Open Letter to Leelanau County GOP and Democrat County Chairs

I wish to express my thanks to the Leelanau Enterprise for a fair and accurate story about America’s Independent Party, published in the October 15th edition.

However, I take exception to statements made by “the chairmen of the local Democratic and Republican parties [who] say there’s plenty of room for a group of this type in politics.”

In the typical “politic-speak” fashion, what these chairmen don’t say, is that there is room for a third party as long as it is opposite of their political persuasion. No less than three members of the local GOP contacted me with this message, but none from the Democrat side.

According to the highest-ranking GOP county official that contacted me, third party candidates (conservatives) siphon votes from the GOP, allowing a Democrat to win. To prove the point, he asked me to recall Ross Perot. After successfully countering his argument, a second tack taken. “Wouldn’t you vote for a candidate that supported, say, four-out-of-five of your principles?”

The counter-argument to the first question asserts that in a plurality race containing a leftist Republican and a leftist Democrat, most races can be won by a conservative independent candidate. Today, many GOP candidates, including the Party’s 2008 Presidential nominee, are left of center, if not true leftists. Need I comment on the Democrats?

Addressing the second question, voters who blindly, compromise their core principles to vote for the “best of the worst,” is a major factor in the GOP’s drift to the left. This slow but inexorable drift is the major cause, in my opinion, for the recent widely-publicized mass defection from the GOP’s base.

Unbelievably at a second meeting, another of the county’s GOP tried unsuccessfully to tie America’s Independent Party to George Wallace’s presidential party of 1968! Great try. Who once said, freeze it, polarize it, ridicule it?

Today, the GOP is no longer the party of the right. It is merely a party more right than the Democrat Party. The GOP’s recent attempts to cast the widest net for votes has resulted in candidates’ campaign strategies to do and say what they think will garner the most votes, while ignoring the party’s (a.k.a. the People’s) platform. The strategy has resulted in a catastrophic disconnect between professed party principles and party candidates, hence driving away truly conservative Republicans.

Polls show that most American voters are right-leaning. So why does the GOP leadership have trouble convincing these right-leaning people to vote for GOP candidates? I answered that question earlier. GOP leaders, you haven’t been paying attention to your base; have you been paying attention to me?

Come on GOP, and Democrats too, if you dare. Develop and encourage candidates who oppose erosion of our rights and liberties; who will work to truly shrink bloated, unresponsive government; who believe in strength thru preparedness; who foster free market capitalism; who embrace Reagan economics; and most importantly, who take seriously their oath to defend and support the Constitution of the United States.

America’s Independent Party will give its endorsement to all such candidates, regardless of party or level in government.

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Note: This letter was printed in the Readers' Forum column of The Leelanau Enterprise on November 5, 2009