Residual Forces

Anyone who wants my support or seeking to lead any faction of the GOP will have one easy question to answer:

Tell me: “What do you think about Sarah Palin and the 08 Republican race?”

Frankly women got the short end of the fairness stick in this election, but worse, it wasn’t just the media who were sexist pigs. Yep, Republican men gave legitimacy to the notion. 

The treatment of Sarah Palin, both during and after this election is a travesty. Too many people got hung up on the chromosome factor and lost sight of why Sarah Palin was a great pick but more importantly, why some are out to hang the loss solely on the Alaskan Governor. The powerbrokers and the center right media were quick to define her as simply a woman, but her merit wasn’t her gender. 

Palin is a party and Government reformer and that is what led to her being ostracized by the good old boys who have been running national politics and federal bureaucracies for the last few decades. Yep, the people who got the Republican party into the ash heap are terrified the Palin reform movement catches on and the strategists and pundits will be rightly blamed for the meticulous destruction of Reagan’s party. 

So as we move forward as a party, and people start positioning themselves for the next paycheck and position, we need to see if they are part of the problem or part of the solution. 

Sarah Palin was not a woman candidate, she was a principled conservative who puts doing what is right above party. She, or what she represents as a political reformer, is the cure for this party and those who blame her for the loss of McCain are just scared. 

The way forward from here is to move beyond gender and judge people on their merit and principles. As voters did, race doesn’t matter and neither should one’s gender. We need to look at party leaders and ask them to simply move on. When people oversee multiple election cycles in leadership that have been utter colossal disassters for Republicans and the conservative movement, they should leave their office before the losing Republicans do. (Yes, I am saying MNGOP Chair Ron Carey should resign and do it as soon as the Coleman recount is done) But not just him. The National leaders also must be shown the door. 

Our party needs to focus on purging those who believe the status quo is more important than principles. We need immediate change in leadership. We need courageous leaders who will look a pollster or elected official in the face and tell them that the polls don’t define what it means to be a Republican. 

Unfortunately the status quo is already busy trying to galvanize their roles as part of the problem. 

It is time to clean house in the GOP. Cronies, hangers-on, and powerbrokers must go. They have driven this party off a cliff in pursuit of their own personal gains. Look at where this party has gone since 2000. Look who has been running it, and no, Bush hasn’t been the sole leader. You see them all around, some in official leadership positions, others in strategist and adviser roles. 

“Experience” for “experience’s’ sake might need to be a disqualifier as we look toward rebuilding the Republican Party. 

Sarah Palin represents what this party needs, but not for her gender. You either get that, or are terrified of the line at the unemployment office.