The race to become the Republican presidential nominee, through a tag-team wrestling match of backstabbing politics, soundbite-focused empty campaign rhetoric, cute slogans and pretty faces, is about to begin – everything but what really is needed to have a Republican win the White House in 2016. I feel like a punching bag – emotionally and intellectually beaten up daily by the news media—inadequately or even falsely reporting on what the candidates are saying—and by campaigns that seem to go out of their way to prevent grassroots Republican voters from really getting to know their candidate. If you know a little of Russian history, we’re walking into a Potemkin village.
If you are a die-hard Republican voter who will robotically pull the lever for whatever R candidate is on the ballot, please do this again on November 8, 2016. Until then you can just sit back and relax. Fortunately, more and more grassroots Republican voters are realizing that this has not brought victory in recent elections.
Thus, if you are a grassroots Republican voter like me, deeply concerned about the future of this country under progressive political leadership and tired of being a punching bag during the presidential primary season, then we have very important work to do. We must unite to assert grassroots leadership in the conduct of the Republican presidential primaries and convention. We must do this to yield a Republican nominee who will win the nomination “fair and square” and will do so with the honesty and integrity needed to garner enthusiastic Republican support in the general election.
Creating the enthusiastic support of grassroots Republican voters in Ohio is the key to a Republican victory on November 8, 2016. The absence of this enthusiasm will bring defeat in Ohio just as it did for Romney in 2012. There is no other way to explain Romney’s loss except for the fact that he did not create the enthusiasm needed for victory. He got fewer votes in Ohio in 2010 than McCain did in 2008 even though Romney got more votes nationally than McCain did. The Republican National Committee didn’t do an effective job in Ohio in either 2008 or 2012. The Kasich-led Ohio Republican Party didn’t do an effective job in Ohio in 2012. Obviously, neither campaign did an effective job. Clearly, a different path going forward to achieve victory in Ohio in 2016 is now needed.
This different path going forward is built on three central themes. First, Ohio is a must-win state for the Republican nominee meaning that the White House, most likely, will be won or lost in Ohio. Second, high grassroots Republican voter turnout in Ohio in the general election is the key to victory. And, finally, high grassroots Republican voter turnout in the general election in Ohio must be earned by the Republican nominee during the primary process. Grassroots Republican voters in Ohio, if they become discouraged and disenfranchised during the primaries, will most likely not turn out in the high numbers necessary to defeat a strong Democratic presidential candidate here in Ohio. The White House will then be lost.
Recently, I published an article on the Ohio Conservative Review website defining what needs to happen if we are to have the Republican presidential nominee win Ohio in 2016. It’s all about asserting grassroots Republican voter power. The article can be read online here or a copy can be downloaded here.
Ohio, and southwestern Ohio in particular, are at the epicenter of American politics for the presidential election in 2016. The political battle to win Ohio will be intense as progressives battle to preserve and extend Obama’s “transformation of America”. The track records of the Republican National Committee and the Kasich-led Ohio Republican Party are such that sitting back and relying upon them to achieve this critical 2016 victory is dangerous. The Republican Party is the party of grassroots Republican voters. It’s our party. It’s now time that we assert control of our party and return it to the traditional Republican values of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln now very much needed to put this country back on the right path. It’s up to the TEA Party citizenry to make this happen!!
I ♥ My Liberty!
Mike Snead
President