RINOs need to take back the Republican party
There are now so many RINOs wandering the barren plains that, banded together, they might even form a critical mass. A base, if you will. If only they weren’t so attractively independent. The individualist nature of those most likely to be drawn to the Republican Party is such that they tend not to gather in groups. Ostracized by their own tribe, they feel alone in their exile.
Why should RINOs hang their heads in shame and be relegated to the fringes of their party? The party is the fringe. Isn’t it time to reclaim the salt lick? RINOs need to be defiantly proud, aggressively centrist and unapologetically sane.
There are a couple of obstacles to this obvious course. First, sane people are too busy Being Normal to organize. No, “normal” is not a relative term. We all know what normal is, and it doesn’t involve carrying gigantic photos of aborted fetuses to political conventions. For example. …
Finally, they lack the necessary grandiosity to recognize how fabulous they are. Ever seen a RINO in one of those silly hats that screams: “I Belong! I Am A Member Of The Party!”? No. They tend to be discreet — strangers in a strange land, keeping a low profile and an eye cracked for signs of fellow travelers. At most, they gather in smallish groups and dine on ironically named dishes such as Baked Alaska. At their most enthusiastic, they form polite alliances, such as the “No Labels,” um, something.









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Yes. Their names are KingGold, MJBrutus, and bluegill.
steebo77 on February 20, 2013 at 12:14 PM
I have a better idea, why don’t you socialist lite types keep the coasts and let us get back to growing a nation?
I hate you “GOP light” types more than the actual communists in the democrat party.
harlekwin15 on February 20, 2013 at 12:14 PM
Parker needs an MRI or CT scan or something.
besser tot als rot on February 20, 2013 at 12:15 PM
Take back? I thought they owned it.
kim roy on February 20, 2013 at 12:15 PM
Brain transplant.
kim roy on February 20, 2013 at 12:15 PM
Uhhhh…..RINO’s have been in charge of the Republican Party for decades.
portlandon on February 20, 2013 at 12:16 PM
NO, we are knee deep with rino’s now and we more and more like TP/conservatives!
L
letget on February 20, 2013 at 12:16 PM
Says the lady who voted for Obama.
NeoKong on February 20, 2013 at 12:17 PM
Hey, Kathleen. They have the Republican party. That’s the problem.
totherightofthem on February 20, 2013 at 12:17 PM
Something about this story reminds me of the Rush comment about the ’10% elitist party of irrelevance’.
Freddy on February 20, 2013 at 12:17 PM
Whigs. Will never win another election. Have at it.
Bmore on February 20, 2013 at 12:18 PM
Because their first vote for Obama was such a dead weight around their useless necks that they couldn’t muster the energy to vote for Romney in 2012?
peski on February 20, 2013 at 12:18 PM
Take it back from whom? Boehner is the Republican Speaker of the House. McConnell is the Republican Senate minority leader. Romney was the Republican Presidential candidate? What does she want? To kick all of the conservative House members out of the party so that we can return to the 2008-2010 dynamic? To kick out the conservatives who votes for Romney, in addition to those who didn’t? I don’t get it. This woman is completely and irreparably irrational.
besser tot als rot on February 20, 2013 at 12:18 PM
Remember folks, the world looks different from a 5th Avenue apartment.
peski on February 20, 2013 at 12:19 PM
Parker must be channeling Salvador Dali here because the entire thing is positively surreal.
Rocks on February 20, 2013 at 12:19 PM
Romney was a RINO. He got the party nomination. Black is white, up is down. These people are pathetic.
SuperBunny on February 20, 2013 at 12:20 PM
Well, the Republican Party is working 24/7 to ram through some of obama’s top agenda items and they have already chosen Rubio as their savior and 2016 nominee, so apparently, the RINOs are STILL in full control.
Pork-Chop on February 20, 2013 at 12:24 PM
Republican in Name Only. Think about that Kathleen.
Fallon on February 20, 2013 at 12:27 PM
So KingGold is Kathleen Parker?
portlandon on February 20, 2013 at 12:28 PM
How does all that solve our country’s problem, Kathleen?
The problem is not RINO’s or Conservatives, or Progressives, for that matter. The problem is that there is something wrong with the prevailing ideology which informs the policies we have in place and which puts pressure furthering with future ones.
How does your recommendation correct for that?
As usual, Kathleen is preoccupied with form while blissfully ignoring substance.
Dusty on February 20, 2013 at 12:31 PM
Was this written for a composition 101 class?
aryeung on February 20, 2013 at 12:31 PM
Can’t someone convince her to donate her organs? Like right now?
platypus on February 20, 2013 at 12:32 PM
I tend to think that moniker is better owned by those who label themselves conservatives before republican rather than the other way around, wouldn’t you?
Genuine on February 20, 2013 at 12:33 PM
Why don’t the RINOs need to take back the Democratic Party? And I do mean “take back” since I defy you to distinguish their politics from a Democrat of a few years ago.
