by Sundance at The Conservative Treehouse
Perhaps a little focus on the foundation of the issue is in order.
Ever since the professional Republican apparatus decided to target, eliminate and destroy the grassroots movement known as the Tea Party, there was always going to come a time when the battle for the heart and soul of the GOP Club would take place.
CTH has been calling this battle ‘The Big Ugly‘ for around a decade.
The Big Ugly battle is essentially the fight between the grassroots working class base of MAGA voters and the professional political snobs in control of the Republican Club boardroom.
Some call it the ‘base’ -vs- the ‘establishment’. There are other names and catchphrases, but the essence of the dynamic is the same. A scruffy voting base, who, prior to Donald Trump, had no visible leader to represent their internal interests around the mahogany table.
Ordinary voters were in an abusive relationship with the people around the GOP boardroom. The Club needed our votes, and our money (less so after the Citizens United decision) but had no intention of ever actually delivering on the priorities of the voters. The Republican political establishment played Lucy with the football for years, and We The People always ended up flat on our backs, continually frustrated and feeling used.
In the same year the Tea Party rose up, the Supreme Court gave the GOP Club legal access to unlimited corporate money with the 2010 Citizens United decision. Mitch McConnell used the newly unrestrained campaign finance mechanism to further diminish the influence of the unwashed masses and eliminate the movement; it’s all well documented.
For the next several years we watched and participated in a political pantomime with highlights to include the 2012 installation of Club member Mitt Romney to represent our interests. Yeah, whatever…. It was a hot mess. Bumper Sticker:
The base voters watched the GOP Corporate Club do nothing to block Obamacare, even after we gave them the House in 2010 midterms. Obamacare was another Lucy and the football scenario, while the Senate wing of the Corporate Club created “comprehensive immigration reform,” including amnesty with Marco Rubio. Eventually, the bloom wore off the ruse, and we dispatched Virginia Club official Eric Cantor as a message to the Corporate Club to knock it off.
The Corporate Club didn’t and doesn’t care. Instead, while they sold out the working-class to the multinationals (TPA, TPP, Paris Climate, etc) they fought harder, gaslight more, and made even more promises they never intended to keep. Lucy had an unending supply of footballs.
Then in 2015 things changed. The voting base found a weapon for use against the Republican Club…
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