Time to Pull Together

Friends, Roman, partymen (and women), lend me your ears . . .

It's tough to be a Republican in 2009. It's even tougher in some ways to be a West Virginia Republican. When the specter of an incompetent Caesar threatens to ruin the land, helped by a compliant and cowed Senate, Republicans must work together to save our nation. While we argue, Obama and Congress just decided that they know better than individuals whether or not people ought to smoke. Their "soft totalitarianism" as an Australian political scientist called it, is downright chilling.

Nothing is more discouraging than the constant low level guerrilla warfare waged against the chairman, especially as his term winds down. It's like living in a house with a married couple that bursts into angry fights every so often with much of the rest of the time spent in sullen tension. You do not want to go anywhere, you just wish they'd stop.

It's not that I want to force anyone to remain silent instead of speaking their mind. I do hope that we can put differences aside and help candidates win next year, though. Sure that sounds naive to some, but Republican candidates need the considerable talents of everyone behind our races. That includes the party leadership as well as everyone who signed their name under the petition on West Virginia Red.

In all honesty, were I the chair, I would have been tempted to leave long ago and paraphrase the loser of the 1960 presidential election by saying "You won't have Doug McKinney to kick around anymore!" Then you watch the successor try to wrestle with the same issues and get the same kind of reactions from some other quarter. The basic problem is lack of money leading to a lack of success. No one will change that situation overnight outside of a massive Powerball prize.

Other folks have defended Dr. McKinney very ably so I won't rehash that. I will say that last week when I spoke with Republicans from other states, they were astounded at something about us that is true now, but was also true when Robin Capehart and Kris Warner administered the party. Speaking for myself, I have found West Virginia's GOP more often than not very approachable and willing to listen.

I talked to an old friend from Pennsylvania last week about how hard workers in our party are assigned more responsibilities, about how our chair and party executive committee leadership were generally very accessible. He was flabbergasted. He claimed that in Pennsylvania that if a person was not connected, they more often than not never hear back from the party chair or most members of the state committee. Other states have those same issues. Most that are active and interested are shuttled to a lifetime of phonebanking with little recognition or advancement.

I must say that I applaud Doug McKinney and also Kris Warner (I didn't really get to know Robin Capehart too well) for fostering this atmosphere. Republicans here have opportunities to engage with the party leadership in ways that people in most states would envy. Whenever I had a question or an idea I heard back promptly from both of those guys and quickly learned to not be amazed at that because they consider it part of their unpaid job. Yup, unpaid and uncompensated for the time and travel.

I love being a Republican. I love being on the right side of history in so many ways. I appreciate our state party and am thankful for everyone that works for the Republican cause regardless of their opinions. They have more time than I do to devote to the tasks of keeping their counties, clubs, blogs, or whatever else they do going strong. The constant fighting is discouraging though. I hope that it can be put to bed before next year.

2010 and 2012 offer strong possibilities because the Democrats overplayed their hand at the national level. With Nancy Pelosi as a Godzilla sized human target for congressional candidates, we could even make the first and third district races very interesting (especially since the NRCC is aggressively pushing into nontraditional areas.) A united effort on the national, state, and local level can achieve great goals. We will win by selling our people and vision. We have the right ideas and the right people to make them work. But it is a vision that must be sold to the people. How can the Republican Party sell a vision in West Virginia when it cannot escape turmoil?

This isn't a join hands and sing cum-by-yah request. Ripping apart the party eighteen months before the next major election cycle only hurts candidates. What is torn asunder cannot be easily stitched back together. Believe it or not, the state GOP did this twice a little over a century ago and undermined their control of West Virginia government. The factions never accomplished anything when they divided, only when they worked together.

All I propose here is let us mend fences until November 2010. If the different parties are not satisfied, then start hollering again. Why would good candidates in competitive districts want to take on the Democrats when their state party is fractured?

To take advantage of the window opened for us, we need one party. United.

There is a tide in the affairs of men

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and miseries

On such a full sea are we now afloat

And we must take the current where it serves

Or lose our ventures.


We have lost far too many ventures recently. However we will only win in 2010 if we work as a single party. We lose these next couple of ventures, we lose our America, maybe forever.