NY-23:My Email to the NRCC

To: Mike Bober, Director of Coalitions, National Republican Campaign Committee

Dear Mike,

We spoke a few weeks ago when you were kind enough to take my call objecting to the Repubican establishment support of Dede Scozzafavva in NY-23.

As almost every sentient being now knows, Ms. Scozzofavva (who I will refer to henceforth as Dede) is a liberal Republican running in a special election to replace John McHugh, who was chosen to serve as Secretary of the Army. She faces a Democrat challenger and a conservative independent challenger named Doug Hoffman, who has been endorsed by a number of national Republican leaders who have broken with the party establishment.

Many conservatives--myself included--have broken with the party as well by supporting Doug Hoffman.

You gave me a sincere and impassioned defense of the NRCC's position re: the race, one that I have seen articulated by Newt Gingrich and other establishment figures who have endorsed Dede. That is to say, failure to support the GOP nominee would set a bad precedent in 2010 races where a third party nominee might feel emboldened to challenge the party's candidate. I have also heard Newt say that it is dangerous to second-guess the local party leaders who presumably vetted all the possible candidates before selecting the nominee.

Undoubtedly the NRCC, the RNC and other party organizations who back Dede are well intentioned, sincere, and perhaps even "correct" from the point of view of the party.
Loyalty to party and to its institutions is admirable, under normal circumstances.

But I would argue that these are not normal circumstances or normal times. I believe the party establishment is missing the larger context in which it is operating,

Many Americans, most Republicans and virtually all conservatives intuit that we are in the midst of the greatest and boldest assault on the free markets, the U.S. Constitution
and American institutions in our country's history. Americans are stunned at the speed with which the President and the Democrats in Congress have introduced massive government control into our private enterprise system. Perhaps even more shocking is the public expression of contempt by Democrat leaders (and sadly by some Republicans) for the very people they govern, merely for exercising their Constitutionally protected right to assemble and speak freely. That the bootlicking media is a full partner in all of this is not quite as surprising but disheartening nonetheless.

To be sure, many of us believe that Barack Obama and the Democrats are the ones holding the Statist gun to the head of the American people, so to speak. But we also recognize that the Republicans in Congress and in the previous administration handed them the weapon and loaded the chamber. As a result Americans are increasingly frustrated by the business-as-usual nature of party politics.

We are in a fight for the very heart and soul of our country, and we want political leadership who will either stand in front and show us the way, or stand aside and get out of the way. Mike Pence, Tom Price, Michelle Bachman, Senator Tom Coburn and and Senator Jim DeMint come to mind as examples of the kind of men and women who are standing in front. But they represent a tiny fraction of the hundreds of elected Republican officials in Washington. Most are standing aside, and unfortunately they are too numerous to mention by name.

Whatever Dede's attributes are, it is clear that she doesn't measure up to the kind of political leader conservatives will support. She is beholden to the very special interests (labor unions, for one) that are aligned with the Statist agenda of the majority party. The fact that she says she would oppose this or that legislation, or for that matter vote for John Boehner as Speaker, rings hollow in the face of her record as a New York State legislator or her political alliances. The last time Americans ignored the record and associations of a politican we elected Barack Obama as president.

Successful political parties, like successful governing parties, do not last long if they defy the will of their constituents. Harry Reid will learn that lesson when he finally has to face the voters of Nevada. I am afraid that many Republicans will learn that lesson the hard way, too, if they continue to ignore the sentiments and sensibilitites of its activists.

The furor surrounding NY--23 does not represent an abandonment by "the folks"of the Republican Party or the first rumblings of a nascent third party in American politics. Rather it constitutes a cry in the wilderness, a plea to the GOP's leaders to abandon business as usual and to engage in the hard work of rebuilding the party into an institution that we can be proud of again, a party in tune with the views of it activist base and the values of the vast majority of Americans.

I hope Hoffman wins NY-23, not to poke the party in the eye but to send a message for 2010 and beyond. But even of he loses, the message is the same: Recruit and support candidates who hold fast to the values of free speech, free enterprise, energy independence, national security, rational budgets, low taxes and national sovereignty. Candidates who will fight to turn back the Statist assault with every fiber of their being.

If you will do this I promise you that we will once again be proud and happy to call ourselves Republicans. If you do not, I believe we will all reap the whirlwind.