If Johnson and GOP leadership actually cared about providing a contrasting vision from that produced by Democrats, they’d put their majority to good use. This means spending the August recess holding daily congressional hearings that underscore the severity of the ongoing border invasion and making the case to the American public on why government funding should be withheld next month unless the Biden-Harris administration fixes the crisis.

But Republicans aren’t doing any of that.

When they’re not issuing performative outrage tweets about what Democrats are saying at the DNC, they’re rushing to the nearest Fox News camera to warn viewers about how dangerous the modern left has become.

“Vote Republican to save America!” says the House GOP that’s funded a myriad of Democrat priorities since winning the majority nearly two years ago. //

Even if they lose an election here or there, Democrats recognize that Republicans lack the willpower to overturn tyrannical policies implemented during their time in power, and that voters will put them in charge once the electoral pendulum swings back in their favor. They also have the added bonus of a hyper-politicized federal bureaucracy that advances leftist causes even when a Democrat isn’t in the White House.

What we’re seeing at the DNC this week is an open acknowledgment of this paradigm. Democrats realize they can expose the most unhinged elements of their worldview to the American populace, and vapid Republicans will produce no long-term consequences for it. Their willingness to play the long game has allowed them to push America further away from the constitutional framework created by the Founders into an increasingly unrecognizable dystopia.

There’s only one political force playing to win in America, and it sure as heck isn’t the Republican Party.

What’s more difficult to understand and accept is how all of this is the inevitable consequence of a liberal worldview that the GOP has already accepted, which means what we’re seeing this week at the DNC we will eventually see at the RNC.

I don’t just mean that the Trump campaign and the Republican Party have softened their opposition to abortion in the post-Dobbs era. It’s not merely that abortion was all but removed from the GOP platform and the party’s previous position in favor of federal abortion limits was abandoned. It’s that Trump and his Republican Party would like very much to stop talking about abortion altogether now, as if the matter is settled and we can move on to more important matters, like the border and inflation.

That’s the same attitude they have about gay marriage, which, like abortion once was, is supposed to be a settled debate, not up for discussion anymore. The choice to take these issues off the table, or try to, is usually framed as pragmatic. We want a big tent, Democrats are radical, Republicans can present their side as reasonable.

But it doesn’t work like that. There’s a reason the Democrats went from talking about how abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare” in the 1990s to celebrating it with free abortions from the back of an RV in 2024. Once you cede the principle of the thing, once you accept the premise that it’s justifiable to kill the unborn under certain circumstances, the list of allowable circumstances will continuously expand.

This is of course true of any moral principle, which is why the left moved with alarming speed from arguing that gay marriage wouldn’t hurt or affect anyone to demanding that everyone actively endorse and celebrate it or face ruin. There is no limiting principle to the argument that consenting adults have a right to have their sexual arrangements officially recognized by the state. That’s why the rationale used in the gay marriage debates of the 2010s is exactly the rationale deployed today in the transgender debate, which will in turn eventually be successfully deployed on behalf of plural marriage, polyamory, and even pedophilia.

The point here is not to sow discord on the right or decry a big tent strategy for the GOP, but merely to point out that when you violate the moral principles on which a social order is based, you don’t get to say when enough is enough. The slippery slope does not cease to be slippery when you think you’ve had enough. You will go all the way down it.

Put another way, the time to say “no” was before the moral principle was violated, not after. Having accepted, for example, that abortion is morally licit in cases where the child is conceived through rape or incest, or that it should be allowed in the first trimester because that seems a reasonable compromise with the left, today’s Republican Party has lost the ability to object to abortion on any grounds whatsoever.

Either an unborn child is a human being, with the same right to life as an infant or a toddler, or it has no rights and can be killed with impunity. Compromising on this is incoherent. It is to admit defeat.

“No, not at all,” Vance told a Fox News reporter in an interview that aired Sunday. “It doesn’t hurt my feelings.”

“Look, the price of admission — meaning, the price of getting to serve the people of this country — is the Democrats are going to attack us with everything that they have. I think it’s an honor,” Vance continued.

“As Harry Truman once said, ‘if you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen,’” he said.

