RLC campaign against Boehner

Fiscal conservatives have been watching the antics of the Republican establishment for over a week as it prepares the ground for abject surrender on the issue of ending the ‘Bush’ tax cuts.  There are growing reports of representatives repudiating the Norquist tax pledge, but to cap it off, House Speaker John Boehner has removed four fiscal conservatives from key financial committees.

The RLC has committed to booting him out of the Speakers role, and should that fail, are determined to replace him with a Liberty Republican in the 2014 primary.  It is already collecting a war chest in their PAC for this purpose. 

RLC Chairman, Dave Nalle states:

Liberty Republicans Have Had Enough of Boehner 

The Future of the Republican Party Starts with Leadership Change 

In response to the recent purge of fiscally conservative members of key finance committees by House Republican leaders, the Republican Liberty Caucus has launched a nationwide campaign to draw attention to the failures of party leadership and in particular to the malfeasance and abuse of power of Speaker John Boehner. 

Justin Amash (R-MI) and Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) were removed without notice from the Budget Committee on Tuesday and Walter Jones (R-NC) and David Schweikert (R-AZ) were removed from the Financial Services Committee. All four had records of opposing past budget compromises and were reportedly ranked below other Republican representatives on a secret loyalty index put together by the house leadership, because they were more likely to vote based on principle and constituent requests rather than in lockstep with the leadership. These removals were made over the objections of the chairmen of the committees. 

We believe that the practice of penalizing principled Republican leaders for not complying with the demands of party leadership is damaging to the party and an abuse of the power entrusted to the leadership of the party by grassroots constituents.  These represenatives are among the most popular and most respected junior leaders in the House, noted for their integrity and responsiveness to their constituents.  We want them to think for themselves and do not want them to slavishly follow the leadership.  They represent the future of the party and Boehner and his thugs represent the failed past. 

In response to this action, Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) observed “For a party that’s trying to expand its base and make sure that it reaches out to young people and new groups, I think it’s pretty outrageous frankly. It’s pretty clear I come from a more libertarian wing of the party – this is the growing portion of the Republican Party. And, really, it’s a slap in the face of all young people who are out there thinking about being Republicans, want to be part of this party and are being told ‘well, if you disagree with leadership just a couple times, we’re going to send you home and we’re going to tell you you’re off the committee and you don’t get to participate.”  This is not the kind of party we believe in. 

Working through our state chapters and our national board the Republican Liberty Caucus has launched a three-phase campaign to put pressure on House members to demand that these four representatives be reinstated on their committees.  This campaign includes direct email, constituent call-in and social media promotions with an expected reach of over 200,000 grassroots Republicans.  We have already received reports that phones in the house have been ringing nonstop and that email boxes are overflowing since we began our campaign yesterday.  In addition, we are building up a campaign warchest through our Political Action Committee to help support efforts to remove Speaker Boehner from his position after the holidays. 

The party's failure in the recent national election cost us many races which we could have won and showed how desperate the need is for change in the party.  We need a party which holds firm on essential princples, but is tolerant and inclusive enough to attract new constituencies.  The principles of the Liberty Movement are the best basis for a new and stronger party and the reform we needs starts with getting rid of self-serving and ineffectual leaders like John Boehner. 

The Republican Liberty Caucus is a grassroots membership organization with chapters in almost every state which promotes the traditional Republican Party valies of limited government and individual liberty.

Justin Amash (R-MI) summed up the issue after being kicked out of his position on the Budget Committee, “Only in Washington, DC, is a person taken off of the Budget Committee for wanting to balance the budget .”

RLC calls for change in Republican Party

Since the Republicans lost what should have been the unloseable election, in fact not only failing to win the Presidency, but having losses in the Senate and House, there have been plenty of pundits giving opinions on what went wrong.  These vary from the sublime to the ridiculous, right through to the irrational and nauseating.

