Interesting idea

Ace suggested the other day that, while we can’t vote all of our a**holes out of office, we can target a half dozen or so wobbly Republicans in the House and dump them by voting for the Democrat opposition. This wouldn’t be enough for Democrats to take back a majority, but it would send a strong message to pusillanimous time-servers like Boehner (who I nominate as Target #1) that there is a price to pay for ignoring the clearly-expressed wishes of their own constituents.

BTW, I’ve often referred to Boehner and others of his ilk as “time-servers”, but I think this is only partly apt. It’s true that they’re poltroons who are afraid that bedrock principles are impediments to more important things – like turning elective office into a cushy career – but it’s also true that they are, indeed, willing to fight for some policies; unfortunately, those policies are all too frequently the same things the Democrats want – amnesty being the prime current example – and these Vichy Republicans work in an underhanded way to provide genuine support for the concept, while blowing a lot of smoke about how the concept is implemented. Boehner et al don’t really have a problem with amnesty, because it’s what the big RINO donors want. These congressmen are simply in a bit of a huff because of the way Obama is bringing it about, so they use the constitutional overreach of the president to flog the rubes into voting for RINO politicians, and then these same RINO politicians wind up signing off on Obama’s policy anyway. Therefore, they’re not simply time-servers who do nothing for fear of their own shadows, but active enablers of the progressive assault on America who grease the skids for the country’s leftward shift through a combination of ideological legerdemain and disingenuous political theater.

This is why, for constitutionalists who believe in limited government, RINOs are so much more dangerous than Democrats. No matter how generously a Democrat politician ladles applesauce over his ideas, you simply know that he fundamentally views America as a giant daycare center for moronic children and will govern accordingly. RINOs do not hold voters in significantly higher esteem, but do their devious best to convince the “children” that the little dears are actually in charge, and that they, the RINO politicians, are merely their servants (even if ineffectual servants because of the Big Bad Wolf in the White House).

To put it another way, a Democrat has no reservations about boldly jumping out and yelling “Stand and deliver!”, while a RINO insidiously swindles you. It is little more than the difference between the highwayman and the receiver of stolen goods – except that the former will always be able to cultivate a certain rakish, romantic aura, while the latter will increasingly be viewed as nothing but a shifty, calculating “fence”, too white-livered to face the risk entailed in committing the original larceny, but perfectly willing to take a cut of the profits - money and power - through backroom machinations.

Which is also why Democrats will continue to enjoy an edge in elections as long as the present Republican establishment maintains its dominance in its own party (recent midterm results notwithstanding; after all, one can’t always count on having an insufferable boob as president).The highwayman is genuinely attractive to his base, given his base’s hazy morality on the subject of mine and thine, and the average progressive’s feeling (albeit often mistaken) that his own property and privileges are secure, no matter what. The fence, on the other hand, can only succeed for a time by concealing his true character, motivations and activities, which are inherently repugnant to a decisive segment of the base, and when discovered, generally lead to a widespread withdrawal from the political process by discouraged GOP voters at very inconvenient times – i.e., during elections, and especially during national elections.

Moral of this rambling post? Simple: if we wind up with Hillary Victrix in 2016, it will largely be due to the invertebrate wing of the Republican Party and its failure, or unwillingness, to offer any credible resistance to the excesses of the human preposterosity currently residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.