President Abraham Lincoln — the founding president of the Republican party — went through a series of loser “gentlemen” as generals of his army. They did not know how to win. They were acceptable in polite society. But the North was losing the war. Lincoln did not need officers who could sport their fine uniforms in society balls hundreds of miles behind the front. He needed warriors with killer instincts on the front lines.
Then Lincoln chose Ulysses S. Grant. Grant was known as a drunkard, rude, crude, and undignified. (Historians, it’s the reputation that counts, relating apples to apples, not what we can prove today.) Gen. Grant, a high-functioning alcoholic, was said to sometimes even ride into battle on his horse sauced. At the ladies’ ball, Ulysses would simply not do.
When polite society complained to Lincoln about Grant’s ungentlemanly demeanor and uncultured behavior, totally inappropriate and unacceptable, the first Republican President answered: “But can you tell me where he gets his whiskey? Because, if I can only find out, I will send a barrel of this wonderful whiskey to every general in the army.”
Republican Lincoln was a great leader because he comprehended the difference between results and style. Unlike the stupidity of Never Trumpers, Lincoln understood that superficial imperfections just don’t matter. It’s results that count, not whether your hair is perfectly combed. Today, Republican losers are addicted to prancing around as dandies in expensive suits and beautiful hair while the country goes to hell all around them.
Republicans have been losing elections because they long ago stopped caring about results that help the lives of real Virginians. And the ultimate sin in politics is fooling yourself into thinking the voters don’t notice. The voters know you don’t give a damn about them.
I have forwarded to Republicans in the General Assembly many specific problems in the law that hurt real people, with simple, exact language to tweak the statutes. Nobody cares. Little things that would be easy to fix fall on deaf ears. So the voters are willing to give the Democrats another try, if only to blast complacent, self-indulgent politicians out of their comfort zones.
On D-Day, we did not send Virginia “gentlemen” wearing bow ties and light Summer suits onto the beaches as the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy. We sent in trained killers. Famously, 34 boys from Bedford, Virginia, including many brothers, stormed into the teeth of machine gunfire. Within 15 minutes, 19 were dead and 4 more were killed throughout that day.
Back home, other men grew up to be dandies prancing around in expensive suits with calm voices. That’s because the “gentlemen” think it’s all just a game.
Virginia’s Republicans don’t actually bring a knife to a gun fight. We bring a house gift tied with a nice bow. We bring “nice” to a gun fight. As long as we are “nice” maybe the Democrats won’t shoot us with those M-60 machine guns, mortars, and hand grenades they brought to the fight.
Virginia’s GOP must kick the “gentlemen” out of the party. The “gentlemen” have been destroying the GOP, and thereby destroying the Commonwealth and destroying the nation for decades.
REVELATIONS 3: 15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”
President Harry Truman was rough, abrupt, in your face, and no-nonsense. You wouldn’t invite Truman to a Richmond, Virginia garden party. Truman was the Donald Trump of his day. You wouldn’t have Teddy Roosevelt over to a high-society charity ball. The ladies would faint.
Winston Churchill was rude, crude, gruff, cranky, and a heavy drinker. For those who don’t like Donald Trump’s style, Churchill was much, much “worse” in terms of being rough around the edges. But it took a Churchill to win World War II.
We all know the famous quote when a lady complained to Churchill in a public event: “You’re drunk!” Churchill answered that in the morning he would be sober but the woman would still be ugly (which does not mean she was, you understand). So you think Trump is a Meanie? Frankly, my dear, we don’t give a damn.
But why can’t we have both an effective leader who is a gentleman? Because you can’t. We are hiring politicians to make whips and whip the corrupt traders in the temple courts, throw over their tables, and drive them out of the temple courts. Yeah, Jesus whipped people. Christianity is not about being “nice.” Jesus called religious leaders “white-washed tombs,” meaning filled with rotting bodies and disease. John the Baptist called them “you brood of vipers.”
Virginia Republicans have a hobbyist mentality. Elections are just a hobby. The Democrats are an army of vicious killers. We are thinking about planning the annual picnic and the Lincoln Day Dinner.
As Christine O’Donnell exclaimed to me in 2006 in total exasperation, complaining about Delaware’s version of the same problem, “They no longer care about winning! They just want to look good losing!”
There is only one thing the dandies of Virginia’s Republicans care about: Attacking other Republicans. When real conservatives actually care about the voters, they make the fakes look bad. The status quo must be preserved even as the people of the Commonwealth suffer.
Since the establishment sabotaged the Republican nominee Oliver North in 1994, Virginia elections have been like this: Two teams in the Super Bowl go out on the field. Football team “D” fights united like a well-oiled machine. Team “R” immediately starts to attack each other and tackle each other to the ground. Whom do you expect to win?
The Virginia establishment ran Marshall Coleman as a spoiler, an independent, in the general election to ensure the defeat of the nominee of the Republican voters. They have been at war with grassroots conservatives ever since. And somehow they expect to win elections.
