“…we know without a doubt that Republican
ideas of more freedom and less taxes — while sounding good and repeated by any
and all candidates – are in fact, worth no more than the paper that they are
written on.”
These are words written by 13 life-long members of the Maine
Republican Party… officials within the party… as they resigned that membership
and walked away from the former Grand Old Party.
In the letter (full text below) dated August 18, 2013, the
former Republicans outline many of the same grievances expressed over the past
several years by this writer. The defectors feel that the party of their
fathers has lost sight of the goal; that there is an element within the modern
GOP that has forsaken the true meaning of conservatism and steered the party
into the netherworld of bigotry, divisiveness, social engineering, irrational spending and blatant unconstitutional actions.
That last sentence at one time described Southern Democrats…
The Party of Jackson... but those roles reversed shortly after Jack and Bobby
Kennedy went to Washington.
The campaign for the Presidency in the waning years of the
Eisenhower Administration illustrated all to well a schism within the Democrat
Party… with much of the divisive rhetoric emanating from Southern Democrats.
Jack Kennedy was Catholic, and there had never been a Catholic elected to high
office. The last one to try was Al Smith in 1928. Fear mongers mindlessly and
endlessly promoting the trope that the Pope would be running the White House if
Smith won proved effective. Southern Democrats sat out the election and Smith
was crushed… Hoover took the White House and the nation sunk into the Great
Depression. The only winner in that election was bigotry.
32 years later another Catholic found himself fighting the
very battles that sunk Al Smith. The dirty tricks weren’t as effective this
time and Mr. Kennedy went on to win the Presidency in
the closest election in history.
Mr. Kennedy won 49.7% of the popular vote to Nixon's 49.5% with Kennedy polling
only about 100,000 more votes than Nixon out of over 68 million votes cast. Nixon
won more states than Kennedy but the Electoral College awarded the election to
Kennedy by a 303-219 margin. The only southern states not called for Nixon were
Mississippi and Florida. Anti-Catholic bigotry is blamed for a million and a
half lost votes.
Three assassinations, two paradigm changing bills, an
impeachment leading to the only resignation of a sitting president and a whole
bunch of cross burnings later finds the freedom loving folks of the U.S.A.
still fighting the battles of social injustice and fiscal conservatism. The
political party names and the memes spouted haven’t changed, but the
demographic certainly has. The once fiscally conservative GOP still proudly
wears the mantle of conservatism, but has forgotten what that word really
means. Many of those calling themselves Democrat still shout for social
justice, but their actions seem more inclined toward social control.
Where once the southern bigots were the tail wagging the
Democrat’s dog, following a decade of country-shaking events they abandoned the
Democrats for the GOP. The Party of Eisenhower became infested with the
parasites of the Party of
George
Gordon and
John
Clinton Porter.
Those of us in the middle… moderates yearning for a day when
the search for social consciousness, constitutional justice and conservative fiscal policy
can be balanced by compromise… find ourselves politically homeless.
Of the two available options, some choose simply to check None of the Above, but is that a logical
option? The pragmatist’s answer is a resounding NO! Opting out and wasting a
vote may make a valiant statement, but it solves no problem. The only real
solution is to hold nose, vote for a candidate with whom one cannot 100% agree
because that candidate represents a less oppressive path, and then work from
within to weed out blind partisanship and taking a stand against hatred,
bigotry and divisiveness.
The promise of Eisenhower conservatism has been lost in the
swill of religio-political rhetoric, as the modern GOP has become the
spend-spend-spend party of no compromise tirelessly struggling to elevate the
almighty corporation to the tyrannical level we see today. Damn near every
major Republican effort since the McCarthy/Nixon era has concentrated on things and people of which
we should be afraid, why we should hate certain elements within our own house, constantly
starting wars justifying the need to give more money to the defense industry
corporatists.
Every Republican Administration from Reagan through George
W. Bush has dramatically increased the war budget, increased the deficit and
pushed the country into further debtor status, yet the echo machine perpetuates
the myth that the Democrats are the party of tax & spend and the meme that the
deficits created by their own party are actually the responsibility for the Democrats. Facts
prove this to be a lie, but corporate puppets never let facts
get in the way of a good myth while blinder-wearing sheep wag tail and follow.
Last month a
Pew
study found 54% of self-identified Republicans believed that the GOP should
“
move in a more conservative direction”
and 35% feel that Republicans compromise “
too
much” with Democrats. Less than half of GOP voters, 40%, say they feel the
GOP should become more moderate and 27% felt their party hadn’t compromised
with Democrats enough.
The reason we are seeing high profile defections from the
GOP is represented by that poll. No reasonable human can fail to notice the
blinders of a demographic a third of which believes Republicans compromise “too much”.
Further evidence of the blindness endemic in the GOP herd was evidenced in the
results of a Public Policy Poll of Louisiana residents in which a greater number of respondents blamed Barak Obama for the poor response to the hurricane Katrina disaster than blamed George W. Bush.
The full text of the letter referenced above follows. Emphasis I've added it to illustrate where I find agreement. My more liberal friends will likely take issue with the fact that I agree with them on the gun legislation and that the FDA sometimes oversteps, but if so you need to understand that being a moderate means supporting our Constitution, regardless of emotion.
August 18, 2013
To Maine State GOP Secretary Chuck Mahaleris:
There are times in your life when you must
choose between two paths.
