Are you a Republican who's lookin for a fight?
A good, old-fashioned grapple?
Is that what you want?
If so, you came to the right place. We're on.
We can fight over trade, national defense, security, immigration, the border wall, taxes and regulation, the future of NATO, America's relationship with our allies, foreign aid -- a whole host of issues.
And we can thrash it out -- all of it.
Let's have the fight. C'mon!
And let's battle it out amongst ourselves.
In the process, we'll decide the future of the Republican Party. Now, that's something worth fighting for, right? But let's start by agreeing on this: In this fight, we will also decide the future of our country and the results of the fight will have real ramifications for everyday America. This fight will have genuine consequences.
Why?
Because we're gonna begin the fight on January 20, 2017 with a Republican President, a Republican House and a Republican Senate. That's right -- we're gonna fight amongst ourselves but we will do so in a way that really gets something done -- that determines our priorities and our actions based on the broad principles of our party. That's the kind of fight we ought to be having -- a debate among people who really control something, who really have some power, who are really able to make things happen.
You wanna fight?
Then, why fight now over lesser matters? The future of the party? Is that what you wanna fight about? Do you want to destroy the party to save it? Is that what you want? Maybe you think that the only way to accomplish anything is by struggling to rise from your own ashes. That scorched earth approach is a damned stupid way to go about it, if you ask me.
In 1964, those who did not like the party's nominee effectively destroyed the Republican Party of that time so that (as they saw it) they could be the ones who got to rebuild the party after the debacle of the election.
Well, they succeeded in the first part. The GOP lost big time.
But the disgruntled ones, those who destroyed the party, were not the ones who got to rebuild it. The Romneys, the Rockefellers, the Scrantons and others who refused to embrace the party's standard-bearer, Barry Goldwater, were not the ones who got to rebuild the party after Goldwater was crushed in November. Instead, Nixon and Reagan and others who supported Goldwater and campaigned for him picked up the pieces, crafted a new road for the party and forged a path to victory. And Nixon and Reagan became the next two GOP presidents. And the new GOP was way more like Goldwater than it was like the intransigents who refused to back Goldwater. In fact, Barry had the last laugh.
Today's GOP malcontents ought to remember that lesson from history. Our future leaders in battle are not likely to be those who abandoned us at a critical hour. It's just common sense.
And, if we destroy the party now and cede power, losing Congress and the presidency, there will be nothing to fight about on January 20 because the Democrats will have it all and they will have no reason to even discuss things with the GOP let alone compromise. We will be in the wilderness. Imagine!
And don;t say it will only be for four years because that's what they said about Obama when he won in 2008 and look what happened!
But why even go there?
This is a stupid fight that we should not be having now because it can have no good, positive or productive end. If we achieve no advance, no power from it, it's really a fight over nothing, leading nowhere.
But a fight with real consequences, carried out in the corridors of power solely among Republicans and with a proven deal-maker at the helm?
Now, that's a fight worth having and (even if some of us have to compromise a bit) it's a fight that can result in real, positive change for Americans.
C'mon!
Let's unite for the fight, 1/20/17!
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