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https://goplifer.com/2016/07/22/resignation-letter/Resignation letter
Posted on July 22, 2016 by goplifer 77 Comments
Yesterday I resigned my position in the York Township Republican Committeemens Organization. Below is the letter I sent to the chairman explaining my decision.
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We come together in political parties to magnify our influence. An organized representative institution can give weight to our will in ways we could not accomplish on our own. Working with others gives us power, but at the cost of constant, calculated compromise. No two people will agree on everything. There is no moral purity in politics.
If compromise is the key to healthy politics, how does one respond when compromise descends into complicity? To preserve a sense of our personal moral accountability we must each define boundaries. For those boundaries to have meaning we must have the courage to protect them, even when the cost is high.
Almost thirty years ago as a teenager in Texas, I attended my first county Republican convention. As a college student I met a young Rick Perry, fresh from his conversion to the GOP, as he was launching his first campaign for statewide office. Through Associated Republicans of Texas I contributed and volunteered for business-friendly Republican state and local candidates.
Here in DuPage County Ive been a precinct committeeman since 2006. Door to door Ive canvased my precinct in support of our candidates. Trudging through snow, using a drill to break the frozen ground, I posted signs for candidates on whom I pinned my hopes for better government. Among Illinois Republicans I found an organization that seemed to embody my hopes for the party nationally. Pragmatic, sensible, and focused on solid government, it seemed like a GOP Jurassic Park, where the sensible, reliable Republicans of old still roamed the landscape.
At the national level, the delusions necessary to sustain our Cold War coalition were becoming dangerous long before Donald Trump arrived. From tax policy to climate change, we have found ourselves less at odds with philosophical rivals than with the fundamentals of math, science and objective reality.
The Iraq War, the financial meltdown, the utter failure of supply-side theory, climate denial, and our strange pursuit of theocratic legislation have all been troubling. Yet it seemed that Americas party of commerce, trade, and pragmatism might still have time to sober up. Remaining engaged in the party implied a contribution to that renaissance, an investment in hope. Donald Trump has put an end to that hope.
From his fairy-tale wall to his schoolyard bullying and his flirtation with violent racists, Donald Trump offers America a singular narrative a tale of cowards. Fearful people, convinced of our inadequacy, trembling before a world alight with imaginary threats, crave a demagogue. Neither party has ever elevated to this level a more toxic figure, one that calls forth the darkest elements of our national character.
With three decades invested in the Republican Party, there is a powerful temptation to shrug and soldier on. Despite the bold rhetoric, we all know Trump will lose. Why throw away a great personal investment over one bad nominee? Trump is not merely a poor candidate, but an indictment of our character. Preserving a party is not a morally defensible goal if that party has lost its legitimacy.
Watching Ronald Reagan as a boy, I recall how bold it was for him to declare morning again in America. In a country menaced by Communism and burdened by a struggling economy, the audacity of Reagans optimism inspired a generation.
Fast-forward to our present leadership and the nature of our dilemma is clear. I watched Paul Ryan speak at Donald Trumps convention the way a young child watches his father march off to prison. Thousands of Republican figures that loathe Donald Trump, understand the danger he represents, and privately hope he loses, are publicly declaring their support for him. In Illinois our local and state GOP organizations, faced with a choice, have decided on complicity.
Our leaders compromise preserves their personal capital at our collective cost. Their refusal to dissent robs all Republicans of moral cover. Evasion and cowardice has prevailed over conscience. We are now, and shall indefinitely remain, the Party of Donald Trump.
I will not contribute my name, my work, or my character to an utterly indefensible cause. No sensible adult demands moral purity from a political party, but conscience is meaningless without constraints. A party willing to lend its collective capital to Donald Trump has entered a compromise beyond any credible threshold of legitimacy. There is no redemption in being one of the good Nazis.
I hereby resign my position as a York Township Republican committeeman. My thirty-year tenure as a Republican is over.
Sincerely,
Chris Ladd
Raster
(20,998 posts)Hi Chris,
So you decided to take the red pill, eh? I don't want to step on your moment, but...
