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An Open Letter To The Republican Leadership In Congress [Excellent Read]
townhall.com ^ | Dec 13, 2014 | John Hawkins

Posted on 12/13/2014 9:00:21 AM PST by upchuck

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John Hawkins nails it big time.
1 posted on 12/13/2014 9:00:21 AM PST by upchuck
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To: upchuck

I have to disagree somewhat with his last paragraph.

This is why FReepers are saying goodbye forever to the Republican Party and saying we need a third party.

Sooner or later one has to give up on banging one’s head against the wall.


2 posted on 12/13/2014 9:02:41 AM PST by upchuck (Ferguson: Put your hands down and go to work!)
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To: upchuck

IF the GOP doesn’t fire at least Boehner as Speaker . . . I am so disgusted with the whole lot of them. I hope they fire McConnell too.


3 posted on 12/13/2014 9:11:33 AM PST by Qwackertoo (Worst 8 years ever, First Affirmative Action President, I hope those who did this to us SUFFER MOST!)
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To: upchuck
<>we need a third party.<>

Google “third parties in the US.”

Several lean conservative. Take your pick.

4 posted on 12/13/2014 9:16:11 AM PST by Jacquerie (Article V. If not now, when?)
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To: upchuck
This is why FReepers are saying goodbye forever to the Republican Party and saying we need a third party.

With all due respect a third party is an astonishing dumb idea...

There is not enough voters in this country for a third party to make a difference except to screw up conservative candidates in the primaries...

We already see the democrats running and funding pseudo "conservatives" to split the vote in primaries ...

What is needed is field good solid conservative candidates from within the Republican ranks until we gain enough clout and the ability to make real change in DC...

That takes time... it's coming...

5 posted on 12/13/2014 9:16:45 AM PST by Popman
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To: upchuck

It’s “simple”. The entire top leadership of the Republican party has to go. And they won’t. And they are so well entrenched that they cannot be thrown out.

The only alternative is either a new party, or at least an independent candidacy at the Presidential level.

Starting a new party is impractical. But an independent candidate at the Presidential level can be launched, and can be won.

Cruz/Palin?

Personally, I think that ticket would win in a landslide.


6 posted on 12/13/2014 9:21:51 AM PST by EternalHope (Something wicked this way comes. Be ready.)
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To: Jacquerie
"Several lean conservative. Take your pick."

The only way to get a viable 3rd party off the ground would be if existing GOP leaders, eg. Cruz, Lee, Sessions and others in the house were to bolt the party.

7 posted on 12/13/2014 9:29:12 AM PST by Pietro
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To: EternalHope
Cruz/Palin?

Personally, I think that ticket would win in a landslide.

Easy to agree.

8 posted on 12/13/2014 9:29:37 AM PST by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: upchuck

Actually the antipathy of the Tea Party patriots against the republican establishment is what attracts the crucial Independents.

Independent voter registrations were 24% in 2012 and catapulted to 42% in 2014. It was the Independents that crushed the democrats in the 2014 elections.

Independents do not like republican establishment types and loath them as much as they loath democrats.

The idea of a 3rd (2nd) party is an idea whose time may have come because of the Independent vote.

Ted Cruz can win by a landslide in 2016 with the Independents. They don’t see Ted so much as a republican as they see him as anti-establishment and that folds perfectly within the views of Independent voters.


9 posted on 12/13/2014 9:32:10 AM PST by Hostage (ARTICLE V)
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To: upchuck

That is exactly right. They need to get someone else in the leadership positions. Both “leaders” have compromised their positions to the point that NOBODY trusts them.


10 posted on 12/13/2014 9:32:59 AM PST by McGavin999
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To: upchuck

Isn’t Ann Coulter still supporting McConnell big time?

I don’t know how...

Boehner and McConnell have to go if there’s any hope of real change.


11 posted on 12/13/2014 9:54:26 AM PST by DB
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To: upchuck
"We better ask Mr. Obama to crack down on that John Hawkins before this gets any traction."


12 posted on 12/13/2014 9:55:21 AM PST by Paine in the Neck (Socialism consumes EVERYTHING)
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To: Popman

“There is not enough voters in this country for a third party to make a difference except to screw up RINO candidates in the primaries...”

Fixed that for you


13 posted on 12/13/2014 9:56:27 AM PST by glasseye
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To: Popman

Your #5 is right on the mark.


14 posted on 12/13/2014 9:57:05 AM PST by T Ruth (Mohammedanism shall be defeated.)
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To: upchuck
"After a historic, yet unearned (Obama was the real GOP MVP) election victory, isn’t it time for the Republican leadership to try to heal the rift with the base that’s tearing the party apart?"

