What the hell happened to the Republican Party?

I started writing this piece several days ago, before the recent victories won by Senator Rick Santorum, that lent reason for some changes below, so I had to massage it a bit before publishing it.

When I was in my formative years in the Boston area, I used to hear my adult neighbors and relatives talk about lots of stuff. Back in those days, all I could do was listen, because they used to say things like, “children should be seen and not heard,” etc. I always despised such comments, however I did listen to the conversations, albeit often forced to do so from a different room.

The point is, I heard many sides of a lot of issues, and the guy that probably made the most impact on me from what I was able to hear was my Uncle Al. Al was the youngest of my mother’s siblings; he was a tough, rugged, take no prisoners, shot and a beer kinda guy that smoked camel cigarettes, and lots of them. Al was also a former US Marine, and he was a conservative thinking Republican through and through. He was a real man, a man’s man, and while he never knew it, because we just weren’t allowed to talk about such things, I loved and respected him probably more than any other male authority in my youth.

When he spoke, his words almost always rang true to me and he embodied what I believed the Republican Party was and ought to be; that being the clear thinking party of conservatives that wanted what was best for everyone in the country, and where everyone wanted what was best for the country. Some years later, I came across written platforms of each party which spelled out precisely how each stood on every issue, be it domestic, foreign, or whatever. Those platforms have expanded and been modified over the years as new issues have arisen, but the essence has always been the same. Which is to say, the Republican Platforms have always looked logical and workable as opposed to the Democrat Platforms always looking very touchy/feely with no real substance.

I’m a free thinker, so I can’t say that I’ve always agreed with the Republican Platform 100%, however, I do agree with the vast majority of it and very little of what the Democrat Platform offers based upon those overheard conversations of years past. As a result, I have always voted for Republican candidates in just about every election, because I thought that being a Republican meant that one agreed with and stood for that platform. And that might have been, one day, a long time ago, in a faraway place.

But this is now, and I’ve grown up and gotten very involved. I’m a active member of the REC, I attend meetings ad nauseum; I’m a leader of sorts in the 912 Movement and Tea Party, lots of people know me and what I stand for, and everyone of them will tell you that I love America and what it stands for. I’ve been on the buses to DC, marched up the Mall, I’ve met with candidates and leaders, attend and lead meetings, knock on doors, and wear out lots of shoe leather for the conservative cause. Heck, I was even recently honored, by virtue of being a member of the press, to moderate a US Senatorial Forum. In short, I’ve been doing my best to try to put things back the way the Founders intended.

And now the party that I’ve been faithful to for as long as I can remember is trying to do it again. We the People, (many of us in the GOP) have been screaming, marching, writing letters, running for office, getting involved, spending time away from loved ones, and doing all of this stuff, so that the party with the conservative platform….THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, would look among its ranks and come up with a leader that understands and believes in that platform. Instead, the money guys in the local REC’s, the state party wheels, and all of the power brokers just sit in the proverbial smoke filled rooms, sipping expensive Cognac, patting the white cats in their laps, and laugh at not only We the People, but also the party worker bees that do most of the heavy lifting. We’re getting the same old, same old, whether We the People like it or not. Maybe!

We need and asked for a man or woman like Ronald Reagan, or dare I say George Washington; someone with grit in their teeth and fire in their belly, that is more concerned with righting the ship than getting re-elected. Instead, they are trying to force feed us the likes of Mitt Romney, a liberal from Massachusetts that they call a moderate. What on God’s green earth makes him a moderate?! Apparently, in Massachusetts, (my home state) one is considered a moderate or a conservative if one is not quite as liberal as Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Michael Dukakis, Barney Frank, or Deval Patrick. All of them Democrats for sure, but just look at Scott Brown; a conservative he is not. I’m sorry, but in my book, that platform keeps coming back to mind, and Mitt ain’t standing on it. As you can see by this video, Mitt’s dad likely taught him well:

But wait a minute; if you don’t like Romney, no problem, the GOP has a back up. They’ve repackaged Newt Gingrich for you. Well, not really a repackage, since all they really did was get him away from the reflecting pool and sofa with Nancy Pelosi, and out of the ‘green’ room with Al Gore. Excuse me, but for all of his rhetoric and historical knowledge, he was there when a lot of the current crap was going down. He has also stated that his favorite politician of all time is FDR, (a liberal, socialist, democrat) followed closely by Woodrow Wilson, (and who doesn’t just get a warm fuzzy at the mention of that name) and of course Teddy Roosevelt, (while most people think of Teddy charging up San Juan Hill, he was a big government socialist of the highest order). If you don’t think these are Newts favorites, take a minute and listen to the following eye opening, kind of long video:

