Fellow Republican,
What is the easiest way to kill a volunteer political organization?
Try to silence the voice of volunteers and refuse to take a stand for accountability of politicians/elected employees.
The Republican Party in Georgia is better equipped to fight than it has been for years. As discussed previously (link) many, many new people have joined the GOP in Georgia to demand accountability and principled candidates for office, and a loud, toxic minority in the GOP , mostly who think that the rest of us should blindly follow their “expertise” are doing whatever they can to stop it.
As we all know, the Republican Party must maintain its brand by ensuring elected officials and candidates that claim to be Republican actually are Republican and follow basic Republican principles. County-level GOPs need to be taking principled stands to encourage new membership and volunteers, and need to be involved in the community.
We won’t be recruiting new volunteers without engaging new people and actually standing for principles and accountability.
This should be a unifying theme that can lead our party and its principles into dominance, given the fear and ineptness on public display by the Biden administration.
But while it’s unifying those of us that actually care about political results and beating the Democrats, the toxic minority, mentioned earlier, who selfishly want all signs of President Trump wiped from the party so that they can gain perceived power/position are inciting a civil war within the GAGOP.
These people are the “usual suspects”: the political industry/the “Establishment”. The same “Republicans” who hated candidate Trump in 2016, but then claimed to be big supporters of his when he was elected (when it became popular), are now complaining and attacking his supporters. They are screaming in protest and shedding crocodile tears when the GAGOP and county parties actually take stands on issues: a natural and positive result of so many new people being involved in the GOP this year (and replacing leadership in multiple counties).
The “usual suspects” are attacking the GAGOP and Chairman David Shafer for having a presence at and selling tickets to the recent Trump rally. This is mixed with false claims that is an endorsement of candidates by attending or selling tickets. (By that perverted logic: no GRA (www.GEORGIARA.com) endorsed party officer could attend or support a GRA convention, because the GRA endorses the true/best Republican candidate in contested primaries/races.)
The “usual suspects” are attacking the Cobb GOP for voting to pass a resolution urging censure of elected Republican officials, despite the fact such public stances and demanding accountability is why people get involved in the GOP in the first place! (HERE is the link to the story of what happened in Cobb.)
Overall, the “usual suspects” are a very small, but loud, well connected, and long-established group of people within the GAGOP that insist on clinging to the antiquated philosophy that the voters (i.e. YOU) are subservient to politicians. Many of them are existing party officers, and they value their friendship with politicians over accountability to you.
Want proof? In addition to numerous people making their toxic, divisive attacks known on Facebook (including but not limited to at least one, if not more, members of the State Executive Committee of the GOP: you can replace them in 2023), look at this message from the Cobb County Young Republicans, attacking the Cobb GOP for taking a stand. One would think and assume that a YR group is “grassroots”. But simply look at the composition of their Board of Directors posted on their website: of the 4 board members listed, one of them works for a politician (a Congressman), and two of the others have businesses tied to lobbying that require politicians to like/support them. (Link 1) (Link 2) (Link 3).
To be clear, there is absolutely nothing wrong with people making a living off politics. But I believe there is something wrong with groups that appear to be grassroots/”for the people” using that platform to imply that “the people” are opposed to truly grassroots groups (like the current Cobb GOP) holding politicians accountable when politicians anger their constituents. Just because the political industry works for and cares about politicians liking them, and don’t want them to be held accountable, doesn’t mean that the politicians shouldn’t be held accountable to the rest of us.
The “usual suspects” want to see us go back to a system where money is all that wins primaries, and Republican voters don’t pay attention and aren’t involved in demanding accountability.
The “usual suspects” cling to the dismissive and insulting idea that if you’re involved in the GAGOP, you must support any person who wins a Republican primary, regardless of how much they betray you in office. According to them, you should remain silent, your local county party should remain silent, and attempts to be involved at public political events should be minimized, lest too many “new people” get involved in the GAGOP and weaken their power and influence.
Sadly, unless you act to point out their hypocrisy and support the principled activists, they will win.
You must make sure your friends are aware of this and that they get involved. One thing to do is to apply to join the GRA to be organized locally (www.GeorgiaRA.com).
Another thing to do is to offer encouragement and support to the principled people that are being attacked. The “usual suspects” are really good at sounding like they are in the majority when they aren’t, because they have the time to talk and attack and criticize in an organized fashion. They can succeed because we often don’t know when the principled people are taking principled stands, and we don’t take the time to send them a message of support.
For example, Salleigh Grubbs, Cobb GOP Chairwoman (link), is one of the people being criticized for allowing her county party committee to vote to express displeasure with Republican elected officials. How can you help? Contact her and let her know you support what she’s doing (chair@cobbgop.org || 770.773.5223). And then take an even more meaningful step and go to your local county GOP meetings and insist that your county party take stances on elected officials and on political issues, and let your local community know.
If your local government is considering a tax increase, or if an elected official votes or acts badly, make sure you get your county party to take a stand against it, regardless of the party of the elected official. If a Republican acts badly, they’ll keep doing it unless you call them out and/or primary them.
You have the power. Politicians work for you. Not the other way around.
And by making sure everyone lives this philosophy, we will be able to unify and defeat the Democrats, instead of being drawn into a civil war with those who would prefer to put accountability back into a box and capitulate to the leftist agenda pushed by Democrats.