The first path, if taken, would require us to
remain within the Republican Party despite the fact that we know without a
doubt that Republican ideas of more freedom and less taxes — while sounding
good and repeated by any and all candidates – are in fact, worth no more than
the paper that they are written on.
The second path leads to a principled
preservation of our individual integrity, helping out our fellow citizens at
the local level, and doing our level best for our Creator, our families, and
our friends.
We have therefore chosen to follow the path of
the latter.
Effective immediately, we the undersigned are
unenrolling from the Maine Republican Party. Furthermore, those of us who hold
official Party positions, be they at the Republican National, State, County or
even Town Committees, hereby resign. Our reasons for doing so are as follows:
The RNC:
At the RNC, we have fought the good fight and
kept the faith with regards to the rules. The Resolution that was passed in
January 2013 by the Maine Republican State Committee put the RNC on notice that
the grassroots were listening (and watching), leading to the rules battles
which have taken place consistently since the 2012 Republican National
Convention in Tampa. The
duplicity and lack of political courage which has been on display in this
matter has sealed the fate of this Party.
Furthermore, it has become clear to us now that
the RNC has no intention of reforming and would rather fly under invalid rules
than to right the wrongs of Tampa. We therefore cannot, in good faith, support
or defend the actions of the RNC. To violate our consciences and support those
actions would make us part of the problem – especially after we clearly
provided and handed the RNC the solution which was flatly rejected. The RNC now
owns their demise.
Congressional Republicans:
In the House of Representatives, the cowardly leadership of John Boehner reached a new low in
December 2012 when he purged the most fiscally conservative GOP members from
leadership positions, citing their “unwillingness to be team players.” Political punishment
such as this from Speaker Boehner has garnered justifiable rage from
conservative groups, and from us, as we expected better.
Furthermore, the House Republican leadership’s utter disdain for the United
States Constitution, specifically the 4th Amendment, was on full display
as they worked overtime to kill the Amash Amendment which would have gone a
long way toward constraining the NSA to the boundaries of the Constitution and
seriously curbed their ability to conduct mass surveillance of Americans. Be it
known that we cannot and will not support nor defend these actions.
In the United States Senate, we see Republicans all too willing to pass unconstitutional bills related to subjects
such as the Internet Sales Tax and Immigration. Whether through arrogance or
ignorance, they fail to understand the simple fact any revenue generating
legislation must originate in the House of Representatives.
Additionally, the Senate Republicans continue to support undeclared wars, meet in secret and
supply arms to our “terrorist enemies” who we vowed to destroy after 911, and
then tell us they love our troops – so long as it’s our kids and not theirs who
have to go fight.
Lastly, all too many Senate Republicans are more
than willing to pass new “feel good” gun
control legislation that would do nothing to stop another Sandy Hook
massacre, all the while restricting
2nd Amendment rights of law abiding American citizens. We cannot support
nor defend these actions in good faith.
Maine Republican Legislators:
In Maine, the Republican legislators in the
House and Senate failed to sustain the Governor’s veto on one of the most
important pieces of legislation of the 126th. Maine Republicans were
justifiably outraged, especially at those legislators who campaigned on lower
taxes.
We have been told that many donors have refused
to donate one more cent to the MEGOP due to this budget debacle, but
nevertheless we are expected to ignore these facts and get out there and raise
funds for the party. This we cannot do in good faith; the Republican Party has
lost its way and the donors know it.
The LePage Administration:
Not to be outdone by the legislators, this
Administration’s support for Common Core Education Standards, the Internet
Sales Tax, the atypical meddling in the business of the Maine State Committee,
as well as the vetoes of the Drone and Cell Phone bills left many of us
incredulous.
However, the straw that broke the camel’s back
for many of us was the veto of LD 1282 (the “Raw Milk Bill”) and those who
voted to sustain it: a sad day indeed for the small farmers of Maine. We want
our God-given rights to buy, sell and consume what we want protected by the law
– not restricted by FDA or USDA directives. These actions we cannot explain nor
defend in good faith – the Republican Party has lost it’s way.
Therefore, for the above-stated reasons, we can
no longer allow ourselves to be called nor enrolled as Republicans; we can no longer associate ourselves with a political party that
goes out of its way to continually restrict our freedoms and liberties as well
as reaching deeper and deeper into our wallets.
We instead choose the path that focuses on ways
to help our fellow Mainers outside of party politics.
Some of us may be town officers or board
members. Some of us may leave all options on the table
with regards to running for higher office as Independents.
Some of us may be small farmers and gardeners
who desire to help feed their communities.
Others may simply want to just get part of their
life back, catching up and spending more time with friends and neighbors.
Sincerely,
Republican National Committee Member:Mark Willis, Washington County
Maine Republican State Committee Members:Thomas Barry, Androscoggin County
Ann-Marie Grenier, Cumberland County
Gregory Hodge, Lincoln County
Olga LaPlante, Cumberland County
Russell Montgomery, Knox County
Violet Willis, Washington County
Maine Registered Republicans:
Sam Canders, Penobscot County
Bryan Daugherty, Penobscot County
Maria Hodge, Penobscot County
Randall J. Grenier, Cumberland County
L. Scott D’Amboise, Androscoggin County
Debbie D’Amboise, Androscoggin County
In 1944 Wallace penned an opinion piece that would be published in the April 9 edition of the New York Times. The Republicans have never ceased in that agenda, and Wallace's words of over 70 years ago lend perspective to why we find ourselves with the current president, and why his often otherwise reasonable supporters cling so ferociously to the lies that were drummed into their heads. 
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