Grassroots Republicans who ardently support former President Donald Trump and adamantly do not trust a GOP congressional delegation unwilling to align with their aims are finding the real red wall against a progressive globalist Biden administration closer to home. Governors and state legislatures have shown the most energy so far in stepping up against weakened border security, woke cultural pushes, and the demonization of Trump voters as insurrectionists while last summer's Black Lives Matter rioters are celebrated as heroes.
While RINOS Slumber
Here is just a smattering of what is going on around the country outside the Swampy waters of Washington, D.C.:
Texas Governor Greg Abbott on March 6 announced the creation of Operation Lone Star, which will utilize the National Guard and state police to combat what Abbott termed new federal “policies that refuse to secure the border and invite illegal immigration.”
To the chagrin of the leftist American Civil Liberties Union, more than 20 states have introduced legislation this year to prevent biological males who “identify” as transgender from participating in female sports. “Sixteen states have also introduced bills that would prohibit and in some cases criminalize gender-affirming care for trans youth, such as puberty-blocking medications and hormones, up from 15 last year, according to the ACLU,” ABC News laments.
Texas, Mississippi, and Wyoming are among states that have recently decided to terminate mask requirements as they move to completely reopen local businesses and schools.
A Kentucky bill crafted in response to last summer’s violent Black Lives Matter protests has advanced out of committee. The proposed legislation would make it a crime to insult or taunt police officers to the point of provoking a violent response.
It is a long way to 2024, to be sure, but one glance at potential Republican presidential nominees should Trump decide not to run again further shows that all the excitement is to be found well away from the Potomac River. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem continue to be touted as rising stars while establishment-friendly younger Republicans in Congress such as Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) and Representative Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) generate lukewarm enthusiasm. Perhaps in recognition of this dynamic, Crenshaw has already declared that he has “pretty much” written off a White House run three years from now. More than ever, working in Washington is a liability rather than a calling card in a change-hungry GOP voter base today.
Taking Over From the Ground Up
This surge of potency beyond the grasp of the official party organizations, aligned think tanks, and careerist pols of the nation’s capital may offer the best hope for providing a solution to the America First conundrum of having to unwillingly back mediocre but firmly entrenched incumbents to keep House and Senate seats from turning blue.
When the fossilized dinosaurs of Columbia see with their own eyes just how utterly irrelevant they have become in the minds of their party's voters, their iron-fisted behind-the-curtain control of primary processes and policy priorities is bound to wither. When it becomes demonstrably observable that all the fun in the party is being had far from the gears and levers of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) Machiavellian machinery, reliable new pipelines to get Republicans who will pay heed to the party’s base into Congress may ultimately be constructed.
In this light, Trump would do very well to focus on what is happening at state capitals as he wages his war against the “do nothing” RINOs in the party’s ranks. This will also help free his supporters from the infuriating frustration of pining for good things from people they know are not on their side. Instead of fruitlessly imploring Swamp creatures on the right side of the Uniparty aisle in Washington to display principled courage, they can merely concern themselves with applying pressure when needed to keep these eternal advocates of a tired status quo from straying too far off the reservation on vital issues such as immigration and the woke cultural infringement on civil liberties. Despite their establishment alignment, these elected officials still have to pay some lip service to the proper “conservative” position on these matters, after all.
Meanwhile, Red Hats can turn to their state legislatures and governors when looking for concrete action to thwart an overreaching Biden and further their America First agenda.
Millions of Trump-supporting Americans are about to find out that where you live may decide how much the Biden administration impacts your day-to-day life over the next four years. But no matter where they reside, all should take heart that a road around the RINO roadblocks is finally being paved that may end up throwing open the doors to Capitol Hill in the not-so-distant future.
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Read more from Joe Schaeffer.
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