Even a casual reader of the ‘Grok knows that we have been writing about the Civil War now raging within the NH GOP and the GOP is general; the VA Governor race has brought that to the fore. Nice to see, on the topic of expanding Medicaid here in NH, that former NH GOP Chair and current National Committeeman Steve Duprey decided to bring the gas and the match; good to know honesty when we hear it:
…just in time to hear an influential member of the board saying (I’m paraphrasing here) what a great plan it was and the only people who would not want to accept federal money for this program are, flat earth TEA partiers, and Ted Cruz fans who don’t want to pay taxes but still want their Social Security.
Sidenote: I guess Duprey missed this (and so much for his negative categorization of TEA Party folks – actually we are more educated than the general population and more affluent – and better read. Really, no more listening to Harrel Kirstein or Chris Matthews please.):
that is, identifying with the Tea Party correlates positively (r = 0.05, p = 0.05) with scores on the science comprehension measure
My only regret in hearing about this is that when I “ran” for Committeeman at the last election, I did it more as a stunt than as a serious campaign (although I wanted to make a point and did – that just simply coming out of the stands, I (a TEA Partier, Conservative, Constitutionalist, and Evangelical Christan – “hated” categories not just for Democrats but for Establishment Republicans as well) garnered almost a third of the vote. I toned down the “campaign” speech to be polite – a mistake I would not make again; nice to see that an Establishmentarian holds a large percentage of his Party in such high regard.
Duprey’s words, by the way, were said before the NH GOP Executive Board when it met with NH State Senators Jeb Bradley and Chuck Morse to hear how the Senate Republicans were going to approach Medicaid Expansion. The reaction by the E-Board to Duprey’s words, were, well, illiminating:
judging by all the grins and giggling around the table I feel pretty confident saying this was the same position held by the majority.
Grins and giggles. Marks of scorn. All cuddled up together – laughing at….is that the new way to honor other Republicans? In other words, he said what they would like to do (but don’t have the cojones to say it themselves). If this is the mark of NH GOP Chair Jennifer Horn’s success in fulfilling one of her NH GOP Chair campaign promises (“I can unite this Party!“), well, I guess that rings as true as Obama’s “You can keep your plan / doctor!” (and for the record, that’s a #FAIL on both their houses).
Sidenote: I say again: judge Horn’s effectiveness simply by what she promised and how well she has achieved them: Unite the Party factions, completely redo the technology so as to outdo the Democrats, and raise cash to overflow the coffers. Haven’t seen any missives speaking to any of those (or did I miss it?).
Adding tens of thousands of fellow New Hampshirites to the government dole by using money from the Feds that they don’t have to give in the first place – this is what they are going to do. How does this square with the Republican Pillar of Limited Government by accepting $2.4 Billion Obamabucks? To me, in this small state, seems to be a HUGE distortion of a limited budget and how does this square with the “lower taxes” Pillar – after all, we all pretty much pay Federal Taxes and by adding to the Debt, you are enabling the Democrats to put MORE of a financial burden on our kids and grandkids. Let’s not forget the HUGE increase in the size of Government needed to “manage it”.
We, as Republicans, state that we support Constitutional values. Go ahead, Mr. Duprey and Chair Horn – where in the NH Constitution, our foundational law, permit this? In the US Constitution? Or do you now agree (or always did) with the Democrats that they are just musty old documents? It’s a NEW WORLD – it’s all about Government helping people and Equality – forget the Framers admonishment that Government is instituted to protect individual Liberties – how does this do that? And if you haven’t realized by now, that earlier word I used, Equality? Used by lots of Socialists all over – let’s move NH FORWARD!
Back on point – TEA Party folks have taken it for years from the Democrats for having three simple tenets:
- Fiscal Frugality – Government living within our means (this expansion doesn’t support that)
- Free Markets – no, just because the Feds money are invested in private insurance, see #1
- Constitutional bounds for Government – again, my challenge to both Duprey & Horn
No, these values do NOT appear to be held by Republican Establishment types except as fodder for lip service. Otherwise, why wouldn’t they just be fighting tooth and nail to keep this from happening here in NH – remember, expanding Medicaid was an integral part of the entire Obamacare redistribution process that we now see happening. The Supremes made it easy – just say no, right? Oh, really – people won’t like you? People will send you hate mail, leave unnice voice mails for you, the media will skewer you, and you won’t be liked any more?
