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| MacGuffie-- CTPost |
The Republican Party in Connecticut might become a viable
alternative to the Democrat Party, inexorably sliding into post-Constitutional
irrelevance, if the GOP becomes an aggressive reform party. The state, caught
for decades in a progressive groove, is much in need of reform. Under GOP
auspices, necessary reform should involve a restoration, not a reformation, of
first principles.
The dominant Democrat Party in Connecticut now controls all
the state’s major large cities and has done so for decades. The U.S.
Congressional Delegation, once divided almost evenly between Democrats and
Republicans, has been for some time a Democrat Party preserve. All the
constitutional offices are filled by Democrats, and Democrats also have a
nearly veto-proof majority in the General Assembly.
The transition to a vibrant reform party will take a great
deal of courage but, as a famous or infamous, depending on one’s political
orientation, national politician said to those considering voting for him,
“What have you got to lose?”
Urban dwellers in Connecticut, treated for decades by state
Democrats as if they had dropped from a foreign planet, want what successful
suburban dwellers want. Their chief concerns are safe neighborhoods, not hoods
ruled by fear and criminal activity, sound public or private schools – a sound
school being one that regularly graduates literate students proficient in the
sciences -- politicians who can quickly grasp the nature of urban problems and
propose workable solutions that settle the problems for those living in large
cities rather than the political problems faced by politicians perpetually on
the hunt for votes. Talk is cheap – actually a form of cheap grace for
honey-tongued politicians loathed to adopt hard vote-costing measures to settle
urban problems -- right action is curative.
To mount a successful campaign against an insufferable
multi-decade status quo – the persistent urban poverty that followed President
Lyndon Johnson’s never ending “War on Poverty” initiated in 1964, the lack of
school choice, hoods dense with recidivist criminals, fatherless children who
savagely murder other fatherless children, and much more -- a reanimated GOP
must become “radical”, from the Latin radix or “root”, in the best sense of the
word. To go to the root of things is not a subversion of first principles. It
is just the opposite, a reestablishment of first principles.
And the first principle of good government is to make things
better, not worse, particularly in Connecticut’s politically damaged cities.
Bob
MacGuffie, a leader of the Tea Party movement and a stalwart
conservative, is running for the U.S. Congress this year against 4th
Congressional District Democrat political fixture Jim Himes, one of the
all-Democrat members in Connecticut’s U.S. Congressional Delegation.
In his public declarations, MacGuffie does not shy away from
commenting on urban problems. He points to reliable polls showing that “63% of
moderate minority working-class voters supported full police department
funding,” that “72% of moderate minority working-class voters say the Democrats
have moved 'too far left,’” that “70% of moderate minority working-class voters
said that sports participation should [correlate with] birth gender,” and that
“75% of moderate minority working-class voters support the continued use of
fossil fuels.”
Driving the data points home, MacGuffie concludes, “On each
of the above issues, Republicans embody the successful policy prescriptions,
and it is now clear those positions will resonate in the cities. This
insight is not lost on my campaign – it will in-fact, be an animating
spirit.
“Over his 14 years in congress, Jim Himes is repeatedly
on-the-record, on the wrong side of every one of these critical issues [emphasis
original]. Democrat Progressivism has failed our cities and needs to be
relegated to the proverbial ‘ash heap.’ The ‘structural statism’ imposed
and enforced by Democrat rule in our cities must end.”
And perhaps most importantly, “An emphasis on solid families
is another indispensable cornerstone in strengthening community. Welfare
programs need to be reoriented to motivate fathers to accept financial
responsibility and stay with their children. The law and related
regulations should promote, not deter the acceptance of family responsibilities
- any regulation not promoting these values will need to be changed.
Religious worship should be respected and encouraged as a stabilizing and
enriching element supporting all communities.”
Such cries are manna delivered to urbanites exiled for
decades in a powerless landscape stripped of human liberty overseen by a state
Democrat Party that for decades has imprisoned the urban poor in the equivalent
of a political Babylonian captivity.
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