Time to get good crazy
Last Sunday when Democratic presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were trying desperately to upstage one another without tripping over themselves in Selma, Alabama, the show was stolen by Southern Christian Leadership Council founder and
Lowery used the analogy of a recent physical check-up and the levels of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ cholesterol as the basis for what good crazy is. He said that the check-up showed his bad cholesteral to be a little high, but the physician (who happens to be a relative) told him not to worry too much because his good cholesteral was high enough that it would help offset some of the bad (”though you should still cut down on the peach cobbler”). He went on to relate that back in the early days of the civil rights movement, a lot of people discounted he and his fellow activists as being “crazy” for going against the establishment and trying to improve the status of African Americans. To conclude the analogy he said that just like there is bad and good cholesterol, there is bad and good crazy and, “we were crazy, but we were good crazy”. For the rest of the Obama event numerous references were made to that statement and how they as activists and voters needed to get ‘good crazy’ and continue the work begun so many years before in Alabama.
While civil rights has never been one of my siren songs, I do support the right for all people to have an equal opportunity. But that’s not what this post is about. I reference the Lowrey story because it helps to frame a talk I’m giving tonight to the Parma Republicans about the future of our party.
I was disappointed, but not surprised this past fall when all but one of our statewide candidates lost in the Ohio elections. We lost those races thanks in large part to a perfect storm of obstacles beginning with the underwhelming performance of Governor Bob Taft (not to mention some difficulties with the ethics laws), lackluster candidates, extreme polarization within the party and an entrenched group of party officials (both locally and at the statewide level) unwilling to do anything other than duck and cover.
The results speak for themselves. We have a Democratic governor (who in many ways resembles Taft in his agenda and actions) and a resurgent statewide Democratic party licking its chops in anticipation of the 2008 elections. Democrats know that this current trend could very well deliver the state’s electoral votes to a Democratic presidential candidate and move the state legislature toward a Democratic majority. None of these developments sits well with me and I see little if anything on the part of our party that is working toward fixing that.
So here’s a few of things I intend to do.
- Stop giving money to the party apparatus. I’ve already received a couple of solicitations from the county, state and federal parties as well as candidates and special interest groups asking me not only to give my usual modest contribution but to increase it so that “we can stop those ‘evil’, ‘godless’, ‘family-assaulting’, ‘terrorist-protecting’, ‘baby-killing’, ‘gun-controlling’ ‘tax and spend’ (all of these descriptions come from recent mailings addressed to me) liberals and Democrats. Sorry guys that’s plain ‘bad crazy’, and if you think that I agree with demonizing someone just because we’re not in the same party, you’re wrong. At the end of the day both the Republican and Democratic party machines operate in similar self-preservation manners. If one is for something, by default the other is against it. No offense, but that’s just bad government. By the way this also means that I will have to surrender my useless membership in the county party’s Executive Committee because I will not pay its dues.
- Make candidates earn my support. I’m a free agent. I’ll keep my party membership because in a very small way it allows me to select primary candidates to stand for the general election. That means that I get to help choose who will represent the GOP. This doesn’t mean though that I have to vote for the party’s nominee in the general election. Just because you’ve got an elephant on your lapel doesn’t mean you’ve got my vote.
- Talk about issues that are important to me. Abortion and gay rights are only hot buttons for me when someone chooses to limit them. If the party wants to limit someone’s rights, I’ll fight it. But those are not my biggest concerns. What does matter to me is that our government whether controlled by Republicans or Democrats is too big and gets bigger every time an elected official panders to their constituency. It means more government and either more debt or more taxes. To quote Ronald Reagan, “Government never solved a problem, government is the problem.”
- Tell the truth. When the party does something I don’t agree with, you’re going to hear about it. No more putting a good face on things to protect the guilty.
- Encourage others to participate on their own terms. If someone wants to get involved, I’ll do whatever I can to help them.
Sure I’m crazy. But it’s good crazy.
