Torrance Town Hall – GOP Dysfunction

Is the CA GOP like this elephant? Maybe a real third party turned new party is needed like TRs Progressive Party (but conservative)

The Torrance Town Hall meeting on September 22 felt like a dysfunctional family function, too.

Everyone pretends to be good friends, sweeping failures and divisions under the rug.

I was saddened to find one man there who had attacked other Republicans with hollow slanders publically, and no one did anything about it.

The candidates promoted themselves as best they could.

Still, sometimes there's a sense that Republicans running for office in California are acting like heedless nerds trying out for high school quarterback, and those watching know that they have no chance of winning.

Republican politics in the South Bay is getting more frayed, more fractured, too.

And the candidates running for Congress are not offering anything substantive.

The fact that twenty-one people showed up at this meeting, that was all — that should concern many, and the same people to boot.

And why does the President of the Torrance Democratic Club keep showing up? I have heard talk about bipartisanship, and the risks that he took with his base (he's running for office?) by meeting with city council members at the Torrance Democratic Club meeting.

What is the point of all this politicking?

There is a culture war going on in the state of California, and Republican candidates are tinkering with the edges of bad policies, like fixing Obamacare instead of an aggressive push for repeal and the best measures for free market reforms. Where's the talk about school choice?

Carr wanted to talk about after school programs? Arnold Schwarzenegger ran on that platform in 2003 to get statewide attention, then ran for Governor, only to ruin the CA GOP further, as well as the state. After school programs?

When I think of the last GOP Governor, one thing comes to mind: Cap and Trade says it all. everyone!

Of course, I remember the Golden Globes ceremony one year, where the lifetime achievement award went to a clearly inebriated Warren Beatty. His current claim to fame: "I made Arnold a Democrat."

Actually he was kind of, sort of, already there.

Fast forward to 2014, and Chairman Brulte, the Messiah, has made more divisions. The guy took  union money! He said he would have taken $100 grand from the teachers association if they offered it. As if!

Instead of fighting the fight of truth, statewide Republicans want to manage the decline, or slow it down, or distance themselves from it as much as possible. Swearingen and Peterson did not endorse Kashkari. Frankly, I don't blame them. This "new brand of conservatism" isn't. How many Sacramento Republicans are grand-standing for "immigration reform" (that's amnesty for those who are paying attention. Special election victory Andy Vidak (R-Hanford) supported drivers licenses for illegals. So does Neel Kashkari.

Is this guy a Republican? Not really. I loved the fighting panache in the one debate with Governor Brown, which very few people watched, but Neel has not swept me off my feet to stump for him.

The illegal immigrant kids have to go home, but in the mean time, they can drive here legally. What?!

Senate Minority Leader Bob Huff supports school choice. Great! I wanted to help him as much as possible to get  passed and signed. It died in committee right away last year. Huff also huffs and puffs for amnesty. Disappointing. He made few calls for Democratic leaders to step down after the spate of corruption breaking out among the Democratic state senators, too.

Where's the bold leadership?

But back to the Torrance Town Hall. . .

The divisions were latent, unspoken. The triumph of hope versus experience as on full display once again in the South Bay.

There may be a chance for a GOP pickup in the 66th against Al Muratsuchi

The Republican running for state assembly chose a moderate path on key issues to unite the center-right. Other sources have commented how the candidate has alienated Republicans in the area. No question about that. None.

What about Torrance?

The prior Torrance City Council was majority GOP, and yet the spending issues never abated, and the projects which the city focused have done little good. The streets are getting a little bitter, but where was the restoration when needed four years ago or two years ago? Fiscal discipline? Nope.

There are deep divisions in the GOP, as there are in the Democratic Party. The lack of unity has grown more apparent, in my opinion though, as different members wonder whether the whole affair needs to move closer to the Democrats on key issues, or whether future leaders need to stand tall on the principles, regardless of the populace and polling.

There are so many things for people to disagree on, too. Everyone is a RINO now because they have a different stance on one or other issues. Kids are now choosing their genders, and people are redefining marriage. Common Core, Muslims in our midst, gun control, parent control of education.

Many of these issues were not even subjects for discussion, let alone debate. Are we really at a point where marriage is open to redefinition?

Tough decisions face the minority party in a one-party state.

The Torrance situation is more pronounced. Sixteen candidates ran for city council in 2014, including two Republicans for mayor. No one intervened and said to one of the two: back out. The real concern, though, was the sixteen city council candidates running. Where's the party unity to say: you get to run, you do not. You have the experience. You do not.

Personally, I was saddened that incorrigible elements attended the Torrance Town Hall, and no one said anything about it, either.

The lack of substance from the  Congressional candidates was par for the course, as I had mentioned in the previous post. The state of California needs something more engaging.

United Kingdom Independence Party

Is it time for a new political party? Something like an American equivalent of the United Kingdom Independence Party which is sweeping across Great Britain and revitalizing Thatcherism? A synthesis of the Silent Majority of Americans tired of Big Government, who want a restoration of family values and local control? A Tea Party Movement of the masses?

At this point, a new party, not a third party, just might be in the works, since independents are out pacing Democrats and Republicans (the latter moreso) in the state of California, and in Torrance, specifically.

Republicans did experiment with a third party in 1912, when national Republicans split between conservatives and liberals. The more progressive (!) created their own party, with Teddy Roosevelt at the top of the Ticket. The split enabled the Democratic Party to regain the White House for only the second time since the Civil War.

Citing these concerns, Republican leaders think changing the party from within is the better option. In California, however, the growing conflicts on the issues, and between the leaders and the base, have become so pronounced, that maybe a new party is necessary. Disaffected working class Americans are looking for a party which won't open the borders for illegal immigrants, which will limit federal growth in education and industry, while fostering family values.

If California Republican state party leaders think that candidates like Neel Kashkari and Carl DeMaio are the future of the GOP, then the GOP will have no future.

Is it time for a United States Independence Party in California?