Basking in the warm glow of all of this, um, ”party loyalty”
Establishment folks are browbeating those of us in the grassroots to toe the party line. Send Kay Hagan home. That’s what’s important. Even if you have to hold your nose to do it.
NCGOP chairman Claude Pope is singing the party loyalty song. I, and a lot of other Tea Partiers, held our nose and voted for marginal Republicans like Pat McCrory, John McCain, and Mitt Romney. How does our “loyalty” get rewarded?
IN 2012, GOP establishment types in Raleigh gerrymandered Tea Party favorite Bill Cook out of his state House seat in district 6 on the Outer Banks. When he left to run for the state Senate, they recruited the liberal Dem Cook defeated in 2010 to run for the seat (after getting him to switch parties) to block Tea Party Republican candidate Mattie Lawson. They bent over backwards to support their Dem turncoat candidate in the primary, while throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Lawson. Lawson eked out a primary win, but GOP bigwigs in Raleigh sat on their hands as Lawson narrowly lost a very winnable seat.
Former US senator Richard Lugar (R-Indiana) got knocked out of office by a Tea Party candidate. This year, he’s donating money to — and campaigning for — the Democrat in the Georgia race for the US Senate. In 1992, Former US senator John Warner (R-Va) backed an independent challenger to then-senator Chuck Robb (D-Va) as a way of thwarting GOP nominee Oliver North. This year, Warner has joined Lugar in endorsing the Georgia Democrat candidate and is now endorsing his Democrat successor in Virginia, Mark Warner, over presumptive GOP candidate Ed Gillespie.
Here in Moore County, in 2006, we finally managed to knock off Richard Morgan in the GOP primary for NC House. His RINO supporters got one of their ilk to file for the general as an independent. This “independent” happened to serve on the county GOP executive committee, as did many of his closest campaign advisers. (Some of this “independent” ‘s campaign team were even — at the time — serving on the NCGOP executive committee.)
So, for THE Pope and all of the other Establishment types pointing fingers at, and demanding loyalty from, the Tea Party, we’ve got this message: Get your own crew in line, first.
And now those same people who are demanding that we get loyal with their buddy Thom Tillis are also asking us to support Carolyn Justice for NCGOP Vice Chair.
Seriously? She was involved in that cross aisle hand holding with corrupt Jim Black
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1454&dat=20030213&id=-mo0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=jR8EAAAAIBAJ&pg=6753%2C3548698
oh, and wait, wasn’t Tillis the one recruited to run by Morgan back then to primary the Conservative John Rhodes… you know, before Morgan got booted out of the NCGOP.
Pope certainly has some loyalty to surround himself with that circle of friends..
When the establishment uses party offices to promote their establishment friends in the primaries, it makes it even more of a challenge for conservatives to support their guys if they win those primaries. We see that all too often. The NRSC butting its nose into primaries, including ours, just stinks. They are incredibley anti-conservative this year, and they are turning conservatives anti-NRSC..
At the NCGOP, chairman Tom Fetzer publicly took sides in the 8th Cngressional District runoff in 2010, against the frontrunner, a Tea Party candidate, and endorsing at a press conference the second place candidate who was backed by the DC establishment. His successor, Robin Hayes rigged speaking arrangments for the two US Senate candidates at the state convention to blatantly favor Thom Tilli$, so much so that even the Charlotte Observer commented on it. Under the current regime, the announcement of the Hall of Fame straw poll was rigged for Tilli$ by only announcing Tilli$’ results. It is almost certain that Brannon was a respectable second, but they did not want to give him that boost. I have never seen a GOP straw poll that failed to announce full results until that one. That stunk.
The GOP establishment is digging their own hole, and it will not be conservatives’ fault if they fall into it.
The US Senate straw poll was also rigged because they charged a $100 fee (Hall of Fame Dinner Admission) to participate, what they should have done was distribute the ballots out for free immediately following the NCGOP EX Comm meeting because I already spend $30 gas and a unpaid day off from work driving from the Cape Fear to Raleigh, $100 is a VERY HIGH poll tax to participate in a straw poll!!!
A big way that Tilli$ rigged the result was calling that GOP State House caucus meeting just before the dinner at the same hotel. He turned his bodies out by compulsion. And those legislators did not have to even shell out their own money for the tickets for themselves and their wives. They could pay it out of their campaign accounts.
They did it to norm Sanderson when they ran a democrat randy Ramsey against him. Surprising they are so controlling and stupid.
