I received an email yesterday from someone who claimed to be from the Alpena County GOP. Even though I left the Michigan GOP a year ago this week, I still receive mass mailings, notices from the party, as if I were still the chair of my county. The email is a part of the circus that takes place directly prior to convention, and my memory races back to the tactics and games played by the usual clowns who use extensive email lists to whip up outrage or scorn right before voting for leadership of the Republican Party.
The First District of Michigan has been nick-named the “Fighting First” due to the number of conservatives of different stripes and their eagerness to debate. When you sit back and watch, it is invigorating to know there is such a vast number of patriots who will fight for what is right.
When the district voted for Jesse Osmer to be the chair, conservatives began to feel the vicious nature of unprincipled, authoritarian management that Jesse has organized and executed these past years. Nationally, party bosses are purging conservatives, and Jesse’s work in the First is no different. Packing proxy voters on secret phone meetings of the district, misdirecting conservatives to the call-in time or changing the number, rushing votes, proposing bylaw changes that silence the voices of a vast geographical district, and more. With Jesse at the helm, dissent is noted and targeted for retribution.
This is not a conservative trait. Vengeance and punishment for a difference of opinion is the mark of leftism.
Conservatives, or classic liberals, welcome all ideas, but rely on the good sense of voters after a vigorous debate is held. Totalitarian minds need to control people through bully tactics and lies in order to push an agenda that would displease the populace.
Back to the email.
Supposedly, someone in Alpena has raised questions about the sexual orientation of a person in the First District who happens to be Jesse Osmer’s best buddy. But nobody in the Alpena GOP wrote that email, except perhaps Jesse. There are people in Alpena Jesse would like to blame just about anything on, because they know his tactics most intimately, including just this past county convention, when he lied about which delegates have priority, thwarting his wish for a packed slate that would benefit him.
Of the many emails I receive, I can look up the ip address of the person sending the email, tracing where their computer is, in every case except that email. That email, from someone named “Dick” had the ip in the header blocked, meaning, that they purposely covered their tracks. Regular people don’t do that, usually it is done by political operatives who place political hit-pieces, and send them via mass email lists. The suspicions of most conservatives in response to the email is that it’s the work, once again of the Osmer group, focusing on the establishment’s perceived view of conservatives as “gay-bashers” and trying to gin up a sympathy vote for the fella who never passes up the chance to remind you of his sexual preference.
After years of all of us conservatives defending Dave Agema’s freedom of speech, “Dick” just now wanted to let you all know about Londo. As if we didn’t know after he has repeatedly attacked Agema and made national news focusing on his own sexual preference.
But it is not Londo’s sexual preference that is the issue, and that he constantly uses it to gain advantage or election, isn’t the real point either. He is complicit in Osmer’s heavy hand in the district, consistently purging and belittling conservatives, secretly hating them for how he thinks we think about him.
A few years ago, Londo, Osmer, and Mick, Benishek’s step-son and leader of his campaign, and I were all in a room. I told Mick what I thought of Benishek’s crappy voting record, and during the discussion, Londo laughed and said, “Republicans have to get rid of the social issues.” Funny, isn’t it, that the only ones who bring up the social issues are the ones using them against us to divide us.
Politics can be very dangerous to a soul. If you find you excel at it, you have to decide what you will and will not do to push your influence. Some get caught up in winning at all costs, and they sell their soul quite cheap. With all the madness of the Obama years, there should be no question that Republicans stand on principle, their platform, and with transparency, invite all comers to join in the glorious debate of where the party will be headed. It is the conservatives that promote unity when in power, it is conservatives that promote transparency and fairness. It is a family-friendly atmosphere when conservatives fight for what is right, good and true.
That’s why I strongly urge the delegates of Michigan’s Fighting First to elect Adrian Poulisse for District Chair. Adrian is a veteran, and wonderful family man with a fine wife and cute little ones he always brings to every event, but he is also a strong conservative who likes people and makes people want to help in the cause. A happy warrior, Adrian follows through on communications and isn’t constantly paranoid about who listens in on phone calls because his efforts are always for more transparency, more information, and better representation of the views of the entire district’s grassroots, not the machinations of top-down party control.
If America is to get on the right path, the Republican Party must welcome diversity of thoughts, rather than religious shaming and political correctness run amok. And if the Michigan Republican Party has any hope to succeed as a party that stands for something, more people like Adrian Poulisse need to be elected in the party structure.
Tom Backers, a fella I used to butt heads with, is a good man. We have become friends since the wild arguments and debates of 2010, and he has stayed in the party. The other day I noticed a conservative slate on his Facebook wall and will share it here. You can click on the list and it will open a new window so you can print it. I encourage all Michigan First District delegates and alternates to use this tool, not only to vote for conservatives, but also to find the people running when you are at convention and thank them for doing so.
Adrian as chair would make me reconsider joining the party once again. A change in attitude at the top always changes the attitudes and the welcoming disposition of the party everywhere.
