A point I often make is that Donald Trump’s travails were not because of Democrats. Instead, they were because of Republicans. Had the Republicans supported him, the past seven years would have been very different. And if you doubt that Republicans are a problem, just check out how the Republicans in North Dakota’s legislature vote.

When Democrat voters cast their ballots for a Democrat candidate, they know what they’re getting: Someone who will reliably vote in lockstep with Democrat party leadership, whether that leadership comes from the White House or Congress, and whose votes will invariably hew left. That’s not true for conservative voters. When they cast their ballots for a Republican candidate, the likelihood that their candidate will support conservative ideas and people, including the President of the United States, is slender indeed.

Image: The Uniparty by Pixlr AI.

That point was brought home by a computer algorithm analysis looking at the voting patterns of the Republicans in the North Dakota legislature. (Hat tip: Powerline.)

Minot Republicans Mike Blessum and Zach Lessig used a computer algorithm to analyze the votes of every North Dakota legislator to determine how they voted. Or more accurately, who they voted with. The results in the North Dakota House are stunning — 45 of the 84 members who caucus Republican vote more with the liberal members of the House than with the conservatives.

[Click on this link to see the chart.]

Some are only marginally to the left of center, but there are more than enough moderate Republicans (shown in light blue) voting with the 12 Democrats (dark blue) to effectively control the agenda in the House. Click here to see the full analysis of North Dakota legislative votes. The website compares the votes of each member with every other member and then aggregates that into one chart.

We intuitively know, without a study, that the same result would apply in legislatures across America, including Congress: While Democrat politicians almost never vote with Republicans, Republican politicians routinely vote with Democrats, making Democrats the effective political majority across America, even though their political values are not mainstream while conservative values are.

When it comes to Trump, it was a foregone conclusion that this populist president would face opposition from Democrats. However, given that Republicans controlled Congress for the first two years of his administration, Trump ought to have been able to make good on all his promises, starting with that wall. Instead, his own party fought him every step of the way. It was Republicans who blocked the wall and Obamacare’s repeal. It was they who, when they served in his administration, routinely stabbed him in the back.

It's easy to say, “Well, that’s because it was Trump, and he was unique.” However, the analysis of North Dakota legislative voting patterns shows that it has nothing to do with Trump. Likewise, the fact that every conservative initiative in Congress fails, including censuring Adam Schiff for committing fraud against Congress and the American people, also shows that it has nothing to do with Trump.

Here’s the bottom line: The Republican party is not conservative. Instead, it is Democrat-lite. O’Keefe Media Group’s BlackRock expose may explain some of this, but it’s also a really bad mindset that transcends something as simple as bribery.

When you vote for a Republican, you are getting people like Asa Hutchinson, who freely admit that the DOJ was highly politicized against Trump but refuse to support the idea of a special prosecutor because that would “politicize” the DOJ. (Starting at 6:10 in the video below, you can see what I mean.)

Catholics Fight Drag Night pic.twitter.com/BMrMn13meU

— The Michael Knowles Show (@MKnowlesShow) June 20, 2023

The Republican Party is not conservative. Instead, it just wants to introduce leftism at a slower pace and, it believes, a lower cost.

Honestly, I’m not sure how to overcome this core problem, which is that the party does not represent the people. In the Democrat party, the radicals took over. In the Grand Old Party, the Vichy Republicans are holding the line.

Conservatives who believe in the Constitution; free markets; functional borders;  nuclear families with male and female parents; the gender binary; the sexual innocence of children; punishment for readily recognizable crimes such as murder, assault, and robbery; a military dedicated to defense, not social justice; a colorblind society; and so many more core American ideas, must figure out how to break through the wall of the Republican party. If they don’t, this country as we once knew it and believe it still can be, is lost.

UPDATE: When I wrote this post, I hadn't even seen what happened in New Jersey.