The fact that Democrats even went with this strategy reveals a remarkable inability to read the room. If you think men can get pregnant, dress up in explicit costumes, wear African garb when you’re a white woman, and call other people “weird,” then perhaps you might consider taking a look in the mirror.

The reality is that there is weirdness in each political movement. Indeed, one has to be at least a little weird to run for office. But when parts of your political party resemble a Ringling Bros. circus, it is not a good idea to call other people “weird,” especially when social media is a thing.

Watching the RNC last night was fascinating in more ways than one. It was incredible to see the unity there, but that unity wasn't forced at all. People were very excited to be charging forward under one banner.

It wouldn't be a stretch to say that the banner the RNC was rallying around had the name Trump/Vance plastered in bold letters on it, but despite that fact, the RNC's primary focus wasn't Trump. Don't get me wrong, it was a massive part of the messaging to be sure. It would be weird if it wasn't, given recent events and the fact that he's the official Republican candidate.

But ultimately, the RNC's message was very simple but very profound.

"This is about you."

The funny thing is, in any other election cycle, this message would have been worthy of eye rolls. Every election cycle, politicians and talking heads smile at the camera and tell you how much they want to get into office to fix all the problems for Americans, but this year, it actually felt genuine. //

The thing is, the left's message is also "this is about you." However, now that we've watched them at their most unhinged, "this is about you" looks pretty unhinged when the left says it. It's like a salivating wolf saying the phrase to sheep.

The Democrat Party's approach to "helping" America takes on the feel of them saying, "This is for your own good," whereas the Republican Party's approach is "You don't need us in your way to thrive." The Democrats want you to submit; the Republicans want you to live like an American should. //

Many within the party, and indeed on the left, truly believe they know better and that what they're doing is a good thing. They think they're the heroes.

But they lost the plot. They forgot they are fallible humans themselves. They got so infected with their own hate that they think their hatred of people is good. They willfully operate on this hate under the full understanding that their hatred causes them to, as was pointed out by Trump last night, operate for only half the country while damning the other half, but doing so in good conscience.

They brainwashed themselves into thinking villainy is a virtue.

The reason the RNC seemed so genuine and united is because amidst all the villainy we've experienced over the past few years, one party still remembers an America as it's supposed to be.

First, any civil or criminal defendant in a federal case who plausibly asserts that political or ideological factors may taint a jury pool can veto the Washington DC circuit and receive a hearing in his or her choice of another randomly chosen circuit or the circuit of his or her home dwelling.

Second, regardless of what circuit a federal case is filed in, any civil or criminal defendant who plausibly asserts that political or ideological factors may taint a jury pool shall be entitled to a jury pool that is proportionally selected from a region that did not vote more than 70 percent in favor of one party’s candidate in the most recent presidential, senatorial, or congressional election.

Third, plaintiffs or prosecutors in a federal case may elect to have the case decided in a randomly assigned circuit other than the District of Columbia. This would ensure that corrupt and criminal Democrats do not get a free pass on anything they do simply because they know a DC jury pool would never convict them of anything, no matter how egregious the offense.

Fourth, Congress should mandate that any states receiving federal funds for any legal or law enforcement purposes must abide by the same rules guaranteeing a defendant a politically fair jury pool.

Fifth, state legislators should enact similar laws ensuring political fairness for trials in their state.

In summary, all Americans are entitled to a jury of our peers, or at least a jury that is not politically biased. Unfortunately, conservative Americans are being increasingly subjected to politically weaponized lawfare. //

Indylawyer
10 hours ago
This is a badly needed reform. Excellent point. We also need to eliminate most federal criminal statutes, and make sure the ones that are left are clearly and narrowly defined. They wouldn't be able to wage most of this lawfare without these vague and overweening criminal statutes. //

anon-8gsr
12 hours ago
All this articles says to me is conservatives have been woefully neglectful in preparing to fight the opposition, and still are. We all knew that though.

GBenton anon-8gsr
12 hours ago
If Trump wins in November we have to view this as the last opportunity to right the ship. After what Biden has done, including the lawfare and threats to pack the Supreme Court and end the filibuster, the mission is to destroy the corruption and neutralize the threat should a Democrat win in 2028.

