One of my favorite movie scenes is where, in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the death cart comes out with the worker chanting “Bring Out Your Dead”. And then a man brings out an old relative, with the old relative screaming “I’m Not Dead”.
Contrary to what some are saying, the Virginia GOP is – not quite yet dead. We have problems and we need to fix them at both the state and local levels. We need to be figuring out how to bring in new voters, and explain to them what Life Liberty and Limited Government mean. We need to be expanding our party and working with people – not removing them when they disagree with us.
First off, we have to not be afraid of having open nomination contests. These coronations don’t let everyone see who the best nominee would be. Coronations of one person over another don’t let us see who will fight hardest for our values. I personally prefer party run processes over state party methods, because party run processes show organizational strength. Glenn Youngkin won in 2021 largely because we had an open air convention (COVID) rather than a state run primary. In a large field, Governor Youngkin was able to get to 50% +1 so that everyone could see that Glenn Youngkin was favored by a majority of Republican voters in Virginia.
This is why the 6th Congressional District is leading a lawsuit against Helmer’s Law, which de facto restricted political parties to only having state run primaries as their method of nomination. Aka whoever has the most money usually wins. Not who has the most organizational strength or who is the best candidate.
We need to get back in touch with our grass roots and speak to the average person who is sick and tired of what the modern day Democrat Party now espouses. We need candidates who are not afraid of engaging voters. John Reid was exceptionally good at engaging voters and talking to them on a level they could understand. And while John Reid was not a great fundraiser, he did better than the top of the ticket. We need to make sure long term that Trump voters stay engaged long term – and to ensure that our people understand the danger of Democrat policies.
We also need an engaged and energetic RPV, not one who is just there to have a job title and who doesn’t want to do the hard work that is needed to get our Party fixed and get our people elected again. We have too many on State Central who are more interested in settling scores with rivals rather than getting our people elected. Too many who don’t want to put in the hard work to get our people elected.
I wish my friend Senator Mark Peake well and God speed. He did his best after having been put in a near ridiculous place. For the record, I was running for his spot. Governor Youngkin endorsed Mark and I saw the writing on the wall and backed out. Mr. Peake is not deserving of the scorn he is currently receiving. That scorn would be better placed on others in RPV who won’t do their jobs and a few rather dishonest campaign consultants who gave our ticket news they wanted to hear instead of news they needed to hear.
We will be wandering in the wilderness for a few years. But we are not dead. We movement conservatives have a future. But we must stay involved – we must stay engaged. And we must come up with a positive agenda for why our vision is best for Virginia.
8 comments
John you know the lawsuits against Helmer’s law are dead. Stop pushing that nonsense. The Lynchburg lawsuit was dismissed. Your substantially similar lawsuit doesn’t even get a hearing until next August. It will be dismissed too.
” Stop pushing that nonsense. ”
When nonsense is all you have, it’s all you have.
rump slept through significant portions of the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, including when Secretary of State Marco Rubio was speaking directly to Trump from three feet away. For Trump, the naps represented his peak performance at the meeting. It was downhill from there. Among many lies, slurs, and gaffes, Trump said the following:
The “affordability crisis” is a “scam” created by Democrats, and “no one knows what the word means.”
Somali immigrants are “garbage,” and “I don’t want them in our country, I’ll be honest with you…their country is no good for a reason . . . and [our country] could go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country.”
Prescription drug prices have dropped 500–900% [Note: this is a mathematical impossibility];
“Every boat that you see get blown up, we save 25,000, on average, lives;” [Another mathematical impossibility; the US has destroyed 21 boats, which would imply 525,000 lives “saved” in 3 months per Trump’s math, but the US experienced 87,000 fentanyl deaths last year], and
“I didn’t know about the second strike [on the alleged drug boat] . . . . I wasn’t involved in it. . . . because I rely on Pete.”
Trump’s inability to remain awake during a Cabinet meeting is likely due to multiple factors, including age, deteriorating mental condition, and lack of sleep. The latter point is not conjecture. During the late night and early morning hours preceding the Cabinet meeting, Trump posted 160 crazed statements on social media.
As described by Alternet, (‘What’s going on?’ Trump posts ‘hundreds’ of times an hour in overnight Truth Social spree):
His posts included deranged claims that Michelle Obama ‘controlled Biden’s autopen’ and that Biden’s executive orders were really done by Michelle Obama. Trump posted an AI video claiming Nicolás Maduro surrendered to him and that Trump was now controlling Venezuela, and that Maduro admitted Tren de Aragua confessed [that former President Joe] Biden was the leader of their cartel. Trump made posts saying Canada was involved in election rigging. He made bizarre posts about Obama’s weekly ‘kill list.’
We would welcome John as the new Chair of the RPV!
YES !
John YES — “We will be wandering in the wilderness for a few years. But we are not dead. We movement conservatives have a future. But we must stay involved – we must stay engaged. And we must come up with a positive agenda for why our vision is best for Virginia. “
“. . . we must come up with a positive agenda for why our vision is best for Virginia”
Well, you tried the nonsense about “boys in girls’ bathrooms” and “boys in girls’ sports” and none of that worked. You have nothing else as long as you are tied to Trump.
Frankly, we need to do what Charlie Kirk did and encourage our college kids to become Republicans. They seem to be overly influenced by the ideas of socialism and don’t really understand that capitalism is freedom to prosper.