Article by David Thomas Roberts in Townhall
The GOP Donor Class is Complicit in America’s Decline as a Constitutional Republic
It’s about that time of the year again. Just as sure as migratory birds fly south for the winter, incumbent establishment Republicans once again begin feigning their conservative bona fides just in time for the 2022 election cycle with the full support of the elitists in the GOP donor class.
For constitutional conservatives, their ire has been grossly misplaced. It’s time to quit blaming the RINO’s and start holding the GOP donor class that funds them accountable. Incumbent Republican office-holders in Congress have brazenly served their own self-interests and those of the donor class to the exclusion of American interests and to the extent the two political parties are hard to tell apart.
The ‘show’ votes and ‘cloture’ tactics that the RINO’s can use to bolster their conservative street cred, claiming they were ‘for’ or ’against’ a particular bill when his or her vote didn’t really count – or when the issue was likely to be decided without their vote. A voice vote is a simply ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ where the vote of the member never goes on record. It’s likely few Americans really know how the sausage is made in D.C. This congressional sleight of hand is commonplace and disgusting. The GOP donor class knows exactly how it works, because they get a seat at the table with their favorite political rock-star who can explain the strategy and how it will uniquely benefit them.
America continues to plummet into a socialist-style oligarchy, where the rich get richer, the elitists parlay favor in government, business and culture and where the depth of this inequality begins to flirt with a society that ends up in a bloody revolution or civil war. Small business is crushed in favor of big business. Class separation is more than just income inequality. When severe class inequities become the norm, it has bred revolutionary calamities throughout human history.
Look no further than the Covid mask and vaccine mandates which were supported by most establishment Republicans. Only recently have some brave Republican office-holders in red states read their political tea leaves to figure out the wind was blowing in exactly the opposite direction – toward religious freedom and individual civil liberties. Texas Governor Gregg Abbott originally made this mistake with state-wide restrictive mask mandates, eventually back-tracked under extreme pressure and now has at least two very legitimate GOP primary candidates. Abbott made a mad dash to call special sessions of the legislature to push through red meat conservative causes he could have accomplished prior, since being elected in 2015. Yet, the GOP donor class in Texas (including many of the same donors who fund RINO’s in D.C.) gladly pony up to the Texas governor who has only recently shown any real conservative chops to avoid getting ousted by primary challengers and dashing any hopes for a potential presidential run.
The list of examples in D.C. is endless. Republicans Chuck Grassley, Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell have been in office 40 years, 36 years and 18 years respectively. Grassley and Graham voted to confirm ultra-liberal Supreme Court justices Sotomayor and Kagan. Under McConnell’s Republican leadership, including when Republicans had control of both Congress and the White House, the U.S. deficit has soared from $514 Billion to a projected $3.3 Trillion for 2020. The infamous Gang of Eight which included McConnell, Graham, Marco Rubio, Kevin McCarthy and Devin Nunes actively and openly pushed for amnesty for illegals – and all remain in office supported by hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign donations by the GOP elite donor class. So much for the Republican Party being fiscal conservatives.
How can a grassroots Constitutional conservative candidate ever hope to unseat a Republican incumbent like Lindsey Graham, who raised over $104 million in his last senate campaign? This, despite the fact Graham is consistently rated among the worst Republican conservative voting records. But, his buddies McConnell, Rubio, Nunes and McCarthy have two things in common – very low conservative voting grades and very high GOP donor class support. We may ever again see a grassroots constitutional candidate unseat an establishment office-holder similar to when Tea Party candidate Dave Brat primaried Republican leader Eric Cantor.
Perhaps the Founding Fathers never envisioned that politicians could literally get wealthy in office, nor could they have predicted the amount of money involved in elections and the power that an elite donor class could wield, otherwise term limits may have been considered in the Constitution. The median net worth of the majority of those in Congress are millionaires. Eight of the ten richest Senators are Republicans. Stories like Missouri Senator Roy Blunt whose net worth went from $602k in 2008 to $10.7M over ten years in office is not uncommon. Congress earns a pension after only five years in office. Where in the private sector are you vested in a pension after only five years? Congress exempted themselves from vaccine mandates.
Congress, led mostly by Republicans, has allowed the unprecedented growth of the U.S. intelligence agencies and to renew both the Patriot Act and the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) each session, in which both have serious conflicts with the Fourth Amendment. The NDAA allows for no due process (habeas corpus) for government-targeted groups. (See the January 6th protestors denied their civil rights). These agencies spy on American citizens with the full knowledge of those kept in power by the elite GOP donor class. Now, the Biden administration wants the IRS to have full access to every bank transaction you make – without a warrant. Will the GOP leadership cave on this too?
The U.S. Constitution is in serious danger of becoming irrelevant (if not already). We need to make sure this elite donor class (and their lackeys) pay close attention.
