To the Republicans of the 113th United States Congress:
Esteemed ladies and gentlemen, my name is John Ryan McGehee, and I am a sustaining member of the Republican National Committee.
Like many of you, I believe in small government, low, if not the outright elimination of income taxes, the right to keep and bear arms and a strong defense. I champion the God-given liberties of the individual over the tyranny of the majority.
After the debacle that was the government shutdown, many in our party, myself included, are concerned about the direction the Republican Party is taking at the national level.
I have to ask, have you all lost your minds? No, seriously, I am legitimately concerned about the mental state of Republicans on Capitol Hill.
When the shutdown began, there was a chance to have a real debate on the United States debt and budget problems quickly devolved into a shouting match with the Democrats over defunding Obamacare.
In case you have not noticed, we do not have the votes in the Senate to do that yet, and even then, we’re a touch shy of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto.
And no, letting a budget pass that funds Obamacare does not imply that you want it. Think of it simply as allowing the American people to see just what happens when they elect radical leftists to office.
Obamacare’s rollout has been an unadulterated disaster and will continue to hurt Americans by forcing many into part-time work, instituting new taxes on businesses and forcing individuals like me to pray for a decent job market by the time we are 26 or face a “tax” for not being able to afford health insurance.
However, your little display of rage took everyone’s attention off the rollout and placed it upon yourselves, where the media was able to make you all look like a bunch of jerks.
I’m thankful that the various state chapters of the party have their act together. Republicans currently have control of 30 governorships and 27 state houses.
Here in Louisiana, we have a two-term Republican governor, solid majorities in both houses of the legislature and we are poised to gain even more ground. What’s more, we are on the verge of finally voting Senator Mary Landrieu out of office, Louisiana’s last liberal standing.
We are able to find success here because the voters respond to conservative principles that are applied pragmatically. They’re able to see the positive effects of pro-business, small government policies.
Your focus needs to be gaining as much ground in the Senate in 2014 as you can. We can win a majority, but only if we remain a united front and effectively counter any spin the Democrats or the media try to put out to the voters.
If this whole moderate versus Tea Party fiasco happens again, we will not have any sort of Senate victory in the midterms, and we will lose ground in the House.
To the Tea Party Republicans, I say this: bide your time. You do not have the votes to get any of your initiatives on the table, namely defunding Obamacare. Your principles should not be a suicide pact that threatens to destroy the only viable vehicle for constitutional conservatism in D.C.
To the moderates, don’t always capitulate at the first sign of trouble. This could have been the time to not raise the debt ceiling and show that we have enough revenue per month to pay the interest on our debt and continue to fund important expenditures like Social Security, Medicare and defense. Instead, you panicked at the last minute and gave the Democrats everything they wanted, wasting an opportunity for a forced balanced budget.
In short, get it together. You got embarrassed in 2012, and your focus needs to be figuring out what the hell went wrong, not dividing the party and letting those left make you look like a bunch of asses.