to see one agency cut. I haven’t even seen one agency’s budget cut. The last federal agency that Republicans ended was the Freeman’s Bureau. The government keeps getting larger and my rights keep getting smaller.
Harsanyi mentioned constitutionalist judges. I am sure he is pleased with the reversal of Roe v. Wade, but the Republican Establishment blames their election problems on abortion. Even Trump is saying cool it on abortion. So the party is all for constitutionalist judges except when they do unpopular things. They have all the spine of a plate of spaghetti.
As for being strong on defense, we do have the most expensive military in the world. It is a bipartisan show of strength. We also have eleventy million invaders inside our borders. Allowing this is a bipartisan show of cowardice. B-21 stealth bombers are great at air shows but ineffective in defending our borders.
I am not advocating nuking Mexico or anyone. I am just pointing out that elaborate hardware doesn’t serve much purpose when you need jeeps and cattle cars to sweep up border jumpers for deportation. For the price of 10 B-21s, we could have built the wall already. But Northrop Grumman doesn’t build steel fences; it builds planes.
But go ahead and blame Trump supporters for the Republican Party’s refusal to defend the nation out of spite. The failure of Republicans (including Trump) to stop the kangaroo courts from persecuting J6 protesters is ugly and sinful.
Republicans in DC — weak men north of Richmond — laugh as Democrats prosecute Trump in an orgy of Orwellian justice.
Meanwhile, Democrats march on as they turn unpopular ideas into electoral gold. Over the years, Democrats have made the unacceptable acceptable: abortion, anti-Semitism, drug abuse, gambling, gay marriage, and on and on and on. Satan no longer has to hide behind his shades because Democrats run the country now — and Republicans blame Trump supporters.
While Democrats did all this, Republicans sat on their hands crying tax cuts. Democrats are the irresistible force while Republicans are the quite movable object.
But Republicans are Styrofoam when the nation needs granite. No wonder Republicans cringe in fear when they hear the words Make America Great Again — the battle cry of Trump AND Reagan.
We need a Republican Party that puts America first.
That means kicking illegal aliens out.
That means ending trade with Red China.
That means reducing the federal government and increasing our liberty.
That means balancing the budget and creating a surplus to pay down the national debt.
We do not have such a party. We have the Grandstanding Old Party.
Trump found that out as president. He learned in 2020 that Republicans in Washington do not care if Democrats steal elections. Republicans in Washington don’t care if the FBI tricks their voters and sends them to prison. Republicans in Washington don’t care if we waste trillions on wars, welfare and ruin.
But go ahead, Washington, blame your losses on me for objecting for the failure of Republicans to make a difference. They stand for nothing because nothing is what they are.
