The California Republican Assembly has often touted the quote attributed to Ronald Reagan that the CRA is the “conscience of the Republican Party”. But what happens when Republicans do the unconscionable? What happens when the California Republican Party throws Reagan under the bus?
Reagan often said that he never left the Democrat Party, they left him. Now the Republican Party has left Reagan too. So what do we do now? Do we stick with a suicidal Party that has blocked all grassroots access to the Party while consolidating all power at the top or tell them to kiss our grits? If the Log Cabin debacle is not the proverbial bridge too far then what is?
When Lincoln was President and in the era thereafter, the Episcopal Church was known as “the Republican Party at prayer”. The troubles in the Republican Party have finally reached the place that they mirror where the Episcopal Church has been for decades. Apostasy is rampant and the leadership has locked out the true believers. So like the proverbial frog in the pot do we get out of the boiling water or stay until we are turned to soup?
I, for one, tire of tilting at windmills or to quote the Kenny Rodgers song, “you got to know when to fold ‘em”. In this spirit, I have proposed that the CRA pass the resolution that appears below. My question to skeptics is, “if not now when?”
Resolution to Terminate Affiliation with California Republican Party
Whereas, the CRA is a grassroots Republican organization; and
Whereas, the CRA believes in the rule of law; and
Whereas, the CRA affirms the Judeo-Christian values upon which or country was founded, and
Whereas, the CRA is committed to promoting the values of life and traditional families; and
Whereas, the CRA has dedicated itself to promoting conservative candidates; and
Whereas, the California Republican Party is a top down organization that does not follow its own bylaws in matters of candidate endorsement and chartering of volunteer organizations; and
Whereas, the California Republican Party has insulated itself from any accountability to rank and file Republicans by abolishing Party Primaries and Central Committee elections and failing to implement any system of binding input from the millions of registered Republicans in the State; and
Whereas, the California Republican Party has betrayed the core principles of traditional family values as stated in its Party Platform, and
Whereas, in top two races, the California Republican Party requires the CRA to support their endorsed candidates even at the expense of supporting candidates better aligned with our stated principles; and
Whereas, this incongruity between the values of CRA and behavior of the California Republican Party has become so divergent as to be irreconcilable,
Therefore be it resolved that the California Republican Assembly hereby severe its association as a chartered volunteer organization of the California Republican Party.