Conservative Americans should wake up to the fact that the fight for our constitutional freedoms isn’t just against Nancy Pelosi and the open borders crowd — it’s happening inside our own party. Tom Basile, who hosts America Right Now on Newsmax and has made a habit of calling out threats to conservative principles on his show, has been warning that red-state RINOs are quietly undermining the movement that built the GOP majority.
We cannot afford polite passivity while “Republicans in name only” trade liberty for a comfortable deal with the lobbyists and bureaucrats. When party leaders put their own careers and insider alliances above the people who sent them to office, conservative voters are the only brakes left on the train to big government. The remedy is simple and unapologetic: primary these sellouts and stop treating the GOP as a country club.
Tennessee is a stark example of how the rot spreads even in deep red states, where fights over school vouchers and education policy turned into a proxy war between grassroots conservatives and the governor’s office. Donald Trump himself publicly labeled Governor Bill Lee a RINO after primary season skirmishes and pro-voucher battles exposed the fault lines — proof that loyalty to conservative policy matters more than a glossy GOP label.
Texas offers similar warnings: the old guard in Austin and Washington has been pilloried by activists for cozying up to business as usual, and Sen. John Cornyn’s long tenure has prompted serious chatter about whether establishment Republicans can hold the line. Conservatives in the state are pushing hard, and operatives are already weighing alternatives for the 2026 cycle as concerns grow that a nominal Republican can still lose a red state seat through complacency.
Moneyed operatives aren’t neutral referees in this fight; they pick winners and prop up “moderates” who will water down conservative wins at the legislature and in Congress. In Texas, political machines and PACs like Defend Texas Liberty have poured big dollars into purging RINOs and reshaping the Legislature because the stakes are too high to let insiders call the shots. That kind of grassroots-funded accountability is exactly what the movement needs more of.
Make no mistake: liberal media will howl, establishment consultants will scold, and donors will whine when their handpicked incumbents are challenged. Let them. The real test of leadership is whether our elected officials will stand with the people on border security, school choice, parental rights, and fiscal restraint, not whether they can write the perfect consulting memo or pad their resume.
If you care about limited government and the Constitution, act like it. Show up in primaries, support principled challengers, and hold your local party infrastructure accountable — red states only stay red when conservatives are ruthless about principles and relentless about turnout. The fight is ours to win, but only if we stop treating party labels as a substitute for conservative courage.
