Still culling emails (gosh, this could take a good long time!) and although written a while ago, it fits what I posted here concerning shaming RINOs (edited just a tad for posting):
>> Sensitivities
No one has the right to not be offended. Period. If you need a good telling off, deserves such, then don’t complain when someone delivers it to you.
When an elected Republican (like Doc Pilliod of Belmont, NH) is voting more in line with the Dems than with the Party Platform, I have no problem in pointing that out over and over and over again in public. Sure, when two candidates in a primary are close to each other philosophically, and are pretty much in line with the Platform, the Party ought to either leave them totally alone or support each equally. I don’t think anyone has a problem with that.
Now take a case of a Liz Hager (former Repub House Rep from Concord, NH) – she got primaried out – the proper thing to have done and much more conservative folks in that Concord district won in the primary. Unfortunately, the reality is that Concord is a very liberal town and they lost in the general election. You can bet, however, they demonstrably showed the chasm between them and her, her voting recording vs what they stood for.
The political problem is doing so without giving the Dems any more ammo than what they already have and that is the worry from the party side – and I think a legit one. That said, as the party goes Right, they are less apt to help out the Progressive in such battles, and I’m ok with that.
I would be quite happy to have a policy in place that says "hey, you voted < 50% with the Repubs? NO support for you at all" – but that won’t take place until more people insist on that self-correction by the Party. And that won’t happen by people yammering from the outside – only the inside.
