Palin, Steele, and the Appeal of a 3rd Party
December 10, 2009I write this as an open letter to an uncle, aunt, and all the extended Revo family. Forgive me if it runs long. Northern Canada and all this snow leaves me windy….
2010 is for all the marbles. You know it, I know it. You can be damned sure the progressives know it too. Watching Nancy’s eyes bug out when she thinks she has another knife stuck in our side is proof enough. The left is pushing ahead at all costs, damn the seats certain to be lost next November and why not? They survived several years of 11-15% approval ratings, stymied our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, elected a marxist and are now on the brink of getting the 2 most destructive legislative packages EVER shoved through to the One’s desk. On every front we are in the fight of our lives and losing is not an option. These marxist bastards are serious. Deadly serious. Obama rubs our noses in it every day with his czars. His EPA appointee is so sure of their success she just openly declared near dictatorial power to regulate (read destroy) near any and all businesses, constitutional authority be damned. Frankly, we’re in dire straits, surrounded, and in need of tactical air support.
I don’t think it’s a stretch to say the future of more than America is at stake here. How the existential question of what we are and what we will become plays out will echo worldwide long after our children and grandchildren are gone. The world will be less fruitful, more dangerous, and undeniably less free. We are the only true beacon of Liberty in this unstable world and without our leadership all hell could break loose. Damnit all, we were put here for a reason. 5000 years of history all leads to us, the great experiment, this magnificent Republic.
So with everything at stake, what do we get? Michael Steele and a Republican party in denial of their base. The GOP nearly commited suicide fronting McCain and now they prefer life support to renewal, inspiring nobody. The conservative revolt has a republican old guard mystified,mortified,and apparently lost. Witness the Hoffman NY23 race and Gingrich’s endorsement of the RINO. Shall we list the GOP transgressions? Well for starters…the ‘abandon free markets to save them’ rescue effort, TARP, Stimulus 1 and 2, McCain’s endorsement of Cap and trade, a lack of vision or balls regarding domestic energy production , immigration reform, the fight for a border fence, No Child Left Behind, ballooning the deficit, Jesus I could go on and on. Even the tax breaks GW got us are going to ‘expire’. No wonder the base was disheartened, we were abandoned.
If that small list of challenges to our nation and party depresses you then you understand how the estranged feel. The 3rd party movement may be small but they have legitimate gripes. Hell, I feel their pain. Republicans haven’t led, they’ve rolled over. They’ve been virtually indistinguishable from democrats in spending, immigration, etc. They haven’t done squat to earn the vote and since 1988 we’ve been forced to vote for the lesser of 2 evils. In a way it’s a small miracle the party rallied as well as it did in 08. We need a farm team to draw from and Steele isnt inspiring anyone . He is in fact ironically pushing MORE towards 3rd Party alternative because of the apparent status quo, party above all crap.
Usually these 3rd party people look like US. They’re the pissed off and frustrated. They’re vets, truckers, union guys, cops, ranchers, small business owners, hunters, bakers, housewives, etc. Who cares if they call themselves libertarians, they mostly vote republican. Old and young, they’re largely the conservative base. They’re the true grassroots. And they know what the word liberty means.
If it sounds like I’m endorsing them, I am. I applaud them for getting involved. In fact, properly placed they will help us take the party back. Before you pull out the long knives allow me to explain. I have ZERO tolerance for 3rd party movements in national elections. None, period. And even though my brother rightly points out Perot probably forced the Contract with America in response to his throwing the election to Clinton, we are in NO position to play games anymore. 2010 is the most important election in 150 years, our nation hangs in the balance. If we can’t get enough seats to at least block the progressives’ efforts America will fall as sure as England did under Fabian control. However……
Then there’s Sarah Palin. She didn’t like what her school board was doing, got involved, got elected. Didn’t think the city was run right, same story. When she ran for governor she had to unseat a republican. Call it conservative populism, call it grassroots. Whatever. She is, and was, in tune with her base and she took control of the party largely without their endorsement . She might as well have been a 3rd party candidate. By challenging the Alaskan republicans as she did Sarah exemplified how we can get back control long term and what kind of populist appeal will be necessary. That may mean running libertarians in local elections, PTA’s, city councils, etc. The left built their machine over 40 years electing progressives as democrats in just this manner. Will we conservatives have to do the same? My guess is yes, and for as long as it takes to retake the party and our country.
May God bless Sarah for taking the fight to the establishment.
Just an afterthought but I hear Michael Steele is reworking the Contract with America for 2010. Nifty. I don’t need another contract, I need COMMITMENT.
