The ancient story of and lessons about the Trojan horse should not easily be forgotten.
The Trojan horse was supposedly a large hollow wooden horse constructed by the Greeks to attempt to gain entrance into Troy during the Trojan War. The Greeks, pretending to withdraw from the war, sailed away from the entrance to Troy, leaving behind the horse as a supposed offering to the goddess of war that would make Troy impregnable. Despite various warnings by respected elders, the horse was taken inside the city gates. Later that night, Greek warriors who had been hidden inside the horse emerged and opened the gates to let in the returned Greek army, with the unfortunate outcome predictable for the Trojans.
The ancient story is told at length in the Aeneid and is mentioned in the Odyssey.
The term “Trojan horse” has come to refer to subversion introduced from the outside.
Fast forward to the present time.
We have, in the past year, seen the spectacle of a longtime left-wing Democrat from Meredith (nominally a Republican-leaning district), who ran for and was elected as a state representative as a proclaimed Democrat, change his party registration to Republican more than a year after his election, thereupon becoming loudly welcomed into the state’s Republican party by its chair and into the Republican caucus (the otherwise confidential meetings of the Republican representatives in which positions and strategies are discussed) by the House “majority leader,” notwithstanding the longtime prior history of the “New Republican” supporting and advocating for leftwing and non-Republican causes. Talk about inviting an enemy into your house.
How did this guy ever get elected as a Dem from Meredith, which usually leans Republican? Although he was opposed by an excellent Republican in the general election, he probably prevailed because of a lack of turnout by actual Republican voters. Elections do have consequences.
At least one commentator from the district in question opined that Matt Coker’s change of political party was probably done principally to try to enhance his chances of re-election since the district from which he comes usually votes Republican. There is likely to be a much larger Republican turnout in the general election this year, in which the presidential contest brings out voters who might otherwise stay home in droves.
In reality, merely having an “R” by one’s name on a ballot has become essentially meaningless- intelligent voters as well as the so-called “leadership” of the House and of the NHGOP must look behind the labels to see the true nature of an individual.
In these days, with the numbers of Dems and Republicans in the NH House nearly evenly divided, there seems to be much too much focus on the pure numbers of persons claiming to be Republicans versus individuals with true convictions. It may seem to be great when “leadership” is able to proclaim that it “has the numbers” on any House session day before votes are to be taken, but when some of those “numbers” are actually RINOs who do not vote as real Republicans, “having the numbers” becomes worse than meaningless.
So, how has our “New Republican” done in the General Court so far?
Check his voting record. On many recent critical bills in which Republican principles and platform issues were enunciated and involved, such as prohibiting compulsory masking in schools, he voted with the Democrats and other RINOs. He has frequently allied himself with Belknap’s RINO-in-chief, Rep Mike Bordes. So, Coker’s self-described label of being a Republican is, in reality, meaningless.
Will we ever learn?
