Re: What is the role of a Political Party?

Here is a insightful post from a member of the community regarding the role of a political party. The original article can be accessed by clicking the title of this post.

Hello folks,

This has been a very interesting discussion.

I believe what's going on here is a battle between being "Republican" and being "party". One could say that a Republican fights to defend the constitution. Which would mean defending the public from the government since the constitution was expressly written to define what the federal government COULD do and therefore implicitly what it should not do.

Whereas a "party member" is someone who believes in the strength of the voting block and wishes to throw their hat in whenever the party leadership chooses to wield the power of the majority. Others are needed for success but the latter unfortunately attracts those who wish to control the party at the state or national level.

It is those at the state level that are disenfranchising the Ron Paul supporters by holding to the 10% rule illegally. Whatcom county is just caught up in the collateral damage of such a power play by the party 'elites' (as I'm sure they like to think of themselves). I believe the problem with the republican party is that is should be at least two parts Republican and one part party but they've got the mix backwards. And the ones that love to wield the power of the voting block don't want to give in to the liberty of the individual. That's not to say that individuals in the party aren't conservative, just that when conservatism meets partisanship they choose political power over principle even if it means supporting someone who is undeniably un-republican.

After all isn't it clearly more republican that representation of a precinct comes from the precinct? i.e. ANY SINGLE INDIVIDUAL within the precinct should have more authority over their own representation than ANYONE outside the precinct. Their election should be their own.

Now THAT's the way a republic should operate.

Elisabeth says,

Dear Commenter,

You have raised a number of issues that I would like to see discussed across the state.

Thank you for taking the time to comment!