LFC Editorial Comments by Brian Massie, bewildered and naïve independent voter

Thanks to a Republican State Central Committeeman for sending this article to us. Lake County Republicans are staunchly behind Governor DeWine and the rest of the RINO’s. It appears that you have to lose your identity and value system when you try to “work from the inside” to make a difference through the current Republican Party. The “Conservative Christian” uses those words at election time to get elected, but immediately has to keep quite during the Party’s endorsements prior to election day. The Party’s conservative platform are merely words and mean nothing.

We are reminded of the top priorities of government and politicians by the recently retired Republican Commissioner Ron Young in his farewell speech.

Yes, call me naïve, but I thought the purpose of government and elected officials was to ensure the safety of the citizens and improve the lives of citizens. It was not envisioned by the founders of this great country that we should provide lifetime employment and unjust enrichment for our politicians.

The public sector is growing so fast that the private sector will eventually be unable to pay for it. One problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money to fund the welfare state. Just ask residents of Cuba and Venezuela how socialism worked out for them.

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Is it disloyal to the Republican Party to vote for Petersen? Niel Petersen is a registered Republican and believes in Conservative Republican values. Voting for Petersen is only being disloyal to the liberal, progressive, moderate State Central Committee. Voting Petersen is a vote for conservative Republican and Christian principles. Voting for Petersen is being loyal to Ohio Republicans that always trend toward the more conservative side of the spectrum. The party always engineers candidate that are like McCain an Romney where Ohioans very much want Reagan and Trump like candidates.

What happens when the leaders of a party move heaven and earth to unethically shove a candidate down the throats of their constituents? Do we as constituents ignore the immoral gamesmanship and manipulation and get behind the chosen candidate -or- do we teach our leaders a lesson and vote for the conservative candidate that more aligns with true Republican values?

Most anyone can win a political race if they are given millions of dollars and are willing to lie, deceive, and mislead. To say that the party cannot abuse its power to manipulate an election is absolutely absurd.

Is it blind loyalty that we should have for our party? Should we continue to ignore its bad behavior? Or, are we poor losers if we do not support Mike DeWine who, with millions of dollars of help from the Ohio Republican Party (ORP), and is the incumbent, only managed to get 48% of Republicans to support him in a historically low turnout?

The Self-fulfilling Prophecy of the “You Can’t-ers”

How many football games do you have the chance of winning if you are a low-ranked high school football and have the attitude of why should we even play the game because we are going to lose? You would win very few games. Now let’s take it further, that it is one team in your league that dominates year after year – are you going to have a chance to win if you already have accepted defeat.

The Ohio Republican party and the Conservative movement is filled with the toxicity of Amer-I-can’ts. We are Ameri-I-cans and that is what makes us great.

If we had hundreds of failures in building rockets to reach for the stars – do we just give up? When they tell us that “we can’t” – we should push forward with “we can.” Thomas Edison had hundreds of failures searching for a filament to make a lightbulb – if he had an “I-can’t” attitude we probably would not have lightbulbs. What if American colonist had the “we-can’t” attitude? That England is just too powerful and that we shouldn’t even try.

The reason why Ohio has not become great again is not because we can’t – it is because too many people on our team have a toxic attitude. They believe the risks are too great to go with anything else but a sure thing. That we must support the liberal, progressive, moderate Republican leadership after the primary even though they lied, cheated, and manipulated the process to favor their selected candidate. With a “We Can’t” attitude nothing in Ohio will ever change and our moderate leadership will always be supported.

Don’t slip into the toxic “We Can’t” attitude. It is a virus that prevents us all from moving forward.

Challenge the “We Can’t-ers” to support Ohio Promisekeepers for the State Central Committee and to work hard toward taking over the State Central Committee. Challenge them to be positive and to at least support Niel Petersen until the August primary and encourage others to do so. If we win the primary and reshape the party – a Petersen win becomes almost inevitable.

Practicality VS Principles

After the primary – all good Republicans are supposed to put animosity aside and rally for the candidate that won the primary. That is, of course, if the party is deserving of loyalty. Did the party provide a level-playing field for all candidates in the primary? No, they didn’t. They selected their candidate when they appointed Bob Paduchik and Paduchik misappropriated funds and boosted an unpopular governor’s campaign for re-election. How can we be loyal to a party that shows no loyalty to its Republican constituents?

The lesson to be learned here is that it really does matter how you play the game.

