Given that at least two of my recent web postings on the race for RNC Chair dealing with Reince Priebus’ unsuitability for that particular job have made it into emailed discussion threads among all RNC Committee members, I’d like to respectfully address you as regards what those postings represent and what they do not.
I saw one reference from Mr. Henry Barbour suggesting that open criticisms of the various candidates, obviously including my own, actually represents hating. Truth be told, if they represent anything, it’s love – as in love for our country in perilous political and economic times, with a sincere desire to impact politics to improve the Republican Party, so that we may do what’s right for America, not continue down a path of doing things wrong.
Well, whoever these people are that seem to wake up each morning hating all of our candidates for chairman jumped on my use of the phrase “personal contributions” and are acting like I was somehow trying to mislead folks.
Unfortunately, and with all due respect, in this a Tea Party and New Media age, that is the language of the antiquated and self-appointed back room deal-making pol interested in little more than stifling dissent to his chosen candidate.
The Tea Party, an energized base due to Democrat over reach and the ability for citizen activists to publish their thoughts, has changed American politics. It is for that reason I am writing you. It is so important to the future of the RNC, the GOP and even America, I believe it warrants some thought and careful consideration as you prepare to elect a new Chair.
Later today, I will publish a list of valid reasons why so much of the GOP base finds Reince Priebus unsuitable for Chair. But that is not my purpose with this letter.
With a liberty loving America under threat from what amounts to a Leftist onslaught of Big Government, we need a united and cohesive Republican Party to continue to try and set this country right, just as we began to do in November of 2010. The Tea Party, energized activists, now published and read broadly on the web, are not going away. Still, it is what might be called the political establishment that gets to call the shots, especially as regards the race for RNC Chair. There is nothing wrong with that. You have earned that privilege from all your fine work.
Yet, somewhere there must be a meeting of the minds between the base and establishment if we are to have the unified and energized Republican Party we need going into 2012. By and large, the base has determined that Reince Priebus is unacceptable to them as chair. There are good reasons for that. I will address them later, as stated. But at the same time, both Saul Anuzis and Ann Wagner are acceptable. That is not because Anuzis and Wagner are somehow of us and not of you, the establishment. We are not being uncompromising here.
In fact, as their more than viable candidacies indicate, both Anuzis and Wagner are very much of the political establishment, not opposed to it. And that’s how it should be.
What they both have done, and Priebus has not, however, is demonstrate that they get it. They made the effort to engage the energized activist base, made their respective cases and have both won hearts and minds. That is, after all, what lower-case “D” democratic politics is all about, is it not?
Meanwhile, Reince Priebus, actually more a child of an old politics, than the fresh, vibrant and genuinely inclusive one the GOP needs to truly succeed today, all but seemed to think he had the thing wrapped up. He played his cards right, used the same old high-billing consultants totally out of touch with the base, his insider influence as General Counsel to win fast friends, made the right deals and, unfortunately, basically turned on a friend, current chair Michael Steele, when the time was right to elevate himself.
That can no longer be what Republican politics represents, unless the goal is to make the party irrelevant.
That is the GOP politics of old that the base and the Tea Party is forcefully rejecting. How many primaries must we have before the political establishment gets the message? We are, in essence, having one, now, are we not? We call on you to reject the corrupted and antiquated politics of old in the person of Reince Priebus and please consider either Ann Wagner, or Saul Anuzis, because they are acceptable not only to most in the base, but most in the establishment, as well.
We are not trying to tell you what to do, but merely asking to be heard. For too long, that has simply not been happening as regards Republican politics. With the continuing rise of the Tea Party, a fired up conservative base and more and more online activism, we will eventually be heard, or we will continue to replace GOP politicians, and perhaps even committee members, who continue to behave as if they, and only they get to call all the shots.
The Constitution begins, “We the people,” not, we the chosen ones. All we the people are asking in this case is to be heard. The stakes are high in American politics just now, please choose wisely as you select a new chair and select a candidate who will make all of us proud as the America loving people and Republicans we all are. This is no time for hating, or using it as a device to quell honest dissent. The Democrats are good at that, let’s leave it to them.
Thank you all for your time and kind consideration in this regard.
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