We would like to welcome Phyllis Woods to the ‘Grok. She is a long time Republican activist who is currently New Hampshire’s National Committeewoman to the GOP’s Republican National Committee. She has seen some of my writings here on the ‘Grok and elsewhere about where the GOP should be fixing itself. I offered – she agreed to post her thoughts here from time to time! Thanks, Phyllis!
There are several things Republicans will need to do to take back our state and win in 2010 and I’d like to address them each in separate submissions. The first, and most essential, is to unite our party. While this may seem obvious, it’s harder than it would seem. Republicans are not used to being in the minority. The Democrats are very good at voting and walking in lock-step, something that’s important if you want to accomplish anything when you are greatly outnumbered. Republicans are used to being diversified, thinking for themselves, and following their own agendas. We cannot afford that luxury any longer. We can’t afford to lose a single legislator’s vote on important issues and we will all have to pull together in a united effort to achieve any success even if it only means we’re able to stop some of the detrimental initiatives we know will be presented. But even more important, all of us will need to hang together in order to have any strength and to make progress in the State GOP over the next two years.
Our county caucuses have been held to choose the future members of our state party. Recently our State Chairman was quoted in the press saying that we shouldn’t say that some Republicans are ‘good ‘ Republicans and other Republicans are ‘bad’ Republicans. Agreed, however, in another newspaper he is quoted as saying of one of the caucus elections, that a lot of ‘good’ Republicans were thrown off the committee, presumably to be replaced by ‘bad’ Republicans. What needed to be stressed is that we have turnover in our membership every two years which is a good thing as it brings in new people into the process. If some ‘good’ Republicans lost their bid for re-election, they were replaced with other ‘good’ Republicans were they not?
It’s time to…
…stop public criticisms, in-fighting, attempts to ‘purify’ the party, public feuds, power struggles, and personality conflicts. These things need to be addressed behind closed doors where anyone having a disagreement with another Republican will just duke it out and settle their differences and then go out in public totally united in our common cause.
There is opportunity in loss and on the political scene, as with all things in life, only one thing is certain – and that’s change. We have been laid low but before we can begin to realize the opportunities inherent in these defeats, before we can choose new leadership, craft a new message, plot a new direction, or develop a new strategy, we have to realize we are now the minority party and we have to do one thing immediately…………come together! We must do this not only for the good of the party but because the future of our state and to some degree the future of our nation depends on it. The Republican Party is at a crossroads and we, in a unified voice, must address our problems. Divided we will fail, but together we can succeed. There is strength in unity. We must all direct our energy, resources, and passion, to the real enemy; all our time, efforts, and attention should be focused, not on our internal differences, but on the Democrats who are in control of our state who, with their liberal entitlement agenda, are fast destroying our New Hampshire advantage.
Phyllis Woods
