When the 2016 elections are over and the history of those elections is written, the Friday before Memorial Day may go down in history as the day the Republican Party committed suicide.
Ten years ago, the Republicans held the White House and they controlled both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Then they managed to blow it. By 2006, the public was tired of the Republicans, for among other things not keeping their promises.
Two years later, in a further repudiation to the Republican Party, the American people voted in the most liberal Democrat in the history of the nation. They also gave the Democrats absolute control of the Senate as well as the House of Representatives. In 2010, America voted Republicans into control of the House based on the promise they would fight President Obama. Despite the fact they did not, the GOP ran on fighting Mr. Obama in 2014 and they took control of the Senate.
Less than six months into their tenure in control of the Senate, the Republicans have now dealt themselves a mortal blow that will probably cost them the Senate in 2016.
Instead of fighting the Obama agenda, the Washington Republican leadership has embraced it. Friday, over the strenuous objections of conservatives, the Senate passed what is known as “Trade Promotional Authority.” The only possible second term victory for Obama is negotiating and passing the Transpacific partnership that critics call Obamatrade. Mr. Obama promised when he was pushing Obamacare, “if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor.” Under Obamatrade, critics now mock that saying, “If you like your job, you can keep your job.”
Conservatives were promised that a Republican Senate majority along with the House Republican majority would fight the Obama regime. Instead of working to dismantle Obamacare or to cut the out of control spending, the Republicans want to give Mr. Obama a blank check to write a treaty that could effect every part of American life from what we eat to what we see on the Internet.
The Pew Research Center just released new polling data on May 21. That poll shows that only 37 percent of Republicans believe Republican leaders are keeping their campaign promises. That is just the Republicans. Overall only 23 percent believe Republican leaders keep their campaign promises and only 20 percent of independents.
No one believes the promises of the Republican leadership anymore. They have broken too many promises.
For the Republicans, the news is truly bad. In 2016, the Republicans are defending 24 Senate seats while the Democrats are only defending 10. The Republicans have a hard enough road ahead of them but that road is going to get even harder now.
Conservatives simply have no reason to get out and support Republicans in 2016. In 2009, the tea party came into being because the Republicans were not doing their job. In 2009, the tea party decided it would not become another political party. 2016 may bring about the creation of a new conservative party. The Republican Party is now longer the party of Ronald Reagan and small government. It is now a party of big business and big government.
Conservatives supported the Republican Party because they believe in the principles of liberty and freedom. If the GOP will not support those principles, conservatives will move to another party that will.
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