Now that the reality of Obamacare is setting in, we can all be mindful of the fact that we can thank Chief Judas John Roberts for the pain. To refresh memories, it was Roberts who cast the deciding vote when the law was facing its 
challenge at the Supreme Court, and who single-handedly imposed it on us by deciding that contrary to what even its proponents stated, the IRS penalty for non-compliance wasn’t, in fact, a “penalty” but a “tax”, and therefore constitutional.
Reportedly, he did so with his judicial legacy in mind, concerned that his Court would be treated by history as being too “ideological” or too “conservative”. Therefore, he found a way to throw the decision to the liberals.
In other words, he showed “moderation”.
And what was the result of that “moderation”? Well, the Left still hates him… but now the Right does, too.
What’s my point in revisiting this history? To underscore the magnitude of the mistake the Establishment GOP is making right now in pursuing the same “logic” in their approach to politics as Roberts did in his approach to his legacy.
I first started The Island in 2006, and in the lead-up to the 2008 elections I was vocal and vehement about my refusal to support any candidates who would knuckle under on certain fundamental principles. I don’t consider myself an “extremist” or “fringe wacko bird”. I’m a traditional conservative.
Now here we are, in 2013, with the Establishment GOP essentially at war with conservatives, castigating and denigrating the Tea Party and others who refuse to go along with their eternal “compromising” and “moderation”, even to the extent that Karl Rove and others are forming PACs specifically tasked with targeting and defeating conservative opponents in electoral primaries.
Who are they going to replace those votes with? They’re putting themselves in the position of relying on the same votes the Dems already have locked up. This is a strategic error of the first order.
Nowhere was this better illustrated than in last week’s gubernatorial race in Virginia, pitting uber-leftist Terry McAuliffe against conservative Ken Cuccinelli, a Tea Party favorite. The Democrat Party poured a tsunami of money into the race, while the GOP refused to give Cuccinelli anything more than token support. The result was a squeaker win by McAuliffe who managed to eke out a 2% margin of victory in a race Cuccinelli could have easily won, thereby assuring that the GOP was once again able to successfully snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Let me emphasize the point of that story: THE ESTABLISHMENT GOP WOULD RATHER SEE A SOCIALIST WIN THAN SUPPORT A CONSERVATIVE.
![th[2]](https://theviewfromtheisland.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/th2.jpg)
Instead of busily “compromising” with the Dem/socialists, you’d think they’d be trying to find some common ground with conservatives. Instead, they’re setting fire to their own ship while they’re in the middle of the ocean.
Really, really stupid.
© Brian Baker 2013
The View from the Island 
Really, really stupid is right. Should the GOP foist another McCain, Romney or, now, Christi on the conservative base they will end up on the losing end once more as the conservative base will sit home once more, this time probably looking seriously into a 3rd party, realizing the GOP will never leave its ‘moderation’ theme of self immolation….
I couldn’t agree more. Their shtick has gotten REAL old now.
And speaking of Chief Justice Roberts. I would produce Roberts’ decision as strong argument that the left has a legion of private investigators who do nothing but dig up really serious dirt on anyone who poses a threat to the Marxist March to Misery….
I’m just not sold on the idea they even need such things.
There seems to be a “beltway-itis” that infects these political hacks — and no matter what anyone says, the Supreme Court is still a political position — and makes far too many of them abandon whatever political principles they have — either claimed or in actuality — because they want to be regarded as “reasonable” or some such horsepuckey.
It doesn’t matter that on the LEFT they can be as stubborn and “unreasonable” as a 3 dollar mule and get away with it. Too many on the Right just tuck their tails and run in fear.
Whether you’re a progressive/liberal/communist/ Alinskyite-Cloward-&-Piven top-down-bottom-up-implode-America-and-capitalism Democrat or whether you’re a progressive-establishment-moderate Republican, regardless, Tea Party types and Heritage Action Sentinels and politicos like Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Mike Lee are an embarrassment and no fun to be around. Those radical righties are clueless about the importance of congressional comity, committee assignments, gangs of pick-a-number, and the shear joy to be found in spending other people’s money.
LOL!
I guess THAT about sums it up.
Good essay on Roberts. The Chicago Way showed Roberts his IRS/NSA file and he acted accordingly. The days of telling scumbags to take a flying leap at a rolling donut are over with the gutless wimps in DC.
Yeah. Sacramento, too.
I think the Establishment GOP is past its “use by” date. WAY past.
Could we be witnessing a new era? Ideas v. party? Who knows. The leftist/progressive agenda is being implemented and frankly, I don’t give a rip about ‘party.’ It’s irrelevant at this point, is it not?
