Some denizens of dKos have seriously suggested that I necessarily endorse the rampages of the Bush junta by the mere act of remaining a Republican. Although I am appalled by the tsunami of tyranny the Junta has engendered, I have heretofore remained within the fold because I maintain -- as did Hillary Clinton, at one time -- that the system is not so broken that positive change cannot be effected from the inside.
And I may yet be mistaken in that view.
In our county's Central Committee meeting earlier this year [the Soviet overtones of that name are palpable], a motion was offered requiring enforcement of our rule that all Party officials who openly supported Democratic candidates be purged. Well, I was guilty as charged, having a "NO CARB DIET" (No Cheney, no Ashcroft, no Rumsfeld, and no Bush) bumper sticker on my car, and having refused to work for "Both-Ways Bob" Beauprez and John Suthers in my precinct.
Here is my letter inquiring as to my current status (which has yet to be responded to).
The founder of our Party, whose birthday we celebrate today, exhorted people to "Stand with anybody that stands RIGHT. Stand with him while he is right and PART with him when he goes wrong."# Abraham Lincoln’s wisdom encapsulates my attitude toward our Party, and hopefully, always will.
Though I am but a humble committeeperson, I am the face of the Republican Party in my precinct, and I take that responsibility seriously. The only thing I have to sell is my credibility, and I refuse to squander that lightly. When the topic comes up around the clubhouse, I tell people that it is our job to put forth a slate of candidates of good character who articulate a clear and compelling vision for how our government ought to be run. And I will be the first to admit that at times, we have failed miserably. I tell them straight up that, when we fail in that charge, you shouldn’t vote for our candidates.
As a Republican, I am not loyal to a man or even a Party but rather, to a set of ideals. Ronald Reagan spoke eloquently of fiscal restraint, personal responsibility, peace through strength, and an unswerving commitment to individual liberty. Teddy Roosevelt spoke of environmental stewardship long before it was in vogue. This coherent and internally consistent view of man and his responsibility to his brethren has been at the core of what it has always meant to be a Republican and with Lincoln, I reserve the right to part with our leaders when they go wrong.
This commitment to principle has compelled me to withdraw support for our candidates from time to time. For instance, I refused to support Mark Paschall, on the grounds that I did not find him a man of good character; my fears were finally realized in the last month [Paschall was indicted for soliciting a kickback]. I opposed George Bush on similar grounds and again, my fears were vindicated. Honest Abe earned the nickname "Spotty Lincoln" for his tireless questioning of James Polk over the bona fides of the provocation justifying entrance into the Mexican-American War; we can only imagine how brutally he would have grilled Colin Powell. And we shouldn’t need to ask what President Reagan would have said about how Bush #43 so shamelessly maxed out this country’s American Express card.
Maybe I’m just one of those cats who needs herding or maybe, the leadership of our Party has strayed so far from what it has always meant to be a Republican that they no longer deserve our support. Frankly, it appears to me that our leaders are acting with total disregard for the people they are supposed to be serving, and that is a certain prescription for disaster.
As an illustration, when I queried Bob Beauprez about my signature issue -- judicial accountability or more precisely, the lack thereof -- Bob actually said that that was why people were going after Tom DeLay. The DeLay scandal is especially troubling, insofar as it raises legitimate doubts regarding Bob’s personal character. Back here in the hinterlands, we call DeLay’s golf junket to Scotland# a bribe; if you honestly don’t understand at the core of your being that what DeLay did was wrong, you probably have Captain Jack Sparrow’s moral compass. When it was revealed by the Post that Beauprez took a $21,000 bribe from a reputed Russian mobster in the form of a junket to Israel, the ‘character’ issue was settled. Bob Beauprez was unfit to be our Governor.