Buddahpundit on February 20, 2013 at 12:33 PM
I’m starting to think that Kathleen Parker and John McCain have a “thing” going on…if you know what I mean:)
Clink on February 20, 2013 at 12:35 PM
Awwwww Kathleen…what’s the matter Dear,
No Palin derangement from you??
You’re slipping girl!
ToddPA on February 20, 2013 at 12:37 PM
K Parker & J Scarborough — Establishment WonderTwin Powers activate!
mjbrooks3 on February 20, 2013 at 12:38 PM
No, it doesn’t, because the GOP is self professed as being the conservative party or conservative alternative. This is why someone like John McCain campaigns by saying he will build a fence and then actively works at making said fence never happen or massively ineffectual while in office.
Republican is simply a name they use while running against Democrats to win office. It is not something which limits then in anyway while actually in office.
Rocks on February 20, 2013 at 12:38 PM
As usual, Kathleen is preoccupied with form while blissfully ignoring substance.
[Dusty on February 20, 2013 at 12:31 PM]
Let me qualify that as I make it sound that she does this purposely, and that is likely not the case. Kathleen preoccupies herself with useless concepts about form because that is all she is competent to cogitate on. Ignorance of substance is there but the cause of it is that she is not sufficiently intelligent to comprehend the subjects, so she ignores it.
Everyone has to make a living, I guess, even if they aren’t very helpful.
Dusty on February 20, 2013 at 12:38 PM
Elections are the real problem to consider. The party can’t win with just the base and can’t win with just the independents or “rino’s” as you call them.
However, if the party reaches out at ALL to independents then conservatives revolt, cast down, and malign Amy person involved in it.
If the party plays to the base, EVERYONE else is turned off.
It’s a political disaster of epic proportions, don’t kid yourselves. And someone is gonna lose.
You can whine the Mitt was “moderate” all day long, but seriously, what more conservative candidate had a close to as much of a prayer to win? Can you name one that was running? Them’s just the breaks, kid.
And the attempt to walk the line between the base and everyone else didn’t work. Hasn’t worked for a while.
So what are you gonna do? Not much you can beyond stop digging the hole. But I don’t see that happening anytime soon given the tone of the comments.
Genuine on February 20, 2013 at 12:39 PM
Fine – Kathleen, in spite of not being able to attract liberal moderates or please the conservative base, let the RINOs charge ahead and pick & fund all the squishy milk toast candidates they want. After all the previous moderate candidates, McCain & Romney, did so well. Just don’t expect the rest of us to help you. If you’re not interested in us why should we be interested in you?
katiejane on February 20, 2013 at 12:40 PM
Conservatives are the RINOs now.
What airhead Parker is /wants are the DIABLOs to purge the conservatives completely.
DIABLO stands for Democrats In All But Label Only
LegendHasIt on February 20, 2013 at 12:41 PM
How about this. What you are essentially saying is due to the makeup of the electorate any candidate is going to be lying to 1/3 of the voters during an election no matter what. Well the Democrats lie to the “center” and vote with their base while in office. RINOs on the other hand lie to their base and vote with the so called center, meaning liberal and not really center. If someone is going to be lied to shouldn’t it be those OUTSIDE the party?
Rocks on February 20, 2013 at 12:45 PM
Does Kathleen Parker write anything interesting other than knocking middle America and trashing its values?
Punchenko on February 20, 2013 at 12:46 PM
They don’t need to. Everybody knows the party is theirs.
ddrintn on February 20, 2013 at 12:46 PM
We don’t know. What we KNOW is that two moderates in a row that had the blessing of the GOPe got their asses handed to them by a left-wing unapologetic moonbat.
ddrintn on February 20, 2013 at 12:51 PM
RINOs run the GOP from the capitols; they hold NO sway with the actual electorate and never have; all they do is lose us national elections. Why vote Democrat Lite, when you can vote for the full-bore product?
michaelo on February 20, 2013 at 12:51 PM
By the way, prove that one. Prove it.
ddrintn on February 20, 2013 at 12:53 PM
KP, get Fluked, in a vary bad way. Gosh, the RINO squishes never get it.
Genuine is always genuinely obtuse or intentionally dumb.
Schadenfreude on February 20, 2013 at 12:56 PM
Change the party platform and you might have a point. As it is, the Republican Party platform is strongly Conservative, however, a lot of the establishment don’t believe in those principles
sauldalinsky on February 20, 2013 at 12:57 PM
Note carefully that Parker links her own column, written on the eve of a Tea Party-energized election that saw the biggest electoral victory for the GOP since 1994.
ddrintn on February 20, 2013 at 12:57 PM
The Obama Administration, Ms. Parker, The Obama Administration has 33 different czars each earning over 100 thousand dollars a year. Now, I have spent the last four years analyzing what all these guys do, and I still can’t figure it out.
