The keynote speaker was Jennifer Horn – here are her remarks:
That’s right – nothing. Now to the good, she was to give a talk and then a few questions afterwards. Instead, sensing the angst and anger of the activists that were present, she began to take questions after a very brief into. However, with the brouhaha over “private vs privacy”, she decided not to go on record. Again, Joe Kenney showed that he believed enough in who he is and what he stands for to go on record. I thought that Christopher Boothby was going to be that type of person – and then his courage failed him. Props to Horn for taking the questions, but with the brouhaha over privacy vs public and her deciding not to go on record, I think she missed a great opportunity to talk to other activists here in NH. Openness and transparency?
The problem is that EVERY item that was discussed last night, things that the Establishment Republicans believe are “peculiar” to the local Republicans. Well, a very parochial attitude – and in hindsight, NOTHING that was discussed last night hasn’t already had terabytes written, spoken, or visualized chewed up. There was nothing under discussion there that hasn’t been discussed at the national or online levels. It’s the same old things since Goldwater kicked the Conservative movement off – Are you just an R next to your name, are you just an R next to your name that gives lip service, or are you someone who actually believes in Concervative principles, who believes in the Constitution(s), believes that the country is going off the rails because of a lack of fidelity to traditional values – and just has an R next to your name because the Ds have gone all but Communist (and in the case of the new Mayor of NYC, Di Blasio, actually is).
Takeaways?
- It was almost the case where either she could not either see what the activists was trying to get across, or refused to see. Spoken in different ways, it came down to the “Republicans that keep screwing over the Republican Party Brand and its values”. I heard it (heck, I brought it up myself) a number of times and I can tell you that the activists were not calmed by just being called on. Indeed, I do believe, in the chat time afterwards, that most of them were MORE frustrated at the end than at the beginning because of this.
- The pat answer was ‘well, vote them out in the primary, vote for the nominee who wins, and let’s go out that door united“. That was the extent of “how you protect the brand”.
In other words “I have no responsibility for the brand“. While she is right in that her main job is to get Rs elected, “The Brand”, what Republicans stand for, is what a voter is going to look at – and it MATTERS. In fact, it seemingly matters much more to the base than to those elected. And just like in other consumer level “purchasing”, the brand matters, the stances matter, what is projected matters. But what matters most are the results – the confirmation of the Brand, the Consistency.
For example, I asked her concerning the brand, what can be done in cases where Republicans of note, like the “sainted” Ray Burton (yeah, I used “sainted”) and Alida Milham, openly endorse Democrats in the general elections over Republicans (in fact, pretty good Conservative ones to boot)? I guess her answer pretty much sets the tone (and I did put her on the hot spot):
- It was unfortunate that Ray did that.
- And then immediately apologized to Alida (who was present) who had “been put into a bad position”
And then, no real answer that a hat could be hung on (see above, primary, unity). And no defense of the Brand. I used the specific examples to illustrate the general problem. And she just could not see that (and no, it wasn’t that I didn’t hear the answer I wanted, I didn’t get an answer that was germaine to the question asked) and only concentrated on the examples. And did it repeatedly to others.
And here’s the rub – I can write what I have, and I can make the observations I’ve done. The beauty of the recording (as I put it up in its entirety) is that it doesn’t matter what I recall or write – it’s there.
