For far too long, Democrats keep saying that their ideas are solid but their messaging is off. When they encounter pushback on both their ideas AND messaging, they start yammering “you need to get educated!”. I heard that a LOT during the Public Comment sessions at the Gilford School Board meetings as they listened to the two opposing sides over their Policy JBAB (which I have written TONS about) for Transgender and Non-conforming students. Often, even when I talked about violating Free Speech and lying to Parents, I was told to “get educated” as if I was one of those uneducated rednecks needing, not EDucation but RE-education. Because I held long-term views of what our Founding Fathers held, I needed to get “with new thinking”.
And my beliefs needed to be changed (a la Hillary Clinton: “Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will. And deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed.” and hit the DELETE key on MY beliefs. There is no choice. And yes, when I was told “You need to educate yourself“, it wasn’t meant kindly. So, how does that pertain to the above title?
This past Thursday, June 16, the Coos County Republicans had Bob Burns (running for Congress in NH’s CD-2), Chuck Morse (US Senate), and Bruce Fenton (US Senate) come in to give their stump speeches and see how they answered questions after those stumpers. And it did seem, from now three sources, some of those questions turned out to be truly stumpers. Almost all of them zeroed in on Chuck Morse. Not that he’s a bad person or seen as a bad politician, mind – just how he handled (or NOT handled himself) during the Q&A afterward. And it was his last passing epithet on the way out that solidified his answers in their minds.
As I listened to them, all that could track through the last of my mind that I still retained was the above – Reeducation. Here are the questions that were asked (and no, no one had a problem with the stump speech itself). It also had a bit on what “we” (the NH State Senate Republicans) got done under his leadership as Senate President. Budget, low taxes, but little else than that. No mention of WHY he would be going to be doing once he hit the DC Swamp: no “hill to die on” stances, what is base foundational political philosophy, and what he was going to do.
- You’ve been appearing with both Sununu and Mike Pence in a lot of photo-ops – what are your thoughts about them?
- Should Mitch McConnell return as Senate President if the Red Wave happens and the Republicans take back the majority?
- Upon hearing the answer to #2, the same attendee asked the same question again: will Cocaine Mitch (er, MY words, not the questioner’s) get your vote?
For the first two questions, the answer was remarkably similar – and off point (paraphrased a bit, according to one source):
“With me as Senate President, we passed the best Republican budget in New Hampshire’s history. We lowered taxes and kept our promise to eliminate the dividends tax.”
Eh? I know about “staying on message” and blowing off a question, but to do it twice? In a row? Isn’t that….rude? Or hapless in not simply stating “I don’t wish to talk about them/him”? Certainly not “quick thinking” – or did his staff not wargame such questions and help prepare their candidate? Authenticity and a hunger for an office demands openness and transparency – even and ESPECIALLY if you know that some might not like your answers. It’s called honesty. The Good Lord above KNOWS I’ve oft said and written stuff that has made a lot of people angry along ALL of the political spectrum – but I never pandered even as a lowly BudComm meeting (except once when I, in almost 10 years, couldn’t really decide how to vote).
The second questioner bluntly said, “you aren’t answering my question“. Morse merely restated the answer above but also added:
Morse replied in a very confusing and long-winded way that he would vote for a senate president that would let Morse bring federal money to New Hampshire and work with Morse on what New Hampshire needed from the fed.
That answer didn’t go over well, from what I was told, and Morse got called out for it. Good for the questioner for holding his ground and demanding accountability. And then what was related was a bit surprising:
How can he be trusted to be our US senator if he can’t answer questions from republicans, that Morse is a fraud?
Is that really the role of a US Senator? To be merely a “bag boy” hustling for Federal money? A better answer would have been that the money shouldn’t be leaving NH in the first place. But then again, stances and goals.
Oh, and then the political spectrum question did come up – just not in a way I would have thought. And it’s clear that the Coos Republicans were still a mite peeved as the first question to Bruce Fenton (also running for Senate) was fromed in making it clear that while Fenton did fine but there’s one candidate that fits the “not so much” and eyeballs swiveled. I’m thinking in my head that MUST have been rather uncomfortable. Well, decisions have consequences and a lack of transparency does as well.
The topic THEN switched to the Resolution (“Coos County Republican Committee Votes to Censure NH Governor Chris Sununu“) after all of the candidates had their time for stumping and answering. It was recounted that once topic shift sunk in, Morse and his entourage got up in a huff and even refused to shake hands with those that might have been supporters.
Instead of “goodbye” or even the lame (at times) “gotta ‘nother meeting to get to”, the final salutation was:
just a bunch of uneducated rednecks
Full circle, from the post top to the post bottom. I heard loud and clear that this played EVAH so well up north…seems to be the answer when certain people don’t like hearing what other say and believe.
I do wonder if anyone has any video?