That said, I think if the American people knew the full truth about the left there might not be much of a Democrat party for a while. Trump should declassify anything and everything on the Dems and their corruption going back to JFK (and before, as relevant), since I believe they had JFK killed, they set up Nixon, and they have their fingerprints on a whole lotta bad stuff including Waco, etc, not to mention what Hillary and Obama did.

Expose all the dirt. make it public.

GBenton Arik
12 hours ago
Stealing elections needs to carry a price similar to treason since it interferes with the peaceful tranfer of power and threatens the stability and survival of the republic and invites tyranny. //

I would only note it's not really "tit for tat" — it's about adhering to the law and applying it equally. //

Dieter Schultz
14 hours ago

"I'm not talking about violence," she made clear. "I'm talking about tit for tat," she said.

I'd just be happy if the GOP just decides to fight like they're in an existential war for this country's soul and act accordingly.

That might mean something that resembles "tit for tat" but, more important than that is just playing to win rather than playing to let the Dems win.

Betterdeadthanred Dieter Schultz
9 hours ago
Indeed. Sticking to our principles has gotten us here. Its certainly not going to get us out or guarantee a place at the back of the line at the camps.

Dieter Schultz Betterdeadthanred
9 hours ago edited

Indeed. Sticking to our principles has gotten us here.

I'm pretty sure it's not principles we're sticking to that's gotten us here.I keep saying that there are two kinds, and definitions, of conservative, the ideological and the personality type.

We can't seem to grok that the personality type conservative sounds a lot like the ideological conservative but with the basic impetus of "Favoring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change" and, because of that, they are NOT the same and, in fact, behave like RINOs.

It's not principles that are 'getting us here', it is being confused about which 'conservative' we're working with and wondering why people that 'tend to oppose change', you know, refuse to change the status quo that the left is clever enough to create for them so that they will 'refuse to act' to correct the ideological errors of the left's positions.

It's almost as if Democrats don't want Republicans protected. Hmmm. //

anon-ev27
12 hours ago
Deja Vu all over again. We have Milwaukee city hall, (the mayor and chief of staff), the Milwaukee police chief, and the Federal US Secret Service all refusing to properly protect an event. They claim they are not expecting any violence, but they want violence, they want another riot to ensue so they can blame MAGA again. The free speech zone for the DNC convention is 3 miles away so you can be sure no main stream media cameras will be filming "that mostly peaceful protest". Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. The GOP is being setup again. They should move the convention or force the USSS to change their plans. //

anon-u50m anon-ev27
4 hours ago
GOP always brings marbles to a gunfight.

There are many reasons the faculties at law schools are overwhelming liberal and crazy but the main reason is because that is where the money is. Many are the well-funded liberal law firms — the ACLU being the most notorious one. They are hiring. Rare are the conservative groups.

To be sure, big corporations pay better to defend themselves, but that does not stop abuses outside the corporate world. There is no money to be made by Exxon (for example) in stopping the student loan steal. And so the theft occurs with Republicans talking the talk but walking away.

Until Republicans go to court, get a TRO and force Biden to defend forcing women to undress before men in their locker room, I do not want to hear Republican complaints.

On Monday, Donald Trump announced that his stance on abortion is that the states should decide the intricacies of their abortion laws within their respective territories. I found this to be a very solid move for a few reasons, chief among them is that it is the constitutional view, and it makes the abortion fight for pro-abortion groups that much harder to win. //

As I wrote later, the Republican Party could actually use this avenue of handing power to the states to great effect. They could remove a lot of the deciding power about a lot of subjects from the federal government, craft laws for the government that close the doors on these subjects forever, and hand all the deciding power to the states. They could rightfully bill it as giving the power back to the people.

This would have an insane amount of benefits. Not only would the Republican Party become the party of the people, but it would also result in far less chaos around the nation as power becomes more localized. //

I know this is a very solid path to take and that this iron is hot to strike thanks to the people being made well aware of just how bad centralized power can be, compliments of the Biden administration. The Democrats are well aware of the danger of this as well, and they actually reached out to corporate media sources to swiftly have them correct headlines about Trump's stance.

I hear a lot about a "uni-party," or the belief that the Republican and Democrat parties are one and the same. While it's not entirely true, it's not necessarily wrong either. While there are definitely Republicans who would be more suited with a "D" next to their name, the Republican Party does have a number of people in it who actually understood their assignment.

