This is long but if you want to see how politics really work this is a good general illustration.

Kelly Craft, wife of a billionaire who ran in the primary for KY governor last year, hosted a fundraiser for Trump in Lexington.  Tickets were $25,000 minimum to attend, $100,000 donation for the opportunity to bring up an issue, $250,000 to bring up 2 issues and get VIP seating, and $844,600 to be considered a co-chair of the event.  

This is how the political system really works.  The wealthy elites, like the Crafts, donate millions to the PACs of senior politicians in exchange for direct access and influence on issues that will benefit their businesses/wealth.  The Crafts are heavily invested in the coal and gas industries.  Even though Trump didn't endorse Kelly Craft for governor she puts that aside because she needs Trump in office to protect her own wealth. Craft never smeared Trump for not endorsing her, as that would be disloyal, instead she simply ignored questions about it and refused to answer.  

I'm not sure how many here venture in the GD side of the forum but it is very common to see threats on "this politician said something I disagree with so f*** them".  Yet here we see a person heavily supporting someone that endorsed their opponent.  That's just how the political game works, it is always forward looking and the politicians that move up have to show loyalty.

From the price of the tickets and donations it should be very clear that the issues of the common folk are not the concern of politicians.  All the wealthy people get together behind closed doors, hand buckets of money to the political leaders, group together to push for specific issues they agree on, and then help get politicians into office that will advance those agenda items.  The same process happens at the state level as well when it comes to state issues.  

The same people donate to the senior politicians of the state party and also the big PACs, such as the ones Mitch McConnell has influence with.  The party and PACs will pass on funds to candidates that will be loyal to the establishment, i.e. senior political leaders.  That is why it is so hard for non-swamp people to make it through a primary.  They have to do it all on their own and fight against the efforts of all the wealth elites and the party.  

Don't take this breakdown of politics as a reason not to vote.  Good people still manage to get elected, they just have a harder fight. Take Rand Paul for example, back when he ran in his first primary election he was not the chosen candidate by the establishment.  I still distinctly remember a robocall that I received from Dick Cheney telling me not to vote for Rand Paul as he would be terrible for Kentucky and the country.  Instead Dick Cheney's message told me to vote for opponent, Trey Grayson, a former Democrat who voted for Bill Clinton but then became a Republican.  

What did Trey Grayson do to become a favorite of the establishment?  He graduated Harvard in 1994, worked at a law firm handling high wealth estate planning and corporate law which gave him a lot of connections.  In 2004 he was appointed to the Senior Advisory Committee to Harvard University's Institute of Politics where he worked with Elaine Chao, Mitch McConnell's wife.  Then later in 2004 he was recognized as a "Rising Star" in the Republican Party.  He went on to be appointed to many other advisory boards.  In his 2010 run against Rand Paul, Grayson was endorsed by Senator Mitch McConnell, former Vice President Dick Cheney, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, Senator Rick Santorum, Representative Hal Rogers, and several members of Kentucky's State legislature.  In 2014 Grayson was announced as the CEO of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.

That pretty much brings thing full circle.  Current wealthy individuals, like Craft, host fund raisers for senior political leaders.  The senior political leaders use those funds to promote those who are loyal, like Trey Grayson, and help them get appointed to other boards for influence or fund their campaign like they with Grayson.  Those other boards either then donate back to the senior politicians or help people get placed in positions of power, like the CEO of the Chamber of Commerce in Grayon's case.  The Chamber of Commerce is a very powerful force and a center point in all of this as they have direct contact with all the wealthy business owners.  The wealthy business owners then host fundraisers for the senior political leaders.  The circle repeats and is how the establishment stays in power and maintains control.

Another point on the Chamber of Commerce, remember back to the Covid days and vaccine mandates.  Senator Damon Thayer was the Senator Floor Leader and a senior party leader, he met with the Chamber of Commerce and they told him not to let a ban on private company vaccine mandates pass.  Thayer assured them that he would kill any bill like that and he did.  He showed loyalty to the Chamber of Commerce because they are one way the wealthy business owners can quietly send direction to politicians.  The "loyal" politicians bend the knee because that is what is required to get into and stay in a powerful political position.  

Sorry for the long post.  This issue has been eating away at me as I've seen my local party turn their backs on good people who are running, people who dedicated years volunteering to the party, and instead backing those with more resources, who never complained, and showed loyalty to the party leaders no matter what.  That party will not back independent thinkers or those who think things should be done a little different.  You either fall in line or you are not only on your own but you have to fight the efforts of those supported by the establishment.

ETA: one more thing.  Those who think Vivek Ramaswamy is an outsider and independent thinker...he has known the Craft's for years and endorsed Kelly Craft in the primary for governor.  In the very accurate words of George Carlin, "It's a big club, and you ain't in it."  He nailed that back in 2005 and here we are in 2024 with the same cycles repeating and nothing has changed.

We aren’t voting our way out.

There is no way out, replace the current establishment and a new establishment will take over.  But we can still vote and make somewhat of a difference.  With voter turn out in primaries between 10% to 20% if the people actually got involved we could change things.  It still won't be easy but is possible.

Not sure if anyone here was following the US House TX-23 with Brandon Herrera, The AK Guy on YouTube.  He stepped up and ran, made it through the primary to a run off with the current RINO in the seat.  He ended up 400 votes short of unseating the RINO who voted for gun control.  He also really didn't start campaigning hard until the runoff was announced.  He raised and spent $1 million compared to the RINO's $10 million plus endorsement by their governor, plus the endorsement by the Speaker Johnson.  Even with all that money and those major endorsements the RINO almost lost.  Had Brandon been more certain about running and more aggressive from the start he would have beaten him.

Brandon's experience highlights everything I just described in my OP.  The swamp is given tens of millions by the wealthy and told to make sure certain things happen.  That money goes into PACs and that is used to fund people who are loyal to the establishment.  There is no question that Speaker Johnson has turned into an establishment loyalist with everything he has done.  Him flying to Texas to campaign for a Republican who voted for gun control, to fund Ukraine, and did not vote to fund the border makes it pretty he is an establishment loyalist who was given $10 million for his loyalty.

Thread on Brandon Herrera and the run off.  https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/Brandon-has-a-chance-Vote-is-close-Tx-23/5-2727650/