Cold Warrior :
Date: December 11, 2009
The best place to unite all those yearning for a third party effort is within the Republican Party itself. It is RIPE for a takeover. It’s already happened in Nevada and Minnesota. Why? Because on average HALF the precinct committeeman slots in the Party are unfilled. Here in AZ, fewer than one third of the slots were filled on election day, 2008. Precinct committeemen “are” the Party. They vote for the leadership and can vote to endorse candidates in the most important election — the primary election. Primary elections have very low turnout, usually.
Imagine this. Right now, there’s about a 50-50 split in the Party between conservatives and liberals/moderates/RINOs. It shows in the leadership of the Party (elected by the precinct committeemen) and in the kinds of RINO candidates that win the primaries. What if that ratio went to 75-25 in favor of conservatives. Or 5 to 1 in McCain’s state?????
Guess what — we’d have a conservative Party with conservative leadership and conservative candidates winning the primaries.
Never heard an incumbent talk about this? It’s because they are terrified this could happen. Even McConnell, right now, and Kit Bond, and others, have earmarks in the Senate health care bill.
This is the answer, folks.
Go here to learn more:
http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com
and here:
http://www.nationalprecinctalliance.org
Spread the word. Act. Now.
Thank you.
Cold Warrior
American first, conservative second, Republican precinct committeeman BY NECESSITY
USMA 197X
Jim 22 :
Date: December 11, 2009
Great, insightful piece, LnL. If, as you say, we Conservatives do not take control of our party the future of our country will be one of European style socialism.
You are correct in stating the obvious: The 2010 election will be for ALL the marbles. If we let Steele and the bluebloods remain in control we will be abandoning our American heritage. This is the time for the Real Revolution.
Cold Warrior has it right as well. The way to do this is to begin at the precinct level.
The only person of national prominence who is conservative, has a history of attacking corruption, and has the cojones to actually do it is a woman from Alaska: Sarah Palin. Can anyone come up with another?
There have been many who questioned why she resigned as governor. Whether she knew it or not at the time, THIS is why.
I believe that it is more important to lead the GOP back to its conservative roots right now than it is to take over the presidency. When the party begins to support true conservatives we will win.
Locke n Load :
Date: December 11, 2009
amen brother
. and thanks for the info CW
Greg :
Date: December 11, 2009
Locke n Load,
The government only rarely asks me what I think, so I’ll be damned if I’m going to lie to them when they do. It’s too important. They have an election, I vote my conscience. That’s how it’s supposed to work. And, it does demonstrably when nineteen percent of the voters can be had by representing them, as was the Republican response to the Perot phenomenon.
But here, as you may have explained, we have a “Catch-22.” Now, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. If I vote my libertarian conscience, I’ll doom myself; if I don’t, I’m voting for someone I don’t like, with the possible exception of Sarah Palin.
I’ll hold my nose again and vote Republican because they do have the best chance of defeating the Obamanation. I hope they nominate Palin, but moreso, we need a sure thing. Usually, I don’t use my vote as a bet on who has the best chance to win, but — like you — I think we have come to a point.
On a lighter note, this reminds me of an episode of The Simpsons in which two evil aliens, Kodos and Kang, come down to Earth, disguise themselves as the presidential candidates, and are unmasked in a debate right before the election. A man in the crowd brightens and says, “I’m going to vote for a third party candidate!” To which, one of the aliens says, “Go ahead…throw your vote away!” In the next scene, the evil overlords are whipping an enslaved human race. After a particularly harsh lashing, Homer proudly says to Marge, “Don’t blame me. I voted for Kang!”
I hope we don’t get fooled again.
Locke n Load :
Date: December 11, 2009
My point Greg, is that while we may have to hold our noses in the national elections for a while, the local elections are where change will be affected. We need a farm team of true conservatives to draw from and as of this post the republican party has apparently little interest in finding them. Without concerted and constant pressure from the base we never WILL find them. I love Sarah because she fires up exactly who we need to find, the ones who will, and can, step into the breach. We need new local candidates who can then become state officials, then national ones. The mess we are in wasn’t created overnight, it won’t be fixed that fast either. I hate to give Howard Dean any credit whatsoever, but the idea of a constant campaign HAS arrived. We are going to have to learn to regard the election campaigns more like ongoing military ones
Locke n Load :
Date: December 12, 2009
Cold Warrior, forgive my brief response earlier. your post warranted more than that but I was driving thu crazy mountains and thats all I could scratch out at the time. Of course you are right. We have to retake the party from within. My point, pehaps lost, was that Sarah inspires the very people we will need to push that cause. 9-11ers, tea partiers, whatever. These are the people we need to inspire and get involved. My first response to the election was to choke back tears, my next was fury. i haven’t lost that anger and neither have Sarahs supporters. We have a long term strategic battle on our hands and we will need them to work up thru the system, to take the local councils, the cities, and the states. If we can get them into the party to effect change, all the better.