The splintering GOP
Tuesday, Jan 26, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller
* “Andrew Eastmond is a member of the American Enterprise Institute Leadership Network, active in Illinois Republican Party politics in Lake County where he lives, and is an airport consultant assisting large municipalities with air service development efforts at their airports.” From his Daily Herald op-ed…
The Republican Party has arrived at an inflection point where many of our policy solutions have never been more relevant to helping improve citizens’ lives but our messaging style is defined by what we are against rather than what we are for.
As we approach the critical 2022 election cycle, how do we become more relevant in the Chicago suburbs and suburbs nationwide, particularly in Democrat-leaning states, where our influence has steadily ebbed over the past half decade? What are some “first principles” that can guide us?
We need messengers who can open hearts and minds, particularly those of young people, to principles such as support of the free enterprise system, the protection of First Amendment rights, property rights and the rule of law (never more important than after the appalling events at the U.S. Capitol earlier this month by individuals who do not understand, or even care, about the norms and institutions that support our fragile democracy), benefits from free trade and globalization, the judicious use of the American military as a force for global stability, and the recognition that all individuals throughout the world are created with equal dignity in the image of God.
We also need messengers who employ fact-based reasoning and ask, “What policies will best secure all my constituents’ freedom and allow them to pursue happiness and fulfill their potential in the years to come?”
Go read the rest.
* Meanwhile, today’s email from AM 560…
You’ve probably seen the stories that some big box retailers are caving under pressure from progressives to take MyPillow products off their shelves. They want to see MyPillow and its CEO Mike Lindell canceled because of Mike’s support for President Trump, just like they are trying to cancel other conservative voices.
You can show your support for this great American company by ordering from MyPillow today. Don’t let cancel culture win!
“Conservative”…
: tending or disposed to maintain existing views, conditions, or institutions
b : marked by moderation or caution
c : marked by or relating to traditional norms of taste, elegance, style, or manners
* AP…
Lindell has continued to push bogus claims of election fraud since Trump’s loss to President-elect Joe Biden in the presidential race. MyPillow’s logo was also prominently featured on TrumpMarch.com, a website that promoted the Jan. 6 events in Washington, in which rioters stormed the Capitol.
New York Times…
In photographs captured by Jabin Botsford, a photographer for The Washington Post, Mr. Lindell held notes in his hand as he stood outside the doorway to the West Wing lobby mid-afternoon on Friday. The notes included a mention of Sidney Powell, the lawyer and conspiracy theorist whom Mr. Trump at one point wanted to offer a job in the White House.
They were only partially visible, but there was also a suggestion about invoking the Insurrection Act, by which a president can deploy active military troops into the streets, and “martial law if necessary.” One line appeared to suggest moving Kash Patel, currently the Department of Defense chief of staff and a Trump loyalist, as “C.I.A. Acting,” which seemed to indicate the top job. […]
Reached by phone, Mr. Lindell said that he was carrying notes supplied to him by a lawyer he was working with to try to prove that Mr. Trump was the true winner of the 2020 election. He would not identify the lawyer.
“The attorney said, can you bring these to him,” Mr. Lindell said. ”It was stuff to help the American people.”
Maybe we need a different word.
- Phineas Gurley - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 11:02 am:
It’s right here:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fascism
- Gruntled University Employee - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 11:07 am:
==Reached by phone, Mr. Lindell said that he was carrying notes supplied to him by a lawyer he was working with to try to prove that Mr. Trump was the true winner of the 2020 election. He would not identify the lawyer.==
Tom DeVore??
- Roadrager - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 11:07 am:
==The Republican Party has arrived at an inflection point where many of our policy solutions have never been more relevant to helping improve citizens’ lives==
==support of the free enterprise system==
“We’re really keen on that California proposition that could make basically anyone a gig worker, because minimum wage is stifling.”
==the protection of First Amendment rights==
“What would the Framers say if they found out I had to renegotiate my book deal with another publishing subsidiary?”
== individuals who do not understand, or even care, about the norms and institutions that support our fragile democracy==
“For thee, of course, not for me.” –M. McConnell
==benefits from free trade and globalization… and the recognition that all individuals throughout the world are created with equal dignity in the image of God==
I don’t know how you can claim to be representing the true ideals of the modern-day conservative if you clearly haven’t watched a single minute of Fox News in primetime for the last five years.
