I am writing today to express my overall heart-felt disappointment I have for the Republican Party. In the past I have been content to sit on the side lines, letting the people who know more than I do take care of things. I now know that cannot happen any longer. I know it is not every one that claims the Republican party as their own that is responsible for the debauchery of our Party; some still fight hard for the core values on which it was founded. As for the rest, you have indeed let me down, and made me ashamed to call myself a Republican.
I have tested my mettle, and found that I am a man of action, not so much of words. I heard the call, and answered it. I fought for your freedoms, I have sweat, bled, and cried to protect our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, your Rights, and in the end you have failed me. Our founding document that cost so many Americans their lives to protect are being trounced upon while you bury your heads in the sand.
I call you cowards.
I, along with my fellow brothers and sisters at arms, have done our part with some giving the ultimate sacrifice to protect us all. Now I call you to the line: where have you been? What have you done? I swore an oath that I will continue to honor regardless of my duty status to defend the Constitution from foreign and domestic threats. I have gone to war to defend it. At the risk of sounding like a stuck up prude I will say this: I do not want your thanks. I do not want your appreciation. I did not serve for the glory, for there is none to be had. I did it because I wanted to stand up for what I believe in.
Recently, I attended my first Republican Party meeting. It was publicly advertised in the paper for the location and time of its meeting – a public restaurant. Yet, I came to find out that it was a “closed” meeting. What kind of shady tactics have we allowed ourselves to fall into? What could possibly be so secretive about our goals? NH GOP Chair Jennifer Horn helped to clear that up for me. We are fair more worried about the win than we are with our own policies. It seems like every time I turn on the T.V. I see more and more of the same redundant political strategies. Tell them what they want to hear to win their vote, then to hell with the voters themselves. They magically forget the promises they made, the core values of their Party disappear, and their own agenda is made clear. Time after time we are tricked, lied to, or manipulated. NH GOP Chair Jennifer Horn, your message was but all too clear to me:
Blah blah blah we don’t always agree 100% of the time blah blah blah get behind your Party because a Republican is better then a Democrat. Why have you set such a low bar of a standard, Jennifer? Why should I rally behind your cause?
All too often I find myself listening to my father rant about this person doing this, or that person doing that, all the while when they run for election they promise not to do this or that, yet when they are called out on it it’s like listening to a child’s excuses. “Son why did you throw a rock at the neighbors car?”. “Well the sky is blue, the grass is getting long, and I like candy.” That is the typical response when you ask a point blank question. When are we, the voters, going to say “enough is enough”? An R is better then a D is no longer good enough! The background story behind just about everyone’s reasoning for getting involved in politics is the same, to give a better life to my child.
I say this to you, when is it time to wake up? When are we going to hold those that no longer fit our values to account? How long are we going to let these shenanigans continue? I tell you it is time to stop burying our heads in the sand, it is time to take action!
I can not afford a real winter coat, nor do I own a pair of winter boots. I live here in New Hampshire, and as well as all of my fellow New Hampshireites know, it can get to -30 degrees outside. Rest assured I am not stupid, I know this all too well. I live paycheck to paycheck, bills left and right, and some of them I just can’t pay. I have a four year old that does have a winter coat, and boots, and that to me is good enough. Why is it that when I can not even afford the necessities of our harsh climate, that the IRS is TAXING ME for not being able to afford government required health insurance? You’re going to take money from me because I can’t afford to pay you for something I can’t afford in the first place?!
NH GOP Chair Jennifer Horn pointed that out in that public/closed open/secret meeting I attended that one of the core values of any Republican is smaller government. Here on the local level, some Republicans are looking for a “compromise” on the extended health care act. Like this is acceptable? Why did this happen??? I don’t want a compromise, let’s call it what it really is, I am being FINED for not getting a health insurance plan I can not afford that the government has made mandatory for me to have. AND YOU WANT TO COMPROMISE ON THIS ISSUE!
I thought it was the patriotic call that men and women heard that made them join the various military branches, or get involved in politics to preserve our great nation. From what I’ve seen this isn’t always the case when it comes to politics. We as Republicans, as from what NH GOP Chair Jennifer Horn made clear, are all about the win. Not their ethics, not their goals, just any one they think can win. I heard your message loud and clear, but in response I tell you “no”. I will not get behind our Party until someone will step forward that is willing to fight! I don’t want a coward, I don’t want compromise, I don’t want someone that is going with the flow to try and win the small victories. I know I won’t agree 100% of the time, a mother and child that are coded to love each other in their DNA will disagree, therefore I hold no notion of being in agreement every time with a stranger. If he will stick to his morals, vote his conscience, and keep to the Republican core values, that is a man I will vote for. I do not care if he never wins or triumphs new laws. If every time he votes and is always with the minority, but it is the people he represents that are in mind on every vote he casts, I will consider it a job well done.
Republicans, it is time we stop sending mice into the snake pit. We have no need for people that will bow down to the will of others. We need to find us an adder, and point him in the right direction! I do not want your thanks for my service, instead I beg you to find the right man to send to represent us. In challenge to NH GOP Chair Jennifer Horn, you find me this man, I will once again carry the colors, I will rally every one of my brother and sister vets that will listen to your cause, but I tell you first to find us the champion we deserve!
If I have offended any one, I am not sorry. I fought for my right to freedom of speech. If this hit home and stings, it just might be directed at you. Don’t whine or complain, CHANGE! If you are that person I described and you want to run, email any one of the Groksters; they know how to get ahold of me, and I will carry through on my promise.
Ian Murphy served 4 years with the 101st Airborne with a year’s combat duty in the Pech Valley of Afghanistan at COP Michigan. He now resides in the Lakes Region of NH.
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Disclaimer: I got actively engaged in politics after finally realizing that there were self-righteous bastards (of any Party) that gave themselves the right to determine how I and my family were to live our lives – and that I had little to zero impact on that process. As a husband and a Dad, I could no longer let that happen (heh! “You brought me upon yourselves”). After years of trying to get my grown my sons active in this self-government process, Ian (aka “The Youngest”) came with me to the Belknap Republican meeting this past Wednesday even though a bit grimy from his blue-collar factory job as he came right from work. First time to any such kind of meeting – I always thought that he was merely tolerant of my political obsessions and really didn’t listen much. In fact, he’s been rather apolitical. Perhaps he is no longer, based on his assumptions and then what he actually heard. He sent me this missive, unbidden, for posting with permission to correct grammer & spelling a bit.
MY takeaway are that our kids DO and ARE listening to us even when they are screaming back at us as we are raising them; I never knew this side of him existed and I was humbled upon reading this. The Party’s takeaway should be, even though he is my son, he is indicative of the Republicans that never come to such meetings – the Party had better realize that folks like him have expectations that the Party is not recognizing or acknowledging.
Or fulfilling.
