By: Heather Thompson
The 2002 Jim Caviezel film The Count of Monte Cristo, adapted from the Alexander Dumas book, has a very famous line from Napoleon Bonaparte where he says, “we are all kings or pawns, Marshall; emperors or fools.” I’ll admit, I watch this movie a lot and that line has always stuck with me because of the pure audacity. Napoleon admits that he is using his intelligence and status to push his agenda in order to gain control of what he wants. You might be thinking “how arrogant” and you would be right.
However, we have a problem in the Republican Party that is quite similar. This week, the Senate voted in a new majority leader as Mitch McConnell is set to step down and a new Republican majority comes in to take control in January. By all accounts, the American people who issued the mandate against the woke agenda should rejoice – unfortunately not many people are. You see, there were three candidates: John Thune, John Cornyn and Rick Scott and the American people had a very specific choice.
As we grew closer to the vote, the pressure from Americans became quite palpable and rumors from the hill were saying that our duly elected senators who are supposed to represent the will of the people were irritated at us. Let me repeat that – the people who work for us, were irritated with what we wanted.
Let that sink in.
The senator quoted in Punchbowl’s newsletter stated that people like Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk were trying to bully them into picking Rick Scott. But Tucker and Elon were simply voicing what they were hearing from the people – and the people wanted Rick Scott.
Now, the reason this is important is because the Republican Party has certain leadership, and other members, who think that it’s offensive for newcomers or anyone not crowned acceptable to run for a position of authority within the party. I know this is true because it’s also an issue locally. When I joined my local party I was never involved and immediately put on the executive committee because I had the most communications experience of anyone there. What people didn’t like was a young person being given a leadership position that other felt wasn’t “earned”.
This is still happening in my local party; young people want to take the reins and move the party forward but the old guard is resistant and insisting that people should “wait their turn”. How stupid. Republican leadership has to die before young people are allowed to take control – and Republicans wonder why young people don’t want anything to do with them.
This is the reason Thune and Cornyn were two of the three choices for Senate Majority Leader. Both are protégées of Mitch “turtle man” McConnell and both have spoken out against Donald Trump, the man the American people have chosen to lead this country.
Not one Republican/Conservative voter gives a flying fart in space whether Thune or Cornyn feel they “deserve” to have the Majority Leader position; what we care about is having the right man, or woman, for the job. Period.
It’s absurd that our Republican Party operates in this king maker fashion and refuses to allow young people or folks with better ideas and more experience to even be considered for the roles of which they’d like to run. Our political party system doesn’t even reflect the way our election system works.
If I want to run for office, I can apply, pay the money and put myself on the ballot. The people decide whether I am the right fit or not. Why aren’t our political parties following this same formula? Well, it’s because they want to be king makers and are, behind the scenes, saying that they know better than the American people. I know this true because I’ve had former leaders in our state say this to me.
Like it or not, political officials, advocates and participants believe the average American is too stupid to make the right choices for our local, state and national government. This is exactly why people like you and me must get involved and break down their monopolies and insert ourselves where they think we don’t belong.
Local politics didn’t work for me, but a very wise man named Kevin Kelly, an announcer for the sport of motocross, said once that we should use our gifts to make a change in this world – and now I write about politics, among other things.
It is vitally important that during this massive shift in our country conservatives pick up the mantel and do what they can with the gifts that they have. You don’t have to run for office, or even for a leadership position but you do have to get involved in order to stop this perpetually idiotic king making nonsense.