Conventional wisdom says that DeWine wins the gubernatorial race – and if you want to be a winner then you need to jump on board. Those seeking power and influence will be in Governor DeWine’s corner and will badger and compel those at the county level to go along with the State party’s selected candidate. All the old money in Ohio and all the special interests will ignore that at least 52% of Republicans wanted a more conservative candidate in the primary. The leadership’s thought is that they only have to swing a little more than 2% of Republicans that did not vote for him and just a little more than 50% of independents – something that should be way easy for old money and Ohio’s special interests.

The Ohio governor makes about 1,000 appointments and combined with compliant county central committees makes an army of about 2,750 people fighting for DeWine in 88 counties. These are the most influential people that are the heads of boards and commissions and hold people’s jobs in their hands. When these appointees and central committee leaders talk, people listen. With an average of 31 people per county that are being paid for by the State or volunteering and trying to move up the ladder of Ohio’s ever-expanding government, one would expect Mike DeWine to have it in the bag.

But here is where he doesn’t have it in the bag.

Mike DeWine got 48% of the vote in a historically low-turnout. The turnout is low due to frustration with the party and their lack of support for conservative candidates. That 48% number is almost certainly skewed. DeWine winning the primary can have three possible outcomes – Republicans stay home -or- Republican show up and many vote to teach the party a lesson -or- DeWine wins in a landslide and is emboldened to implement even poorer and dumber policies.

We get what we got because of the Voters!

There is one camp that wants to lay everything on the Ohio voters. They say not enough showed up and not enough or are informed to make good decisions. Too many of our fellow Ohioans do not want to vote and are not interested in educating themselves is the claim.

This is simultaneously not true and has always been true – but the blame really belongs on the party, not on the people.

We have a party system for a reason. It is not acceptable to believe that everyone’s life should be dedicated to the research of politicians and political parties. The reason why our society is as bad off as it is – is that we have inept parties. If our parties were doing their jobs and there was a high degree of trust in the party (that they are representing our interests and not the interests of the special interests) we could all rest just a little bit easier. The party has not been doing its job and it most certainly does not represent Republicans – the Ohio Republican Party represents the special interests. Most county central committees have no idea of how their party should be run and what they should be doing – instead, they take their cues groveling to the State Central Committee.

The job of the party is to build a passion for the party through its platform and to educate the public – instead, their focus is solely and exclusively on supporting candidates an many times it is the candidates that are selected by the Special Interests. It has become a competition between the parties of who can sell the party to the highest bidder.

Swinging at branches instead of striking at the roots.

The party counts on us being so preoccupied with fighting for political races (swinging at branches) that they count on us not striking at the root cause of the problem, the State Central Committee. They don’t want us educated – they want us to mindlessly get behind their selected candidates. So they start fires to keep us off balance and preoccupied. They count on the ever-present “We Can’t-ers.”

We need to work smarter and not harder.

• We need to support Republican reform through the Ohio Promisekeepers. Please volunteer to help a campaign.
• We need to support reform by supporting candidates that think outside the box and are not limited by “We Can’t” attitudes. Consider supporting Niel Petersen and challenging others to do the same.
• If you are a “We Can’t-er” please consider some personal self-reflection. Consider that it maybe your wisdom, logic, and reasoning is part of the problem. Seek humility and put your pride aside to become part of something bigger than yourself. Consider working with a team devoted to reform. Do you practice what you preach? Do you embrace Biblical principles or does your intellect interfere with your faith? We win through prayer, faith, trust, and hard work.
• We need to take risks, say our prayers, and have faith. We are removing a cancer from our body – it is going to be painful – but we will be better off once it is removed and grow back stronger.
• Always remember, the argument will be made that this is not a good time to roll the dice on reform. The truth is there is never a good time – there is only the time we have – we need to act while people are active and engaged.
• Niel Petersen is only a longshot until he is not a longshot. Promisekeepers are only a longshot until they are not a longshot.
• Purge the toxic “We Can’t” elements from your groups, organizations, and life. You will have less stress and it will allow you and your organization to move forward.

Now, more than ever we need your commitment to reform. We need to make the party more ethical and breath more passion into the party by charting another course for it. It is time to take that leap of faith and put the soul back into the party.

Of course, you can vote who you want. It’s your choice. The party has always made the choice that they won’t give in to the demands of conservatives. They are not recognizing an increasingly conservative electorate will either destroy the state or will cause a showdown. If none of us give in by believing that the party will inevitably win – we set the stage to eventually get what we want.

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Categories: Lake County Politics, Uncategorized