An open letter to the GOP: Get Hip or become the new Bull Moose Party

Amid the clamor about the Republicans in general, the GOP has some real issues to deal with. If they ever expect to get back on top of the political sphere they need to reevaluate some of their stands and perhaps realize that the bus has already left the station.

That’s the case with most paradigm shifts. If you don’t realize it’s happening it’s over before you can do anything about it and you’re left at the bus stop with your ticket flapping in a cloud of exhaust. Such is the case with today’s Republican Party. The population’s dynamic has changed and the GOP has either failed to realize it or is so stuck in its dogma the end is truly near for them, to paraphrase Henny Penny.

We hear nearly every day how the population is shifting, how the boomers are becoming the walking dead, and how the American zeitgeist now embraces those in their 20s and 30s. Let’s face it, Rap music is here to stay, at least till the next generation comes up with some music to upset the status quo. Which brings us right back to the whole paradigm discussion:  I bet you thought I had forgotten where I was going.

Back around the turn of the last century a horse breeder in Central Canada stopped in Detroit and witnessed the first of Ford’s assembly line constructed cars as it rolled off the line. Unlike most people who witness the imminent demise of their chosen industry, this gentleman realized the horse breeding business was finished. When he got back to his farm, he immediately sold out. He is the rare person who knew he needed to get out while the getting was good. What’s that Wall Street saying, “buy low, sell high.”

More recently, the demise of Kodak was also the result of a paradigm shift. While Kodak actually produced the first digital camera, Nikon and Canon helped the industry turn the corner on digital photography. Film cameras have now developed into pictures in history books, and only a few hard cases who still believe that film can produce pictures that digital cameras can’t touch continue to hail the outdated and nearly dead film industry.

For the masses, nothing compares to a digital camera. We have them in our cell phones, some of which sport megapixel ratings that are hard to believe. But there is little doubt that film will come to an inglorious end in the near future. At some point, only those interested in antiquated methods will continue to spout that “film is still better” when in reality it is not anymore. The quality of a good digital photograph is at least as good as film, the cost is lower, and the ability to manipulate the image is far beyond anything you can do with film.

Okay David, you say, what does that have to do with the GOP?

The truth is pretty simple, really, the GOP is holding dearly to its horse and buggy and film photography dogma. The people who held some key GOP principals near and dear are rapidly filling graves, and the influx of new Republicans who hold the same principles close to their hearts is a chimera. Take a look at some of that stuff in the GOP platform:

Anti-abortion – we’re 40 years past Roe v. Wade and to be honest it doesn’t look like that will change anytime soon regardless of who nominates the members of the Supreme Court.

Obamacare – How many times does one have to try to get rid of a bad law? And, if it was so bad, why didn’t it galvanize Republicans into ensuring that President Obama did not get reelected? Just in case you didn’t realize this, Obama got reelected because more Democrats voted for him than Republicans voted for Mitt Romney. Some would say that the party was split and that was why Obama won, but if ousting the Big O were the main deal why didn’t the Republicans oust him during the last election, Mitt be darned?

Defense of Marriage Act – Known as DOMA, the Supreme Court killed it, and yet the GOP would belabor the issue. Sorry but same sex marriage is here to stay. It’s not a plank anymore; it’s merely a bunch of twisted splinters.

Anti-Obama sentiment – this one’s a bit harder, but the fact is the GOP has had its opportunities to get rid of the sitting president and failed to do so. They also failed to take a majority of the Senate, which would have given them an even grander opportunity to muddle things in congress. Why did the GOP fail? Here’s why:  lack of a decent candidate and lack of support from its own people. While I didn’t have too big of a problem with Mitt, there were enough who opted to vote otherwise, diminish the conservative vote, and leave the door wide open for Obama. Not even manipulating the Florida vote could help with that.

So we now know the political paradigm has already shifted. Getting new people to join the Republican Party will require a change in the party’s foundations. They need to bring in the younger voter, but that means shedding some of their old truths. The general population holds those truths to be irrelevant. It’s time to cut your losses, reinvent your platform, and move forward. It’s either that or become the modern day Bull Moose Party. See you later; I’m heading to the bus terminal with my ticket well in hand.