- Annoin' - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 11:08 am:
The “My Pillows” are great. Thank goodness we own them so we can now fully support the embargo/boycott. The video of him pacing outside the West Wing, slurping coffee with the untucked shirt tail was a perfect image of the out going whack jobs
- Jocko - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 11:29 am:
==Mike Lindell canceled because of Mike’s support of==
I wonder if wanting DJT to declare martial law in seven states had something to do with it? /s
- Moe Berg - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 11:29 am:
I’ll believe the GOP is ready to change when people like Andrew Eastmond acknowledge that in its current incarnation it is fueled by white grievance politics and forthrightly acknowledge that was a deliberate choice set in motion by Nixon’s Southern Strategy some 50 years ago.
You guys spent decades creating a monster, and it served you quite well from a winning elections perspective.
Now it’s off its chains and mocking your delicate preferences for a quieter, more genteel racism.
Also, a significant part of the GOP base doesn’t go for AEI’s “free market ideology” that embraces trade deals that gutted American manufacturing and devastated northern industrial states.
Trumpism is a (white) nationalist and mercantilist movement. It’s aims are quite at odds with AEI’s benefactors and apparatchiks.
- Blake - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 11:30 am:
Unfortunately, the mainstream media continue to use conservative as code for right-wing, no matter how anti-conservative a particular right-winger happens to be.
- DuPage Guy - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 11:31 am:
From Eastmond:
“On the federal level, we must work towards implementing cost-effective, universal health care coverage that is not linked to an individual’s place of employment.”
I did not see that coming.
- Frank talks - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 11:37 am:
Property rights and rule of law- looks like another law and order guy, things more important than people
- 47th Ward - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 11:41 am:
Minor quibble with Eastmond’s piece: ===…in Democrat-leaning…===
When I drink enough, I tend to lean a bit. That would be a Democrat, leaning. If he’s referring to voters, they would be leaning Democratic, as in toward the Democratic Party.
Fox News helps perpetuate this juvenile name-calling, so I don’t blame Eastmond for repeating an epithet that most users don’t realize is an insult. But it is an insult and I intend to call it out in my own little effort to push back on this.
As I said though, it’s a minor quibble and the rest of his piece is worth reading.
- btowntruth from forgottonia - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 11:44 am:
“On the federal level, we must work towards implementing cost-effective, universal health care coverage that is not linked to an individual’s place of employment.”
uh ohhhhhhh….that’s the socialisms….
We can’t have that.
Snaaaaaaaark.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 11:49 am:
===… particularly in Democrat-leaning states…===
Welp, I’d first stop sounding like Rush Limbaugh and drop the “Democrat” nonsense.
I look at this way, what I wrote on January 20th;
If you’re angry about people being against an insurrection, maybe you have bigger problems then a concern for a party.
The Republicans (to this post, about Illinois centric thoughts to this post) lose Jim Oberweis… Cabello, Skillicorn… even Wehrli… but those left like the eastern bloc, Bost, LaHood… Davis… those CongressCritters who not only voted with… Mary Miller against impeachment, the cowardly way they think voting against impeachment is smart politics…
For me, this period has been a long time (July 2013 - January 2021) that I felt in leadership a sense of ease to the *thoughts* of governing… were for a greater good, in Illinois and our country.
It’s been heavy.
The next 6-8 months leading up to (a) map(s) and petitions will be a real crossroads for me, well beyond a single cycle of politics.
There’s no easing back to a normalcy of Illinois Republican. This is the last chance for a party to build, or be forever a marginalized politic.
We need a strong two party system where comprising and leading isn’t seen with hatred and distain, and in the end, if we all don’t see eye to eye, we all know everyone is striving for a greater good, and we agree that’s ALL our mission.
We’ll (I’ll) see in these 6-8 months in Illinois.
Kinzinger is right, there is a battle in the ILGOP.
Siding with the eastern bloc, the cowards of the Republican CongressCritters who “just couldn’t” impeach a POTUS who incited an insurrection… time will show so much
————————————
It’s gonna come down to Kinzinger trying to take down the Mary Miller faction that includes LaHood, Bost… and Davis
Messaging outside the Mary Miller type CongressCritters, that’s where this needs to begin.
- Anotheretiree - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 11:56 am:
-Democrat or Dems- It’s a subtle diss designed to degrade and irritate which it does. Limbaugh restarted it though I think Joe McCarthy used it in the 50’s. My response is equally silly…Conservatives can be shortened to CONS. When I think of the GOP/Conservatives I think of CONS.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 12:05 pm:
Also,
Trying to have a unifying party discussion on policy differences and growing the party there is tough when the party itself has leaders still embracing white supremacy, think the insurrection isn’t a “big deal” or still support it, and refuse to see this past election as fair and free.
