Observations©

By Donald S. Conkey

 

Date:  February 21, 2008 # 8808 - Title: The Republican Party must adopt and change (816)

 

On February 4 we attended a political rally for Mitt Romney in downtown Atlanta. Last Saturday Joan and I attended the Cherokee County Republican Party’s prescient meeting. 

This column reflects my observations of those two meetings and on the op-ed columns of Bill O’Reilly, Dick Yarbrough and Cal Thomas in last Saturday’s Cherokee Tribune.

            I have been to political rallies before, many of them, but none of them equaled the Romney rally. It was well orchestrated. Not a thing was left to chance similar to those political rallies we see today on TV. And it was exciting. When we left we both felt enthused and we felt Romney would make a powerful leader, a president all America could be proud of.

            Then all that excitement crashed as he withdrew from the race unable to overcome the stigma of his personal religious beliefs. Disillusioned by his withdrawal I said to myself that I could not vote for either of the two remaining republican candidates, nor would I vote for either of the two democratic candidates. My attitude was not unique – many friends and associates felt the same way.

            We then attended the local party precinct meeting Saturday hoping to be uplifted by the enthusiasm of those attending this meeting. We were and we weren’t. We felt strongly many of those in attendance believe the national party leadership has abandoned its base support. Another concern expressed was whether the two very charismatic democratic candidates could be defeated this year.

County party president Sheila Auffrey called the meeting to order. A prayer was offered followed by the flag’s pledge of allegiance. She then read the foundational beliefs of the county party.” Those words sounded reassuring, and drew applause from the 200 plus in attendance, but until they are enacted on the county, state and national level that is just what they are – words on paper. More and more republicans are beginning to ask if the state and national party totally ignores the local party.

But a light came on when Auffrey declared this was a “party business meeting” whose agenda was dictated by the state party – to elect delegates to the county meeting on March 15. And the agenda of the county meeting in March is to elect delegates to the district meeting whose agenda is to elect delegates to the state convention in Columbus in May. The state meeting, with much fanfare, will elect delegates to the national convention in September. Those national delegates will then basically rubber stamp both the already declared candidate and the party platform which often sounds good but is too often ignored by elected candidates.

I know this is the system for both parties, and it certainly is better than using guns to gain power, but there is something wrong with this system, radically wrong. But, unfortunately, I don’t know how to fix it.

I left this local meeting feeling the Republican Party has lost its direction – at all levels - county, state, and national. The party needs some authority to bring its wayward elected officials under control, including Glen Richardson who thinks the state house is his own personal fiefdom. It is not. Yes there are those who are attempting to fix the problems, including several local elected leaders, but the republicans could lose their statewide offices if Obama wins the democratic nomination. He has the charisma of a pied-piper and could sweep into office all those on his ticket.

But Cal Thomas’ column, titled “It’s time to redefine conservatism” by the Tribune, challenged me. His message was that unless the warring factions within the Republican Party are willing to come together and compromise their differences to defeat a common enemy – democratic induced socialism – all Americans will be the losers – big losers.  Thomas convinced me we can’t afford to sit on the sideline because we don’t like a particular candidate – there is too much at stake, not only for me, but for all America.

Thomas closed his column with these poignant words “If conservatives really want to win, they will adopt new ideas based on old principles.” And the “old principles” should be those that the Founders embedded deeply into America’s two founding documents. By understanding those principles and applying a dose of self-discipline, and applying those principles to the governing process, the Republican Party just might surprise themselves and come up with powerful and workable solutions for the issues we face as a nation – lessening family values, dependency on foreign energy, fiscal irresponsibility, illegal immigration, appointments to the Supreme Court, an inadequate health care system, religious intolerance, while creating a more effective public relations program to extol the benefits of America’s unique governing system. America’s schools are failing to explain adequately America’s unique governing system.

Will it happen? We need to hope it does. Our liberties and freedoms, as we have known them for 221 years, are at risk –  serious risk.