The reason the "uni-party" label works so well is because the Republican Party might have different goals but ultimately, they think the way to achieve them is to do what Democrats do to achieve their goals, and that's to grow the government. //

If Republicans truly wanted to distance themselves from Democrats, then the solution is actually simple. They need to remember what their core purpose is. It's not to make laws, it's to unmake laws. At some point, Republicans largely lost their appetite for shrinking government and chose instead to grow it for their own purposes. //

The goal is to get power out of the federal government's hands, and not just on this subject. Any decision-making power we can take from Washington, we should. The Republican party's goal is ultimately to decentralize the power in America, not make the federal government bend to its will, which has always been a temporary thing and a losing battle in the long run. //

If Republicans truly want to stop the Democrats from exerting and abusing as much power as they do, the solution is to take that power out of their hands and give it to the people. As our government is constantly in a tug-of-war between two parties, it doesn't make sense to grow the federal government's power, which will only serve to make the abuse of power worse as time goes on.

Republicans should endeavor to shrink the power of the federal government whenever they're in office and the only laws they should write are laws that close the doors on the federal government's power for good. [forever] //

Cafeblue32 Laocoön of Troy
a day ago
Coolidge is more famous for what he didn't say and do than what he did. He was known for saying little, and his response to the recession he faced was to leave it alone and let business right its own ship, which it did in a matter of months, and led to the Roaring 20s. //

Laocoön of Troy Cafeblue32
a day ago edited
The post-WWI Republican Congress rejected the Treaty of Versailles. They passed laws removing US troops from Europe. They dismantled Wilson's endless agencies, commissions, boards, bureaus, and other administrative offices. They ended food rationing, price controls, censorship, the Gestapo-like American Protective League, and released German and other ethnic prisoners Wilson imprisoned for the duration of the war.

In my opinion the post-WWI Republican Congress was far more important. //

anon-js5k
a day ago
Recently, when Larry Elder was asked, if Trump wanted Larry Elder to be a part of his Cabinet, which department would Larry want to be the secretary for. His answer was quick and to the point. He said he would like to head the Department of Education and that his goal as Secretary would be to eliminate the department and subsequently his job as head of that department. That is what a true conservative Republican would do.

When Biden recently passed an order to make it harder to layoff or fire a government employee, Elder's response shows how to circumvent what Biden did. If the Department of Education no longer exist, firing is no longer an issue. The DoE should have never existed in the first place. By extension the national teachers would lose their clout with the federal government, both of which have too much power over local districts, including budgets and policies.

January 09, 2018

After 35 years, the consent decree that prohibited the Republican National Committee (RNC) from engaging in ballot security activities wasterminated by a federal judge. RNLA Chair John Ryder, former General Counsel to the RNC, stated:

Yesterday, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey ended the consent decree that had banned the Republican National Committee from engaging in activities to ensure that elections are open, fair, and honest since 1982. Despite years and much money spent searching for evidence of Republican voter suppression, the Democratic National Committee could not present evidence to the court sufficient for the consent decree to remain in effect. We applaud the fact that the RNC may now, on the same, lawful, non-discriminatory basis as other political organizations, ensure that every eligible voter is able to vote and that the votes of ineligible voters are not counted. //

While the consent decree has been in effect, other Republican organizations, such as the RNLA, NRCC, NRSC, Republican state parties, and other groups, have worked to ensure that elections are open, fair, and honest. As Mr. Ryder noted, we look forward to a new era where the RNC can, if it so chooses, be a part of this effort to protect the right to vote of every eligible voter.

Since the announcement that Ronna McDaniel would be stepping down as chair of the Republican National Committee, the top question that's been asked over and over is, "What are they going to do about election integrity and ballot fraud?" The second most-asked question has been, "When are they going to hire Scott Presler?" New co-chair Lara Trump answered both of those questions Friday morning. //

Partnering with Presler (who contributes the occasional column here at RedState when he has the time) is a no-brainer for the RNC, and this is another sign that it's an entirely new day over at RNC headquarters. //

AdeleInTexas
34 minutes ago
Moving to aggressively check voting problems in real-time and [honest] ballot harvesting is the best possible strategy. Looks like the RNC finally read the playbook and is bringing in the right coaches and players.

