Wonderful Things Are Happening in the Colorado GOP.
A delegate's perspective on the past two days. by Jahfre Fire Eater
(libertarian)
Sunday, May 23, 2010
I hate politics. I only tolerate, barely, politicians. People I like and respect as individuals can really irk me as politicians. I hate leaving my home unless I'm on my way to adventure. This weekend I left home for politics of the worst kind. Party politics. I travel a lot for my living so I'm used to things beyond my control reaching into my head to crank up my anger and frustration. I've gotten really good at 'zoning out' for several hours at a time to render the influence of these inconveniences over my good cheer null. I watch people. I do math in my head. I think of new ways to point out self-marginalizing behavior and I note the total lack of anything resembling "Wisdom of the Crowd." A herd is a herd regardless of what kind of pasture they prefer.
I've been called anti-social. As I told Mrs. Fire Eater again today, I'm not unfriendly or anti-social; I just prefer not to have people attempt to engage me in conversation; so I avoid giving them the opportunity. At the Assembly I stuck to myself as much as possible and 'zoned out' to pass the time. The assembly is a lot of hoopla and nonsense and about 15 minutes of business, voting for candidates and resolutions. I have absolutely no interest in the hoopla. I'm not one who will pray, or pledge my allegiance to a flag or sing an anthem or listen to the mind numbing propaganda of the party leaders, or cheer for Ronald Reagan's image or listen to the long boring nomination and acceptance speeches for hours on end. But, I had to be there. So I sat up in the mezzanine by myself until the time came to vote. We left immediately after I voted and drove home to check the results on the internet.
The results are wonderful. Today at the State Assembly and yesterday at our Congressional and Senatorial District Assemblies the same wonderful results were witnessed. Candidates who would have been laughed out of the party by the neocons and/or religious right just two short years ago counted major coup this year. For the first time in...who knows how long, the Assembly was "full" for both days. Every delegate seat was filled, 3500-some of them. We didn't even have a full Assembly for the presidential elections in '08. The combination of a full Assembly and huge wins for unapologetic liberty candidates spells very good news for those of us in the trenches for the defense of liberty. Our relentless promotion of individual participation and liberty oriented messaging rather than the issue-focused messaging used by the neocon leadership and the old-guard conservative Christian right is showing results in a HUGE way.
There still is no liberty conscious candidate for Colorado's governorship but many of the rest of our races will be contended by liberty candidates as the duly chosen GOP candidates. The winner, Dan Maes, is supposedly a "Tea Party Candidate" but he can in no way be seen as a liberty-based candidate. He will not get my vote in November under any circumstances. Similarly, Ken Buck, the winner of the US Senate ballot position by knocking off his opponents with 77% of the votes is not someone I can support. The difference is these candidates are listening to the disgruntled Republican voters and slowly beginning to actually hear some of the liberty-based arguements. They are better candidates than recent years have provided.
The big wins were in the Colorado congress. Stephen Bailey for our CO congressional district and Tim Leonard for our Senate district. Good government starts locally and is pushed up. It can never be created from the top down. Those higher offices will come around in due course.
Many of the sore loser neocon candidates who were knocked off the ballot by a dismal showing at the Assembly intend to petition onto the ballot anyway. Thus subverting the process and rendering the caucus and assembly process ineffective for controlling party costs by avoiding primary elections between absolutely unelectable candidates and the duly chosen candidates. Petitioning onto the ballot is obviously too easy. Several candidates chose the petition route in lieu of the Assembly process completely. All of these demonstrations of ways that party leadership is causing the GOP to be an ineffective tool to promote the candidates desired by Colorado liberty defenders and conservatives are wonderful in my view. The faster the party leadership can be swept into the shame of their liberal legacy and replaced by liberty-promoting conservative leaders the better for us all.
This new crop of candidates is the first rinse for the pipeline still full of big-government empire builders and issue-oriented supporters of federal oppression. Their hold on the pipe has been seriously jeopardized by the showing at the Assembly this weekend. They will have to prove themselves in November and beyond to continue holding the support of liberty-focused delegates like myself. This crop of delegates will also have to prove themselves by looking toward 2012 and building their candidates for that election into juggernauts who can thwart this trend for those with the kicked asses from aiding the enemy with their nasty petition and smear strategies. The time of the neocon is over. They will eventually all figure this out but in the meantime they aren't used to being held accountable for their support of oppressive and divisive, narrow-minded federal or state legislation. So, they will throw tantrums until they come to grips with a future they are currently totally unprepared for.
The results this weekend showed that some staunch pro-life delegates have accepted bringing the issue home to Colorado as a first step rather than accepting only federal legislation in their favor.
My favorite quote of the day came from a Log Cabin Republican at his table display who said, "I'd rather be the only gay in a roomful of Republicans than the only Republican in a roomful of gays. It has been a long time coming but the GOP is showing signs of not being so fanatically concerned about what other people do with their wee wees. My advice to the Log Cabin Republicans is to abandon the political herd and identify themselves as liberty-oriented Republicans. Period. The divide and conquer nature of "identity politics" diminishes your value as individuals due to its self-marginalizing nature. I say to everyone no matter what kind of private life you lead, leave your sex life at home and join us; participate in the constructive defense of liberty. Leave your herding instincts for your bowling league or fantasy football addictions or your worship rituals.
The real question is can Colorado garner enough liberty voters to break the liberal strangle hold and return Colorado to the path of liberty? That may take a lifetime of consistent effort like we saw this season. Time will tell.
-Jahfre Fire Eater
Did you like this article? If you did, Thumb It! 4
thumbs so far
The views expressed
in this article are those of Jahfre Fire Eater only and
do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates.
Jahfre Fire Eater is solely responsible for the contents
of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated
with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
JFE,
I agree entirely that local politics will have to be the well spring renewing Liberty in this country. Years ago I was at a town hall meeting in Wyo. I was sitting next to and old friend and business assoc. The issue before the board was whether or not to annex the golf course subdivision into the city. I asked this gentlemen,a resident of the subdivision in question, "why in the world would you want to come into the city? His answer caught me totally off guard. This guy , a staunch Rep. conservative.
The underlying reason was the association was spending to much of their own money enforcing the subdivisions covenants on the residents of the golf course. So they wanted to come into the city so the city would do it for them. Saving them money.
The city, not interested at this time. I think they repainted the Jackalope instead. Socialism is deeply entrenched even where you least expect it.
