{"id":26064,"date":"2023-10-24T05:00:18","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T09:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=26064"},"modified":"2023-10-23T17:00:56","modified_gmt":"2023-10-23T21:00:56","slug":"lab-rats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2023\/10\/24\/lab-rats\/","title":{"rendered":"Lab Rats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I was skimming through an interview with Mitt Romney about his decision to retire from the Senate<\/a>.\u00a0 Naturally it was thoroughly self-serving and delusionary about almost everything he mentions; his motives, the actions of the other politicians in both parties and about the needs of the country.<\/p>\n

But one line seemed true, \u201cWhat he seemed to know for sure was that he no longer fit in his current party. Throughout our two years of interviews, I heard Romney muse repeatedly about leaving the GOP. He\u2019d stayed long after he stopped feeling at home there\u2014long after his five sons had left\u2014because he felt a quixotic duty to save it.\u201d<\/p>\n

So even someone as dense as Mitt Romney recognizes that the Republican party is being pushed away from its current orientation, as a sham conservative organization.\u00a0 Of course, Romney thinks that what he believes is the true conservative creed.\u00a0 But he\u2019s an idiot so he can be excused.\u00a0 Who can\u2019t be excused are people like Mitch McConnell and his henchmen or Paul Ryan.\u00a0 These are men who used their power in Congress to sell out their constituency to the Left and to the vested interests that are their paymasters.<\/p>\n

But the problem is that pushing the Republican party toward the right is a herculean task that only glacially makes any progress.\u00a0 The inertia toward the priorities of people like Mitch McConnell is overwhelming and is continuously reinforced by the culture and business that Washington is built on.\u00a0 That\u2019s the reality.\u00a0 So be it.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s why anyone who is at all serious about trying to change this country has to come up with a new approach that doesn\u2019t depend on trying to reform the Republican Party from within.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not talking about trying to create a third political party.\u00a0 That would just waste incredible resources and probably achieve nothing.<\/p>\n

What is needed is a stand-alone organization that can effect change directly at all levels and in all facets of life.\u00a0 In the political arena it can be a PAC lobbying at the federal, state and local level.\u00a0 When lobbying fails it can fund the campaign of a primary challenger against the recalcitrant law maker.<\/p>\n

It can provide legal defense when the federal government and some state and local governments unfairly persecute those on the Right.\u00a0 It can bring cases to the Supreme Court (for as long as we hold a majority there) to end unconstitutional laws.<\/p>\n

It can act as a community advocate complaining to corporations about products or even corporate policies that disadvantage or anger our constituency.\u00a0 In this capacity this organization can use media coverage or even advertising to embarrass or put on notice corporations disrespecting their own customers.\u00a0 And if all else fails it can sue them to force change.<\/p>\n

And finally, this organization can act as an incubator for any initiatives or programs that would facilitate conservatives flourishing inside of the progressive prison, we find ourselves in. \u00a0Maybe there could be a program for providing credit to private and religious schools in blue states so that more people can bring their children up safely.\u00a0 Maybe whole industries could be financed like a real attempt to foster a conservative (or at least non-woke) film industry.\u00a0 Or any one of a thousand business opportunities that would be happily patronized by the Right if they provided a competitive alternative to the woke competition.<\/p>\n

Now none of this is new.\u00a0 I\u2019ve said it a dozen times before (my apologies to my faithful readers).\u00a0 My point in repeating it here is this.\u00a0 Until such time as something like this is begun there won\u2019t be any chance of progress for our side.\u00a0 Right now, we\u2019re like the lab rats pressing the lever and waiting for the food tablet to appear.\u00a0 We\u2019re not in charge of anything.\u00a0 We\u2019re just part of the experiment.\u00a0 If we want to take control of our lives we\u2019ll have to bust out of the cage.\u00a0 And until we see one of the lab rats with a file sawing through the bars of the cage we might as well stop hitting the food lever.\u00a0 Starvation would be a cleaner death than what they have in store for us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I was skimming through an interview with Mitt Romney about his decision to retire from the Senate.\u00a0 Naturally it was thoroughly self-serving and delusionary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1341,1513],"class_list":["post-26064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","tag-building-new-institutions","tag-rebuilding-from-the-ground-up"],"yoast_head":"\nLab Rats - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2023\/10\/24\/lab-rats\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lab Rats - 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