Former President Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who was elected co-chair of the Republican National Committee Friday, took to “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the aggressive strategies the RNC will use to protect voting integrity in the 2024 presidential elections. //

We have 3 pillars that we need to focus on at the RNC to ensure victory on November 5th. Turn out the vote, protect the vote, and raise money -- but I would argue that maybe the most important of those three is protecting the vote. Election integrity. //

So I'll tell you right now what is already underway at the RNC. We have for the first time ever, an Election Integrity division. This means vast resources dedicated solely to this cause. //

I can guarantee you that over the next eight months, you are going to see things happened at the Republican National Committee unlike you have ever seen before, because this is a must win election.

If Donald Trump is not elected on November 5th of this year, I do not believe we have the same country on the other side.

It wasn't until midway through that context was given - which undercut what she was suggesting (that Robinson would prefer women couldn't vote):

During this event, Robinson, who was running for lieutenant governor at the time, recalled someone recently asking conservative activist Candace Owens to pick which version of America would make America “great again,” one where “Black people were swinging from cheap trees” or one where women weren’t allowed to vote.

Robinson said he would definitely return to the days in America when women were denied the right to vote “because in those days we had people who fought for real social change, and they were called Republicans.”

While that last quote contains part of the story, it doesn't give all of it. In the sentence immediately after he said "and they were called Republicans," Robinson said "And they are the reason why women can vote today." //

Andrew Egger @EggerDC
·
Okay, look, Robinson did in fact say all these words in this order, but if you watch the clip it's plain he wasn't saying he thinks women should lose the vote. He was making a way too cute point about how he wants Republicans to see themselves as fighters for social change.

Jennifer Bendery @jbendery
NEW:

Newly unearthed video of N.C. GOP gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson in 2020: "I absolutely want to go back to the America where women couldn’t vote." https://huffpost.com/entry/north-carolina-gop-mark-robinson-women-vote_n_65e7d899e4b0f9d26cacc002?hlo
5:13 PM · Mar 6, 2024 //

bpbatch
4 hours ago
Dan Bongino responded to this several times on X today, asking liberals why they are so racist, and why they have such vitriol for black people, and especially those who are Republicans.

The answer is, they can't help it. The Democrats have a long history of racism, and it's never gone away. And it's just as pronounced today as it was pre- and post-Civil War, during the Jim Crow and lynching eras, and as well as during their fights to keep integration from happening and destroying the black society with the "Great" Society.

We should never, EVER let them forget that, and we should always remind black Americans that Democrats are still the slave-master party. The party leaders will do nothing to help them out of poverty, but just "promise" to help them while simultaneously keep black Americans from ever prospering. //

Dogcatcher-Elect JALJAL
4 hours ago edited
This is worth a read. Expect alot of Charlottesville "very fine people" misrepresentations/lies.

Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Robinson accused of antisemitism

https://www.jta.org/2023/09/06/politics/meet-mark-robinson-the-republican-frontrunner-in-the-north-carolina-governors-race-accused-of-antisemitism

As for the misrepresented "Nazi" comments, it seems to me he is addressing the insane Nazi attributions the left flings at the conservatives /"right wing." Enough!

Republican Mark Robinson's rise in North Carolina politics has been nothing short of spectacular.

It all started in the spring of 2018 when Robinson, a Greensboro resident who at the time worked in furniture manufacturing, appeared before the city council to speak his mind on gun rights as the city considered canceling a gun show. //

AirdaleNavy_AX3
11 hours ago
In 1969, a tome was published by Canadian business professor Dr. Laurence Peter that primarily talked about people being promoted to their level of incompetence, but the real take-away found in the later chapters is Dr. Peter's exposure on how human hierarchies actually operate. We warns his readers that the No. 1 Rule of every hierarchy is the 'preservation of the hierarchy.' Had DJT been aware of this warning when he took office in Jan. 2017 and cleaned out every department in our government of entrenched deep-staters we wouldn't have the mess we do today. Mark Robinson is a hierarchy crusher... The Dems know it, the RINO's know it and those buried deep in U.S. and North Carolina gov't know it. The hierarchy "preservation" has already begun in N.C. and Robinson is just the man to stand up and crush it.

