As seen on Facebook From” Making the Rounds” in NH Business Review in December 4 edition: “It is a historical fact that a political party that experiences as much success as the NHGOP did in Nov. immediately turns to bad blood, backbiting, and bickering. Or, to use a rather strong term, political cannibalism, eating its own.”
Related: NHGOP Says to Vote For State Committee Members via Virtual Meetings – But That Violates the ByLaws
Let’s not.
My response was:
“Winning is just a precursor; it is what you do AFTERWARDS that is most important”.
WHAT one might be fighting over, or fighting for, may well BE that important thing. Fighting to make sure the Conservative ideals and planks of the Platform are implemented is a worthwhile fight to have, yes?
On the other hand, what I have watched over the years is that the OTHER part of the cycle occurs. A tightly bound minority starts to splinter that happens to have an “R” after their name but forgets about that “R” and the usual crappiness ensues. Their House Republican Alliance (measuring fidelity to the NH GOP Platform) and NH Liberty Alliance (ditto but on restoring Liberty and Freedom issues rather than the Platform) scores start to tank.
We end up in the situation where some Democrats are voting more in line with the NH GOP Platform and Liberty values than Republicans.
Is that not worth fighting over?
Those that use an “R” to get elected and then vote like a “D”? And sometimes like a REALLY hardcore Democrat? We’ve chronicled that in our archives.
So, is fighting for the Platforms values worthwhile? Is fighting for Constitutional precepts a hill to die on? Stopping the incremental creep of the Collective shouldn’t be something to get steamed over? Even if the person AGAINST those things is a Republican? Or, are we all supposed to be “a Republican’s Republican for the sake of the Republican Party”?
Sorry, Principles should trump Party hacks. Hacks do nothing but despoil the Brand – voters vote for what a Republican, in their eyes, is supposed to stand for. When they don’t, then the manmade political disaster starts up once again: Why did I vote for that person? Why am I supporting that Party? If they vote like a Democrat (Statist, Progressive, Socialist, et al), why should I bother?
So, yes, fighting, for the right reasons, is good and not to be seen as just crassness. And for the next two years (at least), we just need to be vigilant. And fight for those Principles.
It should never be a case of “getting something done”, it should be “getting the RIGHT things done and stopping the BAD things dead in their tracks”.
