Rush Limbaugh and George Will are both conservatives. But that is like saying that Milton Friedman and Murray Rothbard were both libertarians. Nevertheless, both Limbaugh and Will have expressed reservations about the Republican Party.
After the Republican majority in Congress made a deal with the Democrats in April 2017 to fund the federal government through the end of fiscal year 2017 (September 30) via a $1.2 trillion spending bill, Vice President Mike Pence called The Rush Limbaugh Show, where he was asked by the host, “If this is what happens, Mr. Vice President, why vote Republican? What is the point of voting Republican if the Democrats are gonna continue to win practically 95 percent of their objectives, such as in this last budget deal?”
Good question.
Establishment conservative George Will left the Republican Party in 2016 after joining it in 1964. Will, who resides in Maryland, announced the change in his party affiliation from Republican to unaffiliated at a Federalist Society event in Washington, D.C. “This is not my party,” said Will, who compared his actions to those of President Reagan: “The long and the short of it is, as Ronald Reagan said when he changed his registration, I did not leave the Democratic party, the Democratic party left me.”
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In a recent column in the Washington Post (“Vote against the GOP this November”), Will admonished conservatives to vote against congressional Republicans in the upcoming November midterm election.
Said Will:
Congressional Republicans (congressional Democrats are equally supine toward Democratic presidents) have no higher ambition than to placate this president. By leaving dormant the powers inherent in their institution, they vitiate the Constitution’s vital principle: the separation of powers.
In today’s GOP, which is the president’s plaything, he is the mainstream. So, to vote against his party’s cowering congressional caucuses is to affirm the nation’s honor while quarantining him. A Democratic-controlled Congress would be a basket of deplorables, but there would be enough Republicans to gum up the Senate’s machinery, keeping the institution as peripheral as it has been under their control and asphyxiating mischief from a Democratic House.
Good advice.
Although Limbaugh asked a good question and Will gave good advice, I don’t necessarily agree with their reasons for doing so. However, their conclusions are sound.
It must first be said that voting against Republicans does not mean voting for Democrats. The Democratic Party is the party of liberalism, socialism, feminism, progressivism, collectivism, abortion, organized labor, big government, public education, gun control, climate change, environmentalism, affirmative action, welfare, paternalism, high taxes, progressive income taxation, government subsidies, ever-increasing government spending, hate crimes legislation, universal health care, income redistribution, special LGBT rights, and every alternative lifestyle known to man. In other words, everything that any decent American opposes.
But Republicans are big-spending, welfare/warfare/police statists just like Democrats. And as Doug Casey recently reminded us:
Democrats and Republicans aren’t all that different. Even though they now seem to hate each other on a visceral level, they’re similar in that both parties are spineless, unprincipled, and very opportunistic.
Just because either the Reds or the Blues feel something today doesn’t mean that they won’t feel something different tomorrow, and reverse polarity. In other words, neither party has any sort of philosophical grounding. The differences are largely gut feelings and emotion.
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The only difference between Republicans and Democrats is that the Republicans talk about the Constitution, the free market, and limited government while ignoring the Constitution, the free market, and limited government. The only limited government Republicans seek is one limited to control by Republicans.
Since the inauguration of Donald Trump, the Republicans once again have absolute control of the government. President Trump has reached the milestone of 500 days in office. And what do Republicans have to show for it?
The federal budget is well over $4 trillion a year, the budget deficit is approaching $1 trillion a year, and the national debt is over $21 trillion. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects federal spending to grow by approximately $3 trillion over the next 10 years, for an average annual spending increase of about $300 billion. Total federal debt is projected to top $30 trillion by 2028. The federal bureaucracy of departments, agencies, commissions, administrations, corporations, councils, boards, and bureaus with all of their programs and personnel is still intact. The welfare state is still as strong as ever, with about 80 means-tested programs. The federal government is still handing out subsidies. U.S. foreign policy is still reckless, belligerent, and meddling. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops are still stationed overseas. U.S. special forces operate in over a hundred countries. The defense budget is increasing. The military-industrial complex is as strong as ever. Trump’s military now drops a bomb somewhere in the world every 12 minutes. Hundreds of foreign military bases are still open. The TSA—a creation of Republicans—is still groping, assaulting, and humiliating passengers and unnecessarily delaying and inconveniencing air travel. The CIA is still stirring up trouble all over the world. Civil asset forfeiture laws have been strengthened. The war on drugs continues unabated. The NSA is still reading American’s e-mails and listening to their phone calls.
Unless you want a welfare/warfare/police state, what is the point of voting Republican? There is none. Voting Republican is not voting for the lesser of two evils; it is voting for pure evil.
