Between
the town hall meetings and the tea party rallies, millions
of Americans are taking to the streets to protest a
government gone berserk. They are angry and determined to
take their country back. But there are snakes in the
grass intent on using this movement to return to power, not
the people, but the Republican establishment. If this
happens we lose everything, including our country.
To
succeed, the rebellion must produce candidates with fresh
faces--populists who share our outrage for the arrogance of
Washington, individuals
who will fight for American workers and American
families. We need primaries to nominate candidates
that aren't owned by party leaders, powerful special
interests, nor Corporate America.
Last year,
seventy-five percent of Americans believed the country was
headed in the wrong direction and they threw out the bums --
Republican bums. Obama and his comrades misinterpreted the
victory, believing it was all about them, and proceeded to
impose a big government leftist agenda on a conservative
nation. Now voters are ready to throw out this new set
of bums.
Enter the Republican
establishment. They sold this country out when they
were in power and can't ever be trusted again. But
they see an opening and are setting the stage for their own
return. They are handpicking candidates -- Bush-likes and
Bush-lites -- to run against conservatives in primaries.
Many are retreads, all are available for purchase. Then the
party elite endorses their candidate early in the primary,
fills their coffers with millions from corporate PACs and
special interests, pressures party regulars to get in line,
and sends word to the grassroots candidates: "Drop out --
you can't win".
Their game plan: shut
out the conservative populists. But if candidates
running for office because of love of country are
marginalized by the party elite, in favor of career
politicians beholden to party leaders, we are lost -- and so
is America.
Look at the Senate races. The National
Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), led by Sen. John
Cornyn, has already endorsed in half a dozen Republican
primaries, with more to come. Solid conservatives with great
credentials -- new faces, future leaders, threats to the
party elite -- were already announced candidates in many of
these races. But Cornyn and his cronies aren't about to let
the rank and file choose the candidates -- too risky. A man
of the people might slip through and too many of them could
lead to government by the people.
In Florida, the NRSC endorsed
Gov. Charlie Crist, an Arlen Specter Republican, who is
running against a young conservative Cuban-American Marco
Rubio. Rubio was a long shot but the NRSC endorsement
so outraged conservatives nationwide it breathed new life
into his campaign.
In Colorado, District
Attorney Ken Buck, a tough prosecutor of illegal aliens, was
gaining traction in his campaign for U.S. Senate.
Enter John McCain. He calls Jane Norton, former Lt
Governor and state chairman of his presidential bid, and
convinces her to run against Buck, promising the NRSC
endorsement, plenty of money, and a lock on the
nomination. Le Moine Dowd, a grassroots activist,
summed it up perfectly: "Do we want the NRSC deciding
our candidate? Does this action by the NRSC make the
primary election irrelevant? Does it make the Colorado
Republican Party irrelevant?"
In Ohio,
Rob Portman, a former pro-amnesty congressman and Bush trade
rep, announced his bid for the U.S. Senate earlier this
year. Then Tom Ganley, a conservative businessman from
Cleveland infuriated by the
massive uncontrolled spending of Washington, decided to
run. Mortal sin, declared the party, which told this
self-made successful businessman to get out of the race,
that "the U.S. Senate isn't an entry level position." The
NRSC endorsed Portman and are in full campaign mode.
(Do these nitwits really think one of the architects of the
Bush policy that sent our jobs overseas is going to win the
general election in a state with 11%
unemployment?)
This same scenario is being repeated
in a dozen other states. The political bosses are
adamant that our candidates look and talk like them -- the
kind that will get in line behind them. Leaders that
rise up out of the rebellion and run for office will be a
problem for them. So the snakes are out to stop them.
The rebellion must start to focus on producing
candidates that will do represent the American people in
Washington -- then we must
rally behind them and defeat the establishment candidates in
the primaries. If that doesn't work, we must field
candidates to run as independents in the general. The
country is too important to let the establishment of either
party continue to have their way with
her.