At a time in U.S. history when Republicans occupy the White House, when both houses of Congress enjoy Republican majorities, when Republicans occupy 33 of the 50 governors\u2019 mansions, and when Republicans control both houses of the legislature in 31 states and at least one house in 6 others, why would anyone question whether or not the party is worth saving?<\/p>\n
The answer lies, in part, in the party\u2019s response to the organized disruptions taking place in Republican town hall meetings and rallies across the country. An offshoot of Barack Obama\u2019s Soros-funded organization, Organizing for Action (OfA), has written and published a 26-page manual, titled \u201cIndivisible – A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda.\u201d <\/em>That manual, which has been distributed among radical leftists across the country, provides helpful hints on how to organize and how to disrupt Republican rallies and town hall meetings.<\/p>\n For example, Page 18 of the manual contains the following advice regarding attendance at town hall meetings:<\/p>\n 4.\u00a0 Support the group and reinforce the message.\u00a0 <\/u><\/p>\n 5.\u00a0<\/u>Record everything<\/u><\/p>\n One would think that the rowdy disruption of Rep. Jason Chaffetz\u2019 town hall meeting in a Salt Lake City suburb on Thursday, February 9, might have given the White House, the RNC, and the Republican congressional leadership a hint of what was to come\u2026 especially after POLITICO\u2019s February 9 headline read, \u201cChaffetz Booed at Rowdy Town Hall.\u201d Nice guy Jason Chaffetz?\u00a0 In conservative Salt Lake City?\u00a0 How could that possibly happen unless the disruption was planned and carried out by Obama\/Soros partisans and other Trump haters?<\/p>\n If we had a single Republican leader in Washington who understands the game they\u2019re in and the nature of the enemy, every Republican in the House and Senate would have been prepared in advance for what they would face during the February recess. Every member of Congress would have been provided with a copy of the Indivisible <\/em>manual.\u00a0 And as they approached the podium in their respective rallies and town halls, they should have been prepared to hold the manual up for all to see, saying, \u201cI have here in my hand a manual prepared by radical leftists\u2026 Clinton and Obama loyalists\u2026 which instructs them on how to infiltrate and disrupt Republican political rallies and town hall meetings such as the meeting we are about to have.\u00a0 But I want to remind everyone here that we all have a right to be heard.\u00a0 So if you become convinced that some among you are not here in good faith, with a sincere desire to discuss the issues of the day, I hope you will treat them with kindness and respect.\u201d<\/p>\n Disarming the opposition in advance is a perfectly good tactic. Unfortunately, our current GOP leadership is so feckless and so lacking in political savvy that no one in a leadership position in Washington, or elsewhere, prepared members of Congress for what they would face in their home states and districts.\u00a0 As a result, they were blindsided by the Obama\/Soros people and many were made to look like fools before the TV cameras.<\/p>\n During the first twenty-five years of my life in the political arena, I struggled with the question of what it was that I looked for in the candidates and party leaders I supported. What was it that caused me to be attracted to some and repulsed by others?\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t able to answer that question for myself until August 1987 when I served as deputy campaign manager in the presidential exploratory committee of former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld.\u00a0 How did I know that\u00a0 Rumsfeld was presidential material, but George Bush was not?\u00a0 I knew that the answer to my question was like a three-legged stool.\u00a0 I had the first two parts in mind, but the third escaped me.<\/p>\n First, it is as Barbara Tuschman wrote: It is \u201c\u2026 achieving or reaching for the highest standard as against being satisfied with the sloppy or fraudulent. It is honesty of purpose as against catering to cheap or sensational sentiment.\u00a0 It does not allow compromise with the second rate.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Secondly, it has to do with Edwin Land\u2019s guiding philosophy: \u201cDon\u2019t do anything that someone else can do. Don\u2019t undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible.\u00a0 If it is manifestly important, then you don\u2019t have to worry about its significance.\u00a0 Since it\u2019s nearly impossible, you know that no one else is likely to be doing it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The third and final leg of my \u201cstool\u201d didn\u2019t come into focus until I saw a televised Firing Line<\/em> discussion between Sidney Hook and William F. Buckley.\u00a0 When asked his definition of the essence of true leadership, Hook replied, \u201dIt is this: It is great intelligence, in combination with great moral courage.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Those are the three tests that candidates must meet to earn my support, but the same is true of political parties, generally. And although individual Republicans often disappoint us, as they do now, the party at least has a soul that is worthy of our devotion and our long term commitment.