Kurt Schlichter: Will the Republican Party Tell the GOP Base To Go Pound Sand?

Who needs those icky rank-and-file Republican voters who ring the doorbells, make the calls, and write the checks? Not the Republican Party! At least that’s what some at the top of the party pyramid think. Some of this elite cabal is utterly disregarding what amounts to the base’s effective unanimity that current GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel needs to go away. After three terms of ignominious failure, she is pushing for a fourth go ‘round as the Republican National Committee (RNC) head honcho and, incredibly, a declining but still significant portion of the 168 committee members who will elect the new RNC Chair at a swank Cali retreat on January 27, 2023, are still behind her. Re-electing Ronna would be a raised middle finger to the base, prompting the base to return the favor. And the base has a lot more middle fingers.

I am backing super-lawyer and long-time RNC member Harmeet Dhillon. We need new blood. We need new ideas and energy. I say we need Harmeet – smart, savvy, and ready for reform. But we also need to make a statement that the GOP is going to hold its leaders accountable for failure not matter how much the party poohbahs want to avoid it. How do we fix this crumbling culture if we refuse to fix ourselves?

What is this elitist love of failure combined with a steadfast determination to ignore the will of the actual voters? It’s inexplicable – perhaps it is some form of insanity, with insanity being defined as doing the same thing again and again expecting a different result. Or perhaps they have a good faith belief that after five failed elections in a row Ronna is going to snap her losing streak, though she has not bothered to explain how she proposes to do that or what changes she intends to make. Of course, she does not intend to make any changes, but she will not tell us that because she won’t talk to us. While appearing with Steve Bannon, she explained that she has no intention of bothering to make her case to the GOP base. Instead, she insisted, she would focus her campaign on the 168 committee members.

Hear that, GOP base? You plebes should go cool your jets, wait for your betters to make their decision, and then obey. The woman who wants your blood, sweat and (far too many) tears – as well as your hard-earned cash – doesn’t want your input.

Well, we’ve got some input, and it’s sure not going to be a check made out to the RNC.

Let’s be clear – there is no dispute that the base wants Ronna run out of town. My own unscientific polls – well, they are at least as scientific as climate change – of the kind of GOP stalwarts who make up my Twitter readership have been devastating. On December 5, 2022, Ronna managed to secure a big .6% (!) of the 5,992 respondents. On December 17, 2022, she got a hefty 1.1%(!) out of 4,957 voters. I guess that’s an improvement. She’s gone from totally rejected to statistically insignificantly less totally rejected.

An average of .85% support – ouch. Here are a few things more popular than Ronna McDaniel:

–    Toe fungus

–    Rage Against the Machine

–    That perverted colonel who is into puppy sex play

–    A perverted colonel who is into puppy sex play who also has toe fungus and likes Rage Against the Machine

Again, Ronna is not bothering to make her case to you, and why would she?  She does not have a case to make. What is the case for Ronna McDaniel IV: Electric Loserroo?

–    She’s a nice person

–    She wants to be Chair again

–    She needs a job

–    She tried hard

–    You should not switch horses in midstream

As a lawyer, this is the kind of case that we what we refer to as “a total loser.” Nice person? Don’t care. Buy a dog. Wants to be Chair again? I want a pony. Needs a job? McDonalds is hiring. You know she’ll land a cushy gig with the Eagle Forum for Families, Eagles, and America. She tried hard? What, is that exceptional? Is that above and beyond? And we should not switch horses in midstream? When should we switch? Now is the longest possible time until an election – if not now, when?

There is no case for Ronna. Yet she still has support. Why?

Because she is friends with a lot of the voting members? Loyalty is good, but shouldn’t that loyalty be to the party, not a person? Because a lot of people like the way business is done at the GOP – with emphasis on “business?” Harmeet has made clear she’ll audit the RNC’s (shaky and sketchy) books and crack down on consultant grifting. That’s got to make the consultant class quake. Because if the rubes block her, then the rubes will get the idea that they matter? Sadly, that seems to be a big part of it.

You have gotten uppity, serfs. How dare you think you matter?

But the base does matter, and the consequences of rejecting the base will be devastating to a party that’s already reeling. What happens if the RNC goes ahead and moons us? If you wanted to find a better way to crush morale, dry up the volunteer pool, and freeze small-dollar donations, tell the base to pound sand and double down on a five-time loser. All the obnoxious texts in the world dunning people for a few bucks is not going to help. 

They want you to take what you are given and like it. They want you to knock and dial and write checks, but they don’t want you to have a say. And that’s unacceptable.

The good news is that they can hear you. They do hear you. RNC members are fleeing the sinking ship. Ronna’s support is slipping away. It’s less significant than it was before Harmeet got in and challenged her – inertia was her friend – but now there is a choice, and those 168 people purporting to represent us must choose. The RNC committee members are feeling the heat – heat you can increase by reaching out, politely, by finding the three reps from your state at www.HireHarmeet.com and sending them an email telling them what you want.

Do not sit this out, people. You matter. And the election for the RNC Chair will tell us if the Republican Party agrees.

Choose wisely, RNC.

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