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

The Futre of Two-Party Politics in America As We Know It.

Today, being a slow news day, I digress a bit from my focus on Leelanau County politics. Please indulge me for a bit.

Lately, I've been seeing this chart show up in a lot of blogs that tend to criticize the GOP for loosing it's base. For anyone who pays any attention to politics, the results should not be surprising. The chart shows the net favorable ratings of both major parties in the period leading up to the four most recent midterm elections.

I've seen the bloggers and pundits that use this data go on and on, bashing the GOP leadership (and very often the party standard-bearers) for letting/causing this happen. I suppose one can find as many theories and opinions as there are bloggers. However, I think their conclusions about what the chart represents take a somewhat myopic view.

What slaps me in the face immediately upon looking at it, is that the American voters are rejecting both major parties. (It's a rainy Friday as I write this and I needed a good slap today).

It further reinforces my strongly-held view that the advent of instant and wide-spread communications on the Internet and the resurgence of grass-roots organizations has and will continue to completely change the face of politics as we know it.

The continuation of one-size-fits-all party platforms may need go the way of the national party nominating process at the week-long party convention.

This most certainly must happen if the smoldering movement toward state sovereignty and a greatly diminished role of the Federal government ever takes off. Come to think of it, perhaps "Internet Political Activism" will be the vehicle that allows that movement to become viable.

This, of course, presumes that the free use of the Internet for political purposes, including dissent against whoever is in power in the government will not be abridged.

The chart, above, came from Brendan Nyhan's site You may wish to read his interpretation on that site.