James Madison’s brilliant Constitutional Conventional statecraft lay in understanding that a bold plan was the best way forward for bonding a nation tearing itself apart at its seams because of differences and distrust. We stand at this moment of instability again 235 years later. But without brilliant leadership or a bold plan.
New Hampshire has become the only politically “even” State in the nation, per a recent 538 analysis. This means that our ironclad “Live Free or Die” culture has been gnawed apart by liberal ideology, and our State is far from the conservative stronghold it once was.
Our focus on faith and freedom, our sense of patriotism, our ability to live the way we want, to express our views without retribution – the core values of committed conservatives – have all been eroded in the Granite State.
The challenge we face is that our seasoned and emerging leaders continue reaching back into a once useful but now outdated toolbox from the Boomer Generation, cobbling together gimmick options instead of a decisive plan for a 21st Century future full of volatility, uncertainty, chaos, and ambiguity (VUCA).
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To remain even remotely relevant to the everyday Granite Staters that it serves, what the NHGOP needs now is renewal and regrowth for this new generation of novel VUCA challenges. In Concord, we have 51 NHGOP Republicans-in-Name-Only (RINOs) who prioritize tactical administration and adding more laws instead of innovating and taking VUCA-relevant action.
Why?
Fearful of a future without them at the helm, RINOs choose suppression over innovation every time. Instead of stepping back or stepping down, RINOs continue to protect their power and profit schemes. While they have been preserving their backward-focused plans, citizen apathy and state capture have filled the void and taken hold across our State.
When outdated RINOs promote conservative symbolism over conservative substance, they remain willfully ignorant of how their actions affect Granite State families and the State’s ability to remain resilient.
To cover their tracks, where a complete lack of vision, mission or bold leadership direction for the State and Party should be, RINOs expand ruinous bureaucracy instead of entrenching resourceful self-government. Doing so politically perpetuates and reinforces hard problems, which then combine to sell out Granite Staters to a big, blind, and intentionally bureaucratic government in Concord.
Three examples reveal the perfect platform of RINO deception:
1. Economically, the State’s “budget surplus” is a bold-faced lie. This gimmick overlooks how 45%+ of the NH annual budget comes from daddy DC with all-or-nothing strings attached.
2. Socially, the death of House Bill 1431 exemplifies how the State seeks to enforce on parents how they should raise their children.
3. Civically, in both 2020 and 2022 the NHGOP Chairman and Executive Director singularly promoted their pre-selected state, federal, and gubernatorial candidates in direct violation of Party bylaws (among others).
All three examples point to a single inconvenient fact: the NHGOP and their 51 RINO imposters have no future-ready plan. Self-enrichment is where their agenda begins and ends. They are individually and collectively unfit, unready, and blind to the threats of the 21st Century. This means Granite Staters must bring our governing elites to their senses through committed conservatism before it is too late.
Otherwise, as the NHGOP increasingly hollows without leadership at the helm, exhausted indifference will only further increase inside the minds of everyday citizens. Democracy depends directly on how people think and feel, where anything is possible. Therefore, if a true conservative cannot understand the reason why Trump has become relevant in our time of muted panic, then they do not see where the world is and why certain forces create environments for particular personalities to rise.
Granite Staters do not vote for legislation, they vote for leadership. What the NHGOP has failed to do is lead. Institutionally, the NHGOP has failed to recruit and nurture the dynamic leaders we need for this decade’s VUCA environment, to be clear about our committed conservative roots, ensure freedom from the stranglehold of liberal ideology, and quell the out-of-touch instincts of RINO influencers. Civically, the NHGOP has failed to develop a bold economic future-proof vision, and this will continue the abandonment of the hardworking middle class and rise of the working poor.
Thankfully, the NHGOP’s abhorrent anti-leadership abyss is buttressed by several constitutionally anchored organizations, including RebuildNH, Women’s Defense League of NH, NH Patriot Hub, NH Committee of Safety, Americans for Prosperity and the 603 Alliance.
This Fall Granite Staters have a clear common-sense choice – vote for RINOs and live unfree, or vote for committed conservatives and breathe life, liberty, and prosperity back into the State.
Gary Whitehill
Colebrook, NH
Gary is a 9th Generation Yankee Constitutional Republican running for State Representative in Coos County District 3.
