The Freedom Caucus: Our last line of defense

Unless Trump is coordinating an end-around, this is a huge (yuge) mistake. Here's why. While Donald Trump drew in countless new, historically Democrat voters, his base was and is the conservatives, formally defined as the Tea Party. The Tea Party came onto the scene at the outset of the Obamacare debate in Congress. They made the case (rightly) that Obamacare would inflate premiums, cause patients to lose their doctors and plans, decrease full-time jobs in favor of part-time employment, and add countless persons to the Medicare rolls. All of these cautions (and more) came to fruition.

"Repeal and replace" has been a rallying call for millions of Americans, including a large majority of those who voted for Donald Trump. Countless congressmen and senators won seats by affirming their support of the repeal and replace efforts. Nothing, or very little, anyway, of last week's debate – and, subsequently, the bill being "forced" on the Freedom Caucus – represented what anyone could seriously consider a repeal and replace of Obamacare. There is an ideological war being waged between liberal progressives (from both parties) and conservatives. This war has been ongoing for at least a couple of decades (if not a century). While we (Republicans) have gained countless state and federal congressional seats, governorships, and now the presidency, at the federal level, we have seen little movement off the progressive agenda advanced by Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi. The Freedom Caucus's crime: standing on what they ran on in their districts. The horra. Here's Donald's mistake: while he may truly be concerned about 2018 congressional seats being lost due to not passing a bill "reforming" Obamacare, if we're not able to unwind dependency on government for health care, we'll be forever chasing voters who will continue to vote for the Party of Santa Claus. While Donald Trump may have mapped a short-term strategy for the 2018 mid-terms and possible re-election in 2020, our long-term viability as a party, and more importantly as a country, demands that we move people away from dependency on the state. This will not occur unless and until we halt the progressive slide and move our legislation in the opposite, "market-based" direction. Freedom or dependency. In this battle, the Freedom Caucus is our last line of defense.