February 7, 2014
Memo to Conservatives: Republicans Aren't Your Friends
By Matthew Vadum

One of the reasons the national Republican Party is such a mess is because Republicans are far too reluctant to criticize their own.
Republicans are nice people.

Too many Republicans think it's wrong to criticize other Republicans.

This failure to be forthright has had consequences. It has allowed the Republican Party to take up political space it has no business occupying as it embraces left-wing statist tyranny. Much of the time, the GOP is merely Democrat-lite.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) are so dangerously out of touch and out of control nowadays in part because other Republicans have allowed them to get that way. Boehner and McConnell regard conservatives as a nuisance to be overcome, co-opted, subverted, and if necessary, eliminated.
A new way of thinking is required.

For a start, if you self-identify as a Republican and you are serious about restoring the Constitution, shrinking the government, and reducing government spending, it is wrong to think of other Republican Party members as necessarily being your friends.
A political party isn't a club or a sacred religious order. It isn't a brotherhood or fraternity. The other people in the party aren't necessarily your friends, or even people you'd feel comfortable lending your lawnmower

Here is wisdom: if you, as a Republican, remain true to small-government principles, many of your worst enemies will be found in your own party, and they are likely to be much more vicious, petty, vindictive, and malicious than most of your adversaries on the left. Intra-party squabbles and in-fighting are among the most brutal of all political conflicts in America.
It is important to remember that a political party like the GOP is not a cause in and of itself. It is merely a means to an end.

Although the Republican Party has a glorious history that should be celebrated, the modern party infrastructure and establishment are not something to get sentimental about.

The GOP is akin to an army, or more precisely an alliance of armies, large and small, and an ocean of independent actors who come together to fight a common enemy.

It consists of people who presumably have roughly the same view of society, how the world works, and how to make things better. They don't agree on everything and can be bitter foes on specific issues. Alliances are by their nature fractious.

And people shouldn't feel obligated to do what party leaders want them to do. GOP leaders are not infallible.

They're no smarter or more honest than grassroots GOP activists -- and in many cases, they are less intelligent and less honest than rank-and-file party supporters.
You owe party leaders your loyalty no more than a rabbit owes its loyalty to a hungry snake.

Read more:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/02/m...l#ixzz2sgxy0tMv