Hillary: "What Difference Does It Make??" Former NH GOP Chair Wayne MacDonald: "What difference does it make?" - Granite Grok

Hillary: “What Difference Does It Make??” Former NH GOP Chair Wayne MacDonald: “What difference does it make?”

Hillary Clinton loses it Drudge BenghaziActually, in both cases, the answer to both cases is “It DOES make a difference – a tremendous one, in fact.”  And both are in the same area: trust.  Or in fact, creating more a lack of trust than what already exists.  Both questions from the top figures in the organization show a lack of concern of the perception of impropriety at best or a callous lack of concern (at all) at worst.

As Grokster Scott points out here, the question from Hillary was an avoidance of responsibility on her part.  She may, indeed, have future political plans and does not want a political albatross hung around her neck.  It was also, secondarily, a defense of Obama and of Obama’s claim that He has single handedly decimated Al Queda and made the word safe for Socialism (after all, an Obamessiah has to be blameless in order to mold us to be able to enter into his Heaven on earth).  After all, if that policy PR is shown to be false (and I believe that it has), the inference can be “where else is Obama’s foreign policies failing?”  or other policies as well.

But it matters even more – Government should be open and transparent.  It does matter, in that it is not YOUR Government, it is ours, the Citizens.  This is not YOUR nation, it is ours, the Citizens.  The reasoning of those we have elected to govern (not rule) as well as how that reasoning turns into action (and then how that action is carried out) should be able to be followed by the ordinary citizen.  When that open and transparency is violated, the lack of trust by the ordinary system rises.  Pulling down the shade by dint of her question only creates dark corners in Government in which bad things seem to sprout and create rot.

Oh, back to Wayne MacDonald, now the former NH GOP Chair…on the NH GOP Area 5 Vice-Chair race

Yesterday was the NH GOP Annual meeting in which various offices were filled by the Members of the NH GOP State Committee voting on various candidates.  As I pointed out for our Live Streaming post:

It should turn out to be…..interesting.

And indeed it was.  First we had the now famous Finance Chair James Foley “Meltdown of Horrific Proportion” – this Derry Town Chair certainly made his Committee proud, eh?  And I did truly feel bad for Kerry Marsh for being the butt of a crude joke at the end of his tirade (but choices have consequences).  But that will be for another post – but his  schoolyard level poor attempt of a “calling you out” will make for interesting fodder for a while (and he can only blame himself for it as well).

Back to the question “What difference does it make?” – and in this case, the voting for the Area Vice-Chair 5 Chair.  Now, speeches by Notables had already been spoken , and Reports had been given (except, as stated above – The Finance Chair’s report turned into a self-aggrandizement of how such a great person such as Jim Foley had been irritated by such a lowly blogger as moi); from what I understand, no report was actually given).  The floor discussion and voting was next and was proceeding apace – and ran past normal lunch timeVoting for offices was the last thing on the agenda.  The call for lunch was made and people headed for the door.  A group of us from Area 5 were standing out in the foyer when someone came running over saying that voting was almost over for the position.  Reports were said that the voting was done by 20 (when two of the counties added up to 60 Members alone), one was 25; nowhere near a quorum.

We rushed back in and found the voting was complete.  We went to find Chair MacDonald to find out why no call for voting was issued to those that had left (we had heard the break for lunch).  Finding him in the lunchroom line (appropriately), he really did say “What difference does it make [that there was no quorum]?”  Now, while it was a group of us that went, I have to admit that it was not I but Seth Cohen that was making the most noise about the lack of transparency and openness concerning the election.  MacDonald just could not understand, or seemingly wanted to (or perhaps, this being politics, got the result he wanted – who knows) that it wasn’t about the result (Alan Glassman being reelected) but the flawed process.

After all, if one cannot trust the process, can one trust the organization?  And after all, trust in the Republican Party doesn’t look all that good right about now, does it?

Favorable / unfavorable Views on Republican Party

But it seems that those in leadership seem to miss this point – and in the rush to “get things done” seem to also be incautious in this “rush” to lower whatever trust is remaining.

Until the Party gets serious about being transparent and open to its grassroots instead of protecting those in power, that trust factor is going to go further swirl the toilet bowl.  And infuriating your activist grassroots, who will talk to the folks that look

The lesson that leadership has to learn is that while some want to become Members because that’s what “good” Republicans do, many of the grassroots become Members in order to have the Party do the right things in carrying out the Platform and supporting the Constitution (at least the activists with whom I am associated).  For the former, having the R next to the name is fine; for the latter (as I seem to becoming a broken record), it is about what is actually accomplished relative to Republican ideals that matter.

The message that MacDonald sent, with the shrug of the shoulders “What Difference does it make if it was done proper or not – something got accomplished, right”?  He being a government worker (State of NH) seems to not understand (or for full time political beast, Hillary) is that in the private sector, if you do not do things the right way, they are not done right.  The product loses, the service loses, the customer loses – and finally, you lose.  Apply that, look at the chart, and ask the obvious question.

If the NH GOP is going to be careless about its process and its message, it deserves to lose.  If it doesn’t care about the face that its elite presents to the grassroots, it will lose – as it did, once again, in 2010.  Unless it changes and ensures that good governance practices reign all up and down the chain, people just won’t care, drift away, and the NH GOP will lose again.

What MacDonald and Hillary don’t care is that it DOES make a difference.  Maybe, not to them, but to those that watch.  In the case of Hillary, the claim by Obama is that his foreign policies would restore our standing in the world.  Well, an Ambassador died and the process by how that happened matters, not just to the families but in being open to the folks that own the Government – us.  Did they lie to us, the owners, in the beginning simply to save Obama’s bacon?  Not being truthful then, and not being truthful now, matters a great deal.

MacDonald showed the weakness of his term in the Chairmanship in that moment.  It took a formal objection, by Seth, to have it reconsidered and revoted.  The fact that an objection had to be raised (instead of realizing at the time “Whoops, where’s all the Members – did the Chair send mixed signals about lunch and voting?” and stopping it dead right then and there) shows a blatant disregard of the mere Members by the “leaders” who are entrusted to make the right decisions.

Thanks go to Seth for insisting that the right thing be done.

Sidenote: none of the Old Guard Establishment folks in Area 5 bothered to be bothered.  It was Seth, one of the Free Staters (and yes, much more a Libertarian than my small “L” libertarian leanings) that are despised by the Old Guard Establishment that had to demand of leadership:

Hey guys, what about following the Rule Book, eh?  Doing the right thing?

Why didn’t leadership do the right thing automatically?

While the ‘Grok endorsed Andrew Hemingway for NH GOP Chair, it was Jennifer Horn that won the election.  This problem is now her’s to solve this very real problem – we wish her well in handling this and all the other problems.

Trust me – we’ll keep pointing them out.  Because unlike General Mattis, we can’t be fired.

>