A RINO Reckoning?

In the past few days, we have witnessed the defeat of quite a few Republicans that many conservatives would label as RINOs.  Many of them are called RINOs due to their lack of support for key conservative issues at critical moments.       

While some bemoan the shellacking that many have experienced, it is important to remember what was done to many Tea Party candidates.  The ideas that ignited The Tea Party movement was catapulted into the mainstream by Congressman Ron Paul’s presidential campaign of 2007.  Although many gains were made in just a few years with this new energy infused into the Republican Party, key leaders in the Republican party did not like this at all.  For example, Senator Mitch McConnell actually said he wanted to crush the Tea Party because it was ruining the Republican Brand.  He later backed away from this stance effectively toning down his commits effectively keeping Tea Party enthusiasm within the Republican party at the time.

However, many Tea Party candidates were abandoned when it came to fiscal and strategic assistance during their campaigns.  This is when I first noticed the phrase ‘so and so is not electable’.  Of course, this would be said after a person’s character had been dragged through the mud and tarnished.  Although the idea of ‘wrap up smear’ campaigns have been attributed to Nancy Pelosi and the democrats, I’m sure that this has been a tactic used by politicians and political strategist of all stripes.

During a conversation with a mentor of mine, we wondered why Republicans don’t work together to win instead of having a circular firing squad of sorts.  It seems that some of the Tea Party Ideas are repugnant to some Republicans.  Therefore, after a Tea Party candidate was ‘wrapped up and smeared’, then the call would come for unity and getting behind the Republican candidate that was waiting in the wings.  Sometimes this led to a Democrat being elected.  I find this to be hypocritical to say the least and certainly politically self-defeating.  

Enter Donald Trump.  I’m not sure Donald Trump would have entered politics if Tea Party patriots and candidates would have been treated fairer.  In the eighties, he even said he would not run for president, saying it is a ‘mean business’.  After testing the water again in 2011, he decided again not to run. 

When he did decide to run in 2015, he was opposed and mocked by many of the same Republicans that despised the Tea Party movement.  It seems they tried to destroy him, however, he had his own money and his own brand.  He didn’t need their money or brand so they were unable to stifle the political goals he set forth. 

In some ways the MAGA movement is similar to the Tea Party movement in that they are fiercely loyal to the Constitution and the freedom it promises to secure for the individual citizen.  So ‘Taxed Enough Already’ became ‘Make America Great Again’ and many of the same Republicans that worked to undermine the ‘Tea Party’ have worked to undermine ‘MAGA’.

In Galatians 6:7 we are told ‘Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.’  So then, we must all reap that which we sow if we do not repent and change our ways.  As has been done to Tea Party and MAGA candidates, it is now being done to many of the so called RINOs.  I suppose we can say it is a case of sowing and reaping but let’s call it a reckoning.  A reckoning is not simply vengeance, but rather a settlement of accounts.  So let us identify that which we are witnessing as, let’s say, a RINO reckoning.