A Very Republican New Year

Happy New Year.

I am putting forth a challenge to you, my fellow Republicans.  I'm including everyone who considers himself/herself a conservative voter in this challenge.  I challenge us all to pull together this year and win some elections.  

"2014 is a time for victory not defeat." This is a bit of a piece written by Roger L. Simon, a former liberal in the true 1960's form and a committed common sense conservative today:

As Roger Kimball pointed out, the New York Times (the very model of that propagandistic veneer) already knows their bread is buttered with Hillary, not Obama. They demonstrated that Saturday with their revisionist article on Benghazi, bent on taking that scandal (Hillary’s Achilles’ heel) off the table for the coming elections or at least seriously defusing it. Republicans would do well to redouble their efforts to make sure this particular obfuscation does not succeed by doing the proper research and communicating the results to the public — succinctly and repeatedly.But to do this our group must concentrate on the principal enemy and not upon each other. My inbox is filled with emails on both sides of the inter-right wars (the Tea Partiers and the so-called RINOs) excoriating each other. What unmitigated idiocy — as if Lindsey Graham or Ted Cruz was the principal enemy and not Hillary Clinton. It’s a war between those who favor cutting government by seventy percent versus those who favor cutting it by fifty or sixty, ignoring those who want to expand it by a hundred. Although not nearly as violent, it’s in some weird way reminiscent of the party rectification campaigns practiced by Stalinists back in the 1940s.Sensible? Obviously not. And monumentally self-defeating. It has the word “loser” written all over it — and at a time when the opposition is reeling. 2014 is a time for victory not defeat. We shouldn’t be wasting our ammunition on each other. Nobody has unlimited quantities. Concentrate on principal enemy Hillary. Even though she is a well-documented liar, she is still “most admired.” Tell the truth (well) and end this. And end the hostility toward each other before you destroy all of us and our children’s future.

I suggest that you read the whole piece.

Are you sick and tired of those among us who are taking far more pleasure in attacking our own instead of the other side?  Are you aware of the money made and power taken by groups who thrive on dividing us instead of uniting us for victory?  Whether it is talk radio, opinion television, or well known groups like Freedomworks and Heritage Action PAC, they all are doing a huge disservice to the Republican party.  The people who are not political junkies, which would be the vast majority of American voters, are subjected to an endless stream of those proclaiming to be the voice of conservative voters.  Here's a news flash - no one died and left any of them in charge.  

Only in this twisted world would a candidate with an A+ rating from the NRA, or a perfect score with National Right to Life or over 95% career rating from American Conservative Union (ACA) be challenged in a primary election as a candidate not conservative enough.  .But, that is where we are now as a party. Is it any wonder that recruiting good, intelligent, worthy candidates is so difficult?  Who wants to be held to such ridiculously rigid purity tests, where a single vote that some find objectionable will find a politician defending a strategic vote?  Politics is all about strategy and the art of persuasion.  If a politician can't persuade the other side to come on board for a vote, then strategy is used with votes.  Bombastic rhetoric and temper tantrums are not winning strategies.

We need some statesmen and stateswomen.  We need some adults in the room.  We need to educate voters and do some old-fashioned hard work during primary election season.  Do the research and put a candidate's history out there for voters to read or hear.  Demand viable candidates.  Shun the unserious who proclaim that standing for principle is not the same as winning elections.  We have all heard the "I'll stay home before I go out and vote for ____." argument. Actually, that is not an argument. That's surrender to the Democrats. When you pull the lever for a candidate running as a Republican, you are supporting that party's principles.  

Without winning elections, a party cannot govern.  I firmly believe that any Republican candidate that makes it to a general election is always going to be a better choice than a Democrat candidate.  

This year, 2014, is ripe for Republican victories.  We must maintain control of the House of Representatives and wrestle control back from the Democrats in the U.S. Senate.  In Texas, we must stunt the growth of Battleground Texas and keep Texas as the nation's largest red state.  Without Texas, a Republican running for President cannot win.

None of us get the candidate of our choice all the time.  None of us has all the answers.  And, most importantly, none of us are the sole voice of all the rest of us. Do not fall for the rhetoric of the professional dividers - just think for yourself. Lots of people are making a whole lot of money at the expense of the Republican party and it has to stop.  Let's stop it in 2014 and celebrate some victories.