Most have been in the nature of kneejerk reactions from bitter members of the various segments of the party claiming that if only the party had pursued their agenda or sectional interest, then it would have been a walk in the park.  If the party had offered more free stuff, been tougher on migration, put women in their place, or even put God in charge, it would have been hunky dory.

The Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC), one of the few elements of the party that actually gained in the election, has now come up with its own more sensible ideas: 

 Change is Coming to the Republican Party

It's Time to Pay Attention to the Voice of the Grassroots

In remarks made at a post-election event for members, Republican Liberty Caucus National Chairman Dave Nalle observed that "If you nominate a candidate who has a position to please every constituency you run the risk that voters will decide that this is the same thing as having a position to alienate every constituency and respond by not turning out to vote," referring to the drop in Republican voter turnout since 2008.  "The party has lost its way because of lazy leaders who have ignored the sensible voters who make up the base of the party and have instead given too much influence to outside interest groups who bought their loyalty with the promise of easy votes.

"It is time for fundamental change at the top of the party. Leaders who basically rigged the nomination process to force Mitt Romney on the party gambled their legitimacy on his success. They put the entire party at risk with a candidate without a constituency, whose failure dragged down other candidates including promising newcomers and incumbents whose seats should have been secure. They lost key seats in the Senate where we could have won a majority and even weakened our position in the House. They must pay the full price for their poor decisions and be stripped of any position of leadership in the party."

"It is time for the Republican Party to return to the control of the grassroots and to a simple, ethical agenda of limiting the size and power of government and protecting the rights of individual citizens. The practice of giving special influence to outside groups whose first loyalty is to their own interests and issues must stop. Our allies should be drawn to us by our principles, not by our willingness to sell influence and trade favors."

"The party is aging and becoming isolated from the people. Republicans have forgotten how to be activists and stir up popular enthusiasm for our cause. We have lost touch with the younger generation and we have abandonned minority groups which ought to share our principles. In too many counties and too many states the Republican Party has become an exclusive private club rather than the inclusive political movement it was meant to be, and it has become too reliant on divisive social issues to drive participat ion at the cost of narrowing the party's base. This is the course of extinction for a political party. If we do not grow and embrace new members and new strategies we will continue to stagnate and age into irrelevance."

"The voters we need to attract to revitalize the party want less government on their backs and more liberty in their lives. They do not want to live in fear of external threats or excessive internal security. They do not want to see the fruits of their labor seized by government or devalued by irresponsible policies. They do not want government in their businesses, their schools, their churches or their bedrooms. The Republican Party of the future should be young, diverse, entrepreneurial and inclusive. There is no hope for a party which is not strong enough to preserve its core principles while still embracing change."

"This is the vision of the Republican Liberty Caucus. It is a challenge to the Republican Party to become a better party, rededicated to its founding principles. This election must be a turning point for the party and if we do not pick up the banner of leadership and embrace the changes which must come, then the GOP will fade away lnto whiggish obscurity."

This election season the RLC and its associated PACs raised over $300,000 for our candidates and elected two dedicated new Senators and about a dozen new Congressmen, plus hundreds of candidates at the state level.

For more observations on the outcome of the election and the future of the party, please see this article: 

RLC National Chairman Dave Nalle will be available for interview this coming week either by phone or in person in Washington DC.  To schedule, please call 512-656-8011 or email media@rlcpac.org.

For local and regional media the RLC has representatives in every major market available for comment and interviews.  Please email media@rlcpac.org for a local contact.

Libertarian Republicans upbeat on election result

The LP is not the only group of libertarians in the United States.  Since 1990 the Republican Liberty Caucus has been making its own inroads into the system as the libertarian wing of the Republican Party.  In reality it has been far more effective in getting libertarians across the line than the LP, with a significant lineup in the House and Senate.  This in no way detracts from the great work of the Libertarian Party.

The election results have been a disaster for the Republican Party, and for the nation as a whole, however the RLC has its own reasons to celebrate, in that it’s influence has increased within the party owing to an increase in it’s representation and a decline in the establishment big government wing.  The fact that the liberty wing was able to advance while the statists lost, is a clear indication that the RLC is on the right track.

