Conservatives this year have a host of issues on their plate as they gather for the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C.
But accusations of a splintered Republican Party are dogging organizers, who invited former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin but snubbed popular New Jersey governor Chris Christie.
Local state legislators have differing views on the so-called fissures within the party.
State Rep. Katie Dempsey, R-Rome, said cracks do exist in the GOP, and she believes Republicans “need to listen more than we speak right now.” But state Rep. Eddie Lumsden, R-Armuchee, accused the “mainstream media” of trying to undermine the GOP’s viability in its reporting.
Some media outlets and opinion pieces have described the GOP as fractured. U.S. House Speaker John Boehner faced a mini-revolt in January in his bid for the speaker’s gavel. Republican strategist Karl Rove made waves recently, when he announced the creation of a SuperPAC that would focus on winning Republican primaries against more radical opponents.
“The so-called mainstream media has long had a well-documented liberal bias,” Lumsden writes in an email. “Their efforts are more about advancing an agenda than reporting the facts.”
State Rep. Christian Coomer, R-Cartersville, said he sees no fracturing of the party. Instead, he said, the GOP is struggling with the direction it should go.
Coomer cited a quotation often attributed to President Ronald Reagan, who said someone he agreed with 80 percent of the time was a friend, not a 20-percent traitor.
“We sometimes focus on the few things that divide us than the few things that unite us,” Coomer said. “It’s nothing new for parties to struggle.”
State Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, said his party is like any group: its members have different opinions. Any splintering in the GOP is normal.
“We’ve got a lot of cooperation with the state,” Hufstetler said. “We’ve got to figure out how to do that in Washington.”
The GOP’s new direction
CPAC is a three-day event filled with high-profile, conservative speakers. Some of this year’s speakers include Palin, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
State legislators from the Floyd County area said they will not attend this year’s CPAC, citing the waning days of the legislative session at the Gold Dome. However, they are mostly united in the message they want to hear come out of the gathering: one focused on the economy and the nation’s fiscal problems.
The economy and the nation’s debt have taken center stage for the past few years, as the GOP has called for a fitter financial house.
National leaders have been beset with budget woes, and have pointed fingers across the aisle in blame for the recent sequester. In a high-profile move, President Barack Obama cancelled White House tours last week and cited the forced budget cuts as the reason.
Dempsey said her priorities have been shaped by her appointment as chair of the state House’s budget subcommittee.
“What I would love to see come out of this is a call for our nation to have a balanced budget,” Dempsey said.
Coomer agreed, saying he wants the GOP to pursue increased personal responsibility and personal liberty.
“Nobody wants to be the servant of another,” Coomer said. “For me, that means it’s up to me to take care of myself.”
Coomer, however, added that he believes he personally must help those in need — as a duty community members have, not the government.
Hufstetler agreed that Washington must repair its financial house, though he also wants to hear about immigration reform. In his email, Lumsden focused on the economy, national security, health care and tax policy.
“Our economic and physical well-being is a vital concern for all citizens,” Lumsden writes. “How we pay for our security and well-being is a central issue.”
Perhaps one of the biggest factors in determining the party’s direction is the person or people who will take the Republican mantle of leadership. The CPAC presidential straw poll is a barometer of who the party’s right wing wants to see in the White House.
Lumsden favors former vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, governors Bobby Jindal and Chris Christie and former Gov. Jeb Bush.
Hufstetler said he has no clear standard bearer in mind, though he also favors Jindal and Rubio.
“These are the types of people that need to step up and take leadership,” he said.
Add Buddy Roemer and Ron Paul and you've got a group as diverse as any cross-section of Democratic leaders. And that's not such a bad thing. We're all on the same leaky boat, but it would help us to look at a variety of solutions before we start to fix the problems.
Incidentally, Mr. Lumsden, newspapers, radio stations, and tv networks are businesses, not political organizations. Their goal is to make money, not to push agendas, and the way they do this is to increase viewership by creating conflicts (e.g. the so-called splintering of the Republican Party) where there are none. If you'd like to see what truly liberal reporting looks like, check out Amy Goodman's Democracy Now and contrast it with MSNBC or NPR.
Racist and hate-filled attack by you. Rather sad. If you had made the same racist attack and put any other racial group in it other than whites or Christians, the RNT would have deleted it and removed you as a poster.
1) Continue to gravitate to the extreme right and beyond.
2) Continue to exclude groups of people who are not white, heterosexual, and male.
3) Continue to promote intollerance.
4) Require FOX News, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin to be viewed in every classroom in America.
5) Continue to preach about the Constitution and then violate that very document whenever it best serves the Republican Party.
6) Emphasize Faith, Family and Freedom. Nothing else really matters.
7) Continue to destroy the public education system in favor of private schools where they can teach religion and hand pick the kids who go there. Minority kids need not apply.
8) Keep women in the kitchen cooking dinner and in the bedroom to perform their marital "duty" to men.
9) And finally, MORE guns, MORE Ammo, MORE assault weapons, and NO background checks and No gund restrictions for the mentally ill.
In other words, No Changes for the GOP
The Direction of the Democrats:
1. Continue to gravitate to the extreme left and beyond.
2. Continue to exclude groups of people who are white, heterosexual and male due to their hatred and revulsion of all three groups.
3. Continue to promote intolerance for all who hold traditional American and family values.
4. Require MSNBC News, Chris Mathews, Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell to be viewed in every classroom.
5. Continue to preach about the Constitution and then violate that very document whenever it best serves the Democrat Party or extremist far-left liberal views.
6. Emphasize Atheism, Gay Lifestyles and Liberal In-Your_Face freedom and nothing else.
7. Continue to destroy the public education system by throwing more money on a failing system and not looking at meaningful reforms.
8. Attacking women by belittling those who choose to be stay-at-home moms and calling mothers vulgar terms on all major liberal news and entertainment channels.
9. Choosing to disarm all American's and removing the right to bear arms from the American Constitution. (No 9 is bipartisan, with numerous people from BOTH sides opposing/supporting various measures...Only an idiot would think otherwise)
In other words, dude, your rant is a typical extremist liberal rant.
No real, meaningful change can ever come about politically until the nuts are removed from the forest. Plenty of radicals on both sides.
I wouldn't give you two cents for any politicians, right or left.
Notice the order of importance in Senator Loudermilk's campaign mantra. Family over Freedom, Faith over everything.
It's possible to oppose the directions serpenttoe mentions without embracing their opposite view. For example, keep ALL biased reporting out of classrooms (unless the class is studying media bias). Allow women to find fulfillment in the workforce OR in the home (or in both). Etc.
I hope this is what you mean in your last 2 paragraphs. But no, serpenttoe's comments are not necessarily liberal simply because they criticize the philosophy of some Republicans who call themselves conservative.
I wonder if you realize that "serpenttoe" is just "voter"/Karin back at it again?