GOP vs. grassroots: Where to go from here?
I was listening to Rush discuss the flap over the rules changes at the GOP national convention. He made an excellent point: The establishment HAD everything going smooth. ALL factions of the party were united behind the idea of putting their differences aside and voting to replace Barry Obama with Mitt Romney. Then, they pull this Richard Daleyesque, hard-nosed machine tactic — and it had the effect of tossing a hand grenade into a crowd of people.
It didn’t HAVE to be done. But THEY did it. Rush said he felt like it was motivated by the establishment’s desire to have the media stop saying mean things about the party. (*Those Ron Paul people, those tea party people – they are the ones who always stir the media up.* )
Rush said there are two kinds of people in the party: one group views politics as a business, where you accumulate power and make money for yourself and your friends; and another group which puts saving the country first and foremost. He pointed out that the first group HAS the influence in the GOP. The second group needs to increase their influence within the party apparatus – if there is any hope for the GOP driving real conservative, free-market, limited-government reforms.
We rewarded the establishment in 2010 by giving them a majority in the US House, and by closing the gap in the Senate. In 2012, they are paying us back by stomping all over us.
We all saw the video of Robin Hayes’s antics in Tampa. Convention organizers quite pettily refused to allow Ron Paul to speak, and refused to announce — from the podium — his vote totals during the roll call of states. What happened to all of this talk of unity and bringing everyone together?
Where do we go from here? I’ve got some ideas:
1) Keep your eyes on the prize: Sending Barry and Michelle packing. I’ve heard from plenty of people – in the wake of the convention flap – who say they are going to punish the establishment by voting for Gary Johnson or someone other than Romney. Be realistic – on November 6, only one of two candidates will be elected president of the United States: Barry Obama or Mitt Romney.
Voting for someone other than Mitt Romney GUARANTEES four more years of Barry Obama. I don’t believe our country can survive that.
Remember ObamaCare? The only thing things that will allow for a repeal are: (1) a GOP majority in the US House, (2) 51 GOP votes in the US Senate, and a president who WILL NOT veto the repeal legislation. Of the two most likely choices for president, Romney is the only one who will not veto ObamaCare’s repeal.
2) Go on a bottom-up offensive against the party apparatus: It’s easy to sit on the outside and throw rocks and complain. That rarely changes anything. The same establishment crowd will be calling the shots within the GOP. We’ll keep getting the same vanilla empty suit candidates who take no firm positions on anything. Tea Party, Ron Paul, and other grassroots folks need to organize at the local levels. Go to your precinct meetings and get your people elected. At the county level, get your team elected to go to the state convention.
At the state convention, vote to end the political careers of every single one of those people currently on the NCGOP payroll. Pressure any GOP legislative candidates you have influence with to vote for brand new party leadership within the North Carolina General Assembly. (Goodbye Skip, Thom, and Phil.)
Don’t give ONE MORE cent to a party organization. Donate your time AND money directly to grassroots-friendly candidates.
3) Find common ground with other grassroots groups: There are SOME differences between Tea Partiers and Ron Paul followers. But there is a lot in common. When it comes to the economy – the MOST important issue out there right now – we agree on quite a bit. We also have a common enemy – the ruling class establishment. The factions need to get together behind candidates who share our common beliefs and can implement change within the party – and in the state and country — once elected.
I see you all are going to the ABO side as well. Good luck with that. I will not be reading or sharing anymore of your articles.
Would you please point me to where it is written about Anybody But Obama? I must have missed that.
Thanks.
I am sorry to hear that. What do you think is the best way to go forward from here?
what does ABO stand for?
We need to beat the socialists in this election, then turn to removing their fellow travellers from positions of power in the NCGOP. We need a top to bottom change at NCGOP. No more Ripon Robin Hayes. No more handpicked successor from the Cobey mafia. We need real conservatives from the grassroots running for all offices – state chairman, state vice chairman, and all of the Central Committee offices elected by the State Executive Committee after the convention. Where establishment lackeys hold District chairmanships, we need to challenge them at district conventions. The grassroots needs to send the establishment packing. No quarter!
Then we need to turn to the 2012 primaries and target the establishment lackeys in the legislature and Congress. We need a solid conservative for US Senate – NOT Tillis!
(“Voting for someone other than Mitt Romney GUARANTEES four more years of Barry Obama. I don’t believe our country can survive that.”)– I will be voting for Gary Johnson. The establishment has already guaranteed Obama another for years by nominating Romney. Your article stoops to using scare tactics, just like the good ole boys in the GOP. Screw that! “Pretend with me that you’re an old German on your deathbed today. Would you rather tell your grandchildren, ‘I voted for the Nazis because they seemed better than the Communists and no other party could win’? Wouldn’t you rather be able to rise up and say, ‘I publicly denounced the Nazis and the Communists? We were a minority – 1 or 2 percent – but we stood up for the truth and we were right! We proved not all Germans were mindless torchbearers for tyranny! We were ridiculed, we were beaten and jailed, but we saved this nation’s soul. Now children, go and live your lives in a way to make me proud’?” – Vin Suprynowicz
Let’s see. Let me do a little bit of clever deduction. There is only two “viable” candidates according to you. We must keep our eyes on the prize and get rid of Obama. Anyone who votes for Johnson is only doing it to punish the GOP. So, therefore, we MUST vote Romney. GOP BS. I am NOT trying to “punish” anyone with my vote for Johnson. Good gracious. That is one of the most ludicrous things I have read in a while. How about taking a look at all THREE candidates records and then we can talk. What a freaking joke this article is.