Watching Ronald Reagan as a boy, I recall how bold it was for him to declare morning again in America. In a country menaced by Communism and burdened by a struggling economy, the audacity of Reagans optimism inspired a generation.
In many, many ways, the Reagan audacity and optimism, --"Morning in America"-- are when the GOP's turn to the dark side began. Frankly, "mourning in America" would have been far more appropriate.
No truer words could be written at this historical and political juncture about the GOP in America: "There is no redemption in being one of the good Nazis.
Let's not forge him letting the hostages stay hostages until he took office. Iran-Contra hearings anyone?
Augiedog
(2,551 posts)The lies that republicans have been willing to generate in thrall to greed and power grabbing is about to bite hard. No group of people have less honor nor more bile than these neo trumpers. The decades of Reaganism have brought a terrible reality to this nation. From the war criminal and economic charlatan that Reagan is to the economic criminal that trump is, it has always been about rape and pillage of the American people who placed hope and belief in these leaders. Leaders who cared not one wit for the success of their constituents, just their own personal enrichment. Adjectives seem inadequate to express the horror at what they have wrought. They sell fear, and we should be afraid, if they retain or attain more power.
freebrew
(1,917 posts)the RW planning started after the New Deal. A continuation of the depression, SOME people got really rich and they wanted it to stay that way(Bush, Walker, etc.)
The BFEE has been doing evil for a loong time.
Just Sayin'
Martin Eden
(12,887 posts)It's a great letter from someone with whom I evidently disagree on many issues, but whose character is deserving of admiration in these troubling times.
K&R
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,088 posts)Feeling the Bern
(3,839 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(49,088 posts)trixie
(867 posts)Enjoy your stay.
babylonsister
(171,112 posts)lovemydog
(11,833 posts)in a while.
Have a good weekend babylonsister.
babylonsister
(171,112 posts)For my own daily enlightenment, you babylonsister are half of the 2 good reasons i still click on DU. Thank you for that.
babylonsister
(171,112 posts)That was awfully kind of you, thank you!
Astraea
(474 posts)of all people... but good for him. One more sensible man and one less vote for Trump is all that matters.
skepticscott
(13,029 posts)In the days of your giddy, Reagan-worshipping youth, the Republicans were anti-woman, anti-black, anti-gay, anti-foreigner, anti-union, anti-environment, anti-science, anti-intellectual, anti-poor, anti-civil rights, theocratic, bigoted, warmongering corporate whores. And have been ever since.
What of any of that has changed in the last two weeks to make the party that you loved so dearly and supported so ardently for decades suddenly become a group that you can't wait to disassociate yourself from?
Will Morningstar
(90 posts)as skeptics such as yourself are all that keep us all from being led by the nose by these master manipulators and their now fellow-travelling Masters of the (Used-Car) Deal, if the sins of our youth are truly beyond redemption, then how could my own Christian faith, or any world religion for that matter, be worthy of belief? Christ brought his converts to the shore at Galilee to baptize them, not waterboard them.
skepticscott
(13,029 posts)Did I say that "the sins of his youth are beyond redemption", or anything remotely like that?
No. That's something you made up and are trying to attribute to me.
And to answer your question, I have no idea why anyone would consider any world religion to be worthy of belief. But the damage that has been done to this country and this world by Chris and his Repug cronies over the past 35 years can't be undone simply by saying, oops, sorry, or even by splashing water on their heads. Would you agree with that? His reasons for switching sides remain unconvincing, which makes it just as likely that he'll switch back for equally lame reasons.
bucolic_frolic
(43,548 posts)I thought Trump had come to his senses and resigned
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)Chris Ladd
Will Morningstar
(90 posts)First diagnosed in formerly beloved former United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, before photos surfaced of him in Gestapo uniform, Waldheimer's Disease is when you can't remember you're a Nazi.
PatrickforO
(14,608 posts)To be LIES!
And all the joy within you dies!
Don't you want somebody to love?
Don't you need somebody to love?
It has been obvious for many years that the Republican 'truth' is indeed lies, and now they've nominated a CHAMPION liar, a world class liar, to run for POTUS.
I've said before, and I will say again,
The Republicans cannot defend their positions intellectually.
They cannot defend them morally.
Time for Clinton/Kaine.