Welcome to my world – both from Democrats and from Establishment Republicans. Even as we seemingly stand more for the Platform than you all do – or is that the problem, too? Like the worker on a union job that is hated because he works faster and better on the job and refuses to listen to catcalls of “hey, you’re making us look bad!”?
And that Democrats would continue to make it an issue. That can’t do when it is obvious, in this case, you are trying hard to continue to be the Jr. Partners to the Democrat push to further expand the Socialist Welfare State.
I kept being told “drop the social issues and concentrate only on the fiscal issues”. Well, I keep saying that ALL social issues have Fiscal Costs – and this is the largest social issue of all with the Biggest Fiscal Cost of all! And yet, I and the TEA Party are laughed at.
Here is the email with my notations and my emphasis- and it was all about what Horn said she was going to do – build bridges across all of the factions of the Party. Well, thank you Mr. Duprey for blowing the bridges up!
Subject: Re: Building Bridges
I apologize for the reply all message but I feel the need to update all of you on the status of our building bridges conversation over here….
Last night I went to Concord to listen to the Senate presentation [Bradley & Morse presentation of Medicaid expansion to the NH GOP Exec. Board -Skip] on the options for dealing with Medicaid. I was a few minutes late so I missed the introduction, but I already had an idea of what the Senate has been working on. I arrived just in time to hear an influential member of the board saying (I’m paraphrasing here) what a great plan it was and the only people who would not want to accept federal money for this program are, flat earth tea partiers, and Ted Cruz fans who don’t want to pay taxes but still want their Social Security. Now I don’t know for sure, but judging by all the grins and giggling around the table I feel pretty confident saying this was the same position held by the majority.
I know this comment was not directed at me, but since I am not really a fan of spending anyone’s money to put 58,000 more NH residents on a government entitlement program it does apply to me. So I spent a little time reflecting on why I fall in to this category. I make my living flying jets and in spite of my dismal public education I think I understand geography and science slightly better than average. I don’t quite fit the flat earth category. How about Tea Party? Well yes and no. I was a fan of low taxes and small government for 20 years before the tea party came in to existence, I don’t carry a pocket constitution but I believe we should follow it. I did not decide to run for office because of the tea party, it was simply because things were heading in the wrong direction and nobody was doing anything about it. I do like Ted Cruz and I am disappointed by the treatment he is getting from the party. I bet he’s really glad he came to NH to raise money for our party now. I’m not a big fan of Social Security since it has been turned in to a huge Ponzi scheme, [thanks to demographics and pandering pols -Skip] but your damn right I want my money back from it.
I don’t really fit in to those categories but I still oppose the plan. Why? The answer is simple, I picture myself telling my daughter or better yet standing in front of all the kids in her school and explaining to them why I fought to give away 90 million dollars that the government does not have. Well we had to borrow it because it was really important, and yes a large part of it was wasted. Yes YOU will have to pay it back, but the good news is we got some good stories about the Republicans in the news and that may have helped some people get elected. Yes we spent the exact amount that President Obama ordered us to spend, but we did it in a much smarter way. Yes the money is still gone. I don’t believe they will have much sympathy for us.
If you know me and have any experience with our committee you know that we welcome Republicans from all across the spectrum. At our meetings we do not argue about policy but we work together and focus on the things we have in common. We do not ask our elected officials to vote the platform 100% of the time but respect that we all have differences. I never pick on or demean members who don’t agree with me. Those are standards I set for myself when I was elected chairman and I wish we could have the same behavior from everyone in the party including not accepting other members being nasty to each other.
So now:
- The building bridges conversation in ….is cancelled. [why bother spending good effort up against a brick wall -Skip]
- I will ask around the committee and see if anyone has any input for the state party and give them the phone number. [e.g., I think he’s done with Bridges within the Party, THANKS to the Party’s views -Skip]
- I’m taking my grass roots givers money and buying beer with it. [I’ve heard this was a loser program anyways; this will make it worse -Skip]
- I will be standing by the Republican Party Platform. [Notice he said “Platform” – not so much the first two words. -Skip]
- With a beer.
All of you are welcome to join me.
You know, if you Establishmentarians really want the TEA Party to leave, why don’t you just GROW A PAIR and simply ASK? I bet most TEA Partiers, at this point, would. But that would make this a self-fulfilling prophecy:
We may not win [as a third party] but you will certainly lose.
