Get Real, Mr. Steele

I’m coming up on a birthday, and let’s just say I’m approaching full Geezerhood. Certainly I am well into my ‘curmudgeon’ years. My point is that as much as I’d like to buy into the belief that the Donk Party is about to implode and give the Congress back to rational adults, I have too much experience with Republicans at the Give-Orders-Don’t-Learn level to expect them to suddenly live up to their promises and hype. The GOP, after all, is the party which figured John McCain was our best candidate for President in 2008, which couldn’t decide whether President Bush should be supported or deserted during his terms in office, which had the stones to impeach President Clinton for clear felonies committed while in office, but not to actually convict him, that figured Bob Dole was as good as they needed to do in 1996 ... you get the idea. The only reason I can stand the Republican Party at all, is because the Democrats are much worse.

So, I get this letter today from Michael Steele. A form letter, of course, no one high up in politics pays any attention to me, and he wants money of course … subtle man, he only asked for money … let me count it up here … NINE times in the letter. What strikes me as odd, being an accountant, is that the man never actually says why he should get money from me. Oh sure, he has a lot to say about Obama and the Democrats, but that’s not telling me why giving the RNC money is a good idea. I look back at the past and what the GOP has done with money which I and other Conservatives have paid in, and well sir, I can’t say as I am impressed with the RNC’s track record. Accountable, they are not. Trustworthy, not so much. That is, I figure it makes more sense for me to decide on a candidate I like, send him or her my donation, and Mr. Steele can go on TV shows and earn his money instead of playing political evangelist – all hype and no solid answers – to con me into sending him money just because he plays up the fear of Donkeystein.

The letter bugs me, as well. I opened it because it is headlined, in big bold letters that were visible through a clear section of the envelope, 2010 CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT SURVEY. OK, I think to myself, I have ideas and concerns for my district, let’s see what they’re asking. Turns out the title is dishonest – there’s sixteen questions in there, not counting #17 which – again – asks for money as if we can return sanity to D.C. by simply spending enough money. Somehow that scheme is familiar, but it didn’t sound like a good game plan the first several times I heard it, either. Anyway, not one of those 16 questions had anything to do with my specific Congressional District, and yes Mr. Steele that makes you a liar. I don’t like liars and you can’t pretend this letter reflects well on your or the RNC.

What else bugs me, is the content of those sixteen questions. I won’t copy them all here, since just reading them hurts my brain cells to think that anyone could think they are serious in asking them, but here’s a few to give you an idea of what they asked:

2. Should Republicans fight congressional Democrats’ efforts to grant full unconditional amnesty to illegal immigrants?
4. Do you believe that the federal government should maintain a permanent ownership stake in large auto companies?
15. Do you believe that this nation’s Founding Fathers intended for the federal government to micro-manage state and local functions such as healthcare, child care, and unemployment assistance?

The whole thing was like that, questions I could not believe that the RNC did not know its position on, or which they seriously intended to tabulate as a feedback source on their issue targeting. The questionnaire was clearly intended to play on emotion rather than reason, and that’s something despicable to me. The RNC clearly has no interest in the key issues I care about, and I notice there was no place for me to write down my concerns or thoughts. It was all about them, getting money and pushing buttons, not about them working for the people they claim to represent.

If Mr. Steele and the RNC really want to win this November, they had better stop playing these tired old games and grow up. The TEA parties are not anti-Democrat, they’re anti-arrogance. People are not so much fed up with one political party, as they are with being liked to and ignored. A real Congress works for the people, so they’d better stop acting like they own us. We are strong Republicans and Conservatives. We are not, however, fools or morons.