Hello, GOP? Stop Blaming the Tea Party!

So I’m in Sacramento, state capitol of California and after only one night I have already learned much more than I bargained for.

At a large GOP dinner last night, Assemblyman Tim Donnelly spoke for a few minutes and mentioned that he was running for governor in 2014. Other than our table of “black sheep Tea Party types” cheering loudly, there was only a spattering of awkward applause and shifting of chairs.  Instead of applause and encouragement from his peers, the silence coming from some of our surrounding tables spoke louder than words.

What I learned last night is that the GOP in California doesn’t seem to understand the need for drastic change in the way they conduct their business.  Just like the mainstream media, they seem to be looking down their noses at “Tea Party types” and think of them/us as “fringe” and “extremists”.

Are they really not hearing what “We the People” are trying to tell them, that we do not want to bend over backwards to appease the Left?  Are they listening to us when we say we’ve already made too many concessions to the other side and we need people to be strong and have backbone and fight for our principles?  From what I saw last night, not so much.

Maybe I’m wrong—I truly hope I am.  Or maybe I’ve been too naïve in thinking the GOP learned their lesson from the shellacking they got in this last election.  I thought that maybe the California GOP especially understood that our state is dying because they’ve allowed Power and Politics (capital ‘P’) to get in their way.  Can the California GOP really be so completely out of touch with The People that they don’t see what’s right in front of their noses?  Conservatives in California are finished with concessions.  There is nothing left to give and the last alternative is to leave our state—give up on her completely– and try to make ends meet in a friendlier, less business-hostile/union-friendly environment!

I’m attending Assemblyman Donnelly’s swearing in ceremony this morning and will try to talk to some of the “establishment GOP” members to get their take on what went wrong in this election.  But so far what I’m learning is that the Old-School GOP is terrified of giving an inch of power to the Tea Party—aka The People.  They don’t seem to care whom the Tea Party represents, they just want things to go back to the way they were before. What they don’t understand—and what may ultimately push California into that proverbial ocean—is the reason we’re dying out here might be because the Tea Party simply got to the Party too late….