As for Justice Roberts, wasn’t his assessment that it IS a tax and not a penalty? Wasn’t that the real intent?
Just some comments to spur discussion.
As for you, BrianR, you are a lot of things, but “traditional” ain’t one of ’em! 😉
Why, thank you, ma’am, for those very kind words.
I have always found the beaten path to be kind of … well… beaten.
As to Roberts and his decision: yes, that’s exactly what he did. I think that’s what I wrote, too.
“… Roberts who cast the deciding vote when the law was facing its challenge at the Supreme Court, and who single-handedly imposed it on us by deciding that contrary to what even its proponents stated, the IRS penalty for non-compliance wasn’t, in fact, a ‘penalty’ but a ‘tax’, and therefore constitutional.”
On your opening thought: I think we may well be entering that “new era”. I’ve never seen anything like this before, with such low approval ratings of government — EVERY branch of government. The natives are DEFINITELY restless.
How this translates into real-world action is yet to be seen.
Interesting times indeed, along the vein of the ancient Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times”.
I’m not sure all the bru ha ha about lack of tractability of a new 3rd party. You know. It would take them too long to gain a base etc.
Well I don’t think the GOP took that long from inception to POTUS.
1854 to 1861 … Seven years from founding to White House.
Buck, I couldn’t agree more. That’s one of the reasons I’ve been agitating it for so long.
I’m not even sure it would be a THIRD party anymore, since the Establishment GOP has become a slightly-less-liberal wing of the Democrats.
A. The liberals I know believe that Roberts ruling the fee as a Tax that is Constitutional equals that the law is also Constitutional. Not.
B. Once again the E-GOP proving themselves to be utterly clueless.
c. I am a Crispian. I will vote my principles or nuttin’!!
Yay, Nee!
I’m with ya!
And to think, in ’08 WE were the assholes. Good post, pard. I wonder if Roberts will even allow standing to the case that a revenue bill originated in the Senate, as opposed to the House. Not holding my breath.
Clyde, looking back on those days… I don’t know whether to laugh or hit a wall. We were definitely at the front of the pack.
That’s an interesting point. Because if the Obamacare penalty IS a “tax” — and Roberts said it was — then Obamacare’s unconstitutional because ALL revenue bills MUST originate in the House.
Excellent article Brian. I agree about Chief Judas Roberts (BTW “Chief Judas” is appropriate). I don’t know what the Obama Administration has on Roberts; but it must be serious. It has to be more than a few unpaid parking tickets or some over-due books at the library. This has got to be really bad, like sleeping with sheep or child porn.
Meanwhile the GOP has definitely shot themselves in the foot. Virginia would have been won by Cuccinelli if the GOP would have given him any kind of support. But it appears that the elites in the GOP are either: 1. Stupid or 2. In the pay of the Democrats. There are no other options..
Thanks, Gray, for the kind words.
I go for Option #1. They’ve proven their utter stupidity time after time after time.
Conservatism EMBARRASSES them. There’s no other explanation I can see. They’ve bought into the socialists’ drivel that conservatives are a bunch of knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing, gun-loving, fundamentalist Christian yahoos. They guzzled that Kool-Aid by the gallon. They’re just as “elitist” as their Democrat brethren.
They’d rather we all just dried up and blew away……… AFTER leaving them a proxy for our votes, of course.
One other thing, BrianR, about ACA and Justice Roberts. ACA was first a Senate bill, passed, then sent to the House. That was procedurally okay, though still not constitutionally, when it had a “penalty”. When, however, the Supremes said that the one part of the Act brought before it met constitutional muster because the so-called “penalty” was in reality a tax, that made the whole ACA unconstitutional in a second way, that because all tax and revenues bills must start in the House.
That case has not been taken by anyone to a federal court. Please, legal minds way superior to my neophyte pea-brain correct me if I err.
I absolutely concur, DrP.
If it IS a “tax”, it’s unconstitutional because any revenue bill MUST originate in the House.
Roberts is a complete jackass.
Is there a possibility Roberts was deliberately leaving an opening for revisiting the ACA?
If he was saying it is a tax, then SURELY he knows a tax cannot originate in the Senate but could not rule on that as it was not part of the suit, maybe?
I studied a little law but there was too many ipso’s and facto’s for me to get proficient.
Well, you’ve asked for my opinion, so here it is.
