While Steve said a number of things that are absolutely true in his post “At Least One Person Was Not Happy to See Me at the NHGOP Leadership Summit,” this one is the nugget, IMHO, that should stick with you.
“Elected office becomes more about what political power can do for them, not how they might use their influence to restrain it.”
Power is a very corrosive addiction. So many people want to get involved in politics, some for the wrong reasons and some for the right ones. The wrong ones include “To Be Someone” or “Be Seen as Someone of Some Repute.” The ones that I consider to be the right ones are mostly centered around the idea of Limited Government.
And let me further expand that (and this is for you, Southern Poverty Law Center, which branded GraniteGrok as Anti-Government) – seeing that our four (at least here in NH) levels of Government have grown so large, so intrusive and so expensive…
Sidenote: after sucking in over $4 Trillion a year, now running a $2 Trillion yearly deficit and a national debt of $34 Trillion (meaning we spend $808 JUST TO PAY THE INTEREST on it – 15% of our national expenditures that are going to RISE because of the Federal Bank raising interest rates. Yet, WE’RE the domestic terrorists because we keep pointing out this fiscal fraud being foisted upon our grandchildren??
…that we haven’t had “Limited Government” for decades (think FDR, LBJ, Nixon, Reagan, Obama, Trump, and now Biden, for a few). Our mission SHOULD be LIMITING our Government levels – full stop.
Gaining and then possessing political Power means you have OUR purse. And as they dole out OUR dollars, they see their personal political Power rise (right, Jeb Bradley?). Always expansion and never, as Steve points out, restraining it. NO Democrat that I know of wants even one dollar less in their budget. Sadly, too many Republicans are in that same camp.
Yet, GraniteGrok and other conservative outlets and activists become the “Oppressors” (to use the wording of the Left), and the spenders become the “pitiful victims.” It’s always the Washington Monument Syndrome variations with these people. Don’t agree with increased spending that piles up debt, WE are the problem and not those raiding our wallets and bank accounts.
I wish I had been able to, but now, in my late 60s, I find myself with a young family again – my priorities have had to change, and I am staying home the majority of my time. But Steve sussed out the major problem with many Establishment Rs – they neither can debate or defend their stances and philosophy against the Constitutions and the NH GOP’s own Platform.
Thus, we shouldn’t be surprised, as we have said many times here on the ‘Grok, when their oath is a mere formality, words quickly said and then forgotten, and not an ironclad promise to us all.
And THAT’S when I have no problem accepting the Mantle of ” GraniteGrok DOES cost Republicans votes” – and hopefully the right ones that show us, by their own words, legislation, and votes, they deserve to be cast out of Power. Like Brodie DeShaies last election. This year, I think it will be no secret that a target will be Democrat-Lite Republicans Mike Bordes, Travis O’Hara, and David Nagel from Belknap County screwing over Parents by actively working with the Democrats in killing off the attempts at legally codifying that PARENTS are responsible and in charge of raising their children and NOT Government.
