The following was written by Convention of States Action president Mark Meckler and originally published on Newsmax.
When we launched the Tea Party movement in 2009, it was with the optimistic belief that we’d be able to root out the fake conservatives in the establishment wing of the Republican Party. At first, it seemed like that dream would come to fruition. We elected dozens of Tea Party candidates who vowed to drain The Swamp in D.C. and fight for true conservatism.
Then reality set in. We watched as, one by one, those politicians caved to the D.C. machine. Today, while there are pockets of the GOP that hold conservative values, some of the most powerful members are still beholden to the establishment wing. That wing helped elect Joe Biden to the White House, and that wing continues to direct the future of the party.
But the American people haven’t given up fighting to elect true representatives, and it looks like the days of the Washington swamp monsters may be coming to an end.
A new poll from Convention of States Action and the industry-leading Trafalgar Group has found that a majority of all Republican voters (61.5%) would either ''absolutely'' (49.1%) or ''likely'' (12.4%) vote for Donald Trump if he runs again in 2024.
If President Trump decides not to run again, Republicans voters currently say they won’t throw their weight behind another Washington insider. Instead, they overwhelmingly support Florida governor and Convention of States endorser Ron DeSantis. The Florida governor earns 47.6% of Trump voters and 34.9% of all Republican voters.
Gov. DeSantis’ share of the vote more than doubles the next most popular candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, and blows Washington insider Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah out of the water: only 0.5% of pro-Trump voters would vote for Romney, and 10% of all Republican voters would.
Republicans aren’t the only ones tired of D.C. politicians. While 57.4% of Democrats would likely vote for Joe Biden if he runs again, a healthy share, 22.1%, say they are unlikely to vote for the old Swamp creature. If Biden doesn’t run, 41.3% of Democrats would vote for Kamala Harris, but the next highest share, 26%, goes to ''Someone Else.''
Of course, we have no way of knowing who that ''someone else'' is, but our new poll shows that at least some Democrats are reacting to Biden’s radicalism by second-guessing the establishment wing of their own party.
Is it any wonder that voters are looking outside of D.C? Republicans promised to end Obamacare, but when they gained a majority in Congress, the spineless members of the establishment blocked that effort at every turn. They gave the same treatment to their vow to defund Planned Parenthood, and they failed to use their majority to achieve even a single win for small-government conservatives. Washington is still bigger and more powerful than ever before. Americans still suffer under an unaccountable bureaucracy, and the national debt has skyrocketed to unsafe, unsustainable levels.
Democrats have their own set of grievances. Joe Biden ran on a ''moderate'' agenda, but even crazy radicals like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York have praised the president for ''exceeding progressive expectations,'' and a White House official recently admitted that Biden is ''the most liberal president we’ve had.'' The Democrats as a caucus have become increasingly radical, but moderate liberals should start looking outside the beltway if they want anything close to moderation.
That’s precisely what the American people are doing. Republicans are flocking to Gov. DeSantis because he’s proved over the last 12 months that he’s not afraid to stand up for freedom and do what’s right for his constituents. He endured an enormous amount of pressure from Democrats, the corporate media, and even GOP establishment types. But unlike most GOP politicians in D.C., he never wavered.
The result? Florida’s COVID-19 death rate stayed low, despite the average age of Florida residents, and now he’s a front-runner for the GOP nomination in 2024.
What’s more, Americans of all stripes are turning to alternate options to Washington politics. Polling shows that 66% of all Americans, including 75% of Republicans and 55% of Democrats, support using a Convention of States to limit federal spending and power, and impose term limits on federal officials. This process originates in the states, is controlled by the states, and ultimately empowers the states.
The overwhelming support for a Convention of States, Republicans abandoning traditional DC politicians and wavering support for Biden among Democrats should be a wake-up call for all establishment D.C. types: your days in power are numbered unless you rein in federal overreach and put We the People back in charge.
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