Rhinos may be an endangered species, but RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) are multiplying at record rates.
There may have been a coin shortage last year during the height of the Wuhan Chinese virus pandemic, but there's definitely no shortage of COINs (Conservatives Only In Name).
At a time when the Republican Party's grassroots is staying true to and standing firm on conservative principles, the party's establishment moves more and more to the left. The party's core voters and activists grow angrier by the day as they watch this shift and the betrayal of their values.
Indeed, for a short period earlier this year, I changed my registration from the Republican Party to the Constitution Party, mostly out of anger with Mitch McConnell for his failure to stand strong for conservative ideals and against the Democrats. McConnell is the classic RINO. He embraces the big-government policies of the left and has opposed both the tea party conservative and Donald Trump populist movements within the GOP; the movements that have fueled the party's meteoric rise in Kentucky to the point where Republicans are about to overtake Democrats in voter registration, something that was unthinkable even a decade ago. But I ended up changing back so I could have a say in choosing GOP nominees during the primary election process.
Republicans are supposed to be the party of smaller government, lower taxes, and individual rights. But you wouldn't know it from the way many Kentucky Republican officials conduct themselves, no doubt inspired by their leader McConnell.
Constitutional lawyer, best-selling author, and conservative radio and television host Mark Levin calls these charlatans "Repubicans" and he's definitely on-target where many Bluegrass GOPers are concerned.
Kentucky Republican legislators and other elected officials continue to beat the drum for a gasoline tax increase. The new General Assembly majority inflicted Kentuckians with a sales tax on services such as auto repairs and veterinary services a few years ago. They turned down a chance to impeach Gov. Andy Beshear and remove him from office earlier this year despite his blatant violations of the United States Constitution. (Remember that Beshear has lost every federal court case brought against him over the constitutionality of his Kung Flu mandates).
And now into the fray comes Tres Watson, former communications director for the Republican Party of Kentucky and still someone who moves in the upper echelon of the GOP establishment.
Via his Twitter account, earlier this week Watson declared his support for forcing all public employees to take the Kung Flu vaccine.
You read that right. A bigwig in the party that purports to champion individual freedoms and liberties is advocating that those liberties be taken away from a certain segment of the population. That's a pretty liberal position to take. With Republicans like these, who needs Democrats? You'd expect Beshear or Dementia Joe Biden or Andrew Cuomo to push forced vaccinations. Not a prominent Republican.
Truth be told, Republicans are often the lesser of two evils. There's nothing really conservative about Kentucky's legislative leaders. During the past two General Assembly sessions, with the specter of Kung Flu hanging over the chambers, they failed to promote legislation that would have preserved individual freedoms and limit action by government executives to restrict those liberties.
And then there's the whiff the impeachment committee, dominated by Republicans, took earlier this year. One committee member basically admitted that Beshear had committed impeachable offenses, but they didn't think it appropriate to remove him from office since he was put there through the will of the electorate.
Is it any wonder that the grassroots activists and voters want to pull their hair out when the party leaders acquiesce to liberals and don't stand strong?
It's definitely not a Kentucky phenomenon. RINOs are running rampant at the national level, and COINs are plentiful. From Rep. Liz Cheney to noted and once-respected pundit Bill Kristol to the frauds at the Lincoln Project, there's a significant wing of the GOP who would rather side with liberals than stand true to their values and principles.
When we finally get Republicans with a backbone who will stand up to the left, these pretend conservatives undercut them at every opportunity. Matt Bevin had already angered the Kentucky establishment when he dared to challenge McConnell in the 2014 Senate race, so he had to battle opposition from within the party as well as the Democrats during his term as governor. And we're all painfully aware of how Donald Trump, the consummate outsider, was treated by the GOP bigwigs because he pushed back against the status quo and the "go along to get along" mentality.
It's hard for the party's base to make the claim that the GOP stands for certain things when the party's leaders and elected officials act differently. Can we legitimately claim we're against higher taxes when our legislature raises them? How can we say we support individual freedoms when influential voices advocate forced vaccinations?
There's a severe disconnect between the party's rank and file voters, and those who are in elected positions or within the party's hierarchy. At some point, this is going to cause problems. The Democrats are horribly bad, but in too many cases, Republicans aren't much better. It doesn't give the grassroots activists the warm fuzzies to see folks like Tres Watson pushing positions that would seem more at home coming out of Andy Beshear's mouth. Indeed, Beshear has been so focused on playing politics while claiming he's not playing politics, that let's hope he doesn't get any bad ideas from a Republican Party mouthpiece like Watson.
The Mitch McConnell Building that houses the RPK headquarters in downtown Frankfort should be designated as a RINO sanctuary and a COIN museum.
