RINOs and RIMOs

Occasionally I read where some self-appointed arbiter on the right has attacked someone alse as a “RINO,” or “Republican in Name Only.”

…I have come to identify another species in our political ecosystem, the RIMO.  It stands for “Republican in Mouth Only” and it describes that fairly numerous class of people who have never cut a dollar of spending , never lowered real taxes by a single dollar, never effected even one reform in the size of government or the way it serves taxpayers, or made any other actual change in the real world.  They just …. talk- except that occasionally their talk, aimed so often not at opponents but at their nearest allies, winds up blocking real progress in protecting or promoting the very freedoms they claim to believe in.

The fellows who carp from the sidelines are the fantasy football players of our public life.  They sit in the relative safety of their homes, at their computers, rating and often denigrating the real combatants, those who take the hits and get the bruising pushing for actions that really matter.  The fantasy fans are more interested in the individual statistics of the real combatants, who, by contrast must often be willing to sacrifice their ideological and personal reputations in pursuit of the only result that matters to the fans: team victory.

From Keeping the Republic by Indiana governor Mitch Daniels.

HKO comment

There is an axiom in the military that the best plan of battle lasts until the first shot is fired.

Politics, regardless of its reputation, is a profession and like any profession requires study and experience to do well.  It is easy to pontificate from the sidelines, as I and millions of other bloggers do, but the reality is that there is opposition and what you can accomplish must deal with it.

The Democrats as they now stand represent a minority, but their advantage is unity. The GOP is torn by various groups with their own litmus tests, and by the  Tea Party who too often act like political neophytes who are too willing to sacrifice the good for the perfect, and real action for clever slogans. As the Tea Party matures it must realize that its victory must be a progression and not a destination.