I appreciate local GOP leader Rich Ulery’s response on the Tom McClintock blog post. He stated his view without going down the “FUE” or “peeline” or other name calling route, something many of his like-minded political colleagues still don’t get. One day, I’m sure I will blurt out FY (but I’m holding back).
Having said that, my concern about Tom is what I’ve expressed all along: Is the “my way or the highway” approach constructive for our small rural community? Does it unite us or divide us?
•Tom says: “I remember struggling in the political vineyards for decades – knocking on countless doors for candidates, pounding in yard signs, stuffing envelopes hoping against all reason that someday, maybe in my lifetime, we would have a Republican President AND a Republican Congress – and then we could save our country.”
I can understand the frustration — from his perspective. But what about the reality? In our county, we are nearly evenly split between registered Republicans and registered Democrats with a large number of Independents. So how is that kind of rhetoric going to win people over? As Rich points out, Tom isn’t even publicly endorsing Meg Whitman, the GOP candidate for governor. He supported Steve Poizner instead, though he’s no longer in the race.
•The other vision: Why not reach out to the people that disagree with you rather than “reject” them (as Tom has in skipping out on some candidate forums here)? Tom thinks: “We need to put our time, energy and resources into those candidates who actually share our principles and to reject those – regardless of party – who have proclaimed, through word or deed – their hostility to those principles.”
But is that what we elected him for?
Tom sounds more like a CEO than an elected official. But he can’t “fire” us if we disagree with him. To the contrary, we can fire him.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the debate over Prop. 23. Tom has his view and a lot of other people, including economic development leaders in our region, have theirs. (And I think our county supervisors are caught in a political quagmire of sorts — or rather they think they are).
So why not lead by example and learn from each other? It seems kind of simple in theory but has proven absolutely impossible in practice.
Filed under: Uncategorized
“I remember… hoping against all reason that someday, maybe in my lifetime, we would have a Republican President AND a Republican Congress – and then we could save our country.”
Wasn’t that (Tom McClintock utopian vision) the Bush Administration until 2006? How’d that work for us?
Sorry Tom and Rich, this is the same sort of “my way or the highway” approach that your fracturing party has been indulging itself with for the past 40 years.
George W. Bush was the canary in the coal mine, he was telling you that the Goldwater Republicans are running out of oxygen. He was supposed to be a “uniter, not a divider,” but 9-11 precluded that. He was not a powerful enough leader to staunch the lava flow of extreme right-wing nonsense that eroded the Bill of Rights since that calamitous event.
We are in a War of Ideals, and President Obama has done a very poor job of moving the country away from the same ol’ same ol’. Granted, with a Democratic majority in the Congress, he was able to pass a health care bill. That bill made no one happy, however, and precluded him from doing a lot of other things.
If he doesn’t shape up in the next two years, I am going to be shouting from my rooftop that Obama must step down and let Hillary take over (-:
At least she knows all about the vast right-wing Republican conspiracy, and probably has some pretty good ideas how to deal with it.
Sorry, Axelrod and Obama are clueless.
Supporting my POV I offer this rant from Common Dreams: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/10/16-2
Michael, wonder if Hillary would come to Nevada County and help clear a few things up. We seem to have a right wing Republican conspiracy operating right here. Think it is what we always called “the old boy system.” But perhaps we won’t need Hillary as currently they don’t seem to have the grip they did at one time, which doesn’t stop them from hanging on.