Viguerie: Congressional Republicans Reject Conservative Leadership

MANASSAS, Va., June 19, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com and author of TAKEOVER, The 100-Year War for the Soul of the GOP and How Conservatives Can Finally Win It, issued the following statement in response to the results of today's House Republican Conference leadership elections:

"There was good news and bad news in this afternoon's House Republican leadership elections," said Mr. Viguerie. "The good news was that all of the candidates running for House Majority Leader and Majority Whip claimed to be conservatives. The bad news is that the two winning candidates (McCarthy and Scalise) are business-as-usual, go-along-to-get-along Washington insiders."

"The gap between the leadership of the Republican Party and the base of the party continues to widen.  Out-of-touch congressional Republicans decided to ignore the grassroots rebellion that brought them to power and their very leadership positions in 2010, then rose up and defeated one of their won, Majority Leader Eric Cantor last week in Virginia's 7th Congressional District."

"The absence of a principled conservative voice with limited-government, constitutional conservative ideas in the inner counsels of the House Republican leadership has resulted in a tone-deaf GOP leadership team that spends too much time attacking its conservatives and not enough fighting Obama and the Democrats," said Viguerie.

"Today's vote shows that Republicans have Electoral Learning Disability.  In the modern era Republicans have won four landslide elections: 1980, 1984, the Contract with America congressional elections in 1994 and the Tea Party wave election congressional elections in 2010. And the GOP won by running against Washington's tax and spend status quo and Big Government. In each of these elections insurgents – conservative outsiders – were the face of the Republican Party," noted Viguerie.

"As I documented in my new book TAKEOVER, when Big Government establishment Republicans are the face of the Party, Republicans lose, most recently in 2006, 2008, and 2012," said Mr. Viguerie.

"In addition to being seen as 'Democrats-lite,' establishment Republicans just plain aren't very well liked by the grassroots of the GOP. They are viewed as weak and afraid to fight, afraid of the media, out of touch, elitist, and arrogant—and that's by the grassroots of their own party. Imagine what the conservative independents, Reagan Democrats, and liberty-minded voters that Republicans need to attract to win national elections think?"

"Today's elections could have broadened the House Republican leadership team to include at least one articulate, principled, limited-government, constitutional conservative. Instead, they perpetuated a leadership team that has become a closed elite who are among the leading apologists for Washington's go-along-get-along culture and tools of a Washington – Wall Street – Silicon Valley Axis that in its advocacy of amnesty for illegal aliens and cronyism is almost completely divorced from the grassroots of the GOP and the everyday concerns of the conservative independents, Reagan Democrats and liberty-minded voters who will decide the next election."

Richard A. Viguerie, called the "Funding Father of the conservative movement," pioneered political direct mail and has been called "one of the creators of the modern conservative movement" (The Nation) and one of the "conservatives of the century" (Washington Times).  His newest book is, Takeover: The 100-Year War for the Soul of the GOP and How Conservatives Can Finally Win It.

Contact: Bob Sturm, (703) 392-7676

SOURCE ConservativeHQ.com