We all need friends like this!

So while Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican Party’s nominee for Governor of the Great State of Virginia, conveniently implodes under the weight of his enormously horrendous record, things begin to tighten up in the process of prosecuting sitting governor, Bob McDonnell.

I know this seems totally whack, but Star Scientific CEO Jonnie Williams Sr. seems to have believed all along that McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, were trying to help him acquire state funding for his enterprise. Why is this a surprise to anyone?

Richmond in particular, and Virginia in general, is chock full of elected officials who are more than happy to stuff their pockets if the money is right and they think they can get away with it. Tell me that Governor Bob didn’t know that Jonnie Williams’ gifts were quid pro quo, and I will sell you the deed to the Varina-Enon Bridge. Heck, I’ll even throw in the City of Henricus for good measure.

Come on Bob, you used to prosecute people for doing the very thing you have apparently done. You, more than anyone else in the state probably, know that you were trying to skirt the law and walk off with $150k that really can’t be considered anything less than a bribe. Mr. Williams has gone on record stating that he thought you and your wife were helping him make the connections he needed to get state funding to help his foundering business, according to a Washington Post story that appeared in Sunday’s Times-Dispatch.

Emails the Post obtained through the Freedom of Information Act indicate that researchers and scientists working for Star Scientific thought McDonnell and his wife wanted the company to receive the funding. Why on earth else would Williams be willing to pay for such lavish gifts, an extravagant wedding, and all kinds of other items for Virginia’s first family? Because we are friends?

Hog wash. The BS meter is off the charts on that one.

Is it any wonder that he attempted to not report the gifts? Surely it would look bad if he posted that he had received more than $150,000 from his pal Jonnie at Star. The best way not to call attention to such a large amount of money is simply to come up with some way not to report it at all. No trail, no explanation, and theoretically it never happened. So, why not call it a gift and then we don’t legally have to put it in a report. The best way to hide a bribe is by leaving it in the open.

Oh, you protest about the use of the word bribe? Well, what other term fits? I grant you that in all likelihood you did not try to ensure that Star Scientific received any state funding, but it’s not about whether you did it. It’s an ethics thing, Bob. You know that class they teach you in law school about right and wrong, how to get around it, and how to twist the facts to cover your tracks if you do get caught.

You know, I suppose a gift or two is OK. I mean my wife and I gave our boys’ teachers gifts at Christmas, you know a cup that says World’s Best Teacher or some other sappy sort of thing like that that you can get almost anywhere for a few dollars. But not 150,000 simoleons.

Heck, if someone wanted to lend me a cool $150K I would use it to pay off my mortgage, but I know deep down inside they would want something for their money. Other than family members, not mine specifically, I don’t know anyone who would be inclined to chunk out that kind of cash and not expect something in return, maybe at least an Andes mint.

McDonnell admits his family took more than $150,000 worth of gifts and cash he is now calling loans from Williams. He has even paid some of it back. His legal team says any claims that the governor agreed to help Williams or his company are not credible. And if that’s not an ad hominem argument, what is?

It’s an old lawyer’s ploy of attacking the man if the law isn’t on your side. If I can somehow dirty him, then that makes my argument seem more credible. But it’s not credible. Bob and his family took the offering and opted not to report it. Why? Because there was no way he could keep a straight face when questioned about it. The way he chose to act, maybe no one would ever know about the money—no questions and no reason to come up with a legitimate sounding answer. That makes much more sense than all the gibberish coming from his handlers.

From the Post story:  “Jason Miyares, a spokesman for McDonnell, said in a written statement that ‘The governor never asked or directed anyone … to assist Star Scientific in obtaining research funding from the Virginia Tobacco Fund. Also, the governor never told anyone at Star Scientific that he would try to help the company get funding from the tobacco commission.’”

If that’s true, we are left to ponder why someone like Williams might be inclined to make such a wonderful deal? Who are we to believe, Williams who forked over the dough or McDonnell who could be in very big trouble for taking it?

Well, he is the governor you know, that ought to count for something. Yeah, right. Maybe a reduced sentence. The big question is whether the indictment will come before he leaves office in January.

