IrishRep's blog

With President-Elect Obama about to become President Obama I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the end of President George W. Bush’s time in office.  I do not want to reflect on his policies or his legacy; but, better yet the way people better Democrats have shown us how not to treat the person that holds the highest office in the land.  Over the past five years and especially during President Bush’s second term we have seen the President be ridiculed and downright disrespected. 

This disrespect was rarely geared towards his policies; but, more towards the individual.  Over the past four years you have heard the President be called a war monger, a fascist, a racist (thanks Kanye West), an idiot, and my personal favorite phrase “I am smarter than he is”.  Even now in the final days of his presidency there is an article in the Rolling Stone saying how the end cannot come quick enough.

That brings me to the point of how we as Republicans should treat President Obama.  We should treat him with respect and we should respect the office that he holds.  The office of the President has been slandered by so many over the past few years and we should not make the same mistake.

Now, I will bring this full circle.  We should all watch President Obama and make sure that when he does something that we disagree with we voice our opinions loud and clear.  We should make it known that we disagree with card check, the bail outs, the fairness doctrine, tax hikes, and anything else that should come along that we disagree with.  But, we should never slander the man or the office that he holds. 

We are better than that.

So, say a pray for him (he will need it) and then get ready to work against him in 2012. 

 I think that there a purge that is occurring within the Republican Party.  I want to go over how I have seen this occur.  Voters gave us our shot at governing the country beginning in 1994.  

And, for a time we had it right.  When we fought for what we believed in and that was smaller government (it is why I am a Republican).  We were a party that fought to instill a sense of ownership in our communities.  Our party fought for the right to let people to decide what was best for themselves and not have government make those decisions (lower taxes more fiscal responsibility).  There was a sense that the government needed to be reigned in and brought under control.

Then came 2000 and President Bush was elected.  The party gained control of the House, the Senate and the White with the elections of 2002 and we became engulfed with power.  We were like looters.  We broke open the piggy bank and didn’t look back. 

The Republican Party made government bigger.  We spent and spent and spent and ran the national debt through the roof.  With the power came corruption and the good old boys felt like they could do whatever they wanted.  Then came 2006.  This was the first bloodletting of the party and it began with the likes of Tom Delay who were sent packing.  Along with him were members from the class of 1994 who had broke the Contract with America.  Now we are seeing the final phase of this bloodletting or purge of the party.  I think it is a good thing.

I believe that it is a good thing because the party lost its way.  If we want to have this party get back to what it once was and to give its policy’s credibility again those who have led us astray all need to go.  Those that are entrenched into the upper echelon of the party need to be booted.  There needs to be fresh minds and fresh leadership brought in.  They should all have one common theme.  The belief that the fundamentals of the Republican Party such as less government and fiscal responsibility are still valued by the American people they just don’t see us practicing or representing those values anymore.

There needs to an influx of new people into the party.  This should be the main focus of whoever becomes the head of the RNC after this election.  There needs to be a new direction for the party and the Chairman is the person that can do this.  Candidate recruitment should be a top priority.  We should actively seek out and recruit people to run for congress.  The party needs to be rebuilt and it will come on the heels of a government  that is going to enact policies that this country has never seen before (Obama Presidency assumed).  The party can have relevance.  We just need to give the American people a reason to trust us again.  That comes by redefining who we are by reorganizing the leadership of the party. 

- A fight for reform within the Republican Party.