Granite Grok Viguerie: “The Battle To Takeover The GOP Begins Today” by _Mike_ (http://granitegrok.com/author/Mike) Nov 8, 2012 In keeping with posts by _Steve_ (http://granitegrok.com/blog/2012/11/meanwhile-outside-wayne-macdonalds-house) , _Skip_ (http://granitegrok.com/blog/2012/11/stellar-results-here-in-nh-nh-gop-who-takes-the-responsibility-who-sh ould) , and _myself_ (http://granitegrok.com/blog/2012/11/who-is-missing-chairman-jack-kimball-right-about-now) , today, I’m including this call to action by arch-conservative Richard Viguerie, founder of “ConservativeHQ”, whose readers tend to be very solid constitutionalists. Today’s poll asked CHQ readers what should happen to the GOP in the light of Tuesday’s debacle: * 73% The establishment Repub. Party has failed, small government constitutional conservatives must takeover the leadership of the GOP. * 18% The pundits are correct, the GOP should “move to the center.” * 6% The GOP is doing just fine as is, most Republican candidates who ran good campaigns won. * 3% Undecided. No surprise that Viguerie himself is in the 73% urging a takeover
Despite our efforts and the efforts of millions of other conservatives, who went all-in for the Romney candidacy, Election Day 2012 was a disaster – Barack Obama was re-elected President, Republicans lost seats in the House and failed to gain a majority in the Senate. However, out of that disaster comes some good news: conservatives are saying “Never again” are we going to nominate a big government establishment Republican for President. What’s more, we won’t have to – conservatives now have a deep bench of potential presidential candidates. We have elected a new generation of conservative leaders who are capable of taking over the GOP to become the Party of small government constitutional conservatism. ………. Establishment Republicans ever anxious to hold on to power, and the establishment media, are going to blame “the Tea Party” and “radical” conservatives who voted for principled small government constitutional conservative candidates in Republican primaries for the election disaster of 2012. Nothing could be further from the truth. Governor Romney won the nomination by spending tens of millions of dollars knee-capping his conservative opponents in the primaries and then handed the election to Obama because he and his campaign team spent most of the campaign mired in the establishment Republican folly of trying to win by standing for nothing. ………. In choosing to ignore the larger conservative agenda, Romney chose not to follow the path that led Republicans to win seven of the previous eleven presidential elections. In the Senate, two good and decent men – Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock – were defeated not because they were pro-life, but because they were inept campaigners. Tommy Thompson, George Allen, Connie Mack and other establishment-backed candidates — who ran as establishment Republicans — all went down to defeat in the general election after being boosted past principled small government conservatives in the primaries by Mitch McConnell and the Washington GOP establishment. The leaders who forced those kinds of candidates on us — and manipulated the GOP rules to force the Party to change from a grassroots-driven Party to a Party driven from the top-down by Washington insiders — should resign. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, Speaker of the House John Boehner, NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions and other Republican leaders behind the epic election failure of 2012 should be replaced with leaders more in tune with the grassroots of the conservative base of the Party. Likewise, in any logical universe, establishment Republican consultants such as Karl Rove, Ed Gillespie, Romney campaign senior advisor Stewart Stevens and pollster Neil Newhouse would never be hired to run or consult on a national campaign again — and no one would give a dime to their ineffective Super PACs, such as American Crossroads. Mitt Romney’s loss was the death rattle of the establishment GOP. Far from signaling a rejection of the Tea Party or grassroots conservatives, the disaster of 2012 signals the beginning of the battle to takeover the Republican Party and the opportunity to establish the GOP as the Party of small government constitutional conservatism. There’s more – you can read the whole thing _here_ (http://www.conservativehq.com/article/10743-battle-takeover-gop-begins-today) . I agree with most of what Viguerie says, especially regarding the Beltway “ Wizards of Smart” as Limbaugh calls them, and I certainly shun the NRSC and NRCC in favor of Senate Conservatives Fund and Club for Growth, but I’m not yet ready to tar Priebus with the same brush as the others – he’s raised and spent a huge amount of money, and helped to bring Romney into serious contention with Obama, but ultimately the tone of the campaign is set by the candidate. Mitt was better than many of us feared, much better than McCain, but in the end failed to project a conservative message, and who can forget such moments as “_etch-a-sketch_ (http://granitegrok.com/blog/2012/03/romneys-core-convictions-try-etch-a-sketch) “? In the end, a thoroughly decent and highly accomplished man, advised by the ‘usual suspects’, failed to make the sale to the public. His loss is America’s loss, but we have no time for moping around – now is the time for all good men to take control of the party, and the country’s destiny, before it truly is too late. -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