The rift cannot be healed!

The gangrenous RINO leadership needs to be politically amputated from the Republican Party so that new healthy, patriotic, conservative backbone can grow to replace it.

15 posted on 12/13/2014 9:58:59 AM PST by Carl Vehse
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To: upchuck
"there's toxic residue in this area that goes all the way back to the end of Bush’s first term that has never been addressed by the GOP leadership in an effective manner. There are a lot of conservatives who feel like they've been SCREAMING at the GOP for a decade and haven't been respected or heard."

AMEN to that! That is precisely one of the main factors that gave us obama.

16 posted on 12/13/2014 10:00:51 AM PST by matthew fuller (Barak Hussein Obama (Benghazi Barry)- the first step into a thousand years of darkness.)
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To: upchuck
Well said. However, screaming at the current Republican leadership is a waste of time. They must be replaced.

The way to take over a political party is to start at the bottom. That's how the socialists took over the Democrats.

Do you even know who your precinct committeeman is? Does he/she represent your views in the Party? If not, run against him/her. Get others sympathetic with your views to run in the other precincts. Take over your County Central Committee.

Do you even know who is your representative on your State central committee? Replace them if they don't represent your views. Take over the State central committee with like-minded people.

If that's done in enough states, you can replace the Party leadership with people who do represent your views.

Yes, this is a lot of work, and will require a lot of people getting involved. However, it's the only way to succeed.

For the record, I stood my watch: over ten years on my county central committee and two terms as county chairman. I had some influence in selection of local and state-level candidates. I could have used help from other counties. I'm now too old to walk my precinct, but I can stand on the sidelines and urge others to follow the same path.

Stop complaining and get busy.

17 posted on 12/13/2014 10:02:39 AM PST by JoeFromSidney (Book: RESISTANCE TO TYRANNY. Available from Amazon.)
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To: Popman

BUMP

Give me a cashiers check for One Billion, and we can start a third party. Any less is laughable.


18 posted on 12/13/2014 10:03:01 AM PST by stephenjohnbanker (The only people in the world who fear Obama are American citizens.)
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To: upchuck
In reality, the very first thing should begin by respecting their Oaths to uphold the Constitution, and then to respect the voters who rejected "progressive" policies and allowed Republicans to have a temporary majority in January and until the next election!

Those who now have this "temporary" majority must remember that it is "the People" who are, as Justice John Story, in his "Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States," recognized as "the only KEEPERS of the Constitution." The Constitution provides them that position of power and trust in its Article V.

Excerpted below are the concluding paragraphs from Justice Joseph Story's "Commentaries on the Constitution. . . ."

The final paragraph serves as a cautionary warning for today's attacks on its principles and limitations on government power. If Boehner, McConnell and all the elected Republican Congressmen and Senators recognize the meaning of their Oaths to uphold the Constitution, then they should take seriously Justice Story's cautions and warning.

" CHAPTER XLV. CONCLUDING REMARKS.

§ 1903. We have now reviewed all the provisions of the original constitution of the United States, and all the amendments, which have been incorporated into it. And, here, the task originally proposed in these Commentaries is brought to a close. Many reflections naturally crowd upon the mind at such a moment; many grateful recollections of the past; and many anxious thoughts of the future. The past is secure. It is unalterable. The seal of eternity is upon it. The wisdom, which it has displayed, and the blessings, which it has bestowed, cannot be obscured; neither can they be debased by human folly, or human infirmity. The future is that, which may well awaken the most earnest solicitude, both for the virtue and the permanence of our republic. The fate of other republics, their rise, their progress, their decline, and their fall, are written but too legibly on the pages of history, if indeed they were not continually before us in the startling fragments of their ruins. They have perished; and perished by their own hands. Prosperity has enervated them, corruption has debased them, and a venal populace has consummated their destruction. Alternately the prey of military chieftains at home, and of ambitious invaders from abroad, they have been sometimes cheated out of their liberties by servile demagogues; sometimes betrayed into a surrender of them by false patriots; and sometimes they have willingly sold them for a price to the despot, who has bidden highest for his victims. They have disregarded the warning voice of their best statesmen; and have persecuted, and driven from office their truest friends. They have listened to the fawning sycophant, and the base calumniator of the wise and the good. They have reverenced power more in its high abuses and summary movements, than in its calm and constitutional energy, when it dispensed blessings with an unseen, but liberal hand. They have surrendered to faction, what belonged to the country. Patronage and party, the triumph of a leader, and the discontents of a day, have outweighed all solid principles and institutions of government. Such are the melancholy lessons of the past history of republics down to our own.

