Kowabunga

Make Mine Partisanship

I got a laugh out of the piece “Conservatives Roar; Republicans Tremble” by Vandehei and Allen over on Politico. It’s good reading, but misses the mark on what is happening between the Republican leadership and the conservative base.

Many top Republicans are growing worried that the party’s chances for reversing its electoral routs of 2006 and 2008 are being wounded by the flamboyant rhetoric and angry tone of conservative activists and media personalities, according to interviews with GOP officials and operatives.

What is putting the 2010 election at risk for the GOP is not the so called “flamboyant rhetoric and angry tone” of the various activists, talking heads and bloggers, but the leadership’s heavy handed way of picking who they endorse and sticking with the “old boys” network, ignoring the concerns of the party core, of which I am one. Don’t just listen to what we say and nod your head in agreement; live up to the party platform and American Ideals; stop trying to be Democrat Lite.

Congressional leaders talk in private of being boxed in by commentators such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh - figures who are wildly popular with the conservative base but wildly controversial among other parts of the electorate, and who have proven records of making life miserable for senators and House members critical of their views or influence.

It’s not just Beck and Limbaugh boxing the party leadership in; it’s the grassroots activists doing it, and not because we spend our time listening to Beck and Limbaugh. (For disclosure, I listen to Hewitt, when I can, and occasionally Bennett and Gallagher.) Think about it, Mr. Steele: Can you actually win an election without the base? Do you think that dissing the base is a good idea? Obama does, but he’s just a Marxist from Illinois, so no surprise there.

When the leadership is opposed to the views of the core, then something has got to change.

Skipping down a bit, we get:

But the reality of the GOP during the Obama presidency is that the party’s image and priorities are in many ways being imposed on Washington - driven by grass-roots energies that lawmakers and strategists can scarcely control.

To me, that’s a darn good thing. The American Revolution came about because the Founding Fathers were fed up with having things imposed upon them by England. If the grassroots could be controlled by Washington, then the movement wouldn’t be worth a tinker’s damn.

But some Republicans worry the party could squander an opportunity to capitalize on voters’ concerns about Obama and the Democratic Congress because they come off looking shallow, sharply partisan or just plain odd to persuadable voters.

Earth to GOP leadership: do you think the Dems aren’t sharply partisan? Quite frankly, that is what I want, Republicans to be partisan and push American Ideals and oppose socialist policies at every turn; otherwise we may as well have a one-party system like Communist China and let the Dems destroy the American Liberty.

There is nothing shallow about being “sharply” partisan, or odd about it. Just ask all of those sharply partisan Democrats who keep getting elected: Pelosi, Boxer, Stark, Reid, and a host of others. The reason they are winning elections is exactly because they are sharply partisan. There is nothing middle of the road about most of them.

This article got me rolling, and there is a lot of it, and it should be read, but their analysis is off-base as it comes across saying that the reason the GOP will lose is because of the “nutty” grassroots, and not because of the party leadership’s failure to embrace American Ideals.

The Democrats in power, almost all of them, and the bulk of their core supporters, have embraced the principles of Socialism. Socialism is diametrically opposed to Liberty. Socialism can only succeed when the Rights of the people are suspended. The right to choose your healthcare plan; the right to determine your retirement investment; the right to earn as much money as you can and succeed; the right to own guns. All things that Democrats oppose, as well as many more fundamental individual rights.

If the GOP is serious about turning Congress around in 2010, then they need to be sharply partisan and be different than the Dems. They have to get their message out that they stand for American Liberty, limited government, and letting people live their lives the way they want to, without undo government control. Otherwise, they can expect another lackluster election and the Dems will build up enough control to take away the Rights of Americans, starting with our health care.

Yeah, I’m partisan, and sharply so. But I am an American first and foremost, and understand the American Ideals that the founding Fathers gave us in 1776. And if there were a viable party alternative to the GOP, I would join it. So far, such a party does not exist.

Tags: GOP, Partisanship