Imagine if Republicans had supermajorities in both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives. We could pass an endless list of conservative priorities without worry of a presidential veto.
But what if dozens of Republican lawmakers refused to enact these policies? What if they actually teamed up with the democratic leadership in the house to pass liberal bills that Biden would then sign into law? Sounds impossible, right?
This sort of horror show scenario is quite real at the state level. For example, Republicans have supermajority control of the Wyoming House, 57-5, against the Democrats. But when you look at the actual voting records, those with liberal voting records number 34, those with conservative records number 25, and only three members fall into the ‘moderate’ category. So conservative priorities like school choice, banning transgender surgeries for minors, and getting porn out of the classroom didn’t pass this year. Democrats are basically in charge of a state Trump won with 70% of the vote in 2020.
Unfortunately, this sort of thing is common in a lot of red states. A Daily Wire investigation found that the most liberal Republicans holding office in the 50 state legislatures was Hawaii. Not a surprise, but the state with the second most liberal Republicans was deep-red South Carolina. Just a few weeks ago, the South Carolina legislature passed a progressive “hate crimes” bill as a gift to their woke corporate masters who want to pump up their ESG scores.
The RINOs in the South Carolina House are so liberal that they kicked members of the SC Freedom Caucus out of their House GOP Caucus. What was the Freedom Caucus’s crime? They publicly exposed their duplicitous colleagues for having an “R” next to their name while voting like liberals.
So how is it possible that liberals and moderates are in control of deep red states? There are three reasons. First, most political media attention is focused on Washington. There is not a state-level version of Fox News. Local newspapers are dying and it’s difficult to find quality state capitol reporting. Second, most Republican voters don’t even know who their state rep or their state senator is. So if you don’t know who your state lawmakers are, and there’s no coverage of what they’re doing, it’s no surprise that the inmates are in charge of the prison.
The third reason is that the “inmates” form an Iron Triangle consisting of the executive branch, the woke bureaucracies, and the lobbyists.
Together, they constitute the Establishment, and with their lawyers, advisers, PR experts, and staffers, they operate 365 days out of the year to protect and expand their plunder against taxpayers.
And they use establishment state lawmakers to do their bidding.
Meanwhile, conservative state lawmakers are part-time. For most of the year, they are thinking about their full-time jobs and their families. But when they are working in the state capitol, they have little to no staff, are paid very little, and have few people to help them properly legislate.
Even an objective observer can clearly see that the system is intentionally rigged against conservatives. And since there’s no media attention, deception thrives in the dark.
This surreal situation is especially demoralizing given that all of the big issues of the day are at the state level. Yes, conservatives must keep their focus on Washington because of inflation, the war in Ukraine, and other pressing national issues. But election integrity, abortion, school choice, and rising crime are all state issues. Not to mention porn in schools, ESG mandates, and bloated state government spending.
Parents finally woke up and started fighting school boards when they saw what government-run education was doing to their kids. I strongly recommend that we seize that passion and direct it to our country’s state houses. It’s time for a revolution.
RELATED: 19 Statehouses Have Bigger Republican Majorities Than Florida. This Group Is Making Sure They Act Like It.
Thankfully, we’re starting to see signs of that happening. County GOP committees are censuring or voting “no confidence” in their liberal Republican state legislatures in South Carolina, Idaho, and elsewhere. Republicans are also electing strong conservatives to be state GOP chairmen, like Matt Rinaldi in Texas, John Wahl in Alabama, Dave Williams in Colorado, and Dorothy Moon in Idaho.
And finally, conservative lawmakers are organizing state freedom caucuses so that our values are finally being pushed forward in state capitols. These freedom caucuses are also shining a spotlight on the differences between themselves and their liberal Republican colleagues. Exposing the RINOs’ hypocrisy is getting noticed by voters who are sick and tired of “go along to get along” Republicans.
You say you want a revolution? One is finally coming to a state capitol near you. Don’t let this opportunity go to waste.
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Andrew Roth is president of the State Freedom Caucus Network. Mr. Roth has appeared on ABC, CNBC, MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN, Fox News, and the Fox Business Channel. His writings have appeared in The New York Times, POLITICO, U.S. News, National Review, The Washington Examiner, and The Daily Wire.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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