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The Republican Party in Connecticut might become a viable alternative to the Democrat Party, inexorably sliding into post-Constitutional irrelevance, if the GOP becomes an aggressive reform party. The state, caught for decades in a progressive groove, is much in need of reform. Under GOP auspices, necessary reform should involve a restoration, not a reformation, of first principles.
The dominant Democrat Party in Connecticut now controls all the state’s major large cities and has done so for decades. The U.S. Congressional Delegation, once divided almost evenly between Democrats and Republicans, has been for some time a Democrat Party preserve. All the constitutional offices are filled by Democrats, and Democrats also have a nearly veto-proof majority in the General Assembly.
The transition to a vibrant reform party will take a great deal of courage but, as a famous or infamous, depending on one’s political orientation, national politician said to those considering voting for him, “What have you got to lose?”
Urban dwellers in Connecticut, treated for decades by state Democrats as if they had dropped from a foreign planet, want what successful suburban dwellers want. Their chief concerns are safe neighborhoods, not hoods ruled by fear and criminal activity, sound public or private schools – a sound school being one that regularly graduates literate students proficient in the sciences -- politicians who can quickly grasp the nature of urban problems and propose workable solutions that settle the problems for those living in large cities rather than the political problems faced by politicians perpetually on the hunt for votes. Talk is cheap – actually a form of cheap grace for honey-tongued politicians loathed to adopt hard vote-costing measures to settle urban problems -- right action is curative.
To mount a successful campaign against an insufferable multi-decade status quo – the persistent urban poverty that followed President Lyndon Johnson’s never ending “War on Poverty” initiated in 1964, the lack of school choice, hoods dense with recidivist criminals, fatherless children who savagely murder other fatherless children, and much more -- a reanimated GOP must become “radical”, from the Latin radix or “root”, in the best sense of the word. To go to the root of things is not a subversion of first principles. It is just the opposite, a reestablishment of first principles.
And the first principle of good government is to make things better, not worse, particularly in Connecticut’s politically damaged cities.
Bob MacGuffie, a leader of the Tea Party movement and a stalwart conservative, is running for the U.S. Congress this year against 4th Congressional District Democrat political fixture Jim Himes, one of the all-Democrat members in Connecticut’s U.S. Congressional Delegation.
In his public declarations, MacGuffie does not shy away from commenting on urban problems. He points to reliable polls showing that “63% of moderate minority working-class voters supported full police department funding,” that “72% of moderate minority working-class voters say the Democrats have moved 'too far left,’” that “70% of moderate minority working-class voters said that sports participation should [correlate with] birth gender,” and that “75% of moderate minority working-class voters support the continued use of fossil fuels.”
Driving the data points home, MacGuffie concludes, “On each of the above issues, Republicans embody the successful policy prescriptions, and it is now clear those positions will resonate in the cities. This insight is not lost on my campaign – it will in-fact, be an animating spirit.
“Over his 14 years in congress, Jim Himes is repeatedly on-the-record, on the wrong side of every one of these critical issues [emphasis original]. Democrat Progressivism has failed our cities and needs to be relegated to the proverbial ‘ash heap.’ The ‘structural statism’ imposed and enforced by Democrat rule in our cities must end.”
And perhaps most importantly, “An emphasis on solid families is another indispensable cornerstone in strengthening community. Welfare programs need to be reoriented to motivate fathers to accept financial responsibility and stay with their children. The law and related regulations should promote, not deter the acceptance of family responsibilities - any regulation not promoting these values will need to be changed. Religious worship should be respected and encouraged as a stabilizing and enriching element supporting all communities.”
Such cries are manna delivered to urbanites exiled for decades in a powerless landscape stripped of human liberty overseen by a state Democrat Party that for decades has imprisoned the urban poor in the equivalent of a political Babylonian captivity.