Anything’s possible, of course, and I can’t read minds. But I don’t credit him with that much foresight or wiles. I think he was aggressively searching for a way to give that one to the Dems. He’d been under heavy criticism since his appointment for being “too conservative” and “too activist” and “too ideological”. He knew this legislation was the crown jewel of leftism, and wanted to give it to them because ruling it unconstitutional would be further “proof” of their claim, at least in his lame brain.
As for “not rule on that as it was not part of the suit”, that’s exactly right. It wasn’t. Even the laws defenders didn’t claim it was a “tax”. If they HAD, I’m sure the plaintiffs would have raised exactly that issue as part of the case. Roberts blindsided them by just pulling that out of his ass. They had zero chance to address it because it wasn’t even an ISSUE.
I echo your question, Buck. One of the first things I thought after hearing the ruling and Roberts stand was, FINALLY someone unmasked this law for what it is — redistribution of monies — period!
Since Roberts “.pulled that one out of his ass..” wasn’t he making a ruling on something that had not been in the original suit?
That’s exactly why I wrote that. In fact, during oral arguments, when asked the government’s attorney SPECIFICALLY denied that it was a “tax”. Said it hadn’t been contemplated nor enacted as a “tax”, and that it wasn’t being defended as a “tax”. The entire “tax” aspect was something Roberts simply pulled out of his ass, an issue NEITHER SIDE had raised in any way as part of the case.
In other words Roberts sold out for his “legacy”. The irony of that will be his “legacy” will most likely stain his tenure no matter what he does henceforth.
Yep. Exactly. The ultimate failure of “moderation” for so-called “conservatives”. It just comes back and ultimately bites them in the ass.
Brian;
What fools would this be?
“McCain: People are begging me to run for president again”
http://hotair.com/archives/2013/11/11/mccain-people-are-begging-me-to-run-for-president-again/
“It’s sad that Maverick’s taking this idea just seriously enough that he’d think to mention it to another human being. ”
“Could he maybe be thinking of challenging Hillary in the Democratic primary instead?”
I think this comment of yours hits the mark right on, ” THE ESTABLISHMENT GOP WOULD RATHER SEE A SOCIALIST WIN THAN SUPPORT A CONSERVATIVE.”
Christie a conservative, what a joke. I can’t believe the number of people that say they would vote for him in 2016.
All someone has to say is that they will comprimise and members of the PSP fall all over themselves to say how great he/she are.
Hey, Jev! How ya doin’?
Yeah, it’s just amazing. McIdiot’s probably hallucinating. Or maybe a whole bunch of Dems are asking him to run again, as he’s so easy to beat.
He was so easy to beat because he handed the election over to the Dems.
It could’ve been close had he hammered Obama’s weaknesses. But, no, he had to play nicey nicey.
And got his head handed to him on a platter.
But probably a good thing because if McCain had won then in ’12 we surely would’ve had Obama or Clinton and again in ’16.
Had Romney not been such a whimp we could’ve been rid of Obama now but another establishment guy and another ass kickin’.
(fade in music)
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn!
(fade out music)
All totally true, Buck.
Worse, if McIdiot had won, he’d have been no better than Obozo anyway. They believed in all the same things, only varying in small matters of degree.
McAsshat was Obozo without the suntan.
The way things turned out, now the Dems completely own all this crap, with no GOP fingerprints on them anywhere. It sets things up perfectly for the GOP to exploit… IF they’re smart enough to do so. Of course, the point of my essay is that instead of doing that, they’re continuing their same tired, old, stupid ways.
John Roberts is a name that will go down in infamy, right along with George W. and HW Bush. The gates cannot open wide enough for these three, especially with Boehner, McCain, Pelosi, Reid and sooo many others blocking the way in an attempt to stop themselves from being dragged through and down the fiery slide into HELL.
Yep, Shocky, I agree.
To hell with all of them. Enough’s enough.
Brian;
I have never been convinced that a third party is the way to go.
Yes the PSP leadership is becoming Democrat/liberal lite. Is it up to us to get them more to the right [if possible]. A third party will, I believe, not ensure the election of one of them on a national ticket. Even if a POTUS was elected from this third party what support would he have in Congress?
Don’t think that I like the bad leadership of the PSP crappy GOP, Brian knows how feel about the liberal lite Aholes in charge.
Hell, it may well not work, Jev.
I’ve been writing for years, since I started blogging — and been saying it for decades longer — that this country is paralleling the historic course of the Western Roman Empire into decline and collapse. I see nothing to change that opinion.
This country exists “with the consent of the governed”, and if “the governed” are not going to do anything to change its suicidal course, it’s over. Just a matter of time.
“Get them more to the right”? Fine. I’ve been hearing that for over a decade. How’s that been working out?
