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Maryland Republican Party: The Party of Stupid « The Hedgehog Report
The guy who runs this website from the link above is a Republican. His postings are usually about polling numbers only, but he is also active in the Maryland GOP and this posting of his today really stood out. The tiitle of his link is his wording, not mine.
I want to make it clear right now that I am not making this thread to trash Republicans. I am making this thread to make it clear that even rank-and-file Republicans are starting to have problems with a number of things going on within their party. The point that this person makes could be worthy of a major discussion, esp. of inclusivity within a political party.
I am quoting all of it, since it is short:
"I’ve been attending Maryland Republican Party conventions as a member of the State Central Committee for five years and every six months, the dysfunction seen atthis conventions makes it pretty clear why Republicans in Maryland are in such a minority. Today might have been one of the worst examples of how irrelevant this party is in the state of Maryland. After listening to a string of speeches, we got to the two resolutions that actual mattered. One of the resolutions had the following recommendation:
Be it Recommended, That the new Chairperson and each subsequent Chair create an advisory committee and formulate a plan of action in order to welcome those with diverse views to our party.
Be it Resolved, that the MDGOP is welcome to all with differing backgrounds and views as we work to bring fiscal responsibility back to our state and repair the damage inflicted by tax and spend economics.
Seems like a pretty sensible recommendation considering Maryland currently does have a single statewide official and is in such a minority in the legislature that they couldn’t even sustain a veto when they actually managed to get a Republican elected Governor. So did the members of Maryland Republican Party endorse this idea? Nope. In fact, we had to listen to a string of members denounce this idea, even at one point claiming this was just a way to make the party more “moderate” and at one point, Gerald Ford’s name was invoked. Yup, because Republicans lost an election in 1976, we should not reach out and figure out how to expand the party base. Seriously, have these people not been paying attention to the election results in Maryland for the past thirty years? But what made this vote even more ridiculous was just prior to this resolution, the same members rejected this resolution:
Be it resolved, The Maryland Republican Party calls upon any elected official who has been convicted and incarcerated to vacate his or her respective office, and
Be it further resolved, That the Maryland Republican Party discourages any candidate who has been convicted and incarcerated from seeking election or reelection to a public office, and
Be it further resolved, That the Maryland Republican Party will not endorse or support those convicted and incarcerated candidates and public officials, who, notwithstanding the above, continue to seek or hold public office.
This was obvious in response to one of the current Republican delegates who has now been convicted twice of alcohol related driving incidents (one involving a boat) who still remains as a delegate and has stated he will run for re-election. The absurdity of the opposition might have reached it height when another sitting Maryland delegate, in stating his opposition to this resolution, said we shouldn’t support this because it might mean he could be arrested for illegally having unspent ammunition in his car Really? The reason for your opposition is that you want to make sure you can violate the law yourself in the future without the party calling for you to vacate your office. SAdly, the opposition to this resolution was just as overwhelming as the opposition to the first resolution.
I am proud to say at least my home county of Howard County voted in favor of both resolutions. I think we may have been the only county to do so
To summarize the MDGOP convention resolution votes in one sentence, MD Republicans have more interest in supporting elected officials who committed a crime than they do reaching out to expand the party. And we wonder why we can’t win statewide….
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Now, I've had a certain amount of contact with this guy, since we both collect and re-publish polling data. He classifies himself as somewhere between a Moderate and a Conservative, he was a strong supporter of Mitt Romney, but to his credit, he never fudged with the polling averages or results and on election day 2012, he made exactly the same prediction I did: Obama 303 / Romney 235.
I think that this could open up a truly civil debate over a couple of points:
1.) What is inclusiveness? Does inclusiveness cause someone to have to give up his principles?
2.) Was Gerald Ford (1974-1977) a Moderate, or a Conservative?
Disclosure: I am an admirer of Ford, for a number of reasons.
So, the ball is in your court now. Again, I am NOT trashing the GOP. The link was written by a Republican, not a Democrat. It is a topic I think is worth real thought and honest debate.
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