The GOP must make a choice: Mitch McConnell or us

As far as I am concerned, the Republican Party no longer deserves my support. For years, I have fought against “RINOs” as hard as I’ve fought against Democrats because at the end of the day, they’re the same thing. They’re The Swamp. They’re the Uniparty Establishment that pretends to bicker among themselves but invariably agrees to the same failed policies that got us into the various messes we’ve been in since Ronald Reagan left office.

We enjoyed a partial reprieve during President Trump’s first term in the White House. He was not able to drain The Swamp, but he kept The Swamp at bay and took out chunks of their power, if only temporarily. Now that Joe Biden is in office, The Swamp is resurging to its previous form. But things are actually worse than a simple return to the status quo. After four years of Trump, The Swamp is no longer complacent. They’ve seen that their power can be affected if the right person is in the White House so they’re trying to prevent that from happening again. And Mitch McConnell is leading the charge.

If Mitch represents the @GOP, then the GOP does not represent me. https://t.co/9WpRG63WjO

— JD Rucker (@JDRucker) February 15, 2021

I’m not one who gives up easily. Since 2010, I’ve fought to bring about changes in the GOP. I started the American Conservative Movement in hopes that it would fight the onslaught of the Establishment within the GOP, but I quickly shelved it because the Tea Party formed at the same time with more momentum. It was never about personal glory; as long as someone was fighting the good fight, I had no problem being a member of another group rather than a leader in my own group. As the line goes in Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here, “did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage”?

It’s time to face the facts. The GOP may be too far gone to be salvaged. They were able to easily crush the Tea Party in the aftermath of the 2016 election, but most conservatives weren’t too worried because MAGA had essentially replaced it. Two things allowed this to happen: MAGA complacency and the flaws found in disparate Tea Party factions. Now, we have to decide whether to try to fix the GOP or leave it to McConnell and his cronies for now as we play the long game.

To me, it seems apparent that the GOP will not be fixed as long as Mitch McConnell is leading it. The problem lawmakers face is that McConnell may be destroying his own reputation among the conservative base, but he still wields tremendous power over the electoral futures of Republican candidates. His control over various PACs and localized kingmakers means crossing him can be career suicide for both current and future GOP candidates. Some estimates I’ve seen put his fingers in nearly a quarter of the GOP megadonors’ pockets. As long as he controls the GOP purse strings, he controls the electoral narrative.

We are going to relaunch the American Conservative Movement in the coming weeks. We had made the decision last summer to suspend it temporarily so we could focus our efforts on reelecting President Trump and other conservative Republicans. Because its initial revival last year was so close to the election, it could not yield results in time. We need this organization to be playing the long game, but the 2020 election was too crucial for us to spend our efforts building for the years to come. We were needed in the here and now, so we put the ACM on hold.

The GOP has to make a choice. If the greater party structure is going to fall in line with McConnell’s false brand of conservatism, then there’s nothing the Tea Party or the ACM or anyone else can do to fix it from within. And as much as we’d love to look at a new party, the only way that can be successful is if Donald Trump puts all of his weight behind it. If he’s going to try to fix the GOP, as seems to be the case, then the best way we can support him is to leave the GOP altogether until he fixes it. That may sound counterintuitive, but stay with me on it…

Assuming Donald Trump is forming a new faction within the GOP, our support must come in the form of embracing his efforts from the outside. The Republican Establishment will not feel the pressure from us as long as we’re still registered as Republicans. They definitely will not feel the heat as long as our dollars are still flowing to the party and its affiliated PACs. If Donald Trump puts together an official organization, then that will deserve our support. In the meantime, we need to put our time and treasure into outside conservative efforts.

We need to make our voices heard on this issue. That means we need to actively oppose whoever and whatever McConnell supports. Even though the election is just over three months behind us, primary season is already getting started. McConnell will embrace the Establishment Republican candidates he can control, which means we must put all of our support behind conservative candidates who oppose his efforts. As Todd Starnes Tweeted:

Trump supporters are the predominant voice in the Republican Party. They should start acting like it and stop electing leaders who are RINOs.

— toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) February 15, 2021

There is no longer a single GOP. There are McConnellite Establishment Republicans and there are conservatives. The two must remain separate until one of them is abolished. I will not be a Republican under Mitch McConnell.

COVID-19 lockdowns are taking down an independent news outlet

Nobody said running a media site would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.

Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.

When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.

Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the resurgence of lockdowns that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.

The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We need approximately $17,300 to stay afloat through March when we hope the economy will be more open, but more would be wonderful and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.

The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. In June, 2020, we had 614,192. In November, 2020, we hit 1.2 million visitors.

We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.

As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.