\u00a0 Unlike the Democrat Party, the Republican Party can be said to have an honesty of purpose\u2026 a thread of commonly held values that run through every member of the party, past and present.<\/p>\n In his monologue of February 17, 2017, Rush Limbaugh described the Democrat Party as well as anyone has ever described it. He said, \u201c<\/em>It\u2019s easy to be a victim. Look how easily the Democrat <\/em>Party has made nearly half this country victims of something. And what happens to you when\u00a0<\/em>you\u2019re a victim?\u00a0 Well, when you\u2019re a victim you already have a built-in excuse for failure.\u00a0 When you\u2019re a victim it\u2019s always someone else\u2019s fault.\u00a0 When you\u2019re a victim, success is not possible.\u00a0\u00a0 When you\u2019re a victim, you are acknowledging that you are as far as you\u2019re gonna\u2019 get, and you can\u2019t get any further because there are more powerful forces arrayed against you than the force of yourself against it.\u00a0 And the Democrat Party does this on purpose.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>\u201cThe Democrat Party makes as many people as possible victims because it freezes them right where they are. And that\u2019s usually in lower middle class or abject poverty.\u00a0 It makes them resentful.\u00a0 If you\u2019re a victim, you\u2019re not happy; you can\u2019t be happy; it\u2019s impossible to be happy.\u00a0 It\u2019s even difficult to be content.\u00a0 If you\u2019re a victim you\u2019re always mad but never at yourself; you\u2019re mad at someone else.\u00a0 The Democrats have parlayed this into one of the biggest political movements in human history\u2026 <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cLook how many victim groups there are and they all happen to be Democrat constituency groups. They\u2019re all on a protest march; they\u2019re all angry; they\u2019re all enraged.\u00a0 Some of them are women, some of them are minorities, some of them are illegal immigrants\u2026 you name it.\u00a0\u00a0 But they all have one thing in common.\u00a0 They have given up on the notion that they can be somebody and have, instead, descended into full-fledged victimhood and the comfort of being in the company of a group of like-minded failures.\u00a0 Why isn\u2019t everybody a victim?\u00a0 It\u2019s easy.\u00a0 Anybody could choose that if they wanted to.\u00a0 Being a victim is almost as easy as being a liberal; it\u2019s one of the most gutless decisions you could make\u2026 A victim of what?\u00a0 Well, you\u2019re a victim of discrimination, you\u2019re a victim of America, you\u2019re a victim of America\u2019s past, you\u2019re a victim of religion, you\u2019re a victim of bigotry and homophobia, whatever. You\u2019re a victim of something.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe Democrats have got one for you. If you want to be a victim, call \u2018em up.\u00a0 Call (Senator) Schumer.\u00a0 Tell him, \u2018I want to join you; I want to be a victim.\u00a0 Do you have a group for me?\u2019\u00a0 He\u2019ll have one.\u00a0 He\u2019ll ask you what color you are, he\u2019ll ask you what your sexual orientation is, he\u2019ll ask you what your gender is.\u00a0 He\u2019ll ask you any number of questions and he\u2019ll give you a choice of victim groups that you can join.\u00a0 And then he\u2019ll show you where you go to get a food stamp allocation\u2026 how you get emergency healthcare if you need it\u2026 all of this on the Democrats, and you can keep it flowing if you do just two things: stay a victim and vote Democrat.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cBut the people who don\u2019t choose that end up being the ones victims hate. The people that choose to face life, the people that choose to embrace it, the people that choose to just soak it up, the people that choose to dive right in and test their limits and find out what they\u2019re capable of and how good they can be, and if that\u2019s really what they want to do\u2026 victims will hate them because they are showing what anybody can do if they just had an attitude adjustment\u2026\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n Yes, the Republicans we elect often have thick skulls and even thinner skins. Lots of them have great intelligence, but many are a bit short on moral courage.\u00a0 Few of them are capable of dealing with Democrats as we find them in the political arena, such as those who will choose to disrupt their town hall meetings.\u00a0 But they have one thing going for them: we have arrived at the point as a nation when it is either do or die.\u00a0 As a nation we find ourselves at death\u2019s door.\u00a0 So, as matters now stand, savable or not, the Republican Party is all we\u2019ve got. \u00a0God help us.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Paul R. Hollrah is a retired government relations executive and a two-time member of the U.S. Electoral College. He currently lives and writes among the hills and lakes of northeast Oklahoma\u2019s Green Country.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At a time in U.S. history when Republicans occupy the White House, when both houses of Congress enjoy Republican majorities, when Republicans occupy 33 of the 50 governors\u2019 mansions, and when Republicans control both houses of the legislature in 31 … Continue reading \n
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