Good riddance to establishment GOP

(Richard A. Viguerie) – Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) who just lost by 42 points in his primary, recently said to GreenvilleOnline.com that the “fear-driven conservative movement . . . will ultimately die out and cost the party dearly unless leaders resist the ‘demagoguery’ and ‘misinformation’ of its figureheads.”

According to conservative ratings, Inglis has been good on legislative votes. So you’d think, instead of insulting his base, he’d be saying this White House has raised demagoguery and misinformation to new levels. He’d say the left spews hate.

Legislative vote ratings, however, don’t measure leadership — or humility.

The piece goes on to say that Inglis “believes a majority of Republicans in Congress think similarly . . . but are afraid to speak out because ‘hot’ voices in television and radio talks shows have the microphone and are driving angry voters.”

But it’s Inglis — and like-minded Republicans — who make people angry. They have shown no leadership in attempting to fix what is wrong with Washington. They have passively, and actively, contributed to big government — which accounts for their abysmal approval ratings (Gallup, 20 percent).

Neither the grassroots outcry nor the 42-point primary defeat registered this for Inglis. Good riddance.

Americans, particularly conservatives, are angry because of the corruption in Washington. When Republicans controlled the White House and both chambers of Congress, there was individual and institutional corruption. But most Republican incumbents have demonstrated no sign they will change what was wrong.

Republicans created the K Street project — forcing lobbyists to pony up money. They use other people’s money through earmarks to get themselves re-elected. They ignore the Constitution. They created big-government programs — like expanding federal control of education through No Child Left Behind, the TARP bailouts and the 2003 prescription drug benefit.

Those are just some of many examples of things that Republicans were supposed to prevent from happening.

President Barack Obama and the Democrats have, of course, proven to be worse, which is the only – and I emphasize only – reason certain Republican incumbents will be re-elected.

The people Inglis calls “angry voters,” however, are voting for principled constitutional conservatives, who will replace the Republicans responsible for giving us the Obama-Pelosi-Reid government.

The Associated Press reports that Inglis’ sour grapes were targeted at people like Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and other Washington outsiders.

Outspoken conservatives often say things in dramatic or flamboyant fashion. That brings attention to problems covered up or distorted by the dinosaur media and the political establishment.

For years, Democrats funded their allies who advocate for the far left, like ACORN and Planned Parenthood, with taxpayer money. Congressional Republicans never prevented Democrats from using taxpayer money to advance the left’s agenda — because Republicans relied on the same system of cronyism and big-government corruption.

Conservatives using the new media offer more information, ideas and leadership than congressional Republicans. Outspoken conservatives and the tea parties have done a lot to explain what’s wrong with Washington.

When Republicans need support, they seek it from conservatives in the new and alternative media. How strange, if not cowardly and weak, for Inglis and his colleagues to claim they are “afraid” to speak out against those they use. Republicans like Inglis and Sen. Bob Bennett of Utah are passive-aggressive — until they are beaten in primaries.

Inglis is also quoted as wondering how Ronald Reagan “would fare today on Glenn Beck’s show. Glenn Beck would eat him up. Reagan the optimist.”

For starters, Reagan brought us out of the second-worst American presidency, the Carter years. Inglis and his Republican colleagues brought us the single worst American president, Barack Obama.

Conservatives like Bill Buckley, myself and others did criticize Reagan when he went astray. He didn’t like it.

Conservatives inside the White House would secretly tell us to keep it up. Reagan, they said, needed that criticism. It countered the influence of Don Regan, Jim Baker, Mike Deaver, George Schultz and other big-government Republicans in the White House, as well as the enormous desire to be liked by the Washington establishment — which is anti-conservative.

Reagan got upset with us. But he never publicly berated his conservative base.

Congressional Republicans, however, have shown time and again that they have a different agenda than the people who put them where they are. They want our money and support. But they want us to be lapdogs.

Our country is on its way to financial ruin, increased government control over the private sector, the loss of individual liberty, the decimation of our Constitution and the ruin of our national sovereignty.

Inglis thinks outspoken conservatives and angry voters are the problem. We need Republicans who, at a minimum, have a clue.

There are, however, a handful of principled, boat-rocking Republican incumbents — like Mike Pence (Ind.), Michelle Bachman (Minn.) and Paul Ryan (Wis.) in the House, and Jim DeMint (S.C.) and Tom Coburn (Okla.) in the Senate.

They, and those like them, will become the new leadership of the Republican Party.

(Richard A. Viguerie is chairman of ConservativeHQ.com and author of “Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause.”)