With it looking likely than Mitt Romney will be the GOP candidate for 2012 many conservatives will be struggling with what they will do in November. The portents for the GOP are not looking promising if the polling from Virginia, a must win state for Romney, are correct.
For a conservative candidate representing the obscure Constitution Party to be polling at 10% in Va. spells disaster for Romney. If this result is even close to current polling, which has Romney 12 points behind Obama, on election day, then Republicans might as well turn off their televisions an hour after the polls close.
It is instructive to look into the mind of a true conservative to see what agonies of perplexity the Romney candidacy has brought. When has a nominee had such resistance, when has a nominee caused such soul searching, how can such a candidate inspire the massive get out the vote campaign that will be required to even have a chance?
Mary Beth House, an editor on the Conservatives4Palin site is an excellent example of the tremendous challenges to conservatives that Romney brings. House does not state she will vote for Romney, she does not even say she will endorse him-the latter depending on a conservative shopping list (much as Santorum is looking for). She does agree that defeating President Obama is crucial for the future of the Republic-how to go about that is the question.
Reproduced below, with the kind permission of M.B. House and her fellow editors is her cri de coeur, I am sure that many thousands of conservatives are wresting with the same anxieties. By further presenting this outstanding work I hope that I serves to give solace for those who thought they were struggling alone and helps to point a way forwards.
For myself I have no conflicts whatsoever. I will vote down ticket and will never vote for Romney, no matter who endorses him, and even in the unlikely event he chose Palin as VP-nor any RINO ever again.
Here is the Mary Beth House presentation.
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The Official C4P 2012 Presidential Endorsement
“The Official C4P 2012 Presidential Endorsement”?
I
jest, of course.
As
is typical in all corners of society, the opinions of the editors and
contributors at C4P vary like the varieties of coffee available at
your local Starbucks.
The
one thing we’re unified on…the one thing I can claim as the
official C4P response with absolute certainty…is that none of us
want to see Barack Obama re-elected this November.
After
that, positions diverge and truly from there on out, I can only speak
for myself.
A
few years ago, it became quite clear to anyone who was even the
slightest bit aware that the GOPe wanted Mitt to be the nominee.
It’s not even a matter of opinion. Various representatives
put it out there whenever asked.
I’d
like to share with you my feelings on that; but as it turns out, the
use of profanity apparently frowned upon by the other editors.
Suffice it to say, I was not thrilled with the idea.
But
then back then, I was still certain that the 2012 GOP primary would
end up between Mandate Mitt and a certain Warrior from the 49th
state.
After
Palin announced on October 5th that she wasn’t going to run, I
started to consider the real possibility that Mittens might end up as
the nominee. Thankfully I was able to control my gag reflex
before I made a big mess over my keyboard.
All
humor aside, however, I was posed with a very serious dilemma.
At
various times over the past few years, Governor Palin has discussed
what we need in a nominee. In her piece, “Cannibals
in the GOP Establishment Employ Tactics of the Left,”
Palin wrote the following:
As I said in my speech in Iowa last September, the challenge of this election is not simply to replace President Obama. The real challenge is who and what we will replace him with. It’s not enough to just change up the uniform. If we don’t change the team and the game plan, we won’t save our country.We truly need sudden and relentless reform in Washington to defend ourrepublic, though it’s becoming clearer that the old guard wants anything but that.
As
you can see, this isn’t a matter of preference. This
is a matter of survival.
Our freedoms, our liberty, our financial security all hinge upon
sending the right people to serve in elective office: People
with a servant’s heart and with a reformer’s steel spine and
ironclad resolve.
Taking
what Governor Palin said above a step further, it’s becoming
clearer that the old guard not only is uninterested in engineering
the sudden and relentless reform we need, they are in fact the very
body where such reform is needed now more than ever. As the
only viable machine to take on and defeat the left, the GOP is our
last political line of defense against the regressives and their
ceaseless march to redistribute power from the people and centralize
it in Washington DC. But that machine has become so corrupt
that those in power have forgotten the purpose and the foundational
planks of the party and the people they represent.
What
we saw was the GOPe actively campaigning against, smearing and
generally carpet bombing anyone who posed a threat to their chosen.
Anyone who would upset their applecart. Anyone who threatened
the gravytrain of money, power and influence. Reformers are
shunned, despised and rejected on sight.
So
where does that leave us? Where does that leave me?
For
the last several years, we’ve been subjected to the endless
drumbeat of inevitability for Mandate Mitt. “He’s the only
one who can defeat Obama!” was the cry. We never got any real
specifics as to what makes Mitt so special in this regard, only that
we’re idiots if we think a “far right extremist” like Governor
Palin, who you know, actually has a record of real reform and a
strong adherence to the Constitutional limitations placed on
government as well as a deep, abiding drive to defend and protect the
rights of the people she served, had a chance at all.
For
the GOPe, their agenda is clear: Acquire and maintain power and
control by any means necessary. Principles and values are great
talking points when dealing with the little people but in the
end…nothing matters beyond regaining and retaining access to the
power brokers and the money machines.
As
such, they have no interest in real reform, only projecting the
illusion of it to the gullible. They’ll say some of the right
things, but in the end they’ll only “manage the decay” as
former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich intoned.
