The Romney GOP’s Incongruous enforcement of loyalties

A NEW “LITTLE THOUGHT”

A good friend shared a thought with me recently that’s worth pondering.

As I understand it, in both of America’s so-called major political Parties people who compete for the Party’s nomination are expected to support the Party’s eventual nominee. In and of itself that expectation isn’t hard to understand. What’s harder to fathom, though, is the absence of the congruous expectation that the Party’s eventual nominee will uphold, and conscientiously work to implement, the Party’s Platform. After all, the assumed pledge to support the eventual nominee rests on the common sense view that everyone in the Party should unite in support of their common cause. The Platform supposedly represents an agreed upon presentation of that cause, intended to inform and win support from voters. If disappointed office seekers are expected to discipline their actions for the sake of that cause, surely the Party’s nominee (who is also a member of the Party) ought to do the same.

This makes it even more telling and incongruous when Reince Priebus explains Romney’s efforts to purge Todd Akin by telling Fox News that “this is the platform of the Republican Party, it is not the platform of Mitt Romney.” So members of the GOP are expected to support the Platform, but the nominee is not expected to do so. Indeed, if a Party candidate like Todd Akin courageously supports a Platform plank, it’s perfectly acceptable for the nominee to lead an effort to purge him, and to cite his Platform based stand as the reason for doing so. This puts enforcing loyalty to the nominee above enforcing loyalty to the cause that supposedly represents the Party’s bid to serve the nation’s common good. (This reminds me of the Obama faction’s un-American efforts to seek personal pledges of loyalty to Obama, rather than to the the Constitution of the United States and the Republic it guarantees. )

Those who profess to be ‘Platform Republicans’ are trying to use the Platform’s language to get voters to support the Romney/Ryan ticket. I know that some of them mean well. But it makes no sense to expect voters who believe in the Platform to vote for Mitt Romney when he is already acting on the desire to purge from the Party’s ranks anyone who seriously sticks to it.  Unless voters are blind, deaf and brain dead, they will realize that Mitt Romney doesn’t represent the cause the Party claims to represent. What’s more, the determination to purge Todd Akin (which persists despite indications that voters are rallying to his courageous stand) makes it clear that the Romney wing of the elitist faction wants conservative votes, but will have nothing to do with the Platform beyond cynically allowing it to be used to attract them.

I am grateful to the friend I mentioned for helping me  think through one more reason for the way I plan to use my vote in November. I’ll vote for every GOP candidate who conscientiously stands for the conservative cause the GOP Platform articulates.  But since, as the GOP Chairman affirms, it’s “not Mitt Romney’s platform, ” I will, of course, not vote for him.

I will SAY NO TO OBAMA; NO TO ROMNEY; and NO TO SOCIALISM, no matter what party label it wears.

[WILL YOU CONSIDER USING THE “PLATFORM REPUBLICAN” APPROACH TO THE NOVEMBER ELECTION? IF YOU WILL, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL AT ALAN@LOYALTOLIBERTY.COM. PUT “YES, I WILL” IN THE SUBJECT LINE. NO FURTHER MESSAGE IS NEEDED. OF COURSE YOUR THOUGHTS AND SUGGESTIONS WILL BE WELCOMED. AS THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE IDEA DEVELOPS, I’LL SEND AN EMAIL TO THE REPLY ADDRESS YOU USE TO KEEP YOU UP TO DATE. ALSO, AND ABOVE ALL, SHARE THE IDEA WITH OTHERS SO THEY CAN CONSIDER IT FOR THEMSELVES.]