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Redstate
Why
This Fight
By
Erick Erickson
February
19th, 2014
I was
once an elected Republican. I started the College Republicans at my
school. I served as the state chair of the College Republicans in
Georgia. I have worked for more than two decades to get Republicans
elected. But more and more I cannot tell you what it means to be a
Republican other than opposition to Barack Obama. I want to be for
something, not just against someone. And I surely do not want to be
for a party that thinks the problem is Democrats in charge of
government and not government itself.
As a
former political consultant I know most people want to vote for
something or someone, not against something or someone. That,
frankly, is one reason why Mitt Romney lost in 2012. He did not
really give people something to vote for. He just assumed people
would vote against Barack Obama. But a majority liked Barack Obama
even if they disagreed with him. New polling shows a majority of
people who voted for Barack Obama regret doing so, but they don’t
regret not voting for Romney.
What
does the GOP stand for?
I
know what conservatives stand for — limiting government, local
control, free markets, and life. But what of the GOP?
Many
of those in charge of the Republican Party and their allied talking
heads in the press claim the GOP is conservative. While that is what
they preach, in practice they too expand the government. They want
Washington calling the shots. They turn the free market toward their
large donors. They prefer to not make eye contact on social issues.
They focus on Wall Street, not Main Street. They, like the Democrats,
offer platitudes to middle class, while ignoring middle class
economics for Davos dalliances.
The
basic message of Republicans in Washington these days is that they
can control the Democrat created leviathan better than the Democrats.
They will tinker with it, mend it, and control it. But we know they
cannot. When last the GOP ran everything in Washington we got
Medicare Part D, an expanded federal role in education, and
eventually their assistance in banning the incandescent light bulb.
If
the Republican Party returns to power in Washington, the same people
who did all that will again be in charge. They will still stand for
nothing unless a poll or billionaire tells them otherwise. In short,
the modern Republican Party has abandoned its convictions to
billionaire donors and crappy pollsters.
There
are elements of the Republican Party not in office who see the GOP as
better than the Democrats and are, consequently, willing to trust in
those in charge. They view the need for majority as so critical that
they resent any and all boat rocking that might jeopardize the chance
for a majority. Their concerns are very valid. The GOP would be
better than the Democrats.
But
then there is my camp — we believe the GOP should offer more than
better technocratic management of the leviathan. The GOP should not
just preach small government, but practice it. And most importantly,
we cannot do those things or offer new ideas with the same faces in
charge. We cannot relate to the middle class and Main Street if the
puppet masters of the party are coastal elite billionaires who think
Wall Street is Main Street and have grown detached from the
conservative concerns of working moms and dads trying to make ends
meet.
I’m
not willing to settle for just taking back the Senate. I want to take
back my country. And I don’t want to take it back from the
Democrats, but from Washington itself. That is impossible with a
Republican leadership intent on telling me what Washington can do for
me if only I would let them help.
I
want Washington to leave me the hell alone. And the only way that is
possible is this fight now in the Republican primaries. The
patricians of the party must be defeated if we are to be left alone.
If we do not change the face of the GOP, we will want change
Washington. And if we do not change Washington, we can never change
our country.
We
must challenge and replace Republicans. We must fight. We must.
Read this article with
links, plus others, at Redstate
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