Fish, you will like this. The Oregon GOPe got rid of the State Chairwoman that they picked and had her recalled this weekend. They had their hand picked replacement selected and when they voted they ended up 2 votes short and the Tea Party candidate won.
We now have a Tea Partier as the State Chair and the establishment is on the outside. Should be an interesting election coming up.
We now have a Tea Partier as the State Chair and the establishment is on the outside.
If the GOP is to be saved, that may be how to do it -- from the state level up. Of course, that assumes that the current GOPelites haven't completely sold out and become the Dem-lite party.
Frequently, we see articles about state Dems who have jumped to the Republican party. We have seen several states shifting from blue to purple and approaching red. West Virginia, Louisiana, and Arkansas are a few that seem to be experiencing some shifting.
Just a decade ago, for example, Arkansas had 1 out of 4 US House members and 0 out of 2 US Senate members who was a Republican. Today, all 4 House seats and one Senate seat are held by Republicans, and the 1 remaining Dem seat -- the Senate -- is very likely to flip next year.
The from-the-state-up approach, however, may take another decade or two. By then, what will the Nation look like? How many dumb 2000 page laws will have passed with multitudes of new bureaus and departments and regulations?
Conservatives need to think hard about the current and future politics --
- jump now, create a new party, and hope to be electing members to state and National offices in a few years, or
- hold out and hope the GOP can be saved from within in a few decades.