I for one will not hold my nose and vote ever again. If we ever have a chance to change this country it now. I have been a faithful Republican voter for many years and for what I RINO Government . Pat and the General Assembly has appointed every Democrat they could find. Was it political payback? Pay to play? Who knows but one thing is for sure the democrats was always smarter than this. So now for years I have just been giving my votes and hard working so called Republicans and that day has come to end. You must be a Rightwing Nut as they call us or a true conservative because I doubt anyone else has the guts to stand up the this mountain of spending and special interest to say enough is enough No!
Did I sleep through the Primary? Any candidate that truly supports “The Party” platform will have my support…..in November. Until then, there is no reason to even be talking about loyalty, and do you really want to have this conversation???
As far as Moore County GOP, it’s come a long, long way since those bad old days.
I think it was ol’ Willie Shakespeare who saideth: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
When it comes down to the general election how many folk will be on the ballot? I mean I think Kay Hagan’s name will be on there. And then I’m guessing a Republican of some ilk will be on there. And then one of those Libertarian candidates with long hair and a gravy stained tie who uses big words.
So what are we to do? If we do not like Kay and we know the Libertarian has not a dogs’ chance in hell then who to vote for? Wouldn’t the so-called “Republican” smell more like me? Obviously there are many, many degrees to being a Republican. It used to be that you could be a good Republican or a RINO or a lukewarm Republican. Now it seems there are more levels of being a Republican than Dante had stages of hell.
In the end I will probably vote against Kay Hagan and for that person hoisting high the banner of the Republicans……..even if he ain’t holding the banner too high. Do you have to burn the Republican banner if it touches the ground?
I think Shakespeare also wrote: “A Republican in Name Only is better than not being a Republican at all.” Or maybe it was Tupac that wrote that.
I’m with jr on this. If you want someone other than Tillis or the “establishment” candidate to win, THEN WIN THE FREAKING PRIMARY. (Something I’m trying to help Brannon to do.) It does no good to eat each other up or call people who see that beating Hagan actually is the goal – “establishment folks.” Sure, let’s all take our ball and go home if we don’t get who we want into the general, we can sit at the window and watch the libs crown Hagan.
A ”Republican” who is a liberal on a major issue like Gun Control, Amnesty, taxes / spending / budget, or Obamacare is worse than a Democrat. They pollute our caucus. When Tilli$ said he is for a ”pathway to citizenship” for illegal aliens (aka Amnesty), supported gutting e-Verify, and tried to get drivers licenses for illegal aliens, he forfeited any claim to conservative support.
Many of us are sick and tired of holding our noses and having to vote for crap candidates put up by the GOP establishment. We are conservatives first, and Republicans second. If Republicans put up a candidate who is unacceptable on a key issue, that is their fault, and not ours.
Yep. When I hear people discussing the merits of voting for a generic Republican over any Democrat, or make these calls for “party loyalty” in November… I think in a lot of cases that really means you as the voter are giving them permission to sell their services to the highest bidder.
Cause at that point – why do they need to be beholden to the grassroots? The people they “serve”?
As long as they keep the fat cats who give them money happy… they know there’ll be plenty of people that will sure, get mad and holler a bit and make a fuss maybe.. but in the end, “they” have an (R) next to their name and the other guy has a (D).
It feels to me that that just essentially gives them permission to do as they will, as they are directed, with impunity – without consequence. As long as people vote for them it counts – makes no difference to them whether or not the dude held his nose while they did it – still counts 🙂
Does anyone seriously feel better if they are robbed by a Republican rather than a Democrat?
The ship of state is foundering so badly that it may be too late to even slow it down, well along turn it around. What would good will it do to elect a Republican that either sells us down the river or makes a fool of the GOP? Either way, they do further damage to the Republican brand, which is more than tarnished.
We must not forget that the general public (including the independents) are often uninformed on the issues, and don’t understand or care about principles.
My plan is to work hard to get as many true conservatives elected in the primary, and ignore the morons in Raleigh. If Tillis wins the primary, I may stay home in November. After all, Tillis is only slightly better than Hagan and she will steal from us openly. In fact, I have become so disenchanted with the political system, I am ready to steal Hillary’s line: “at this point, what difference does it make?”
Nancy, thanks for the opening line – I have to admit it got me to thinking and the bottom line is YES, I would rather be robbed by a Republican. As written, the statement is YOU ARE going to be robbed, and then the question Republican or Democrat. With a Democrat, I fear MY money may go to Mexico to advertise food stamps, at least with a Republican, I have some small glimmer of hope it MAY (optimism kicking in) go to support Vet’s.
Whatever happens do NOT stay home. There are other races on the ballot that have good conservatives. If there are one or more undocumented Democrats posing as Republicans on your ballot, then you can skip over those races and vote for the ones that are solid dependable Republicans in other races. I know that some, especially the more unsophisticated voters, will indeed just stay home, but that is not a smart way to go.