What Illinois Republican Party?
About a year and a half or so ago, I wrote a blog post about possible formation of a 3rd Party in Illinois. At the time, I was only agitating for some good policy on the part of the Republican Party, which I have more affinity with than the Democrats.
Little did I know how right I was.
First, last week’s news gave us the stage-managed Andy McKenna Road Show, along with the revelation that McKenna himself donated to Democrats a few years ago. Today’s news is even better.
Kirk Dillard is appearing in Iowa ads touting Barack Obama, while Paul Froelich is bolting the Republican Party for the Democrats.
Let me state right off the bat that there is nothing wrong per se with either of these three men engaging in acts that follow either their conscience or their politcal pragmatism. However, let them at least admit that none of them are following what one might call “republican principles.” Whether they are rats or not, they certainly are deserting a sinking ship - and that ship is the Illinois Republican Party.
When talking to my radio audience, I’ve decided that the best thing to do is appeal to the best principles, and eschew the increasingly pointless party labels. Apparently some “party apparatchiks” feel differently. Some Illinois “republican” bloggers and have gone so far deleted my comments (agreeing with them, mind you) on their websites because I’m insufficiently doctrinaire in my “party loyalty.” They may want to ask themselves why “republicans” are “deleting” themselves from the party instead of trying to enforce “loyalty” to an organization that deserves none.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Republican Party may just be dead in Illinois. Make no mistake, the sentiments behind the party that went to war to end slavery is not dead. The sentiment that gave rise to Teddy Roosevelt’s enlightend ‘progressivism’ is not dead. The sentiment that gave rise to fighting for citizen’s rights over the rights of a privileged and insulated bureaucratic class is not dead. But who in Illinois Republican Party stands for these values. Who in today’s Illinois Republican Party stands for ANY values at all?
If Andy McKenna had a pair, he’d drum Kirk Dillard out of the Party, and rebuild off of the few remaining decent people left in the IRP. Dillard is a coward of the highest proportions, holding on to a party label he cares nothing for while sucking up to an empty suit he thinks will get carried across the finish line by a faked media “love-fest.” At least Froelich is honest enough to pay true obiescance to the people who have been electing him. (Paul, I hope that one day your fealty to Teacher’s Unions is hung around your neck like a stone.)
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Seriously folks!! Dump this party. Dump this label. Take it’s deepest and best principles away from the low class apparatchiks that have been sullying them and start something new. If a new party isn’t your flavor (it isn’t really mine), then at least fight for a delegate seat in a convention that might disempower the corrupt in both “corporate parties.”
In the 1850s, a ragtag anti-immigrant party destroyed itself, and took a the declining Whigs with them. In the ensuing chaos, the Republican Party was born, and held sway over the nation for about 60 years. It’s time for that to happen again. You can’t fix this. Leave it and start anew, keeping faith with the Principles, not the party hacks who have destroyed a good name.