Back
in December, radio genius, icon and legend Mark Levin asked
rhetorically why Mitty wasted so much money to destroy fellow
Republicans. Why didn’t he and his campaign work on building
bridges with conservatives and making the case for why he was the
best choice? The answer then is as clear to me now as it was
then. They don’t care about wooing conservatives. I said back
then that the only case they’ll make to conservatives is, “If you
don’t vote for Willard, you’ll get Obama.”
At
the same time, Governor Palin is absolutely correct.
Our Republic cannot
survive another 4 years of this President.
But
you see, this is where I hit a brick wall. I know too much
about Mitt. I know too much about the corrupt machine that did
everything it could to make sure he would be the nominee. I
know what a liar he is. How phony he is. How he’ll say
whatever people want to hear in order to get them to support him.
I know how his operatives smear and degrade in order to make their
guy seem better in comparison or, as was the case throughout the
primary, to dishearten, discourage and dissuade those who supported
other candidates.
So
how can I endorse that? He’s part of the problem! He’s
a part of the very machine we as conservatives are dedicated to
dismantling! As it is, I’m going to have to work up the nerve
to pull the lever for him much less publicly endorse him.
Theoretically
speaking, if I endorse him, I’m tied down to every idiotic
non-conservative utterance he makes. But forget about me as an
individual and consider the movement as a whole.
Conservatives. The Tea Party. The reformers. Even
now, some folks in these groups are straining to find ways of calling
Mitt a conservative.
Let
me just save you some time. He’s not a conservative.
He’s a liberal progressive with an R next to his name. Every
time people try to make the case that he’s a conservative, they
water down the meaning of the word.
In
Mitten’s plus column, he’s not Obama. But in some ways,
he’s more dangerous because the policies and ideas he forwards will
be under the Republican banner, thus lulling conservatives into a
state of complacency. The hazard is that people will believe
the job is done, the danger is passed and the sleeping giant can
return to its slumber. Nothing could be further from the
truth. If he should win in November by some miracle, we have to
be even more vigilant, not less!
The
GOPe want nothing more than for the reform movement to die so that
they can go back to business as usual. We
must NOT allow this to happen.
And
so, I cannot in good conscience endorse Mitt Romney for President.
What
I can do, however, is endorse Constitutional Conservatism because
that is the only thing that will save us. These time-tested,
proven principles of our founding are the only thing that can bring
us back from the brink.
I
can encourage people to donate to, volunteer for and generally
support reform
conservatives who are running at all levels of government.
I
can support and defend conservatives who are under siege by the left
for taking a bold stance on reform, such as Governor
Walker and Lt. Gov. Kleefisch of Wisconsin.
I
can discuss why we cannot allow Obama to win in November. In
fact, I’ll follow Mitt’s lead on this one. Just like Mitt
never really made the case for himself during the primaries but
instead focused on destroying his opponents, I will do all I can to
highlight why Obama is the worst President our Republic has
ever had the misfortune of electing. How dangerous his agenda is.
How disastrous his policies are.
But
by not endorsing Romney, I’m allowing myself some wiggle room.
If he makes good decisions, chooses a good, solid reformer for his
running mate and updates his agenda to include the kind of massive
reform we need, I will praise him for it. But I will not be
bound by the non-conservative, bone-headed things he says. I
will call him out on them.
I
believe it is imperative that conservatives not be cowed into
silence. We must be bold and continue to promote what
works and challenge what doesn’t work, regardless of who’s
promoting it…even if that person is the GOP nominee.
We
must not be concerned with how we’ll be treated either.
If Mitt wins, the GOPe will say it’s in spite of us. If Mitt
loses (as I suspect will happen), we’ll be blamed for the loss
because we weren’t appropriately enthusiastic about Captain
Etch-a-Sketch. But then, we
were blamed for 2008 too, weren’t we? Even
though countless people, including perennial hack Steve Schmidt
begrudgingly admitted what the data proved…that Governor Palin’s
involvement in the 2008 campaign ensured a greater turnout than
McCain would have had otherwise and that without her and those who
got engaged in the race because of her, McCain would have lost by
significantly more.
Suffice
it to say, I don’t take a stand based on what either the left or
the GOPe will think of me for doing so.
One
final note. This isn’t sour grapes; and it’s extremely
important for the Mitt supporters to understand this. Yes, when
Governor Palin announced she wasn’t running, I eventually
gravitated to Newt. And yes, I am bummed that he wasn’t able
to succeed. And yes, I am bitter by the lies and smear
campaigns orchestrated by Mitt’s surrogates. Team Mitt did a
fantastic job of burning down as many bridges as they possibly could.
But
like Palin, I supported Newt because I believed his agenda and bold
reform are necessary in order to save our nation. Like I said
above, this is about survival, not preference. Conversely, I
cannot endorse Mitt because he has no bold agenda of reform, he has
no record of real reform (unless we really want to put
the grandfather
of ObamaCare in
this category) and there is a string of proverbial bodies of
conservatives and reformers who get in his way. For example,
even now Governor Palin continues to be attacked not just by those on
the left but also by the establishment GOP, both of whom want to
destroy her, weaken her influence and rewrite history for their own
twisted agendas’ sake.
Well
to that I say, not just no, but HELL NO.
Yes…we
must defeat Obama in the fall. But we as conservatives must not
capitulate to the GOPe. We must not let them weaken our resolve
or dilute our cause.
We
must stay focused on our end goal, regardless of what flak we take or
from where it originates: Preserving our Republic for
future generations.
This
is our charge.
We
must not fail.
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