I don’t believe I suggested that I was thrilled with Romney. (Debra, have you seen ANY polling suggesting that Johnson pulls a plurality of the vote against Obama or Romney?)
I am with the Libertarians about 90 percent of the time — especially on fiscal and economic issues. I’ve had it with these Establishment Republicans. But face reality — if we all go Libertarian or with Virgil Goode in the Constitution Party, the vote is split and Obama goes back for, at least, four more years.
The Libertarian Party needs to do a better job of educating the general public about their agenda. Right now — in the face of the worst economic crisis in a generation — Gary Johnson is making drug legalization his number one issue.
(He governed New Mexico as a Republican,losing reelection to Democrat Bill Richardson, and he ran as a Republican in the GOP primaries.)
It’s fine to build a viable Libertarian Party, but, in the meantime, why not try to influence a party with a structure in place — like the GOP? The Republican Liberty Caucus is working hard at that.
Johnson has no money, and doesn’t have much of a credible campaign. In American history, third party candidates have been notorious for playing the spoiler.
(see Teddy Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party and Ross Perot’s 1992 effort. Both of those campaigns were filled with noble people with a lot of passion for changing the country. In the end, all of their hard work and passion stuck the country with someone A LOT WORSE.)
According to the polls — the person sworn in on January 20, 2013 will be either (a) Mitt Romney or (b) Barack Obama. With which one of those candidates does free market economics stand the most chance of getting a serious, respectful audience?
I guess you are a mind reader? How can you automatically assume they would be voting for Romney anyway. It is WRONG to base a vote on the lesser of two evils. Those folks will be the ones electing Barack Hussein Obama back into office. Lay that where it belongs, at the doorstep of the GOP.
It is people like yourself that cause this problem as well! Do NOT tell me you are “with libertarians 90% of the time, but then REFUSE to support them. IF everyone I had heard spout that crap, Johnson would pull in more than enough to win a election. 34% is all it takes in a three way race. ROMNEY is OBAMA. OBAMA is ROMNEY. Having a D or R with the name means NOTHING. Socialists are still socialists!
It is kind of hard to get the word out when the GOP tries to block parties from the ballot.
Wrong. Gary Johnson didn’t lose to Bill Richardson in the gubernatorial race. Quick google search can verify.
You’re right. I was working off of memory. (At my age, it gets a little rusty sometimes.) Richardson succeeded Johnson, but did not beat him.
It is up to each individual as to whether they can stomach Romney, and what was done at the convention only makes that harder for most conservatives. I have agonized over that and if Obama were merely a leftwinger I might be inclined to a protest vote but Obama is far more dangerous with his exceutive orders thwarting constitutional government. He is a budding authoritarian and is very very dangerous. So I will hold my nose and vote for Romney.
The big issue here is – what do we do to fight back against the authoritarianism by the GOP establishment within the party? That also needs to be addressed and now. We need to start taking out the establishment from control of our state parties. We need to gear up right here in North Carolina to throw out the elitist establishment clique running the NCGOP. RObin Hayes needs to go. Wayne King needs to go. All their lackeys need to go.
If Mitt wins then it will be 8 years before we can get a Conservative Republican nominee because he would be the nominee in 4 years.
Over 95% of Congress will be re-elected. Getting Obama out of the White House won’t fix that.
The changes made to the rules made by the RNC are all about centralizing power and taking power away from the people. Think about that when someone who supported those rule changes claims to be a Conservative who supports “limited government”. Hayes, Tillis, and the others showed their true colors in Tampa.
First, I’d like to say that I cannot actually find the article… did it get removed?? I’d like to read it, to have a frame of reference for the argument.
That said, I can assume what the argument was related to – I’ve had that discussion more times than i would care to admit on FB. I plan to vote for Johnson, as well, and regardless of how the convention went, that probably would have been my decision anyway. I loath the Mittens fraud, and it would have been very hard to have voted for him in any case. the behavior of the RNC (at Romney’s behest, or at least with his knowledgeable consent, as I have heard) was just the icing on the cake that made my decision all the more easy and guilt-free. Debra’s argument is very compelling, from the ethical point of view. I’ve always believed in voting your conscience, and I’m certainly not about to change that now. I am the only one responsible for how I vote, and if others are too ignorant, too cowardly or too intellectually-weak to be responsible for THEIR votes, then that’s no skin off my back. Do your homework and vote your conscience, is all I can tell you. Otherwise, don’t come crying to me when all hell breaks loose. But one might wonder why I was going to vote 3rd party even before that sham of a convention… well, MountainMan said it best – his argument about the math of the situation is the most practically compelling argument I’ve seen. Do you want 4 more years of Obama (and a clear conscience), or do you want to give your consent to at least 8 more years of Obam[ney] (Obama, version 2.0)?? Ask yourself that question, and see if the wiser choice isn’t to vote your conscience now, even if it means risking Obama’s re-election, so that a purged and renewed grassroots GOP can field a genuine conservative candidate in the next election. Think on it, then get back to me. 😉