Posted on 09/19/2015 4:41:56 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Richard Viguerie and Bobby Jindal have both referred to the Republican Party as the “Party of Stupid” and they’re correct. There are times the GOP can’t get out of its own way when it comes to alienating voters or just being plain petty towards dissent. House Speaker John Boehner has wrongly kicked conservative and libertarian Republican Congressmen from committees, while Jason Chaffetz briefly removed Mark Meadows from a committee in June. The American Conservative Union wouldn’t allow the Log Cabin Republicans into CPAC this year, until inviting LCR Executive Director Gregory Angelo to be on a panel.
This isn’t just happening in Washington, DC, but also in states. The Texas Republican Executive Committee voted last week to exclude the Log Cabin Republicans of Texas from next year’s convention. It’s the second year in a row this has happened, even though the LCRT is in favor of almost everything the Texas GOP stands for. It caused Dallas County Precinct 1117 Chair Rudy Oeftering, who happens to be gay, to send an open letter to Texas GOP Chair Tom Mechler on the issue.
The program of work executed by Metroplex Republicans and Log Cabin Republicans have clearly earned them a booth at the convention. We have worked equally hard or harder than most any other Republican clubs in the state. It would be difficult to justify denying a group that regularly hits the streets and and mans the phones to help elect Republicans.
Let’s be plain, many active Republicans don’t like homosexuals. Just a few years ago many were outraged by the court decision overturning laws that made homosexuality illegal. But if this dislike results in a policy that excludes Republican clubs whose members happen to be mostly gay and lesbian, such would be hopelessly out of step with an electorate clearly ready to move on.
Oeftering is right it is time to move on. Fighting over social issues like this won’t do anything and can only hurt the Texas GOP if they’re hoping to attract younger conservatives, conservatarians, and libertarians who want to get involved. The Libertarian Party is unfortunately too disorganized to be a viable alternative for “freedom and liberty” Texans. The Texas GOP’s moves could also end up pushing college students, who may be fiscally conservative and socially libertarian, into the hands of Battleground Texas which is promising to play the long game to turn Texas from red to purple to blue. The Texas GOP can’t keep going this way to survive.
But it isn’t just on social issues where state Republican parties go completely sideways. The Newton County Republican Party in Georgia is planning on kicking out a group of conservative activists (and two libertarians) due to “actions detrimental to the party.” This includes Jason Pye, who has been writing at PeachPundit.com on some of the county party’s actions, including not allowing members to participate in the local county convention.
Many of the disqualified delegates showed up at the county convention on Saturday, designated as “guests” by the credentials committee and told to sit in a designated area behind a strip of yellow tape. A motion was made, per Robert’s Rules of Order, and seconded to amend the list, at which point the chair, Delia Fleming, went into recess without a motion or second. Upon coming back into the room, she called the meeting back to order, ignoring the motion to amend.
Because the county convention was being run in a way that’s inconsistent with the Georgia Republican Party’s rules and Robert’s Rules of Order, delegates left after the credentials report was accepted. Though the Call for the convention clearly states that the public is welcome to observe, one “guest,” Stan Edwards, an elected Republican school board member in Newton County, left the room after a delegate motioned to him in a way that suggested that he needed to leave the room in which the county convention was being held.
This is absolutely reprehensible for a county party to act, especially if it claims to want to win elections (which they haven’t been doing). The county party is now booting people out for simply espousing their opinion and trying to make sure the rules are followed. Fred Wheeler and Andy Allen summed it up pretty well (emphasis mine).
Wheeler agreed, but added that another problem is the political atmosphere in Washington. “People feel like they can’t change things there, and they give up,” he explained. “It took something on the local level – something the people who showed up last month and today feel like they can change – to get involved.”
“We were turned away. That’s wrong,” Allen said. “That’s not how we grow our party.”
It certainly isn’t how to grow the party and it’s extremely frustrating to see things like this happen. But it shouldn’t be surprising because it’s what the Republican Party does. The Republican National Convention changed the rules during the 2012 convention in what FreedomWorks called something which “effectively disenfranchises [sic] grassroots delegates,” and will probably hurt the party long-term. It’s not just “Paulbots” the GOP is cracking down on, but people who support Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and other Tea Party-backed candidates. The GOP has to stop being the “Party of Stupid” and realize it needs to grow. This means accepting new members who may or may not hold the views the party traditionally espouses. It doesn’t mean the new members are leftists, but they may be more libertarian or conservatarian on social issues and/or financial policy issues, like the Export-Import Bank. The Republican Party is going to have to accept that things are changing and their viewpoints on certain issues aren’t mainstream anymore. There are ways to capitalize on this without “selling one’s soul” and becoming more like the Democrats. Suggesting the government get out of gay marriage isn’t going left, it’s going more towards “freedom and liberty.” Fighting against cronyism isn’t being a Democrat, it’s being someone who thinks fiscally sound policy is better. It’s just unfortunate the national GOP, the Texas GOP, or the Newton County GOP in Georgia aren’t willing to do this. It’ll hurt more than help and prove once again, the GOP is the “Party of Stupid.”
