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Posts published in “Day: October 18, 2013”

Today’s GOP: Ford/Boehner not Reagan/Rubio?

mansfield DENNIS
MANSFIELD
 

I haven't blogged yet on the political weakness of the entire GOP, observed recently by all.

Today I decided to do so.

A little needed background before I make my point:

For years I've been both a businessman and a political consultant.

In business I've owned a small mortgage company, a mid-sized soil erosion control company & a local city-wide firm that helped house ex-addicts. I've been a business coach for almost a decade and I recently became an author, published by Simon and Schuster and Endurance Press.

As a political consultant I lobbied for the Realtors, was the founding executive director of the Building Industry Association (BIA) of Palm Springs, CA and for a decade I founded and ran the Idaho Family forum - a pro-family public policy think-tank that educated and lobbied under IRS code 501 (c) 3 sub chapter (h), working in association with Focus on the Family and the Family Research council.

My experience also involved helping men and women run for office in the California's Assembly, US Congress and US Senate along with Idaho's House and Senate. A partial list of the GOP campaigns I've served/supported includes:

Howard Jarvis/Paul Gann/Proposition 13 ('78 cycle)
Ronald Reagan's PAC, Citizens for the Republic - ('78 cycle)
David Dreier for US Congress ('78 cycle)
Reagan/Bush ('80 cycle in CA)
John Paul Stark for US Congress ('80, '82 and '84 cycles)
Fund-raising for Steve Symms for US Senate, Idaho ('84 cycle)
Robert Henley for CA Assembly ('84 cycle) & US Congress ('86 cycle)
Reagan/Bush('84 cycle in CA)
Roger Madsen for ID State Senate ('92 cycle)
Dave Baumann for ID House ('92 cycle)
Bill Sali for ID House ('92, '94 cycle)
Helen Chenoweth for US Congress ('94 Primary cycle)
Dole/Kemp ('96 cycle)
Gary Bauer for President (2000 Primary cycle)
Bill Sali for US Congress ('06 Cycle)
Raul Labrador for US Congress ('10 Primary cycle)

I hope my credentials speak for themselves.

Not a person among this list would be considered moderate or liberal.

I'm proud of those past credentials - of my business background and my political involvement - and yet I'm cautious of what I'm now seeing in the philosophical break-down within the GOP over this recent budget stalemate. Something deep down is wrong...

I think the Republican Party is lost in the woods - state by state and nationally.

The compass that directed them in the past has lost its true north: the founding document of our Republic, the US Constitution.

In 1980 the GOP used that compass and crafted its national party platform as a reflection of that truth.

Americans came forward because they longed to be involved. Citizens within the republic who had never been involved, became involved. Conservative evangelical christians, economic conservatives, constitutionalists, moms and dads...and then, in recent years, Tea Party members.

The tent was big, the issues were focused.

Not now. The compass still works, it's just been set aside, it seems... (more…)

Republican, heal thyself

rainey BARRETT
RAINEY

 
Second
Thoughts

Anyone who’s undergone cancer or similar surgery knows such treatment is often dangerous, could be life-threatening and done only when absolutely necessary. But removing pieces of the body is often the only way to save it. The time has come for honest Republicans to put their party under the knife.

What this nation has just been through can most accurately be described as completely unnecessary – a terrible body blow to our already weakened economy – the most politically divisive challenge to our freedoms we’ve seen in some 170 years – a weakening of our standing in the world community – and done so at a cost of human suffering for millions of Americans. For nothing! For absolutely nothing.

Our current national political mess has not been caused by Republicans per-se or Democrats per-se. We’ve long survived the blessings and curses of a two-party system without the economic and human damage inflicted in the last two years. As a nation, we’ve survived many political calamities. What we’ve NOT experienced since the Civil War is the organized efforts of some 150 members of Congress determined to destroy a government they can’t control. Simply because they can’t control it. No matter the cost. But that’s what we have today.

As the midnight hour approached which would put our nation in world economic default and contine the paralysis of a half-closed government, no one – NO ONE with any understanding of the situation – could have done anything but vote to end both calamities. But 18 members of the Senate said “NO” and 144 more in the House joined their chorus. These are some of the parts of the GOP body politic that need to be surgically removed.

I realize some of those folk were highly educated. I understand some actually call themselves “students of government.” I personally know some who had successful careers before they were elected. I’m also very aware of the phrase “educated fools.” In my book, all 162 who voted “no” are in that category.

Seldom have we seen such unified outpouring of advice, warnings and even threats from the American public – and most especially from corporate, academic and intellectual leaders – as we have in the last three weeks. From the top-most levels of all those has come the single message – stop the madness before this country suffers economic and human damages from which we may not recover. When the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, AFL-CIO and labor unions of all stripes sound identical alarms with identical messages, the range of interests between those two extremes covers just about all the institutional and civic voices of the majority of this country. For those 162 “Republicans,” the warnings went ignorantly unheeded.

National media talking heads can’t seem to figure out how we got into this mess – where the idiots and destructive voices in our Congress came from. Well, we’ve respectfully offered what we believe to be the reason in this space on several occasions. Here it is again. Respectfully. (more…)