Posted on 12/08/2009 3:42:02 AM PST by rabscuttle385
BY STEPHANIE SIMON
DENVER -- To retake Colorado, the Republican Party wants voters like Michael Schneider.
A proud member of the diffuse 'tea-party movement' that gained steam during this summer's town-hall meetings on health care, Dr. Schneider is on the hunt for candidates who promise to buck the political establishment, defy the party elite and hew tightly to conservative principles.
Colorado Republicans last week made a bold move to woo him and other restive tea-party activists by setting forth a conservative agenda -- dubbed the "Platform for Prosperity" -- and encouraging all candidates for state office to adopt it. The platform stresses limited government, fiscal restraint, opposition to further stimulus spending and a determination, it says, to push back against "a federal government that is too big, too intrusive and all-too-eager to seize power from the states." The move paid immediate dividends by unifying the party in the critical gubernatorial race.
But the consensus candidate, a veteran legislator and congressmen, isn't the kind of rebel Dr. Schneider was hoping for.
"We don't want the same-old, same-old," he said, though he conceded he might vote for the candidate.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Friendly persuasion, logic and sanity.
Worth a try!
“At the end of the day, the tea partiers don’t have anywhere else to go,” said Eric Sondermann, an independent political consultant in Denver. “If they show up at the polls next year, it won’t be to pull the Democratic lever.”
Same old, same old 20th century thinking. Stand by.
This politically-suicidal-bordering-on-jihadist behavior, if mirrored elsewhere, will absolutely cost them whatever few remainingng shreds of power they possess at the national level, and consign them to wandering the political wilderness for at least a generation beyond that.
At least the Tea party movement should be discouraging new Rhinos from running.
You're right, Eric...many conservatives didn't pull the Democrat lever in 2008; they just stayed home. That strategy worked out REAL well, didn't it?
There's the problem. We want FRESH faces, not the same old, same old.
Really? Which conservatives stayed home in 2008? In my district, we re-elected our conservative congresscritter by a comfortable margin, but 0 carried the district by a whisker. We just got out-hustled - and we learned, as evidenced by a landslide win for a conservative (R) governor-elect over his (D) opponent, for whom 0 campaigned vigorously. And OBTW, GWB couldn’t be bothered 4 years ago to campaign for our conservative (R) gubernatorial candidate then. So save your lectures. Conservatives will turn out in DROVES for a conservative candidate when supported by the party but aren’t energized by some fossilized old phart same-old same-old candidate.
Lighten up...no one was lecturing anyone. I was talking about the 2008 Presidential election, not Colorado. Plenty of conservatives, uninspired by the RINO McCain, stayed home. That's a cold hard fact. You ARE right that conservatives will turn out in droves for a conservative candidate IF we can get them on the ballot. We didn't have one on the 2008 ballot, and Obama beat him like a drum.
OK, we’re on the same page and my apologies for over-reacting. And I agree w/you about getting the right conservative candidates on the ballot - it’s critical. Bottom line is that NOW IS THE TIME to influence the ballot. We must realize we’ll have to work twice as hard to overcome the other side’s illegal stuffing of the ballot box. But it CAN be done.
The “Tea Party Conservatives” should organize as a coalition within the GOP. This would provide an avenue for conserted action by the “Tea Party” without the succumbing to the weakness of becoming a third party. Acting as a coalition within the party, they would easily be the largest block of voters within the party itself. Taking back control of the party would be possible.
Tea Party Conservatives must become an organized coalition within the Republican Party. It is the avenue to regain control.
Agreed, and the way forward is to start at the local level where your voice is loudest. Otherwise the TP movement will be co-opted by the fossilized old pharts who run the GOP.
No problem...we win when we put CONSERVATIVE candidates on the ballot. I’m not sure how it works in Colorado, but in many areas; the open primary system makes it nigh impossible to get conservatives on said ballot; because Democrats cross over to vote for RINO’s. This is a deliberate strategy that they implement every four years, and it needs to be stopped. The ‘stuffing’ you mention is also a serious problem. We need to get these resolved.
We have open primaries here (VA) and it can work both ways. Another influence is to send your usual political donation directly to the conservative candidate of your choice, and not let it be filtered through the NRCC etc. I maintain that the TP is a very useful and highly effective tool - the sheer number of like-minded people the TP has energized is awesome. The Dems know this, and it is scaring them witless. Witness their scornful derision - a sure sign that they are stung.
Amen. Nothing worse than watching your money being sent to Scozzafava in NY-23 recently; or the likes of Collins or Snowe in Maine.
Why don’t Republicans and Tea party activists work together for a common cause? Obviously if we are divided the Democrats will retain the Congress and BHO will be re-elected. We know this will happen as Ross Perot’s independent candidacy helped elect Bill Clinton 1992. The Democrats and the Left are solidly united behind BHO. We must be united too if we have any chance of defeated them. Here in CA I plan on voting for Chuck DeVore in the US Senate primary. But if Carly Fiorina wins the primary, I will just as enthusiastically vote for her over Barbara Boxer any day of the week. We need to get our act together and learn from history. Third parties have only served as protest movements, and siphon off votes from the dominant parties.
And what common cause would that be?
As I understand things, the Tea Party is about less government, while the Republican Party has no problem with more government, so long as it's government that does things they like.
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