My Email Turns Republicans Into Conservatives

For the past several weeks, a group calling itself the “NRSC” has been inundating my inbox, warning that Obama was about to “grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants.” I could combat this by donating money to ensure the Republicans win control of the Senate. Apparently, this “NRSC” is the National Republican Senatorial Committee, a pillar of the same GOP establishment that previously spent that past year and a half trying to pass amnesty under the guise of “comprehensive immigration reform.” I must have a new email filter that turns even Republicans in Washington into conservatives. 

In the months following the 2012 election, the NRSC and its allies in the Chamber and on K Street have loudly told the press they would fight conservatives in primaries. No longer would they let conservatives dictate the policy debate in Washington. A consultant tied to the NRSC even poked fun at conservatives in one state for not basing their primary vote on the candidate who can obtain the most federal pork. 

This new NRSC occupying my inbox, however, rails against Obama’s progressive policies, his crony allies and “Hollywood billionaires” try to prop up a Democrat Senate. For just a donation of $1, I can be treated to a stream of rhetoric and priorities sadly lacking the rest of the year. If I give NRSC a donation at a certain time, they will match my donation three or four times over from their own funds. How that math works apparently wasn’t covered in my college classes. 

My wife’s email seems to have a new filter also, turning Democrats into Time Lords, waging pressing policy fights from the 19th Century. It seems this new email filter is hitting folks on all parts of the political spectrum.

Obviously, this political morphing isn’t due to any new filter on my email, but, rather the election calendar. With less than two months until the midterm elections, the NRSC has discovered that base voters might be a handy asset in the campaign’s final days. 

The House Democrats, who have no chance of taking back the majority, raised 3 times as much as Republicans from small-dollar donations at one point this summer. Voter enthusiasm, while still favoring Republicans, isn’t as intense as it was in 2010. Voter turnout in primaries is also down from that wave-year election. Perhaps the trash-talking of conservatives by establishment Republicans and their lobbyist allies wasn’t the brightest tactical move. 

I’ve lost count of the number of DC Republicans who have told me, “we have nothing against conservatives…I’m a conservative.” If they didn’t first look around the room to see who was around, their eyes betrayed that they felt they should. 

My friend Erick Erickson reminds his readers today that Republicans in DC are grumbling that the Senate Conservatives Fund hasn’t yet spent money in support of Republican candidates this November. This is the same Conservatives Fund that was just recently the political equivalent of Typhoid Mary. Any candidate they touched in a primary was off-limits at the NRSC. Another great tactical move. 

So, sadly, my inbox doesn’t have any permanent magic to make Republicans into conservatives. Its just a quirk of the calendar. Just as Democrats shed their Progressive skin and fall in love with skeet shooting or scream that the 8-hour workday is about to be repealed, Republicans remember that they need conservatives to enjoy all the trappings DC has to offer. 

It is nice while it lasts.