Conservatives Have No Reason to Support the GOP

To say Barack Obama won the New Year's fiscal cliff showdown is an understatement.

Barack Obama won and the Republicans lost.

Lost does not even begin to describe the disaster that befell the Republican Party at the fiscal cliff.

The Republicans managed to abandon their central belief, that taxes should not be raised and government should be shrunk.

Sequestration was a disaster given to us by John Boehner. It was just one of the series of disasters that have marked his term as speaker. As bad as sequestration was—and it was not a good plan with its radical cuts in the military budget—at least it was cutting spending.

[See a collection of political cartoons on the fiscal cliff.]

Instead the Republicans came up with a plan that simply screwed the productive class because Barack Obama promised America he would do it. Republicans agreed to tax increases on almost 80 percent of Americans. This isn't just the tax increase for those making over $450,000, but it is on 80 percent of all Americans.

What did they get for this?

More spending. There is not even a reduction in spending. Spending goes up under this plan.

What else did the Republican leadership get?

They destroyed their party.

Today, conservatives in the Republican Party are seething. Tea Party Republicans who once whispered about a third party are now discussing it openly. Conservatives are openly calling for John Boehner to be replaced as speaker.

[See a collection of political cartoons on the budget and deficit.]

Unless the Republican Party takes action now, this fiscal cliff battle may be their Waterloo. The Republican Party has lost the past few elections by taking actions that suppress their own conservative base.

Today, conservatives have no reason to support the Republican Party.

For conservatives, as we go into 2013, we consider our options and as we look at the Republican Party that managed to create one of the greatest self-inflicted defeats in the history of American politics, the words of Darth Vader come to mind.

"You have failed us for the last time."

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Tags:

fiscal cliff,

Congress,

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