There are two problems to be solved in 2010.
The first is obvious. The Democrats are running the country into the ground and need to be removed. The obvious failure of their socialist philosophy is lost to their power lust, and they have to be prevented from doing any more damage. Obama in particular is a brainwashed and militant ideologue that makes me wish I was only living through the Carter presidency again.
However, there is a second problem with all of this. In order to stop the damage and then start reversing it, not just any Republicans will do. In fact, it’s not a stretch to state that if we put the Republicans back together as they were under Bush, our efforts will have been wholly wasted. We’ll watch them revert to form, self-destruct again, and this time likely for good.
So, let’s start with what we know and come up with a plan.
1.) The Republican National Committees are the primary way by which RINOs project their power and influence. There’s no reason to believe that will ever change because the one thing RINOs do well is retain their undeserved jobs. Fortunately, there’s no reason to believe they will become competent again, or return to their former relevance now that direct donations and alternative groups are forming.
Still, better safe than sorry. To keep them from interfering with our efforts in the future, it’s time to end the Republican National Committees (RNC, NRSC, NRCC). To accomplish this, continue to donate directly to your desired candidates. Furthermore, if one of these committees chooses a candidate in the primary, end their aspirations there. Repeated demonstrations that they have negative influence will dry up their big donors, choking them for cash. We keep going until these groups exist only on paper and as a bad memory, and the RINOs will be that much less able to pull SNAFUs like Charlie Crist and Carly Fiorina.
By the way, they’re not going to help us in this campaign cycle. We are the cavalry. If we want our sorts of people elected, we’ll have to do it ourselves.
2.) If the candidates or representatives have demonstrated that they won’t even try to work out their differences with us and compromise with us on center-right legislation (see McCain for examples of this), they go. No exceptions. Not even the general election. If they demonstrate repeatedly that they’re Democrats when the chips are down, it’s better to be stuck with an honest opponent than a backstabber.
“Conservative enough” works. Democrats except when it doesn’t matter is a Democrat In All But Label Only (DIABLO) and doesn’t work. Credit to Mark Steyn for the label.
Seriously, can you tell a McCain or a Snowe apart from a Democrat (other than during the elections)? How about Specter, who became one when he didn’t get his way in a primary? What worth is the label when socialism is just as bitter if it’s stamped with an “R”?
3.) There is no team “Republican”. This is going to be a hard one for a lot of people to finally swallow, and I speak from experience since I was a Republican loyalist once. McCain’s presidential nomination was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me on that, and some of you may still be wishing that it could be like it was under Reagan again.
It can’t. At best, we minimize RINO influence, but some will always slip through. If you’re a loyal Republican, far too many will slip through and we’re back where we started.
Hence my conclusion. The Republicans are not the team. Their party structure is a means to an end. It’s a convenient place to put worthwhile candidates we will support if they fight for us so we don’t have to build and grow a new party from scratch. So we’re not serving their leadership, we’re using the house that once was theirs after we deal with the RINO infestation.
We can’t bungle 2010. While we’re not going to win them all, we don’t have to settle for less than we need either. Fortunately, the latest string of nominations demonstrates that most of us realize that, so we’re off to a good start.
