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.
Last week the official Cobb County Republican Party Committee created something of a stir when they met last Thursday and passed several resolutions critiquing and “censuring” (a better word might have been “reprimanding”) Governor Brian Kemp, and calling for protections at all levels of civil government of medical freedom for citizens. The resolutions addressed time-sensitive subjects. The critiques of Governor Kemp concerned his handling of the allegations of election fraud and revisions to the voting system to ensure accuracy, the illegal immigration, and the indiscriminate admission of Afghan refugees.
Cobb RA member Michael Opitz was appointed as the Resolutions Committee Chairman of the Cobb County Republican Party and orally presented the resolutions, some of which were revisions of earlier drafts presented at a previous committee meeting. Supporters of Governor Kemp protested the resolutions on technical grounds, but the resolutions passed the committee overwhelmingly.
The GRA commends the GOP for holding elected officials accountable to Republican principles at all times. If Republicans do not promote their stated objectives, then the Republican Party becomes meaningless. While we have commended Governor Kemp’s performance in certain instances, we have also offered a critique of some of his actions as well. Such critiques are not endorsements of primary opponents, but instructive for all concerned and provide officials such as Governor Kemp the opportunity to correct their missteps before the next election. If Republican officials expect the grassroots activists to get out the vote for them during campaign season, they have a responsibility to listen to their concerns.
GRA President Alex Johnson
However, the Cobb YRs put out an email on Saturday condemning the Cobb GOP for passing the resolutions. Cobb RA member Nathan Adams called the author of the message on behalf of the Cobb YRs a “lobbyist, posing as a grassroots leader, tell[ing] you that you can’t hold your elected officials accountable …”. GRA President Alex Johnson added that actually most of the board members for the Cobb YRs have a conflict of interest: “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.”
The GRA disagrees with the Cobb YRs about holding elected officials accountable, and our Board today passed a resolution supporting GOP organizations that have held officials accountable. Accountability helps motivate people to campaign and vote with the assurance that our candidates will do what they profess.
Members of the Cobb RA Executive Committee did, however, urge the Cobb GOP Resolutions Committee to provide copies of any proposed resolutions in advance with the Call of the Meeting in the future, and encouraged any party rules to be changed to ensure such a reasonable practice would be followed.