One thing I do know is that our government lost 1.2 trillion dollars last year, and I’ll bet that half of that was spent in all the paperwork going back and forth between all these czars and beauracracies.
The new law of evolution in political America seems to be survival of the unfittest. Well, in my book you either do it wrong or you get eliminated by the mainstream media.
In the last seven green energy companies that Obama been involved with, there were seven company presidents who have made a pretax profit of six million dollars. Thank you.
Obama is not a destroyer of these companies. He is a liberator of taxpayer money!
The point is, for those of you ladies and gentleman in the republican party, is that treason, for lack of a better word, is good.
Treason is right, Treason works when it gets the Mainstream Media in your corner.
Treason clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit that the Mainstream Media supports.
Treason, in all of its forms; treason for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of the republican party.
And treason, you mark my words, will not only save the Republican party, but that other political party currently ruining the USA.
Thank you very much.
(With No Apologies to Gordon Gekko)
jaydee_007 on February 20, 2013 at 12:59 PM
They’re not “Establishment” — they’re rubes.
I think Lenin would call Parker and Scarborough “useful idiots”, which is pretty much a prole that follows the party line in the feeble hope of being made a powerful member one day.
That day never comes for the prole — much like the Socialist Utopia never comes, although socialism doesn’t much interest these people as does keeping their own riches intact while oppressing middle, traditional America. And middle, traditional America scares these folks, because nothing is a bigger threat to the Ruling Class than a well-educated, very pissed off middle class.
So P & S sing for their supper, are patted on the head, and then are told to go out there, into the trenches, and knock their own kind if they wish to keep their place begging for scraps in Manhattan and DC.
Having your own show, or column, and sitting in makeup chairs, being groomed, and paid, and lauded by others in print and TV, and etc., is very intoxicating to rubes P & S. They eat it right up, do their part to keep the perks, and wait for us to cry bloody murder.
And we do cry bloody murder, and P & S respond, rather hilariously, since neither one can form an original thought. If they could think for themselves they would never have been invited to be lap dogs of the Establishment, now would they?
The real key to winning the political and cultural war is to replace their elites with our elites and become the New Establishment. And to do just that conservatives are going to have to commence a Long March Through the Institutions from within while attacking them from without (with coordinated boycotts, pressure, etc.) until they’re on the outside looking in.
Punchenko on February 20, 2013 at 1:04 PM
I wasn’t really sure how to take the line about a dish ironically named “Baked Alaska.”
steebo77 on February 20, 2013 at 1:06 PM
Nope. It’s the Washington insider way to have two Democrats (with 98% agreement on the issues) run against each other in a general elections. By design, it locks out a real Republican (who agrees with the party platform) from running and winning.
Fallon on February 20, 2013 at 1:07 PM
~ David Frum 2011.
LOL
RepubChica on February 20, 2013 at 1:07 PM
Because you LOSE, that’s why.
ddrintn on February 20, 2013 at 1:07 PM
Look, the bottom line is that in politics, you need to provide deliverables – actual concrete accomplishments which improve things in some way to your voters, especially your party base since they are the ones who have been organizing, donating, and working on your behalf. The Republican party has failed to do this for decades in regards to social conservatives, and I think the last major fiscal conservative accomplishment they really produced was the original Bush tax cuts.
On top of that, we’ve been hearing stories now about how the party bosses are systematically purging conservatives in the House.
The GOP has to provide some concrete benefits to voting for them to the party base. We’ve increasingly heard that to ask for ANY conservative policy preference is “insanity.” Tax cuts? Insanity. Spending cuts? Insanity. Border security? Insanity. We came very, very close to having major gun ownership restrictions placed on us. The Republicans wanted to support Obama’s push, but was barely held back by the furious outcry from what’s left of the base. Don’t even get me started on things like abortion.
If the GOP isn’t telling me it will never work to enact my policy preferences because they’re “insane” and “unrealistic” why should I vote for them? Why should any conservative vote for them? If they’re just going to enact Obama’s policies, why does the Republican Party even exist?
Doomberg on February 20, 2013 at 1:15 PM
This piece is awful. It doesn’t define what a RINO is and it doesn’t identify which Tea Party policies are “radical.” And, for the coupe de grace, Parker then engages in revisionist history by romanticizing McCain. McCain was a loser. His campaign was dead in the water and the media predictably turned on him as soon as he clinched the nomination. Palin breathed life into his campaign and propelled him to the only lead he ever enjoyed the entire campaign year.
Romney, for his part, was likewise a total squish that RINOs should have been proud of. And we all know how that turned out.
Outlander on February 20, 2013 at 1:22 PM
So true.
They are a loud fraction of the total who just happen to perfectly fit the stereotype that liberals/media need to demonize all Republicans.
They also can’t get one of their own anywhere near a POTUS nom despite their alleged overwhelming majority of control of everything. But, the liberals/media will be there to ensure that they stay in the middle of the attention anyway.
They need them.
Moesart on February 20, 2013 at 1:25 PM
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