RITOs are more dangerous than RINOs
An Opinion Column by Richard Helppie
According to polls, there exists a core of Republican voters who will not only vote for Donald Trump in the primaries, but they have also vowed to not vote for any other candidate – except Mr. Trump -- in the general election. They are said to regard all the others in the Republican primary field as RINOs – Republicans in Name Only.
These voters, which I am dubbing “RITOs” – for Republican if Trump Only – are ushering in a second defeat of Mr. Trump by the compromised President Joe Biden. Despite recent polls showing Americans do not want either Mr. Trump or Mr. Biden, a primary vote for Mr. Trump will guarantee another four years of The Big Guy.
It’s a horrible thing for the United States of America.
And its absurd. RINO was meant to slander a person who was insufficiently loyal to the Republican Party or not conservative enough. Mr. Trump has shown little loyalty to the GOP, as his scorched earth policy is plainly visible. His endorsed candidates are harming the party, ask Georgians who are happy with Republican Governor Brian Kemp and who rejected Trump-endorsed Hershel Walker.
And Mr. Trump has never been a true conservative. Being an actual conservative, or progressive for that matter, would require a set of principles. And I’ll just leave it at that.
The Republican Primary Presidential field has any number of candidates who would be much better for the GOP and the country than Mr. Trump. While not endorsing any of them, and not expecting readers to necessarily favor any of them, it is inarguable that there are executives who have run governments available to voters. People with a track record of governing, including finding compromise and making tough decisions. Compromise, once the essence of political progress now can get a successful governor labeled a RINO and unworthy of support. So say the RITOs.
The Anti-RINO Voting Bloc
Who votes against the RINO candidates in the primary elections? The segment of registered Republicans who think Trump was wronged in his re-election bid. There is a minority who have redefined being Republican as being a disciple of Mr. Trump. They must believe that every one of the many people Mr. Trump attacks must somehow be apostate and unworthy of support.
Voters who continue to send a protest vote to the established parties. Americans who watch in disgust as stupid political games are played out by the established parties. They are still looking for change. Absent hopeless or at best long shot candidates Marianne Williamson, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Vivek Ramaswamy, there is no place besides Mr. Trump for the primary voter to vent their displeasure with what they see as an unresponsive and out-of-touch government. Granted, it is odd that Mr. Trump can claim any mantle of populism, but then Mr. Kennedy’s family isn’t exactly unknown in political circles.
A third group is made up of voters who want to send a message about politically inspired prosecution. Alert primary voters have a long list of unanswered questions about how the FBI got involved in DNC-funded false stories of pee tapes, Russian collusion, a technically nonsensical line between Trump Tower and a Russian bank, FISA abuse, etc. etc. Those stories established a familiar pattern strikingly similar to the dramas being played out in courthouses in New York, Florida, Georgia and Washington, D.C. When there are 34 counts for one act of paying off a porn star, with no cited underlying felony, it makes people roll their eyes. Couple the inability of the Democrats to make a case of even-handed justice with the growing Biden issues of document retention, Ukraine conflicts, faux email identities and alleged bank record trail of payments to Biden family members, it’s easy to conclude that the Democrats want Trump as the nominee.
Finally, Democrats who cross-over, as they did in the 2022 mid-terms, to vote for the most extreme MAGA candidates so that they could win in the general election. There are 21 states that have Open or Partially Open Primaries that permit easy crossover voting. Among them key battlegrounds like Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. Democrats, for all intents and purposes, are not conducting primary elections this year, so absent important local races, face no barrier in strategically voting to be sure it is Mr. Trump and not one of the other GOP candidates in November of 2024. They will return to Mr. Biden for the general election.
If you like the censorship, the immigration situation, the inflation, the endless war, the dementia-driven bumbling, and the rising evidence of corruption, then be a RITO so that we have another 4 years of court appointments, idiotic energy policies, crumbling cities, and devastated youth.
It is impossible to endorse either a Republican or the Republican Party, and it is equally impossible to endorse either a Democrat or the Democratic Party. But voting as a RITO pretty much sets up a vote between the election deniers and the dementia deniers in 2024. We can and should do better than that.
It is an interesting premise. Certainly, the Republicans have an identity problem, but then so do the Democrats. I think the frustration is that the government and the bureaucratic state is so bloated (we pay for that), so incentivized to lie, cheat, and defraud the public, that no one really knows what is real anymore. Who can you believe, who can you trust? What is real? How can you have a civil society without truth or a consensus reality? I think Trump is a raving narcissist who makes every issue a personal issue and gets lost in the personal fight and forgets the people. But I also realize that people do trust him to fight the bureaucracy in his own selfish way. He’ll never really help society, though, because he has difficulty getting past his own ego. There is a HUGE majority of the population that are both right, left and middle, that are looking for leadership. I don’t know if we’ll find it.
We’ve created a generation of people that are victims, that need Government to protect them, make life fair for them. We keep empowering the government to do more for people – a power they use to enrich themselves. Government should be half the size it is if not more, and very limited in its responsibilities. It’s all ridiculous. My grandparents came over from Italy and were not given free phones, and stipends and benefits. They were just dirty wops, but they had an opportunity to determine their own destiny. Both of my grandfathers worked dirty manual jobs, but eventually they each were able to buy a home and live the American dream. They took responsibility for their lives. They didn’t whine.
All I know is that I own me! No one can tell me what to think, feel, do, or say. God gave me a brain, and I intend to use it to guide me through life. I am willing to take full responsibility for my choices, good and bad. Where is the person or people that will stand up for our individuality, our right to own ourselves. All government wants is power, and control. And don’t get me started on our Media – right and left.
RICE – Respect, Responsibility, Integrity, Character. If you live your life with those qualities, you can be Excellent!
Nicely done and a good moniker for the RITO crowd. I am afraid you are right, to many Republicans are anti RINO just to spite their own party. The Dems have them too, they are called "Progressives" so neither side is without it's fools.