It’s like having people see a party… and telling them a toaster is a car “if you just ignore a thing or three” kinda wordplay
- Incandenza - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 12:05 pm:
“Reactionary” is the correct term
- Da Big Bad Wolf - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 12:11 pm:
Got a My Pillow as a Christmas gift a couple of years ago. It is stupid and lumpy. The only thing I like about it is the logo.
I don’t recommend it.
- RDB - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 12:15 pm:
Mike Lindell appeared on a televangelism show last week and said that the Dominion voting machines were shipped to China a few hours after the election ended and then returned to the country before Saturday, when Biden was declared the winner.
The guy is honestly like any crazy uncle who reads the computer all day and believes conspiracy theories, it’s just that Trump and Fox News elevated him to greater heights. Now is the time to end all of that.
- Boone's is Back - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 12:18 pm:
“goose-stepping”
- Commisar Gritty - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 12:19 pm:
Excellently phrased @Moe Berg. I came here to argue basically the same points, but you did it better than I could.
- Commisar Gritty - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 12:22 pm:
Oh I will add one bit and say that “Republicans getting mad at the results of a free market” (i.e. Twitter bans, boycotting Tucker Carlson advertisers, Kapernick-Nike sponsorship, etc) is one of my favorite sub-genres of the internet.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 12:26 pm:
- Moe Berg -
Agreed to kudos your way, including this, but it not taking away as a whole the good your comment was;
===…it is fueled by white grievance politics and forthrightly acknowledge that was a deliberate choice set in motion by Nixon’s Southern Strategy some 50 years ago.
You guys spent decades creating a monster, and it served you quite well from a winning elections perspective.
Now it’s off its chains and mocking your delicate preferences for a quieter, more genteel racism.
…
Trumpism is a (white) nationalist and mercantilist movement.===
Bitingly true to Trumpism.
- Ducky LaMoore - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 12:56 pm:
“They want to see MyPillow and its CEO Mike Lindell canceled because of Mike’s support for President Trump”
No. For the record, I thought Mike Lindell was an icky shyster from the moment I saw him. Unfortunately, he is way worse a human being and way worse an American than I thought possible.
- LakeCo - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 1:13 pm:
Agree with Commisar Gritty re: the free market.
“big box retailers are caving under pressure from progressives to take MyPillow products off their shelves.”
Isn’t that what the free market is? And didn’t conservatives used to love it?
As a friend of mine recently said, “it ain’t no fun when the rabbit gets the gun…”
- Flying Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 1:24 pm:
When the ILGOP changed Lincoln Day Dinners to Reagan Day Dinners, it was simply a harbinger of things to come.
Like comparing Mike Ditka to Bill Belicheck.
- Flying Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 1:26 pm:
Anyone who goes out of their way to show me they are wearing a cross has my immediate suspicion and disdain.
- The Way I See It - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 1:58 pm:
Whenever I see video of Trump fans saying that they love him because “he tells it like it is” it is pretty clear what part of that which excites them. That is the R “base” these days and that is not a formula for being competitive here.
- Steve Polie - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 2:42 pm:
“support of the free enterprise system”
The free enterprise system in the United States is a false trope. There is nothing free about it. The laws and rules determine who has the power. Power is determined by who has the money. Who has the money influences the laws and rules.
- Steve Polite - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 2:43 pm:
Lol, spelled my own nickname wrong, Steve Polite*
- Lurker - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 2:57 pm:
If you decide to buy a pillow from this guy, I suggest two things….
1) Say a prayer for you soul as it is damaged.
2) Type qanon as the code for a $45 discount. (and this is why 1 is important)
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 2:58 pm:
I don’t buy MyPillow or help CEO Mike Lindell spread his lies are you American public
- Grandson of Man - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 3:04 pm:
“Don’t let cancel culture win!”
It’s just the changing marketplace, aka creative destruction (don’t these people like capitalism?). Businesses who don’t adapt and continue to support fascism, them’s the breaks if they lose business.
- Lake Effect - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 3:55 pm:
Funny how many working-class and blue collar Asian, Hispanic, and Af-Am (males) I encounter in the service industry who are pro this alleged “white-national” movement
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 26, 21 @ 4:00 pm:
=== Funny how many working-class and blue collar Asian, Hispanic, and Af-Am (males) I encounter in the service industry who are pro this alleged “white-national” movement===
Do they believe the election was stolen, JFK, Jr. is alive, and we’re still moments away from the former president going back to the White House?
Being a mark for Trumpkins is part of the game. Also, folks supporting things outside their own interests is as old as politics, not a new thing since 2015