What's in a Flag-The Continuing Battle of Lost Causes

Perhaps Shakespeare said it best when he had Juliet considers a rose while thinking about her true love Romeo, whose family, Montague, were sworn enemies of her family, Capulet. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” she muses. But is that really true in blood feuds, or anything else for that matter?

Recently, a small group of people calling themselves the Virginia Flaggers raised the Confederate Battle Flag along Interstate 95 in Chester in what they say is support of their southern heritage. Whatever their belief about the battle flag, it has come to mean far more than States Right and Southern heritage. Due to organizations like the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nation, Skin Heads, and a broad variety other hate groups; the Confederate Battle Flag has now become even more a symbol of hatred and racism. A shame, really, since the flag design and the heritage it at one time seemed to espouse has now been contaminated.

In a way, it’s no different from the reason why some companies battle for copyright infringement. Coke ©, for one, has long since lost that battle as many people today consider virtually any cola flavored drink a coke. Even at restaurants, you can often here a waiter say, “Is Pepsi okay?” in response to someone asking for a coke.

And so it is with the Confederate Battle Flag. The symbol of a great and wonderful heritage has been hijacked and now stands equally or even more strongly in favor of hatred and racism. Sorry to those of you who don’t believe that’s the case, but it is. And I know my being from the North, the God-forsaken north; in some eyes I probably don’t have a right to make that statement. But only certain kinds of people overlook the obvious and rally around their fallen idol.

From a historic perspective, those people are well within their rights to espouse their Confederate heritage. History is history, and if we forget why our forebears fought and died then we have lost much. But aren’t there other ways to do so? Civil War enactments happen around the area with a startling regularity. Right here in the Tri-City area we live side-by-side with the history. Even some of our buildings continue to bear testimony to Civil War era artillery barrages.

In a recent Richmond Times-Dispatch article by Peter Bacque about the flag in Chester, Bacque said that more than 200 people attended the flag raising ceremony. The flag, which appears alongside I-95 but is somewhat hidden in the midst of a few small pine trees, stands in mute testament of whatever the people who see it perceive it to be. Unfortunately, the flag is incapable of telling passer’s by that it is there to support states’ rights, the Confederate heritage, or the bittersweet loss of life of those who died in battle fighting for what they held dear.

No. Looking at the Confederate Battle Flag a good number of the people passing by will pick up the other meanings of the Confederate Flag instead. You know the ones about hate and racism.

Those meanings exist and are just as legitimate as the ones about history and heritage and The Southern way of life. Unfortunately, just as Coke has lost its battle with copy right, the Confederate Battle Flag has lost its battle as the symbol of States’ Rights and Southern Heritage. In almost every sense today flying the Confederate Battle Flag is contentious.

Don’t think so? Well, it seems that even one of the group’s leaders, Susan Hathaway was quoted in the Times-Dispatch stating, “Richmond needed a reminder of her Confederate heritage.”

Richmond is the former Capital of the Confederacy. It is home to the Confederate History Museum. The city is surrounded by Civil War battle fields and was the main objective of U.S. General Grant and all others that attempted to subdue the South before him. It’s hard to believe that Richmond needs a lesson about its Civil War Heritage.

When I was teaching school one of my African-American students complained to me about a white student who was wearing a baseball cap with a Confederate Battle Flag patch on front. He said it bothered him because he felt it was a symbol of slavery, racism, and hatred and he wanted me to ask him not to wear his hat. What was I to say to him, a white male teacher? I said he probably was wearing it as a symbol of his Southern Heritage. My student was not convinced. Then I said, well if it means what you think it means, then wouldn’t you rather have him wearing it and know that or not wear it and not know what you think he believes?

People certainly have the right to support whatever symbols they wish to uphold. They just need to keep in mind that just because they feel one way about something doesn’t mean the rest of the world feels the same way. Over the past 150 years, the Confederate Battle Flag has come to mean a lot more than Southern Heritage and States’ Rights. The Confederate Battle Flag has its place in museums and civil war collections, but the negative baggage it has accumulated over the years makes it impossible to send a positive message when flown in the open. It says, Welcome to Chester, land of hate and racism.