The Right Resistance: Will Independents and Dems spoil the New Hampshire GOP primary?

Many, if not most conservatives are Republicans but not all Republicans are conservatives.

It’s a myth propagated and perpetuated by the establishment media that today’s Republican party is a conservative party. It is not. Thanks to great thinkers in the conservative movement and forward looking politicians such as Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan, the GOP, over the last half-century or so, has become increasingly renowned for its defense of and advocacy for the issues exemplified in the so-called “three legged stool”, comprised of national security conservatives (believers in a strong military and anti-Communism), fiscal conservatives (proponents of lower taxes, cutting government spending and pro-economic growth) and social or “family values” conservatives (traditional marriage, pro-life, and now, increasingly, parental rights and school choice).

Battling the myth that the Republican Party is “conservative”, though, has become a full-time avocation for those who recognize the truth, and it’s safe to say whenever someone like Mitt Romney or George W. Bush is described as “conservative” on cable news shows or by leftwing columnists in an establishment publication, the gesture is cringe-inducing.

That’s what’s happening in New Hampshire today, as The Granite State will hold its quadrennial first-in-the-nation presidential primary where citizens of the state will head to polling places to cast ballots for their preferred candidates in each party. Or, should I say, New Hampshirites will choose between the remaining two Republicans in the 2024 race and a smattering of Democrats who practically no one has ever heard of.

That’s right, incumbent president senile Joe Biden’s campaign opted not to file paperwork to place the current commander-in-chief’s name on the New Hampshire Democrat ballot because state officials allegedly violated the new party rules, which moved South Carolina to the front of the line. The party powers-that-be wanted a locale with more black (and usually party establishment supporting) voters to go first, which disregarded tradition but possibly saved the bumbling old dolt Biden from a humiliating New Hampshire defeat that he couldn’t afford at a time when many, many Democrats want him replaced as nominee anyway.

Now there’s a substantial effort in-state to try and motivate New Hampshire Democrats to write-in Biden’s name, which will certainly happen in appreciable numbers -- but wouldn’t it be more interesting if Marianne Williamson or Dean Phillips ended up winning there tonight? That would be a heck of a future trivia question, wouldn’t it?

“Who won the 2024 New Hampshire Democrat primary?” Answer: “Marianne Williamson”. Reaction: What? Can’t be. This game is fixed!

Or, it could also turn out that many Democrats, to the extent that they’ll participate at all, will cast their votes in the Republican primary instead, where wishy-washy Nikki Haley is vying for what would be seen as a huge upset and a considerable embarrassment for Iowa winner and runaway GOP race frontrunner, former president Donald J. Trump.

Yes, Democrats and independents (and Republicans, too) can vote in either primary in New Hampshire, giving swamp establishment favorite Nikki Haley a fighting shot to beat Trump there. That’d be a heck of a thing for the Nikki campaign to be proud of and tout on the campaign trail in the coming weeks, wouldn’t it? Pulling the wool over so many eyes to mount a “surprise” victory in the tiny hamlets and serene virtual Boston suburbs of The Granite State?

If so, Nikki Haley might earn a future trivia question of her own for the successful snow job. But if Haley wins – or even turns in a respectable close second place -- it won’t be because conservatives and most Republicans, voted for her.

Haley’s reliance on non-conservatives to fuel her absurd insider-effort has some of her supporters revealing their true stripes. In an article titled “Biden may get some help from Republicans against Trump”, Brett Samuels reported at The Hill:

“Many GOP voters resistant to Trump are holding out hope that Haley can secure the nomination. An NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll of Iowa voters conducted days before Monday’s caucuses found 43 percent of those who supported Haley said they would vote for Biden over Trump in a general election.

“But Trump’s dominant showing in Iowa and his strong polling lead in other early primary states suggests he’s likely to be the nominee.

“’I think it’s highly likely that it’s gonna be Biden against Trump. And in that case, there is no question who I would support. I believe in America way more than I believe in the Republican Party,’ former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), who served on the House committee that investigated Jan. 6, said on CNN. Asked if he would vote for Biden, Kinzinger said he’d pick the sitting president over Trump ‘in a heartbeat. To me, that’s not even a question I would have to wrestle with,’ Kinzinger said.”