In a nutshell, that one incident explained why we were thrashed so soundly in November. Our leaders became infected with a strain of unbridled arrogance so virulent, your average American could no longer stand their presence. Coupled with the scandals involving Bill Frist,# Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham,# Ted Stevens and his $315 million ‘Bridge to Nowhere,"# the bankruptcy bill (brought to you by MBNA),# and quite frankly, too many examples of influence-peddling to mention, it appears that Congress has become little more than a bazaar, and the only way you can get any action out of your Congressman is to pay a Jack Abramoff to tender the requisite bribe. For average citizens on the outside looking in, who couldn’t get much-needed help because the Republican Congress was so flagrantly on the take, the notion that they have been representing "us" is risible.
[FWIW, This photo was taken during a protest, organized by MoveOn.org, against the prescription drug bill. The guy on the right is a fellow Republican.]
While it took a Mark "Gay Old Pedophile" Foley to bring matters to a head, the Republican Bribe Machine has been hitting us where we live. Easily the most egregious example of corporate corruption overwhelming common sense in the Beauprez Congress is the Medicare prescription drug program -- which specifically prohibited the federal government from negotiating price discounts with the drug companies,# which Bob voted for.# Worse yet, Bob even voted to prevent financially strapped seniors from reimporting prescription drugs from Canada.# According to a study by the Boston University School of Public Health, Bob Beauprez’ vision of Medicare reform would have resulted in $139 billion (a 38% increase) in windfall profits for Big Pharma -- stolen right from the pockets of our struggling seniors!#
On his website, Bob blustered that he "understood the value of a dollar." Given that we have more Medicare participants than Canada has Canadians,# you’d think we’d be able to negotiate prices for common drugs like Plavix (anti-stroke), Lipitor (cholesterol), and Fosamax (osteoporosis) comparable to those paid in Canada. But under his plan, our seniors must pay $268 for a monthly supply of those three drugs, while their neighbors to the north only pay $175# -- it adds up to over a thousand dollars a year, stolen from seniors to pay for corporate jets, bribes for members of Congress, and stock options for top executives. If it makes sense for Wal-Mart to use its clout to negotiate better prices, why wouldn’t it make sense for our government? Fact is, Big Pharma was feeding the Republican Bribe Machine, and leaders like Bob invariably put their own provincial interests over that of the people they serve.
What Does It Mean To Be a Committeeperson?
As I have said before, I am ‘the face of the Republican Party’ in my precinct. My constituents voice concerns about runaway deficits. About an ill-advised elective war. About the SuperTower. About illegal immigration. But our Republican public officials at the highest levels only seem to listen to those who bribe them. Local pols like Rob Witwer, Dave Auburn, and Jim Congrove try to do the right thing, but Beauprez, Allard, and even Tom Tancredo# seem to be more concerned with what lobbyists want than hoi polloi. As my wife and I were both state assembly delegates, who tried to voice our concerns both directly and through channels, to no avail; Beauprez would not listen ... unless, of course, you could bribe Tom DeLay.
I’m not sure what the Party wants from me, and I am even less certain that I can give it at this point. I categorically refuse to fall on my sword for people who don’t give a rat’s ass about me or more importantly, my constituents. Our leaders seem to have forgotten that loyalty works both ways, or that among truly great men, service to others is invariably a habit. If our Party continues to produce immoral and/or incompetent candidates like Bob Beauprez, then it cannot expect the support of the electorate ... or for that matter, unqualified support from me.
If our Party demands unswerving and unquestioning loyalty from every footsoldier and under every circumstance, it should change its name to the Communist Party and be done with it. For me, I will be forced to make the choice counseled by Lincoln, leaving with my honor and integrity intact. But I also trust that you have the good sense and appreciation for what made us great as a Party to never ask me to make that terrible choice. I want my candidate endorsements to mean something.
Some years ago, the Democratic Party lost a great man because, in his words, "they left him." That man, of course, was Ronald Reagan. Let us not, in a frenzy of pique and anger, commit the same mistake. Let us resolve to win our dissenters back the old-fashioned way: by earning their support.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
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Needless to say, the Central Committee has yet to respond to this letter, submitted nearly six months ago. But they are still asking for money....