“I am not certain if Heghmann’s lawsuit has any chance of actually succeeding. He is going up against an organization that has the ability to create its own rules to protect itself.”
The military did a good job of beating into me the concept of personal responsibility. To this day, I believe that a man’s word is his bond, and once that bond is broken, it is virtually impossible for me to ever trust the integrity of that individual again. Here is where I sit with the mainstay of the Republican party. It has broken its pact with the American people. All the promises that it has made are, to me, simply empty assurances for the purpose of winning elections.
I am tired of politicians standing up and blaming everyone else for their inability to lead. Even better is when they sit lecturing us about how we, the common people, are simply not smart enough to understand the complexities of government and why nothing can get done even when the Republicans own the governorships, both houses of Congress, and the presidency.
Here is where my newest hero and intellectual giant, Bob Heghmann, enters the discussion. I believe that Bob may have actually found the answer to making the Republican party take notice. A quick review of the issue first.
Politics, I believe firmly, is all about power. I am sure that most newcomers enter into Washington full of ideals and beliefs, but once they realize that their position elevates them to a sovereignty class, their motivations quickly turn from the good of the people to the retention of authority. To this degree, politicians do as much as they can to insulate themselves from the proletariats. In fact, this is why in 1988 Congress passed the Westfall Act, giving them immunity against civil lawsuits. However, Mr. Heghmann has possibly figured out a way around this.
He has filed a suit in the state of Virginia against the Republican National Committee and the Virginia GOP representatives. The basis of the suit states that the party “has been engaged in a pattern of racketeering which involves massive fraud perpetrated on Republican voters and contributors as well as some Independents and Democrats.” Furthermore, as a donor, he believes that he has standing to sue because he was directly injured when they took his money with no intent to deliver. He wants the party to either return his contributions or follow through on their promises to repeal Obamacare.
The difference between the RNC and the DNC are amazing. The RNC has a message with no ability to manifest any changes. The DNC has no message but is able to still control Congress.
Morton Blackwell, one of the GOP members listed, called the lawsuit frivolous while at the same time acknowledging the anger and frustration felt by members nationwide.
“Too few conservatives are willing to invest their time, talent, and money and personally participate inside the Republican Party. A Republican majority will mean a conservative majority if and when a sufficient number of conservatives figure out why the success of their principles depends on their personal involvement in local, state and national Republican Party committees and in party nomination contests.”
Heghmann knows that he cannot directly influence the motivations of the individual congressional members, but he might be able to influence the people who help fund their campaigns. Maybe this will serve as a wake-up call to the powers that be.
The difference between the RNC and the DNC are amazing. The RNC has a message with no ability to manifest any changes. The DNC has no message but is able to still control Congress. It would be nice to believe that Heghmann may be able to use this tool to finally push through the agenda that the Republican members were actually elected on.
Something is clearly needed in order to bring the party back on track. On the GOP website they state, “We’ve been listening to you. Based on your feedback, we have compiled a list of what it means to be a Republican.” Here are several of them, which I believe clearly have not been heard.
- The Constitution should be honored, valued, and upheld. Nothing that Congress has done has made any movement toward returning us to a constitutional republic. Obamacare, while possibly the most glaring, is clearly not the only overreach of the federal government.
- Leaders should serve people, not special interests. If this were true, then why does the replacement for Obamacare read like it was written by the insurance companies? It would appear that there is very little that would point to anything but insurance company executives running the country.
- Families and communities should be strong and free from government intrusion. Almost everything that our government does is, at the end of the day, an intrusion. The purpose of having a weak federal government was to allow best practices of the states to spur healthy competition. The federal government has, and continues to, erode the Constitution in this regard. The only exception is President Trump’s rule that for every regulation written, two must be erased from the books.
- Government should be smaller, smarter and more efficient. Again, the Republican Congress had an opportunity to do exactly this but failed.
- Health care decisions should be made by us and our doctors. Has the GOP read the Obamacare replacement plan? If so, I would think they would be embarrassed to put something like this up on their website. They are literally (and I mean literally in the proper usage: actually and absolutely) calling out the majority of their members for not being Republican. This is so stupid it would be funny if we the people were not the punch line.
- Paychecks should not be wasted on poorly run government programs. I agree, which is clearly why they voted to continue with financial support to Planned Parenthood.
- Veterans should have the best care and opportunities in the world. Wow…so someone explain to me how a VA hospital director, Brian Hawkins, was fired for mismanagement but then gets rehired?
- Social programs should help lift people out of poverty. In that case, where are the checks on the system? Better yet, what is Congress doing to actually make this a reality? From where I sit, I cannot see where social programs do anything but promote the continuance of people remaining on the system. If this were not true, then everyone would want the government to put HUD housing in their neighborhoods.
I am not certain if Heghmann’s lawsuit has any chance of actually succeeding. He is going up against an organization that has the ability to create its own rules to protect itself. In this regard, I am certain that Congress would be able to get bipartisan support. Hopefully his lawsuit will have the power to bring about some change, even if it never goes forward.
I am not speaking about change within the organization. As the GOP national committee already acknowledged, they simply do not have conservatives within their ranks. No, the change I am hoping for is that his action inspires others to take up the cause and move forward on the platform that we were promised.
At the end of the day, what Congress needs to realize is that you cannot regulate freedom. The two are mutually exclusive and cannot exist in the same space. They were elected based upon their promises, and they should be held accountable.
Andrew Jackson understood this very clearly, even at the earliest days of our republic, when he stated, “I weep for the liberty of my country when I see at this early day of its successful experiment that corruption has been imputed to many members of the House of Representatives, and the rights of the people have been bartered for promises of office.”