Dave Nalle explains:

… Yes, the party took it on Mitt Romney’s chiseled chin, but the party’s losses are not necessarily our losses and while I certainly would have liked to have done better, in comparison to the party as a whole our candidates and our issues fared remarkably well. 

Perhaps the most significant victory is a sign of change to come.  While the party lost seats in both houses of Congress, the balance of power shifted and liberty candidates gained seats while the party was losing them.  Our endorsees and other sympathetic candidates now control a larger number of seats in both houses of Congress than ever before.  We lost only one incumbent House member and gained at least two solid seats in the Senate while the party lost 3 and gained more seats in the House than the party as a whole lost, effectively doubling the significance of our wins.  

The failure of the party leadership and the Romney campaign did suppress turnout and that flowed down to races at lower levels, costing some of our most promising candidates wins they might have had in better years.   Yet 2014 is just around the corner and I expect many of those same candidates to run again and in an off year election we can anticipate the same kind of strong results we had in 2010 and more. 

Two RLC candidates won new seats for liberty in the Senate, Ted Cruz (TX) and past endorsee Jeff Flake (AZ).  Four new liberty candidates took seats in the House, including RLC endorsees Steve Stockman (TX-36), Kerry Bentivolio (MI-11), Thomas Massie (KY-4) and Ted Yoho (FL-3) who was overlooked for endorsement.  Many previously endorsed candidates won reelection in the House, including Justin Amash, Tom McClintock, Walter Jones, Jim Jordan, Mick Mulvaney and others.  

Perhaps most significantly hundreds of our endorsees won or held onto seats in state government, giving us a very deep bench to run for higher office going into the 2014 election.  Many other great candidates ran strong campaigns and came awfully close to winning, but the weakness of the national campaign and lack of support from state and national party organizations were challenges they couldn’t overcome.  With more independent funding and resources we expect them to do much better in 2014. 

We also saw victories on key issues in several states.  Marijuana was legalized in Colorado and Washington and decriminalized in Massachusetts, which is likely to lead to a very important showdown over state sovereignty as the Obama administration and the DEA crack down on those states attempt to form independent drug policy.  In addition, Washington, Maryland and Maine voted to legalize same-sex marriage, a clear challenge to the unconstitutional federal Defense of Marriage Act, and while we prefer a non-governmental solution to the marriage issue, the passage of these propositions was at least a politically achievable step towards greater liberty for more people.  

Less publicized but possibly equally important, Alabama, Montana and Wyoming voted on initiatives to nullify aspects of Obamacare within their borders, another development likely to provoke a constitutional showdown with the Obama administration.  It’s not going to be an easy four years for the president or his unconstitutional abuses of power. 

Finally, after the attacks on the grassroots of the party launched by the Romney campaign, party leaders and special interests, in many ways a Romney defeat is a victory for Liberty Republicans.  In the long term it may benefit us more than defeating Obama would have.  The party establishment and the special interests which back them placed all their bets on Romney and his failure was their failure as well.  They have lost credibility with all the grassroots groups in the party and they are saddled with the blame for the abuses of power and bad choices which led to this debacle.  

Now everyone knows what we have known for years.  If the Republican Party is to survive it needs a substantive change of leadership and a return to principles which can win elections. 

After this election it is much more likely that our next presidential nominee will have strong liberty principles and Rand Paul’s stock as a presidential contender is way up.  We should also expect to see the party distance itself from single issue voters on the religious right and a deemphasis of divisive social issues.  This might well be the jolt the party needs to become the fiscally conservative and socially tolerant party which it needs to be in order to win and if it doesn’t happen quickly, we’re here to give change a push. …

The obsessives who yearn for marriage control, womb control, drug control, and Mexican control, have been given a flogging while the libertarian wing have advanced.  It may take a while, but sooner or later the other side of the Republican Party may begin to realize that the RLC is on to something.  They may spend another decade or two, hating it and railing against it, but by then they will be an irrelevance.