The best way to save CR?
--posted by Tony Garcia on 5/08/2005
After spending a lot of time thinking, writing and analyzing the situation of the College Republicans I have realized that the group is in need of a drastic solution.
For a long time the Minnesota CR has been cancerous to the campus movement. The only thing that has matters to the MN CR is following blindly the orders handed down to them. If there is no orders then there is no action. They hold mock elections in an effort to appear legimate, but the truth is that they are as valid of a group as the local AFSCME group. Neither group can pursue any goal effectively and their members learn crooked, unethical methods of politics.
In fact, I would say that AFSCME is more effective than the MN CR (and AFSCME is the union that went on strike against the U of MN only to return to work with a worse contract).
Watching the double-talk that comes from College Republican officials across the country I have realized that my worst fears about the CR's is true: There is nothing redeeming about the group any longer and they in fact are a bigger hindrance to Republicans in general than the likes of John McCain, Jim Jeffords or Olympia Snowe.
Those who actually care about the conservative movement follow or joined the CR to advance those beliefs. They have without fail been met by people interested in only one thing: their own personal advancement. The disgusting part is that those seeking their own advancement will destroy the party to save their positions.
To Eric Hoplin (former MN CR Chair, current CRNC Chair and candidate for MN GOP Chair), Paul Gourley (candidate for CRNC Chair), Kristen Meyer (former U of MN CR Chair) and the CR vETS for "Truth" I have this to say. At least Nixon resigned!
The most scandalous President of the US knew when further entrenchment would be a detriment to the very group that he sought to lead. Nixon resigned.
Right thinking Republicans also did the right thing before that: they tried to right the ship and when they realized that the Titanic was sinking they got in the lifeboats to allow them to sail another day.
It is time for CRs who fight for something more than their own glory to take action. It is time for Republicans who are tired of the perpetual crap from the CR leadership.
Leave the College Republicans. Resign your membership, quit giving the various groups money, offer your sweat and labor to a group that advances your beliefs...give it all to a candidate directly instead. Give it to the party directly. Quit holding up the Amtrak of the GOP...quit holding up the CR.
Like the NAACP or the NOW, the CR have long outlived their original intentions and now only breed malcontent, now only turn out vile people. I have never met a CR leader that was respectable. I have yet to meet a CR leader that I would trust further than the next Democrat. I have yet to meet an honest CR leader. So what is the CR (at any level or location) really doing?
Nothing good.
Quit them and quit supporting them. Let them wither away and then rebuild it...this will be better for the Right than keeping the current incarnation of the broken group.
If you are a regular reader of this blog then you already know the problems that are indemic to the group. What possible good can come of letting them exist?
2 Comments:
Your point is certainly well-taken, but I wuld ask, just how many CR leaders have you met outside Minnesota?
You shouldn't pin the lack of ethics of the current bunch in DC on everyone else.
And while your Nixon point is still valid, Grant and Harding were far more scandalous.
I have personally met, admittedly, only leaders from Minnesota. I have had online conversations with only a couple non-Minnesotans.
You are correct, I should not "pin the lack of ethics...on everyone else". However, it is fair to say that Hoplin has a history of top-down ruling and I have witnessed his tendency to install subordinates and successors who will do exactly as he says and rule exactly as he does.
Every MN CR Chair and every U of MN CR Chair since has fit that mold. Gourley fits that mold. It is fair to say that the default assumption should be that a leader under Hoplin's jurisdiction is one that follows his ethics (or lack thereof).
Scott, I know you are standing up against the Hoplin-ites and I commend you...you will be blacklisted as Hoplin-ite opponents are in Minnesota. But you are a minority amongst CR leaders. Keep up the good work and maybe us good guys can fix the long broken CR top-down-ruling system.
BTW, unless I hear otherwise from you I will put your blog on my blogroll.
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