When I first announced the return of GrokTALK! a few weeks ago, in pursuit of likely guests, the very first response I got on my status update from a Republican Facebook page was, “Great, just what we need, more anti-Republican crap.”
In some respects yes, but not because the objects of our remarks happen to “claim” to be Republicans. It would be a result of their behaving as something other than a Republican. (And yes, I probably am a better arbiter of who is or is not behaving like a Republican, as we shall see shortly.)
And while we (I will include all of us on the Grok) are more than willing to accept the 80-20 rule in a general sense, there are specific issues and some votes that are just too important to let slide.
And when Party leadership itself does stupid things, yes–we will be all over that, as any regular reader already knows.
Here’s a recent example.
House Republican Rep. Stella Tremblay said something kind of silly, but it has little or no bearing on her legislative responsibilities. She is a solid Republican, consistently voting the party platform about 95% of the time. If the NH-GOP believed in its own platform half as much as it believes in trying to make ex-post facto adjustments to whatever the Democrat media narrative is about Republicans, they would be defending Tremblay and challenging the left.
Instead of fighting for one of their own the NH House Republican Leadership couldn’t bail on Stella fast enough, followed not long after by the State party itself, which has disowned Stella and will not provide any material support. Really?
My first thought upon hearing that was, what support? The NH Republican state party doesn’t do crap to help “Republicans” in their House races, is notorious for ignoring Republicans who do not kiss the right rings, and has been known to even work against them if they pose a threat to local or state party leadership’s internal goals. So, on the one hand, we are told to be tolerant of all Republicans because we need R’s in the seats while with the other they are making it as difficult as possible for solid Republicans to get their butts in those seats. And that’s been going on for years.
Who is it that is bashing Republicans again?
At least I am trying to stand on a consistent set of principles, the state constitution, the US constitution, the New Hampshire Republican party platform’s principles even, while the GOP experts are running away like scared children from dependable elected representatives.
Example number two.
Senator Kelly Ayotte votes against the filibuster on the gun bill but later voted against the bill and amendments (for which we thanked her) because they are empty promises and wrong for New Hampshire. We (myself and other Grok writers) protested her anti-filibuster vote because allowing the filibuster to proceed provided more insurance to prevent passage than going to debate and then a straight-up vote. It provided an opportunity for extended media coverage and public exposure as to why this particular effort was misdirected and useless.
We got rhetorical spears thrown at us by so-called Republicans for taking that stand on her filibuster vote. But on principle we were right. The filibuster was more likely to protect our rights and our liberty. It provided, if not a better barrier then at least another barrier, and in case you’ve forgotten–we only send our legislators to DC to protect New Hampshire from overreach by the federal government. Refusing to add layers of protection from it should and shall be challenged.
Move forward to the Ayotte Town Halls last week. When the progressive trolls and out of state AstroTurf rolled in, funded by Bloomberg, directed by the NH Democrat party, to put on a show for the media, in an effort to smear Ayotte for her final vote against the background check amendment and the Reid gun bill, we came out of the gate, digital ink pouring like a flood to expose the fraud, defend the Senator, question the methods of the puppets and people on the left, and to even challenge them to not just prove their narrative but to stand by it.
Where are those NH-GOP stalwart “you guys are just a bunch or Republican bashers” now? They’re probably hiding, hoping this doesn’t stick to them. And where am I? Getting comments from people who hope my family gets gunned down because I refuse to keep quiet–in defense of Senator Ayotte’s vote.
The sunshine patriots can kiss my a**.
Conveniently enough, we are not here to seek your praise. Nor are we here to toe the anti-GOP libertarian line, the pro-GOP libertarian line, the Neo-con line, nor the Republican party line, local, national or other. We are here in defense of First principles, conservative principles, and even NH-GOP platform principles, where and when they align. This isn’t a popularity contest. We’re not looking to climb any ladders. This is about the future of the Republic, and if you intend to put that at risk, I don’t much care who you think you are or for what you claim to stand.
So let us skip back to the NH-GOP abandoning Stella Tremblay because she refuses to trust the government and maintains a healthy skepticism about any potential complicity in the Boston Marathon Bombings. If Stella, a solid voting platform Republican, is unworthy for making unpopular remarks that have no impact on her legislative duties whatsoever (unlike NH Democrat Rep. Cyndi Chase who suggested that the legislature she is part of could and should actively use their law-making power against their political opponents) when is the NH-GOP going to abandon all the “Republicans” in the legislature who support forced unionization and oppose right to work in New Hampshire?
Forced union dues and union power may well be the number one threat to everything for which the GOP claims to stand. It advances the entire manifold of the Progressive/liberal agenda. Not just some of it. All of it. From big government, central planning, deficit spending, crony capitalist, special interest, abortion, no school-choice, the end of State sovereignty and Federalism, you name it–Unions help Democrats stay in power to advance everything the Republican party exists to oppose. So Right to Work is one of those votes that is crucial to the battle for a small responsive and responsible government that protects individual rights instead of trying to micro-manage them or overpower them with the brute force of an unelected and unaccountable state or federal bureaucracy. Opposing Right to Work is unacceptable regardless of where that elected official stands on any other set of issues.
Does the NH-GOP step up and say they will not support legislators who advance the power of the progressive democrats? No. But they are more than happy to bail on a woman who is a more reliable Republican platform vote than most of the other Republicans we currently have in elected office. If you were of a mind, it might occur to you that the NH-GOP is bashing people who consistently vote their own platform and defending those who do not.
Tell me again how the NH-GOP is not broken? Tell me again how GraniteGrok and by extension GrokTALK! will just spew more anti-Republican crap? Isn’t this why Belknap County created a second Conservative Republican Committee?
Wake up so-called Republicans. Your state party is broken. If you don’t fix it, someone else will.
