Grassroots

The following is an email I forwarded in response to an announcement from Americans For Limited Government:

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From: Adam Bitely <Adam@netrightnation.com>
Subject: The Restless Grassroots
Date: Sunday, October 18, 2009, 4:56 PM

Fellow Bloggers,

Today, Bill Wilson the President of Americans for Limited Government, had an Op-Ed featured in the Washington Times. Please check out his piece on the relationship between grassroots activists and congressional Republicans. Mr. Wilson's expert analysis lays out what we are dealing with right now. Please help spread this story around.

Sincerely,
Adam Bitely
Director of New Media
Americans for Limited Government

The Restless Grassroots

By Bill Wilson

For decades, political observers have watched with fascination the battle raging inside the Republican Party. Whether the contest has been between Sen. Robert Taft and Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, between Barry Goldwater and Nelson A. Rockefeller, or Ronald Reagan and Gerald R. Ford, the battle has always been viewed as a fight between "conservatives" and so-called "moderates."

However, as recent events reveal, such a formulation misses the point. In fact, the real battle being waged is between Washington insiders - as represented by the congressional wing of the Republican Party - and grass-roots Americans from all walks of life throughout the country.

The actual events that prompted this observation were hardly anything of consequence. The gadfly, wannabe "cool" chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele, issued a policy statement titled a "Health Care Bill of Rights." Within days, Senate Republicans led by Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander lashed out at Mr. Steele, intoning, "We are elected to set the policy."

And that, in a nutshell, points up the real fight being waged in Washington today. The congressional wing has grown alienated from the very people who sent them to Washington.

You see expressions of this almost every day. Just last weekend, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham held a town-hall meeting where he ran headlong into opposition for his love of compromise. When pressed by the crowd, Mr. Graham had advice for the grass roots. He replied to a critic of his many liberal positions, "If you don't like it, you can leave." That may be exactly what is happening.

In a special election to fill a vacancy in New York's 23rd Congressional District, insiders and lackeys of the congressional wing selected a liberal assemblywoman who supports President Obama more than the Democratic candidate, is radical on most social issues and is tied by marriage to the AFL-CIO.

Local activists refused to accept such a candidate, so the Conservative Party mounted a challenger. As of this writing, the Conservative candidate, Doug Hoffman, is rising rapidly in the polls as the Republican sinks toward single-digit support. The real Republican Party finally is rising up against the self-appointed mandarins of the congressional wing.

New York 23 is not an isolated case. In Virginia's 5th Congressional District, a solid conservative, Bradley Rees, has publicly announced he will run as an Independent next year if the D.C. power brokers select a liberal challenger to freshman Democratic Rep. Tom Perriello. Again, grass-roots activists are rising up to tell the congressional wing to either get on board or get run over.

The response coming back from the congressional wing is invariably the same: They do what they want to do, not what the people who sent them to Washington want them to do. You and I are irrelevant.

Well, that is what has gotten us into this mess.

That attitude has allowed the culture of corruption to flourish regardless of which party is in power. It is this arrogant disrespect for citizens that has led us to the brink of financial ruin.

So, with all due respect to Mr. Alexander: Phooey! You and your cohorts were sent to Washington to represent the views of the people back home. You were given the task of implementing the ideas and policy positions embedded in the platform. And, you were sent to Congress to serve, not dictate.

The millions of Americans who have from time to time put their faith in one party or the other are starting to awaken. They will no longer sit by silently and take whatever scrap is thrown their way. They increasingly are taking Mr. Graham's advice - they are leaving.

Bill Wilson is president of Americans for Limited Government.

My personal take on this is simple, based on history and logic:

1. Every - EVERY! - time a third party candidate has run in the past 30 years, it took votes from whichever candidate was closest to representing Conservatives.
...hell, even I voted for Perot, and look who we ended up with abusing cigars in the Oral Orifice....

2. Any third party has to basically start from scratch - you can't prove that the Libertarians or the Paulites or the Constitution party has anything like the resources the GOP already has in place.

3. The Republican party has the resources, infrastructure, money and name-recognition, but it's being run by the "progressives" and "moderates", and other creatures of questionable morals...and sanity.

Why reinvent the wheel?

I'm of the opinion that it's time for Americans to take back the GOP from the "progressive" "moderate" RINO pukes like mccain, graham, snowe, collins...they're nothing but democraps with an "R" behind their names.
The fastest way to fire THEM is to "primary" their asses out.
Kick 'em out from the inside.

The way I see it, the best way to take back America is to take back the GOP, first.

Know Your Enemy,
(it's the GOP "moderates", too),
OldSarge

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I believe in economy of force, and if we can take back the GOP from the spineless collaborators currently running it, so much the better, because building a VIABLE third party will take half a generation, at least.
...and if we're forced to go that route, then Pharaoh WILL get a second term and our kids and grandkids WILL curse us.
I'm not saying we should be joining the GOP.
I'm telling it to join US!

Time to separate the RINO's from the patriots.