What Is A RINO?

In the 2016 election cycle, the Libertarian Party candidate for president, Gary Johnson, went on MSNBC's Morning Joe. The hosts asked a bit of a "gotcha" question when they brought up the "situation in Aleppo." Johnson—who had little to no foreign policy experience—asked, "What is Aleppo?"

To the pundit class (especially on the Left), this was the end of his campaign. "How could a candidate for president not know what Aleppo is? Much less have an opinion?" 

Commence Leftist pearl-clutching. 

Since many of you are probably asking the very same question that Governor Johnson asked (it's not, after all, dinner table conversation for most American families), Aleppo is a city in Syria, that was, at the time, plagued by conflict. Syria isn't exactly a vacation destination for those of us in the West, so we know that there are longer stories to tell about Islamists, corrupt dictators, attempted genocides, and more. Not good stuff. Much ink has been spilled on the Syria topic, including a chapter or two in fmr. UN Ambassador Nikki Haley's book, With All Due Respect. 

Of course, this post is not about Syria. Or Gary Johnson. 

Instead, this post is about governing philosophy and the pejorative term, RINO--Republican in Name Only. 

It wasn't terribly long ago that someone was called a RINO if they weren't sufficiently Conservative in their governing principles. Against entitlement reform? You're a RINO. Mixed record on Second Amendment rights? RINO. Opposed to national efforts to regulate or restrict abortion? RINO. 

Today, I find myself feeling very much like Governor Johnson that one day on Morning Joe. I'm staring at my TV or my newsfeeds and asking, doe-eyed, "What is a RINO?" 

I used to know. I used to work in politics professionally, and I have always considered myself a strong conservative. But here I stand, in 2024, watching fmr. President Donald Trump tossing around the "RINO" label like confetti—or hand grenades, depending on your perspective—even as every single position outlined above that used to define "RINO" perfectly describes Donald Trump. 

• Trump opposes entitlement reform, despite it being the single biggest driver of our national debt.
• Trump has called for much stricter gun laws, including red flag laws, tougher background checks, bump stock bans, and more.  
• Trump opposes national regulations on abortion, though he did want Roe v. Wade overturned--and his appointed Supreme Court Justices accomplished that. Trump even called abortion restrictions signed or endorsed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (6 weeks) and fmr. South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley (failed bills to legally protect life starting at fertilization) "too extreme." His extreme federalism approach may look familiar--it's the same position as the late Sen. John McCain, who was attacked relentlessly by pro-life groups in 2008 for saying that Roe should be overturned, but then the issue should be left up to the states. 

So, what is a RINO?

Apparently, it no longer has anything to do with being conservative or not being conservative. The likely Republican nominee for president clearly doesn't pass muster as a conservative of any kind. Nevertheless, fmr. President Trump gets to call rivals like Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis (who dropped out of the race Sunday afternoon) RINOs--and the GOP base apparently just goes along with it now. Say what you will about Donald Trump, he's successfully remade the Republican Party in his image. 

Late in his career in the US Senate, failed presidential candidate and US Senator for Arizona Barry Goldwater—author of The Conscience of a Conservative, a book that defined the movement for over sixty years—stood next to Sen. Bob Dole, who himself would later run for president. "Well Bob," Goldwater reportedly said, "I guess we're the moderates of our party now." 

I now know how Goldwater felt. 

What is a RINO? 

I guess, today, it means that you're a conservative. And that you have the guts to shout very loudly that Donald Trump isn't.