Oh brother. If you’re a RINO Republican and you definitely wouldn’t have to wrestle with the prospect of voting for the hair sniffin’, criminal son protectin’, nude swimmin’, invisible friend hand shakin’, America ruining idiot Joe Biden over the eminently capable but controversial Donald Trump – you are no conservative. For principled conservatives who actually care about policy and aren’t all that worried about a man’s penchant for calling people names on social media, the choice is equally simple.

Samuels’ article named other Republicans who indicated they’d most likely favor Biden over Trump if it came down to the much-anticipated rematch between the two 2020 combatants this November: Liz Cheney, Anthony Scaramucci, Mitt Romney and Alyssa Farah Griffin, the last one having taken a job as a co-host on “The View”, so you should surmise that she ain’t much of a conservative to begin with. None of these examples would qualify as mainstream Republicans, so the fact that they’d dump Trump to pull the lever for Crooked senile Joe isn’t a shocker.

The conservative vs. non-conservative divide becomes all the starker when you consider the fact that those who now speak out the loudest against Trump are the same ones who’ve prevented the Republican Party from winning many elections because the conservative base of the GOP wouldn’t go for their hand-selected swamp-serving candidates. Liz Cheney lost her own primary election by nearly 40 points in Wyoming in 2022, remember?

If Cheney were a down-the-line conservative instead of a Bush-establishment warmongering disciple of her daddy’s neoconservative foreign policy, would she still be in Congress today? Probably not, but at least she would’ve had a fighting chance in the liberty observing high plains utopia of The Cowboy State.

The question for today in the New Hampshire primary is, are Liz Cheney and Nikki Haley really all that far apart ideologically? For those who think the notion is preposterous, consider Tucker Carlson’s recent treatment on the subject of whether Haley is really a conservative. Hint: Carlson believes Nikki is more like a neoliberal than a conservative.

Democrats, on the other hand, are mostly intolerant of party members who differ markedly from the prevailing views of their leaders. Don’t forget that senile Joe himself used to be thought of as a “moderate” who voted to authorize the Iraq War and was known to break with his colleagues on tax cuts, etc. Those days are long gone, with the 81-year-old version of the Delaware dolt echoing the most radical rhetoric of the nutjobs.

And labeling conservatives as “MAGA fascists”. Quite the unifier is Joe, isn’t he?

For her part, Haley’s campaign brains must’ve surmised that New Hampshire would be her prime opportunity to place well, its proximity to ultra-liberal Massachusetts and natural home to Bush establishment “moderate” Republicans like the Sununu family. Also recall that George H.W. Bush’s Chief of Staff, John H. Sununu, was instrumental in moving the name of Judge David Souter for the 1990 Supreme Court vacancy.

Souter embodied New Hampshire’s politics and became one of the High Court’s most consistent liberals. Again, there’s little mystery as to why Nikki Haley has a fighting chance tonight with independents and Democrats able to vote there. It’s a mindset as much as anything else, though it’s highly doubtful that liberal voter policies will help squelch the state’s fentanyl problem or heat up its economy (and heat homes, too).

Neither would Nikki Haley if she somehow managed to win the Republican nomination vis-à-vis Trump. New Hampshire’s conservatives know better and will likely come out in great numbers to vote for the real Republican on the ballot, though it’s not certain that there are enough of them to give Trump a convincing win like he had in Iowa. Recent polls show Trump still holding a double-digit lead over Haley, but until the votes are counted, the result will remain somewhat in doubt.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s sudden withdrawal from the race on Sunday would seem to add extra weight to Trump’s side. We’ll see.

Here's thinking that it doesn’t actually matter a whole lot if Haley finishes a close second or if she gets trounced by twenty points. The always-hungry-for-a-damaging-anti-Trump story establishment media will play up Nikki’s finish as though she’s making a late “charge” to wrest the Republican title away from the 2016 and 2020 winner. It’s too early in the process for the talkers to completely capitulate to the desires of true conservatives.

To the establishment media, Trump is automatically guilty and must be stopped. They’ll vote for Biden over Trump, too. And it won’t be close.

There will also be the element who will watch to see how close Trump comes to the 50 percent mark, like it makes a difference in the big scheme of things. At convention time, no one will remember what the margins of victory were in New Hampshire tonight. The proverbial writing is already on the wall. The Trump train won’t be stopped – at least not by Nikki Haley.

Nothing will reveal the true difference between Republicans and conservatives better than today’s New Hampshire primary. Trump-haters of all stripes will search the results for some indication that the former president is weakening and won’t represent a threat to win the general election in the fall. They won’t find it in The Granite State. And Nikki Haley is no conservative.

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