At the end of the day, both parties, with the only too willing help of the combined media have shot holes in those few that do hold on to the original platform, belief in the Constitution, faith in God, and solid conservative values. They wrongfully ripped Sarah Palin apart long ago, (SNL had a blast painting her the fool) guys like Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo couldn’t even get off the ground if they’d wanted to, even though a few weak and laughable lemmings such as Gary Johnson actually got some early media play. Unbelievably, his name was still on the ballot when I voted in Florida last week. Really, that ‘milquetoast’ dishrag that didn’t know islam wants to do us in was on a ballot?! Geez, I think the party needs to do some serious pre-screening.

But now I have to really get bent out of shape, because there is a candidate that for the most part, (he’s not perfect) embodies and believes in the platform that I used to think that all Republicans believed in. That one candidate is just now starting to feel the sting of the barbs and arrows of the party bosses, the other campaigns, and the only too willing media.

Senator Rick Santorum, Republican! Young, bright, good family man, Christian, (a hush falls over the readers) hard working guy from solid immigrant stock; his grandfather came here legally, asked for nothing, and assimilated into the American Fabric. He can handle himself in a debate, he’s not afraid to roll up his sleeves and call a spade a spade, and he talks the talk of We the People that have been screaming for a real conservative. So why do the power brokers in the party and media pretend he doesn’t exist? Well, this is again where I had to modify some, because the big shots and Mitt Romney just found out what We the People call a conservative, and he just got a lung full of new life. Thank God!

The excuses range from the new term that he’s ‘unelectable,’ doesn’t have ‘enough fire in his belly,’ and lots of other nonsense. I guess he showed them the other day just how electable he really is. However, the real reason they pretend he isn’t there is that the GOP has sold us out. That’s right, the old platform doesn’t mean a thing anymore, (it’s barely even a loose guideline these days). For the most part, our under 40’s youth, (a lot of whom sit in seats of power) have been fed a pile of socialist, liberal, mush for so long by the pot smoking, acid dropping, aging hippies from the 60’s who have infested the educational system, that they don’t know what real conservatism is.

They were never taught what the Founders had in mind, they don’t know or care what the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence have to say. They don’t understand that the country really was founded and based upon Christian fundamentals with religious freedom.

All most of our young know is the latest video game titillation, who won American Idol or Dancing With the Stars, which movie star has ‘come out,’ and all the other pop culture nonsense that has lulled them to sleep. Ask any High School or College Student even the most basic of questions about our founding and you’ll likely either get a bunch of blank stares or be baffled by some very under educated, and ignorant answers. It’s not their fault though. It’s mine, and yours, and all of our collective faults for allowing the liberal left to chip away at the fabric of our beautiful society and dumb our youth down so badly that what is right is now called wrong, and what is wrong is now called right.

Fellow Americans; Republicans, Democrats, Independents, whatever you call yourself, if you’re over 40, take a good look around and ask yourself what happened? If you’re under 40, talk to us that are over 40, read some real history, get a grasp on the reality that this was and could still be a great nation that was founded on solid Christian Foundations, by some really brilliant men and women. They may have dressed kind of funny by today’s standards, but they were never the less brilliant, and with His help, they built just a great country, I say the greatest the world has ever known.

We can fix this experimental thing called America. Simply put, we need to realize that it is just like anything else that gets broken; we need to repair it using the same materials it was built with. Just as a building made of concrete and steel, gilded with marble and glass cannot be repaired properly with popsicle sticks and paper mache, gilded with linoleum and plastic, a country built on a Christian foundation, solid work ethic, and conservative principles cannot be repaired with secular ideology, dependence upon others, and socialism.

Don’t let the parties get away with this. Make them give us a real conservative that unashamedly calls out to God to lead us. If we don’t, how can we look our children and grandchildren in the face and tell them we didn’t do anything when we had the chance? I guess by now you know who I think that real conservative is.

David DiCrescenzo

Publisher/Editor in Chief