Imagine you have a first rate military which is being undercut in key battles by people within your own ranks. It happens so often that despite your superiority of firepower, you continue to lose wars. In such a situation it’s obvious that your first order of business has to be to get rid of the saboteurs who are supposed to be on your side.
That’s exactly where we are at when it comes to solving the major public policy problems we face at the local, state, and national level. Unless the Republican Party cleans up its own house, government will never again be limited and Americans will be lucky if the entire country doesn’t collapse under the weight of debt, corruption, and decadence.
Thanks to many years of work by dozens of think tanks and the countless experimentation by conservative leaders who have been able to break through and get things done, we know how to solve the problems in every area. The only thing standing in the way are RINOs (Republican in Name Only) and GOP “moderates” who continue to be deluded that “moderate” solutions exist.
The number one challenge during this Republican presidential primary process has been to find someone willing to stand up to the old guard establishment forces who have wrought failure after failure for decades. Denny Hastert’s reign brought us Nancy Pelosi. George W. Bush’s brought us Barack Obama. A GOP that is still ailing even today paved the way for the creation of tea party like organizations from coast to coast.
For a while, it looked as if Newt Gingrich was going to be the man who took on this fight. Newt’s the most accomplished candidate in the race – the only public policy success Republicans have had since Ronald Reagan was welfare reform while Newt was House Speaker.
But since the Florida campaign, Newt has pretty much disappeared. He’s either getting terrible advice, no advice, or he’s listening to his own advice – and the results have been horrendous. Except for a couple of small southern states he usually finishes a distant third.
As I’ve noted on these pages often, Mitt Romney must be stopped or else Barack Obama will probably win a second term. Since I can see no way for Newt to win at this point, my vote tomorrow will go for Rick Santorum. And since there are many vacant Santorum delegate and alternate delegate spots, I recommend that people vote for the Gingrich dels/alts.
There is good news. According to Politico.com, Rick Santorum has actively engaged the battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party by citing Illinois GOP establishment support for Romney. Republican News Watch put this headline on the following excerpt, “In Illinois, Santorum fights GOP Establishment”:
With a ragtag outfit typical of his campaign and a few high-profile local endorsements ahead of Tuesday’s competitive Illinois primary, the former Pennsylvania senator couched his Illinois effort in old-fashioned political terms: He’s fighting City Hall.
In Santorum’s telling, Mitt Romney is the archetypical establishment pol, backed by the entire state GOP establishment, from the party chairman to three statewide elected officials on down while he is the little guy who just wants a stop sign put on his corner.
“The Illinois party doesn’t deal up a lot of conservatives for statewide office, so you have an opportunity now to sort of fight City Hall, if you will,” he said after greeting supporters at an Italian restaurant here Friday. “All the Republican establishment, as you know, is lined up behind Romney. Hopefully the conservative voices here in the state will say that the best chance for us to beat Barack Obama is to have a clear choice, not, you know, someone who is a little different or not different at all on some of the biggest issues of the day.”
I stand by everything I’ve written about both Newt and Rick – but it’s time to choose – and a Rick Santorum statewide victory will help undercut Romney further and that has to be job number one.
