II. TAXES AND SPENDING
Government Structure:
Expand openness and transparency to employment, expenditures and all recipients of taxpayers’ funds
“Secrecy in the name of unity” – what a phrase; anyone else see the uber-contradiction between what the NH GOP demands of its Government and what governance it is willing to hold itself to? What a phrase from the person who held highest office in the State Party, now former NH GOP Chair Wayne MacDonald to utter. Once again, the disconnect of “Fine for thee but not for me” rears its ugly head. No, Wayne MacDonald and James “Jim” Foley, as we here at the ‘Grok have been pointing out for YEARS now, bloggers are not the problem. We only hold the flashlights and flip the ON switch to ON. What they shine on is strictly a manifestation of the internal works that folks like you have created. Or do you not like that message either? Good governance, either in Government or any other organization, yields trust – and that demands openness and transparency. However, both of these “gentlemen” believes otherwise – that secrecy is the stuff of good governing, I guess. We can only trust ourselves – the elected to rule govern.
Consistency – oh true, there are times we may continue the early practice of the blogosphere being the Wild Wild West (which does upset some of the delicates out there, or those that believe they are the be all and end all, and above criticism) but in almost everything we say or believe in here at the ‘Grok, we are consistent. Sure, like most folks, we do slip up now and then (heck, with almost 13,500 posts, we’ve said a whole lot a whole lot of times) – but they are the exception rather than the norm. You read us, you know us. Government, and the NH GOP, should be internally consistent. They are not.
This was the most egregious fact that was brought out by Steve’s post (“Wayne Mac Donald ..”People who blog are those who are “ruining” the party”“) linked to a piece by political newcomer Kathy Benuck about her experience at the NH GOP Annual Meeting. Seen through her eyes, from a fresh unvarnished perspective should be viewed by those now in charge of the NH GOP. My takeaways of her “cause for concern” items:
- Not everyone present (and credentialed) voted – lack of interest (or lack of paying attention to detail in yakking elsewhere)?
- “there was not much intermingling between…longtime party activists, and…the newer activists and volunteers” – how bad is it when a veritable newbie could discern and obviously see the split between the Establishment and “new activists”. Two parties in one, separate and unequal, or is it one ready to leave?
- One female accosting another and defacing campaign materials – we had the story of how Sharleene Hurst assaulted now NH GOP Secretary Diane Bitter.
- Jim Foley having his hissy fit (she put it more kindly, but that’s what it was) – the inability to accept criticism and risk aversion to be transparent.
- “I did not, however, hear any specific or definitive plans and goals” – platitudes and happy talk mean nothing – a Western movie frontier town facade?
- disorganization in voting – a symptom of “it’s the way we’ve always done it” rut?
- Secrecy in the name of unity – the message from the GOP Leadership on the actual NH GOP Chair final vote tally: “You Members can’t handle the truth!”. I was told the same message “for the sake of unity”. Right. Let’s just act like the Democrat Progressives that pass laws that take away choices from citizens because “life is too hard – let us worry about the details”. Of ALL of the observations made this one should hurt the worst as it shows that the opposite Party’s most fundamental Progressive philosophy has now infiltrated the GOP (see #2, above). Oh.My.God. Maybe there isn’t a dime’s difference between the two. Maybe Steve Bannon is right when he says that there is the Party of Big Government and the Party of Big Little Government.
- “he also said that people who blog are those who are “ruining” the party” – it shows how out of touch MacDonald and the Establishment is concerning technology, especially the social media and blogs. You cannot control the message – you can only try to manage your responses to what others are saying. You brought it upon the NH GOP (Wayne, Jim, and others) for not recognizing this fact by refusing to act on your stated beliefs (see above, Expand openness and transparency) puts you in the position of being behind the eight ball. Technology, by its very being a disruptive technology, means change – and all we see here is embracing and clinging to a status quo that no longer exists.
Does anyone in party leadership care what I think? I very much doubt it. But they should care about how many other people may be thinking some of the same things. The word “inclusion” gets thrown around a lot. We’ll see in 2013 if its meaning is known.
I can almost state with certainty, Kathy, that the MacDonalds and the Foleys of the Old Guard Establishment do not care what you think. I can state with absolute certainty that the other half of us do – help us change it.
