Bad week for over-reaching would-be Republican leaders

Some of the precinct committeemen and women in the St Johns County Republican Party have drifted so far away from the party platform over the past 15-years, that it no longer resembles the party of Lincoln. We are supposed to be about the inherent ability of the people to be self-governed — not the election of unaccountable, self-serving tin pot Napoleons like we have today.

Why in the world would the St Johns County Republican Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Florida be endorsing candidates for office in municipal elections, and other non-partisan elections? That is not the purpose of the officially chartered organization of the Republican Party.

When I cautioned against this intrusion into non-partisan politics, and the tactics being used to manipulate the outcome of local elections through false, misleading and deceptive means, many of the current leadership looked at me like I had three heads. Now, as we see in the outcome of this recent case before the Florida Ethics Commission, where St Augustine nonpartisan Beach Mayor, Rich O’Brien, has had to pay a fine for claiming to be “The Republican Choice”, I may not have been as far off the mark as the hotheads wanted me to be.

People have told me that “the party moved away from us” when I’ve asked why I no longer hear their voice in decisions and actions by the local party.

That point-of-view won’t work for me. I’m not changing my party affiliation, or shrinking off to the Republican Retirement Home. And I sure as hell am not the guy for anyone to try to make “go along” if it means turning a blind eye to bullies, trying to feather their own nests, who have been Republicans for about a minute. You might as well ask me to declare every philosophical principle I’ve held my entire life to be a lie.