TEA Party/ Republicans/Nation
In bpost's thread he referenced the TEA Party. I was an active member of our local TEA Party group. Our local, state, and national republican party hated us but tolerated us because we could be used. I told TEA Party members that we were too aligned with the republican party and we would be marginalized if we continued on that route. The republican party managed to marginalize the TEA Parry out of influence.
(Example: US Senator Richard Lugar (R) was not good for our country. We ran a very good candidate against him in the republican primary and defeated him. I worked the polls and was told by several people "I'm a democrat but I'm going to vote republican so I can vote for Richard Lugar" or some variation of that. In Indiana you can vote in what ever party's primary you chose, but only one of course. The democrats had sent out notices that we had a good chance to defeat Luger and wanted to keep him in congress. We defeated him anyway.
Move forward to the general election. Though we had a good candidate that had served in an Indiana state elected office as a republican, the RNC would not support him. The end result was he was very narrowly defeated by the democrat. The RNC would have rather give up the seat than support a more constitutional candidate that had not been picked by them.)
The republicans sold the TEA party down the river. I knew they would and I lobbied for less involvement with them. The TEA party tried to use the established republican party as a vehicle for change and failed, that's a lesson we need to pay attention to. Neither of the biggest two national party's can be pulled away from the power they have to enrich their top members and control the rest of us. It won't happen. President Trump used the republican party successfully to get into office and as we can see they are tearing at his flesh in their return to business as usual. They are trying to negate what he has done and any future influence he may have. We must recognize the RNC for what it is.
The libertarian party could be used. Very little there that needs influenced and it is not self serving the way the republican party is. Another party could be formed. What ever is done, if anything, we must understand the road is long and there will constantly be people trying to climb to the upper leadership in order to promote themselves the way the democrats and republicans do now. I know there are some good people in all the parties it's the top leadership and structure I am referring to.
There is a swamp and it does need drained. How we address that is the main issue concerning the future of our nation.
Comments
Move forward to the general election. Though we had a good candidate that had served in an Indiana state elected office as a republican, the RNC would not support him. The end result was he was very narrowly defeated by the democrat. The RNC would have rather give up the seat than support a more constitutional candidate that had not been picked by them.)
Exactly! The money flows within and BETWEEN the parties, the face on TV news does not matter, it is the MONEY that controls. You can not separate an elected (D) from an elected (R) except to who get money from whom and how much.
There are possibly 4-5 excellent public servant Senators, there are maybe, on a good day, ten congresscritters that are not fully controlled by.......drum roll please.......the money and power.
Even the good ones are getting their 30 pieces of silver in one way or the other.
John Hostettler (R) who had held the US congressional seat for the 8th district here in Indiana attended and spoke at one of our local TEA Party meetings. At the time we were drawing 200+ people to our Thursday night meetings. John had lost to a democrat in a previous election. We were discussing how money goes up to the Federal government and how the congressmen have to lobby to get it back for what ever service or project. He agreed the money should have never started going to Washington to begin with and should be kept as local as possible. I asked him what do you do with a congressman that didn't play the games and wasn't bringing anything back. I remember his reply: "You keep sending him, and work to elect more like him". He was right.