The Big Lie that those criticizing the Nevada Republican Party endorsement process are the Establishment types is over.
Thus endeth the attempt to hornswoggle by Chairman Michael McDonald and his puppet masters at Citizen Outreach, the faux nonpartisan group full of sound and fury and accomplishing nothing. The Tea Party has arrived in the form of a group that has much more credibility to be anti-Establishment than anyone in this debate.
Roger Stockton, the co-founder with his son of the Western Representation PAC, has sent a letter to state GOP leaders asking them to back off a process that he can see, along with Gov. Brian Sandoval and legislative leaders, is self-destructive for an organization that soon won't have much left to destroy.
Let me tell you a little about the Western Representation PAC folks. They loved Sharron Angle. They adore Ted Cruz. They want to defeat Lindsey Graham.
This is not an Establishment front; this is the real Tea Party deal.
Stockton would be just as likely to support some of the folks that McDonald and his masters are setting up this process to help. But he gets how wrong it is.
I have posted his entire letter below, but here are the highlights:
----This is unnecessary because we already have a process in place to endorse candidates: it's called a primary, and the will of our voters is the imprimatur of legitimacy.
Exactly. And when Sandoval consultant Mike Slanker said much the same thing, he was ridiculed by the Pinhead Patrol because the governor endorses, too -- an analogy that is as inapt as the party is inept.
----If the party wants to anoint its preferred candidate, it might as well do away with the primary altogether and select its nominee outright. Just dispense with the entire process of allowing our registered voters the ability to select the candidate they want to represent their party, and make it clear that it's your party and only your party.
Love that. Turn the anointment argument around on the party hacks.
----What this move shows to the rank and file membership is that the Executive Board and a fraction of registered Republicans have determined that they are better suited than the rank and file to decide the nomination. The consultant class has been doing this for years, and the net result is an insurgency-some would call it an outright civil war-within the party. The party has no place in determining the "best" candidate; the voters exist to do that according to their own preferences. The party's role is providing voter selected nominees the tools to become better, more viable candidates who can win general elections.
Translation: Try helping!
I doubt Stockton's excellent missive will get these nincompoops off their agenda, which is self-serving and not party-building. And his best advice is likely to fall on deaf ears:
"The party has shot itself in the foot already. Don't get a bigger gun and blow the other foot off."
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To the Executive Board, Nevada Republican Party,
I would like to encourage you to rethink the planned change in the NV Republican Party Bylaws to allow the party to endorse candidates in the Primary Election. This is unnecessary because we already have a process in place to endorse candidates: it's called a primary, and the will of our voters is the imprimatur of legitimacy.
If the party wants to anoint its preferred candidate, it might as well do away with the primary altogether and select its nominee outright. Just dispense with the entire process of allowing our registered voters the ability to select the candidate they want to represent their party, and make it clear that it's your party and only your party. I understand the frustration of the party, particularly as it relates to the emergence of candidates who win nominations and lose general elections due to their gaffes and lack of organization. However, consider this: if the "right candidate" lost to the "wrong candidate" in a primary race, perhaps the "right candidate" wasn't all that great to begin with.
What this move shows to the rank and file membership is that the Executive Board and a fraction of registered Republicans have determined that they are better suited than the rank and file to decide the nomination. The consultant class has been doing this for years, and the net result is an insurgency-some would call it an outright civil war-within the party. The party has no place in determining the "best" candidate; the voters exist to do that according to their own preferences. The party's role is providing voter selected nominees the tools to become better, more viable candidates who can win general elections.
Step back for a moment and consider the scenario of two candidates running for the same seat: the incumbent is considered less than desirable by the party bosses and the decision is made to support the opposition candidate. The incumbent has built up a constituency during his/her time in office and from meeting voters in the District. The second the endorsement comes out, the Party has lost that constituency. They may not leave the party, but they will certainly stop supporting it. Voter discouragement among Republicans arguably lost us the 2012 presidential election, as Barack Obama effectively convinced many Republicans to stay home out of disgust with their own party ramming Mitt Romney down the throats of rank and file Republicans.
There is no question that these are difficult times for our party. I believe that most of the difficulties are self-inflicted, stemming from a creeping arrogance on the part of those who firmly believe that if they can just pick the candidates, we will suddenly win elections. Take the blinders off, step back and look at what this will actually do the party. Simply stated, "The party has shot itself in the foot already. Don't get a bigger gun and blow the other foot off." If you do this, you will discourage the grassroots, and that is where all of our energy and momentum is at the present time. If they disengage from us out of disgust for this ploy, a fragmented Republican Party will be even less effective against the Democrats.
The process of resuscitating our party is going to be long and arduous, and it will require some hard self-examination for everyone involved. The grassroots is going to have realize that the wider electorate might not share its ideological zeal, and the establishment of the party is going to have to realize that it cannot simply implement its will over the objection of the grassroots. Compromise is a part of politics, and a middle ground will have to be forged. There's a phrase from our past that applies here: Join, or Die.
With all hope that you take a hard look at what you are proposing,
The Big Lie that those criticizing the Nevada Republican Party endorsement process are the Establishment types is over.
Thus endeth the attempt to hornswoggle by Chairman Michael McDonald and his puppet masters at Citizen Outreach, the faux nonpartisan group full of sound and fury and accomplishing nothing. The Tea Party has arrived in the form of a group that has much more credibility to be anti-Establishment than anyone in this debate.
Roger Stockton, the co-founder with his son of the Western Representation PAC, has sent a letter to state GOP leaders asking them to back off a process that he can see, along with Gov. Brian Sandoval and legislative leaders, is self-destructive for an organization that soon won't have much left to destroy.
Let me tell you a little about the Western Representation PAC folks. They loved Sharron Angle. They adore Ted Cruz. They want to defeat Lindsey Graham.
This is not an Establishment front; this is the real Tea Party deal.
Stockton would be just as likely to support some of the folks that McDonald and his masters are setting up this process to help. But he gets how wrong it is.
I have posted his entire letter below, but here are the highlights:
----This is unnecessary because we already have a process in place to endorse candidates: it's called a primary, and the will of our voters is the imprimatur of legitimacy.
Exactly. And when Sandoval consultant Mike Slanker said much the same thing, he was ridiculed by the Pinhead Patrol because the governor endorses, too -- an analogy that is as inapt as the party is inept.
----If the party wants to anoint its preferred candidate, it might as well do away with the primary altogether and select its nominee outright. Just dispense with the entire process of allowing our registered voters the ability to select the candidate they want to represent their party, and make it clear that it's your party and only your party.
Love that. Turn the anointment argument around on the party hacks.
----What this move shows to the rank and file membership is that the Executive Board and a fraction of registered Republicans have determined that they are better suited than the rank and file to decide the nomination. The consultant class has been doing this for years, and the net result is an insurgency-some would call it an outright civil war-within the party. The party has no place in determining the "best" candidate; the voters exist to do that according to their own preferences. The party's role is providing voter selected nominees the tools to become better, more viable candidates who can win general elections.
Translation: Try helping!
I doubt Stockton's excellent missive will get these nincompoops off their agenda, which is self-serving and not party-building. And his best advice is likely to fall on deaf ears:
"The party has shot itself in the foot already. Don't get a bigger gun and blow the other foot off."
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