What does it MEAN to be a Republican?

Seriously.  (And don’t bother pulling out your copy of the GOP platform. I can read as well as you can.)

The conventional wisdom is that the GOP is the *conservative* party — devoted passionately to things like cutting taxes, cutting spending, and restoring more freedom to the people.  Many GOP candidates campaign on stuff like that. But then they get elected and spend the next two (or four or six) years servicing their donors and their donors’ lobbyists.

In North Carolina, there is a crime called “obtaining property by false pretenses.”  You get elected to office promising things and then never deliver on them. You’ve obtained an asset of value – a job — by lying.  In the real world, that could be a crime. During campaign time, thaaaaaaat is just *politics.*

At one time, there was little difference between the two major parties.  The Democrats were seen as the party of the working man trying to pay his bills and put food on the table.  The Republicans were rich white people and / or Yankees.  Both parties didn’t mind spending or a larger government. It was the degree of each of those things that made the difference.  During a lot of this phase, Republicans were shut out of power — Raleigh and DC — in the legislative and executive branches.

Then, something changed.  Barry Goldwater rose to prominence in 1964 preaching the gospel of small government and lower taxes.  That piqued the interest of the Democrat * working men* who were struggling with paying taxes and government overreach.  Backing some of that off would certainly help them. He got crushed in a wave of sympathy for JFK. But the seed was planted.

We got Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon in 1968 picking up where Goldwater left off.  Again, the Democrat *working man* was interested.  Nixon got two terms in office, as did Reagan.

At the state level, Jesse Helms – a long-time on-air voice for WRAL —  came along and won a Senate seat in 1972. His on-air editorials and campaign rhetoric followed in the footsteps of Reagan, Nixon and Goldwater. People liked what they heard and gave the man six terms (30 years) in office.

Honest political scholars attribute Helms with convincing conservative voters in eastern North Carolina it was OK to leave your grandpa’s Democrat Party and vote Republican.  Helms arguably got the ball rolling on making North Carolina a credible, honest-to-God two-party state.

I spent about two years in DC working for Helms. I ran into numerous folks visiting from back home who told me some variation of this:

“I don’t agree with the senator on everything. But he is so incredibly responsive, and he actually does what he tells you he’s going to do.  You don’t have to speculate on where he’s going to come down on an issue.  And that’s refreshing.”

Listening to and responding to folks from back home. Actually doing what you said you were going to do.  Why are these attributes so rare among our elected class?  It’s kind of sad, isn’t it?

Republicans took over Raleigh in 2010 – promising a radical change from the shenanigans of Marc Basnight, Jim Black and Tony Rand. They made voters believe they were going to get the stuff Reagan, Nixon, Goldwater and Helms talked about.

 After years of things like Greater Carolina and the antics of the Phil Berger machine, it can be argued that *our side* is just as bad as what they replaced.  Apparently, even Republicans like to tweak the gears of government for donors and enrich themselves and their friends with confiscated and appropriated taxpayer funds. 

There has been no serious effort – in DC or Raleigh – to dramatically cut spending and ease the burden on taxpayers.  DOGE was exactly what conservatives have been dreaming about.  But a bipartisan effort choked the life out of any DOGE-like efforts to make meaningful cuts in spending or regulation. Apparently, it’s *good* to be on the inside playing with other people’s money. 

Does anyone seriously think electing Roy Cooper over Mike Whatley is going to unleash a wave of communist repression?

Both of those guys agree on January 6 and on government-subsidized green energy.  Both of these guys have lived their entire adult lives dependent on government cash.  Whatley would be a lot like Tillis, and not far off from Cooper.  

From what I hear, Republicans can hold the Senate in DC even if Whatley loses.

Whatley has been – and is – a lobbyist. He’s not going to rock the boat.  The campaign has been conducted at a nanny-nanny-boo-boo level with nary a word about ideas to right our national economic ship.  Neither one of them wants to talk about it because both plan to be good soldiers to their party leadership in the Senate. That means aiding and abetting more spending and more jacking up of  the debt. 

We keep hearing this stuff about loyalty to Trump.  Trump is in DC for two more years.  The Senate term is six years. I’d much more prefer loyalty to the ideal of limited government.  Politicians come and go.  Ideas are forever.

We are all familiar with Lucy and Charlie Brown in the Peanuts cartoons trying to kick the football.  Charlie would come running at the ball, and Lucy would pull it away from him every time.  Eventually, Charlie Brown learned and stopped.  When will we?

How much longer will we keep falling for the same old crap?

It’s not unreasonable to expect your *representative* to respect you and your opinions over those of the party leaders or majority leader or the speaker.

People keep responding to the limited government message because they believe the GOP is going to do it — and not pull the football away again. 

Limited government is worth fighting for. If the scoundrels we keep electing keep resisting – fire them and find some new ones who will listen and comply.