§ 1904. It is not my design to detain the reader by any elaborate reflections addressed to his judgment, either by way of admonition or of encouragement. But it may not be wholly without use to glance at one or two considerations, upon which our meditations cannot be too frequently indulged.

§ 1905. In the first place, it cannot escape our notice, how exceedingly difficult it is to settle the foundations of any government upon principles, which do not admit of controversy or question. The, very elements, out of which it is to be built, are susceptible of infinite modifications; and theory too often deludes us by the attractive simplicity of its plans, and imagination by the visionary perfection of its speculations. In theory, a government may promise the most perfect harmony of operations in all its various combinations. In practice, the whole machinery may be perpetually retarded, or thrown out of order by accidental mal-adjustments. In theory, a government may seem deficient in unity of design and symmetry of parts; and yet, in practice, it may work with astonishing accuracy and force for the general welfare. Whatever, then, has been found to work well in experience, should be rarely hazarded upon conjectural improvements. Time, and long and steady operation are indispensable to the perfection of all social institutions. To be of any value they must become cemented with the habits, the feelings, and the pursuits of the people. Every change discomposes for a while the whole arrangements of the system. What is safe is not always expedient; what is new is often pregnant with unforeseen evils, and imaginary good.

§ 1906. In the next place, the slightest attention to the history of the national constitution must satisfy every reflecting mind, how many difficulties attended its formation and adoption, from real or imaginary differences of interests, sectional feelings, and local institutions. It is an attempt to create a national sovereignty, and yet to preserve the state sovereignties; though it is impossible to assign definite boundaries in every case to the powers of each. The influence of the disturbing causes, which, more than once in the convention, were on the point of breaking up the Union, have since immeasurably increased in concentration and vigour. The very inequalities of a government, confessedly founded in a compromise, were then felt with a strong sensibility; and every new source of discontent, whether accidental or permanent, has since added increased activity to the painful sense of these inequalities. The North cannot but perceive, that it has yielded to the South a superiority of representatives, already amounting to twenty-five, beyond its due proportion; and the South imagines, that, with all this preponderance in representation, the other parts of the Union enjoy a more perfect protection of their interests, than her own. The West feels her growing power and weight in the Union; and the Atlantic states begin to learn, that the sceptre must one day depart from them. If, under these circumstances, the Union should once be broken up, it is impossible, that a new constitution should ever be formed, embracing the whole Territory. We shall be divided into several nations or confederacies, rivals in power and interest, too proud to brook injury, and too close to make retaliation distant or ineffectual. Our very animosities will, like those of all other kindred nations, become more deadly, because our lineage, laws, and language are the same. Let the history of the Grecian and Italian republics warn us of our dangers. The national constitution is our last, and our only security. United we stand; divided we fall.

§ 1907. If these Commentaries shall but inspire in the rising generation a more ardent love of their country, an unquenchable thirst for liberty, and a profound reverence for the constitution and the Union, then they will have accomplished all, that their author ought to desire. Let the American youth never forget, that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors; and capable, if wisely improved, and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to their latest posterity all the substantial blessings of life, the peaceful enjoyment of liberty, property, religion, and independence. The structure has been erected by architects of consummate skill and fidelity; its foundations are solid; its compartments are beautiful, as well as useful; its arrangements are full of wisdom and order; and its defences are impregnable from without. It has been reared for immortality, if the work of man may justly aspire to such a title. It may, nevertheless, perish in an hour by the folly, or corruption, or negligence of its only keepers, THE PEOPLE. Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people, in order to betray them."

- Justice Joseph Story - "Commentaries on the Constitution. . . ."


19 posted on 12/13/2014 10:05:14 AM PST by loveliberty2
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To: Pietro
The only way to get a viable 3rd party off the ground would be if existing GOP leaders, eg. Cruz, Lee, Sessions and others in the house were to bolt the party.

I agree but I am not sure what percentage of voters we would take with us. Myself and just about everyone on FR would be in. People who listen to talk radio will be in. Most military, police, firemen types will be in. I think we could get a majority of the blue collar people to join us.

But what percentage of the overall GOP population can we get? 30%? 60%? 80? I just don't know.

I do know that we won't be getting the backing of the chamber or much of Wall Street. Can we scrape together enough funds to even be viable?

I also know that what we are doing now has been and will continue to be a colossal failure. We need to move in a different direction.

UKIP seems to be a possible model we could follow.

20 posted on 12/13/2014 10:10:02 AM PST by usurper (Liberals GET OFF MY LAWN)
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