Despite the arraignment of the McDonnells and the disbarring-worthy actions of the Attorney General, the saddest part in politics this week was when the Chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia was hijacked by radical tea party elements who thought the 2013 statewide performance of Republicans was a crowning achievement.
Chairman Pat Mullins, who was always defeated when he ran for public office himself, decided to attack the efforts of two Republicans in the General Assembly this week. Their crime? Wanting active-duty military to be allowed to cast a ballot in choosing Republican nominees.
Chairman Mullins aligned himself with people who called these Republicans “traitorous” and “freedom-robbing.” In doing so, he has inspired them to organize challenges against Republican legislators. Thanks, Mr. Chairman!
Who is the Chairman following? Primary-losing Jaime Radtke. Primary losing Chris Stearns. Pretty obvious why they’d rather have conventions – when voters get to vote, they lose.
Besides the uncomfortable position of having Republican Chairman attack Republicans, there’s the lies.
Yes, the lies.
These folks pretend like they are protecting freedom of association or speech. Not at all. Besides that these folks live to attack Republicans (how many Facebook posts has the Chairman and these Tea-Birds written about Democrat legislation?), there’s the big lie they tell.
A post shared by Chairman Mullins states “the point is that the state has no business dictating to a private organization how that organization chooses its nominees. This is a blow to our freedom of association”
Really?
Want to see what’s written on EVERY CALL for a nomination of the Republican Party?
Qualifications for Participation
All legal and qualified voters of the ________________ District under the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia
Wow! You mean we admit in every call that we conduct our nominations under the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia?
I asked some of those who attacked this bill if the state really has no business dictating how we choose our nominees, why do we prohibit unregistered voters? Why do we prohibit felons and illegal immigrants? Why must you be 18?
Basically, why does the Republican Party abide by EVERY ELECTION LAW GOVERNMENT HAS IMPOSED when choosing its nominees if doing so is, in Chairman Mullins’ words, unconstitutional?
Or go the other direction. By Chairman Mullins’ opinion, if the RPV wanted to restrict participation to only white males making over $200,000, any effort to stop that would be a restriction of “freedom of association” to which he should threaten, as he did this year, legal action seeking “judicial relief”.
Of course, they would deny going that far. Because the truth is they are perfectly happy to have government tell them who can participate in nominations and who can’t. They’ve done it for decades.
Government has always interceded when impediments to voting have been put in place. In this case, it’s not race or gender. It’s a uniform.
Some feel as I do that a soldier training for battle should be able to vote to nominate his representative who may one day vote to send him to war.
Some like to keep those choices as closed and narrow as possible. I’m fine to debate the merits of that.
But don’t shovel your fertilizer about how conventions should be free from following any election law. I TRIPLE-DARE you to actually follow through on that. Try to have a convention that bans women or insists that only land-owners can vote!
If you really meant what you wrote about “freedom of association,” you’d do it.
But you won’t. Because you didn’t.
