Dakota Beacon

JIM’S TRUCKS

 

 

As the weeks before the election dwindle down, and on the eve of the Republican Convention, it seems appropriate to consider the state of the GOP.  We have at the head of the ticket arguably the least popular choice among the grassroots.  No one has ever won a Republican presidency without grassroots support.  Of a field of 8 or 9 candidates which can be categorized as “Romney” and “anything but Romney”, the Romney forces prevailed, through various tactics including everything from refusing to allow balloting at state conventions to shutting off microphones to breaking bones on the convention floor.  So now we are where we are, with Mitt Romney muscled onto the top of the ticket. 

As we survey the battlefield we see the foe – the Marxist who has been using his first term to “fundamentally transform America”.  His plans should he again succeed will devastate what is left of our economy, our sovereignty and our liberty.  We have no choice but to fight back even if it must be with Romney.  There is no alternative in 2012.  And whether you are satisfied with the Romney ticket or not, it is clear that while he might not move fast enough to restore  the  America we grew up in, he WON’T lead us into Marxist slavery.  He will not destroy our economy.  Obama WILL.  The choice is clear.

With so much at stake it is vital to gain the support, if not the genuine trust, of the Tea Party movement.  This was badly shaken in events such as the Louisiana Republican Convention, where “security” was deployed by the establishment to break fingers and knock to the floor lawfully elected delegates who properly rose to speak.  How to win these committed activists back?  Answering this question could mean the difference between another Communist nation in the world or the free America we’ve always taken for granted.  Nothing less.

And just what has Romney contributed to this fight to the death?  Little.  On his return from a foreign tour (which we all knew at the outset would be slammed by the press, regardless of its exemplary conduct), the right thing to have done was say something like, “Having seen other parts of the world in the last week I can only say how wonderful is the freedom of America, protected by our Constitution!  This freedom must be defended at home as well as abroad – our Bill of Rights must be upheld.  I will fight every day for Americans’ birthright to bear arms and to speak freely. We cannot ban a business because we don’t agree with someone’s political view.   I stand with Chick-fil-A and the ACLU in defense of the First Amendment!”  Whereupon he could have rolled up his white shirt sleeves and chowed down on a Chick-fil-A.  Can you imagine the heartfelt appreciation that would have rolled through the Tea Party grassroots?  He didn’t have to weigh in on gay marriage, he didn’t have to even be political.  He only had to stand up for American values in the real world.  After all, there is NO percentage in taking a position to the left of the ACLU – at least with the grassroots he must win over.

But what did he do?  Well, nothing.  Because “it isn’t part of his campaign”.  This lame comment, which should be put in the scrapbook alongside the “Etch-a-Sketch” simile, begs the question, what ELSE isn’t part of the campaign?  What if we elect this guy and there is a terrorist attack?  Would THAT be part of his campaign?  And isn’t a campaign pretty weak if the First and Second Amendments are NOT a part of it? 

Moving right along, we next find the roster of speakers at the RNC convention to include the likes of John McCain, who is poison to the Tea Party movement -yes, the Bachmann-bashing McCain.   Others include the Bush faction, Jeb Bush and Condoleeza Rice, reminding us of what is wrong with the Republican Party.  Although it appears that Rand Paul will speak, his father was shut out.  His father represented a tremendous surge of energy from the grassroots – ESPECIALLY AMONG YOUNGER ACTIVISTS.  Read this to mean, “the FUTURE of the Republican Party” (or, in the alternative, the future of some OTHER party).  Now can anyone tell me what was gained here?  More elitist knee-jerk behavior.  More show of lack of respect and trust in anyone who is not RINO-oriented.  Every year, like Lucy with the football, they tee up and jerk the ball away and every year Conservatives come back and try again.  The appropriate thing for the Romney camp to do, having won through arm twisting tactics, was to welcome the Right warmly and wholeheartedly and show the defeated factions real generosity in victory.  They’ve won their fight.  They’ve got their boy on top.  What could it have cost them to give the convention over to the Conservative grassroots?  Put Sarah Palin, Allen West, Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann front and center.  Banish the irrelevant McCain and Condoleeza Rice and Jeb Bush, none of whom can conjure up a pleasant memory in the tea party world.   And above all quiet the talk of a Progressive in the VP slot!  Make sure that that candidate will be cheered by the Tea Party.  Of course, we don’t expect any of these smart moves from the paranoid RNC.

Last time, after the bruising of the McCain campaign, along with its attendant insults directed toward Sarah Palin and her considerable following, we all thought (myself included) that we could fix the Republican Party from within by attending our district caucuses and conventions, going as elected delegates to state conventions and basically taking the lead within the party.  This strategy mostly failed.  We did go in droves to state conventions, but most of them were rigged at the top.  North Dakota was one example, Louisiana another.  (If you haven’t read about Louisiana yet, check out this link: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/06/04/louisiana-gop-spirals-into-chaos-as-ron-paul-delegates-injured-arrested/ ).  (A notable exception was Minnesota but even there the Progressives have raised their ugly head in the person of David Carlson - there solely to ensure the continuation of Amy Klobuchar's grip.) A new plan must be formulated if we are to save our country from socialism and loss of sovereignty and economic viability.  (God knows the John Boehners of this nation won’t help us!)

What we MUST do is elect Romney to one term. During that term he will either  grow into the presidency of a free country or he will remain a placeholder.  We must shore this up with election of a Conservative Congress.  The important thing is we must not give Obama the vindication of a second term.  He will use it to destroy our country as we know it.  He will bring America to its knees in four years’ time and probably end elections before the next one.  This could be our last election should he win.  We have no other choice in 2012.  But let us begin now to build the NEW Republican Party of 2016.  We were mistaken in believing that the party would right itself by 2012.  It won’t.  We must build that party from the ground up – parallel to the GOP that now exists.  We must replace the GOP funding with funding for a genuine alternative to socialism through a GRP (the Grand Reborn Party).  This will take all of the next four years.  We won’t be able to do it if Obama wins.  But if Romney wins we can and must. 

It is up to us to drag Romney across the finish line and protect our option to keep fighting.  And we should aim for a landslide because in the world of Chicago politics there are no “close” Republican victories.  We can count on continuation of what appear to be stupid, defeatist moves by the RNC, we can expect more tone-deaf and indefensibly stupid comments from the Romney camp, but we can’t let them stop us.  We can’t let them fail.  And we can’t go home after he wins and wait for 2016.  That election campaign begins today.

Sally Morris is a member of Americans for Constitutional Government and the Valley Tea Party Conservative Coalition