There’s no God-given guarantee as to the continued existence of liberty in this country. It’s up to us to keep it going. How we doing on that?
Oh, the USA will still exist, just like Italy and Rome still EXIST, but liberty will be gone, the Constitution will be meaningless, and it will continue to decline into irrelevance or, even worse, tyrannical socialism.
And it will all happen “with the consent of the governed” because we weren’t able to effect any meaningful change of course.
i remember that essay well..Bread and Circuses, baby!!
Yep, Nee, that was it.
You win a prize!
LOL
Perhaps the decline of the republic is parallel with the decline of education.
My uncle who raised me was born in 1900. In the Eighth Grade he had to read Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
They probably don’t see his works even in colleges now.
Well, education is part of it, I think. The turning of our “educational” system into a propaganda ministry.
But it’s only one of MANY problems and abuses.
I stopped giving money to the republican party a long time ago but I have to confess with some shame that while I usually try and support worthy candidates if I can I also did not send any money to the Cuccinelli campaign, so I would be hard pressed to fault the GOP here when I didn’t step up either. I hope conservative republicans who may still be giving to the Republican Party will use their own power of the purse to defund the GOP and give directly to worthy candidates instead. Cuccinelli is a lesson to us all that money is the weapon of choice in the civil war we’re fighting and if we aren’t willing to sacrifice a bit of it important battles will be lost.
But the thing is, CW, unless you’re a Virginia resident, the Cuccinelli race wasn’t really YOUR responsibility. That was one for Virginia residents, and doing that sort of work is the PROFESSED purpose of the national GOP.
Those are very good points, Brian. Unfortunately, state lines don’t stop the Left from peddling their influence. I wouldn’t be surprised if Terry McAulliffe has a long-term plan that leads to the white house.
LOL!
You’re absolutely right, of course.
Which is EXACTLY why I hand the Establishment GOP hacks a Baker Bonehead Prize ( the anti-Nobel ) for their inaction in that race.
If there was ANY organization in history more cemented to long-proven failed ideas, I’m certainly not aware of it. Hell, even Ford finally gave up on the Edsel and the Pinto…
Hahahaha. Actually, Brian, since the Nobel prize has become a joke anything that is anti-Nobel would have to be a great honor. But – no matter. I think we agree that the GOP sucks.
With a big (((( WHOOOOOSH ))))
Brian…I watched Bob Beckel on The Five this am- and he had the audacity to claim that the Bowie State (predominantly black college in MD) students must be lying about the fact they cannot afford their new insurance…Deductibles of 3k? Most of those students can’t be covered by their parents because, well, plantation and all that shit. And Beckel then whined about the worst health care delivery before ACA!!
Could this book give us insight? Should I care? But FFS, someone’s gotta! 🙂
“Crowds and Power” (1962) by the Nobel laureate Elias Canetti. Born in Bulgaria in 1905 and educated in Vienna and Britain, Canetti was unmatched in his understanding of the passions, and the delusions, of crowds.
Well, I’ve never heard of the book, so I can’t comment on that.
As to Beckel: well, denial is all the socialists have. SOMEONE must be “lying”, and it sure can’t be the ObaMessiah, can it?
[…] Dorchester County Md Headlines […]
Thanks, Nee.
Sorry I’m late to the party. The defeat of Cucinelli by the establishment GOP has me so pissed that I still can’t see straight. We don’t need anymore evidence of the establishment’s malfeasance and treachery. It’s on full display. Hell, they’re not even bashful about it.
Great post and comments.
Thanks, Nox.
You’re always welcome, “late” or not.
Hardnox, I too have had a hard time seeing straight since the GOP abandoned Cooch. I know in the future we cannot send dollars to the GOP/RNC, but conservative candidates will still have to run under the republican banner to defeat the libtards. The fight for the TEA party is to retake the Republican party and return it to a force for good constitutional governance. Bush slipped John Roberts in on us, it was his second attempt to foist a moderate on the court. GW can rot in hell along with the rest of ’em so far as I’m concerned. Roberts goes down in history as our generation’s Benedict Arnold.
Hope you and yours in sunny CA or wherever they/you may be at the time have a Happy Thanksgiving Brian. And same to all who may happen upon this. Happy Thanksgiving with thanks to George Washington for realizing the annual importance of remembering such a truly American day.
Shocky, thank you very much, and all the same to you and yours.
Awrite! We’ve been stuck on “54” long enough. Either make a comment we can comment back on or start a new thread.
Gee, Mom, I’m having a hard time coming up with a topic.
LOL
….57…
LOL
Coming soon…