I am going to guess Taylor isn’t real big on the Bible, and while he thinks it awful to not cater to the Log Cabin debauchers he would probably be ecstatic to see the Southern Baptists go away.
We will get nowhere if we equate everything. There are times to include and times to exclude. A time for everything under heaven.
If you form a group whose main purpose is corrupt and/or at least liberal, you should be excluded from a conservative forum. That is basic, people. Exclude the LCR or by not excluding, you exclude me.
Are there any wise people left in the world with the ability to be discerning?
HotAir is straight-up RINO. I haven’t visited their site for quite some time.
The Social Conservatives are the real base of the GOP. I am also a fiscal conservative -- but if the party decides that social liberalism (abortion, homosexuality) will help them, they will lose the base (and they won't gain any support from anywhere).
F-Hot Air.
Ever since Malkin sold it its gone downhill.
The GOP’s problem is NOT embracing the fags?????
Are you serious?????
If they were really about supporting conservatives rather than CHANGING conservative, they would form their group based on a conservative foundation. They goal of the group is to infiltrate and change republicans from the inside out.
BLUF
The Republican establishment has been power inside the beltway for so long that is incapable of rational thought much less new ideas. They now resemble a 90-year old bedridden grandmother with advanced dementia.
Hash? Yes! But telling yourself nicey nicey things don’t win elections. Why else do political parties exist, at any and all levels?
The republican establishment appear to have two core beliefs:
First; they exist outside everything just because they have existed for 160 years.
Second; that only the best and brightest, aka them, can provide political leadership to us creations that live outside the beltway.
The first point is a dream for no political party of any stripe can exist indefinitely without occupying and holding the White House - check American History as well as European History for the last 100 years.
The second is even a bigger dream; witness the Reagan Presidency and what it accomplished. Then compare the George H.W. Bush who basically ran on “another four years of Reagan” Yale vs. Eureka College.
We see what you have done, and what has been seen can not be unseen!
You hit the nail on the head. American politics has been infiltrated by an evil virus. We did not know how corrupt our politicians were but now more and more of us are discovering the truth.
The label Republican does not mean anything anymore, not even the label conservative because that has been co-opted by the corruptors. We need to disengage from the traitors and try to find whatever truthful candidates we can. A FReeper said something that is very true—we have to stop giving money to the party and only give money to honest candidates. We have to learn who the corrupt ones are and we need to disengage from them. Sort of like come out from among the nations. I believe it is a biblical calling. Corrupt ideas and corrupt people have been ruling over us and our now showing their true (rainbow) colors. We can find better people. Our leaders are corrupt whether they are political, media, universities, corporate world or even many religious leaders. They see themselves as the aristocracy and they follow each other proud to be part of the ruling class, the incrowd. There is a lot of conceit on the part of these people they just love being the people at the top and they follow each other around imitating the latest craziness that the craziest among them can conjure up. This is like the worship of the golden calf. There is a spirit of paganism behind this.
The Democrats welcomed the gays back in the 1970s and that party has brought the curse on that party and this nation. I am glad that the Republican party did not accept them like the Democrats did but there is a faction within the Republicans that wants to keep the Log Cabin around. But you are right, the goal of the Log Cabin group is to infiltrate and change the Republican party from the inside out. This is what they have done with the Dems for forty years and they have used the tremendous nation wide power of the Democrat Party to get whatever the gays wanted. The gays say jump and the Democrats ask how high.
Oh there should be a LOT of purging. Because the liberals within are doing nothing but destroying us. Here and in DC.
When the chips are down they side with the leftists so why keep them under the roof?
No, some of us knew full well. And we tried and tried to tell people. We were called everything but a white man and mocked.
We were right. Will anyone now listen to our simple message?
Vote conservative. Period. Win, lose or draw. Never, ever settle for lesser evil because you GET evil.
Whant another mitch and jonbon? Want more barry? Keep doing the same things that elected Jonbon Mitch and Barry.
I love that: “ We were called everything but a white man and mocked.” That is hilarious, we have to use this line often. :^D
It’s an old line but it sure fits.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.