As we've written many times on these pages, the only way this original investigative reporting could happen and can continue to happen is through the financial support of our readers. Clearly, we highlight corruption and malfeasance on the left, but sometimes those on the right need to be held to account too so conservatives can win hearts and minds - and elections. Much of the data we reported on with Ronna McDaniel was in publicly-available documents, but RedState was the first outlet to cover it, and still one of the only outlets to dive in. Why? Not only do we have investigative journalists who want to do the work; those journalists aren't constrained by corporate bean counters who are afraid of the ramifications. We go where the truth leads us.

Do not present us with a plan that doesn’t have a wall and doesn’t have total enforcement of the immigration laws with ironclad enforcement provisions. Everything needs to be notwithstanding other laws, so they can’t sue to stop you. There has to be a grant of standing for states to sue to enforce the laws. And there has to be a cut off of any kind of aid the second the border reopens. Good gosh, this isn’t hard. But it seems really hard for you guys. I attribute that to the fact that, and I want to be charitable about this, a lot of you are really stupid.

Stop trying to do immigration deals with the Democrats.

You’re not smart enough to pull it off. Just say no to everything until the Dems comply. What’s the worst case? We have a wide-open border, and we’re not spending money on other people’s wars? That compares favorably to the present situation, where we have a wide-open border, and we are spending money on other people’s wars. //

I don’t know how many times I have to say this because I’ve been around for a while, and I’ve seen this same thing happen again and again and again when squish GOP senators try to negotiate with the Democrats about immigration. I know it’s meant to bully mental defectives, but when it comes to the GOP Senate caucus, that rule does not apply since some of its members apparently cannot learn from experience and must learn through pain. Here is a message to you, spineless Republican senators….

Stop trying to do immigration deals with the Democrats.

This same sorry scenario gets replayed over and over again. //

Maximus Decimus Cassius
5 hours ago edited
Hey Kurt, maybe its not because RINO Senators are horrible negotiators, or naive buffoons, but perhaps we need revisit Hanlon's razor. I mean, how many times have RINO doofuses tried to "negotiate" an immigration deal and they wind up getting hosed? It goes as far back as our beloved Ronald Reagan.

So maybe its not naivete or stupidity. Maybe its just plain greed and treachery.

Random US Citizen
an hour ago edited
She's just so terrible.

Any Republican at this point should have already figured out the kinds of gotcha questions they're going to be asked and have a ready reply. It's not that complicated--there a limited number of topics that are used in this strategy: race, abortion, gender, illegal immigration, the 2020 election... how hard is it to redirect the racism questions with something like Bongino said: "The U.S. is not a racist country, but we have to acknowledge history and the Democrat-party-created Jim Crow laws." Or "I believe that every child who is conceived is a human being with inalienable rights, including the right to life, but I don't believe in criminalizing miscarriages." Or "Women are equal participants in our society, with a greater percentage of college degrees earned than men and with wages that, when adjusted for things like time in their career, are equal to men's wages." Or "The United States should welcome legal immigrants, but a nation of laws must enforce it borders and prevent the human trafficking and drug smuggling that is creating a crisis." Or "There were election irregularities in the 2020 election, including judicial modifications to election rules. Elections in the United States should be fair and free of interference from U.S. intelligence agencies and leftist judges."

Seriously, if I can type that up in two minutes, why can't Hailey figure it out in two years?

Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius. //

Haaswurth Books
2 hours ago edited
The United States did not have slavery for centuries. Slavery was abolished in the 1860's, the United States was founded in either 1776 or 1787, depending on whether you date from the Declaration of Independence, or from the ratification of the US Constitution. The United States had slavery for about 80 years. The northern states had abolished slavery by about 1820, so only for about 45 years did they have slavery.

Racist attitudes were common in both the northern and the southern states, but Jim Crow laws were in effect in Southern states, and not the entire United States.

In many ways, Johnson didn’t bail out Democrats from a tough political predicament as much as he did his own Republican members.

Until conservatives learn to become active in GOP primaries and make them pay the electoral consequences for their failures, establishment Republicans will continue to sell out their voters on every issue that matters, when it matters.