Originally blogged on Thursday, January 22, 2009

The GOP’s DNR order

“And they say that if you go to his grave and speak loud and clear, “Dan’l Webster-Dan’l Webster!” the ground’ll begin to shiver and the trees begin to shake. And after a while you’ll hear a deep voice saying, “Neighbor, how stands the Union?” Then you better answer the Union stands as she stood, rock-bottomed and copper sheathed, one and indivisible, or he’s liable to rear right out of the ground. ”

I, for one, do not want to be the man calling out to ol’ Dan’l Webster today…

A Call to the G.N.P.!

 You there…Republican! Yes, YOU! I know, you stopped calling yourself that didn’t you? Yes, I know how you feel. I have, as well. You’re feeling a bit let down, a bit disenfranchised, even a little angry that the party you’ve been pulling the lever for is fading fast after all these years. Here’s an idea…DO NOT RESUSCITATE!

The G.O.P. will not change. In fact, the G.O.P. does not WANT to change. In a display of “conservatism”, the party wants to just keep on keepin’ on with the way it’s always been. Ask ANY “12-stepper” and they’ll tell you that the first steps to change are admitting you “have a problem”. That you have “hit rock-bottom”, and truly “WANT to CHANGE”.

Admit to a problem? As in the “drunken-sailor” spending of the last four years? The countless adjustments and re-adjustments of Federal Interest Rates to overcome bad decisions made in the previous administration? Freight trains loaded with “pork-barrels”? NOT standing squarely behind the people on the frontlines of our national defense? (Read that; Ramos & Compean). The people tasked with seeing to it we haven’t another attack on U.S. soil? (A task they accomplished, might I add?)

The Republican Party has indeed, “hit rock-bottom”. A twenty percent, (in some polls less…), approval for an outgoing two-term president? The replacement candidate a “RINO” at best, and a LIBERAL at worst? That sounds pretty close to “rock-bottom” to me.

Handing the keys to the house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to a man with NO executive, and precious little legislative experience? Bam! There it is. J.F.K. must be laughing like a whole pack of hyenas. Bedrock-bottom.

I have listened to many of the pundits, ( That’s right.  PUNDITS.  The word is PUNDITS.), as well as party officials, academics, and other “experts” offer up ideas to “renew” or “revitalize” or even “rebuild” the party.

Sorry, folks, but it’s dead.

 I have seen plans of others, more grass-roots plans to do the same. They face the “problem” of being “too conservative” or “too removed from the ideals of the party”. They face the indolence of the standing party staff. The wall of “they way it’s always been”. The subversion of the camouflaged “new” Republicans….the good “old” Democratic-Republicans!

NEWSFLASH. It’s DEAD.

 History killed it. Well, more truly, revisionist history killed it. Even more truly, unfettered, unbridled, and unchallenged REVISIONIST history killed it. The party that championed civil rights has lost its beneficiaries’ votes to the party that opposed it. Why? Because “we” are “gentlemen” and we don’t “stoop to the level” of those who oppose us. We are wealthy white men, whose only agenda is to pollute the planet and rob people of their livelihoods and dignity. The party that stood against the Red Menace has, in this general election, allowed more communists into the Whitehouse than in the last fifty years. Why? Because we wanted to run a “respectful campaign”. When campaign finances were discussed between this past cycle’s de-facto nominees, ONE changed the rules in a day or so, but it was left unchecked. Why? Because a promise is a promise. We insisted on joining in a street fight clutching our Marquis de Queensbury rulebook. Just by having it there, the opposing side would have no choice but to step up to the higher ground, after all. Right?

Grieve and mourn. Wail and gnash thy teeth. But it’s dead. Bury it. Move on.

 I call on all of you who are out there, trying hard, to breathe new life, (heck….ANY life!), into the corpse of the Grand Old Party to stand up, clean off, get into your rescue vehicle, and go deliver the NEW baby. The Grand NEW Party. The party that people will hear of from scratch. From Jump Street. From the Get-Go. Call it the the “Grand New Party”. Call it the “Re-Republicans”. “Republican Reprise, Redux, Remake….” You get the point, by now, I’m sure.

The party that will stand for all the things we believe. LIFE, Liberty, the pursuit of happiness….ALL of it. The new message can be carried forth to young and old. Rich and poor. Men AND women. Out of the cremated ashes of those old Republican bones, a new life can appear. A new life that can make America safe, secure, and prosperous. An America ready to resume it’s place as the leader of the World in human rights, personal freedoms, and a general sense of well-being.

And TAKE OFF that bow tie!

Addendum of February 14th, 2012

As a codicil, I present the current “race” for the mansion on Pennsylvania Avenue. As we have seen here in Maine, just follow the back story for a moment…

The G.O.P. has been trounced repeatedly in the race for the Governor’s Mansion for several decades. Now, I’ve only been living “up heah” for nigh seven years and following the political machinations for a couple more beyond that, but I can see the failure that oppresses the G.O.P. with a clarity that the native-born cannot. This is a state with a HUGELY “red” populace. In the suburbs and rurally. In the cities, (yes, we do have a few), there’s a decided “blue” streak. The people in the Republican camp have striven to find candidates who can gain “the base”. Swell. Good, solid political thinking. Right? Wrong. By running a buttoned-up jacket with a bow tie and horn-rimmed glasses you can energize the base. But you can’t win an election! You need someone to pick up the “swing” voters, and anyone that looks like a prep-school headmaster might sound wonderful to people oppressed by a monster in the tax-man’s office feeding another monster in the welfare office at the behest of the monster in the business development office is NOT going to DO that. Lesson learned. This time out, we, as a state, managed to put a Republican governor in place. A governor who stacked his cabinet with others who were, at one point or another, IN that race. They had run on their strengths and LOST. So he put their individual strengths to work IN his win. Progress continues. My home state of New Jersey did the same thing. It’s working, (much to the chagrin of the Democrats and the press in NJ), very well.

But then, this paradigm is not the same for a general election…Or IS it?

  The “front runners” in the race for the Republican “nod” this cycle are Mitt Romney,(D-MA), and in some areas, (Maine included), Ron Paul,(L-TX). Yes, I know that they bot identify themselves as Republicans. As there is a difference between “moderating” a “hard line” and being an imposter to a title…They are not. Among the phrases we hear over and over in elections is that a candidate is, (or at least wants to), be recognized as run(ning) on their record. Romney’s record would win him a seat just fine…as a Democrat. The only thing that makes Paul a Republican is that he “legally” changed his party affiliation to the G.O.P.

I identify myself as a Republican, too. But then, I always have. My “record” on issues was, is, and I suppose will always be reflected in the pool of Republican thought. “Moderate”, at times, but still able to walk on the planks of the party of Reagan.

That party, folks, is dead. As dead as the Romans. At least for this cycle. Because we decided not only to “moderate”, which is a good idea, but to run off the end of the Earth with it into a Democrat and a Libertarian looking as much like a presumptive candidate as the incumbent president.

Congratulations, President Obama, on your re-election.