I’m angry.
Right when we should be organizing to kick Dem derriere in 2010, a small group of people (who like to think of themselves as elite) put together a poorly written plan called Arizona Victory 2010 and try to foist it on the Arizona Republican Party in secret just prior to the state convention in January.
Worse, none of them are on the executive committee of the party (exceot one) and all of them are lobbyists, from outside of Arizona or work for one of the candidates!
Take a look at what got posted Monday to an Arizona-based, libertarian-leaning website (link provided below the quote):
The Arizona GOP will be taken over by the Agenda of “New American Century” with a teleconference vote of Arizona’s GOP leadership Dec 30th,… and there is nothing the rank and file Republican Activists and Elected Officers of the party can do about it.
Notwithstanding the obvious libertarian objection in the quote above, the concerns to Republicans, conservatives and AZGOP party grassroots activists should be obvious. There are so many issues I dont even know where to start.
First, where the heck did freedomsphoenix get a copy of this from?
http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Uploads/001/Media/Arizona_Victory_Plan_Draft_for_ExComm_091218.pdf
Second, note the stakeholder list, it’s the same old McCain crew trying to take over the party again and spend all the party’s money with no accountability and with no representation from the grassroots PCs and State Committeemen.
Third, note the cryptic comment about “holding the governor’s office”. Given the “stakeholder” list that includes no elected Republican party officers except for one, does that mean that they will be supporting John Munger against Jan Brewer? Does it mean that they will throw Dean Martin under the bus if he ends up filing to run?
Fourth, is creating a “division” of the Arizona Republican Party which behaves like a PAC even legal?
Fifth, why would we as a party permit the state party to incorporate the “worst of” into our Victory Plan? This plan includes the “worst of” Karl Rovian holdovers like Allan Philp and the “worst of” top-down authoritarian-style party management apparatchiks like Shiree Verdone and Lisa James.
Sixth, the plan appears to give this list of unaccountable and unelected “stakeholders” the power to spend party money in primary races, essentially giving them the power to anoint party-supported primary winners and losers not just as the federal level but also in state house and senate races.
Seventh, have the teaparty movement and the New York race taught us nothing? Protecting the same old retread candidates who brought us TARP (and yes that includes some Arizona Republican elected officials) and who voted for the largest spending programs ever (at the time under Bush) is not acceptable to the large and growing conservative independent voters who left the Republican party over the very shenanigans this group of “stakeholders” is trying to pull right here in this very “Victory” plan! Should a “Victory” plan not try to incorporate those teaparty voters as part of our plan to win in 2010?
Bottom line….. this is a bad plan.
State party officers, if you are reading this hopefully and presumably in time before voting on it today, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and come up with a plan that heals the party, not further divides it, as we enter this vital 2010 election cycle.
Please go back to the drawing board and come up with a plan that energizes the base to go out and do the groundwork. Please come up with a plan that takes the teaparty movement into account and brings those conservative independents back to us – a plan that will bring us fiscal conservatism and smaller government, both at the state and federal level. A plan we can all live with and a plan that will ensure Victory for Arizona Republicans in 2010.
Obviously, this does not pass the smell test for platform, grassroot Republicans. I have a vote and it will be a resounding “NO”. As suggested above, this may not even be legal and is an insult to bring it to our AZGOP Execs.
I am a grassroots PC from LD 6. I just want you to know that IF this happens to get passed…whatever, I am definitely leaving this party. I almost did before I found out about the PC Committeeman project. And I will be blanketing every neighborhood around my precinct with ANTI Republican information. Specifically, DON’T VOTE for John McCain…..or anyone he supports. I will NEVER again vote for the lesser of 2 evils. They are each equally evil!!
The State GOP has taken a lurch to the left under Pullen’s leadership, with Pullen so desperate to raise money he sold out to the McCainiacs for help fundraising. Let’s not forget that phony push-poll the State GOP solicited which found that a majority of Arizonans supported the 18% sales tax increase Gov. Brewer is pushing. At the same time, Rasmussen came out with a real poll showing that a majority of Arizonans OPPOSED the sales tax increase.
The State GOP has become largely irrelevant, the attrition there is terrible with employees quitting frequently, no one volunteering, sparse attendance at their Brown Bag luncheons. No one contributes to the state party anymore, most Republicans bypass it and send money to the legislative Victory Committee instead (http://seeingredaz.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/republican-%E2%80%9Cvictory%E2%80%9D-committees-will-bypass-state-gop/)
Tinkering with the rules to insure that McCain wins the primary over J.D. Hayworth is the death knell for the state party. It’s long past time for McCain to move on and for us to bring in a real conservative to represent Arizona. No one supports McCain anymore except a few wealthy party establishment types, and his back-and-forth on every issue, always pandering to the left and trying to get in the media spotlight, has Arizonans saying “enough!”
It’s time to start thinking about the next State GOP chair to replace Pullen. Elections are a year from January. Who would be good?
Folks- get with the program. We need to WIN elections. And we aren’t WINNING elections, when many of you GOP Activists/PC’s aren’t supporting Republican candidates because they do not pass your litnus test.
Take a look at the first two commenters: Marne Haney and Rolda “Don’t Vote for John McCain”. Rolda, let me ask you this- if Senator McCain supports every Republican candidate in AZ, would you vote Democrat? I think you may- or you may just as well, since you won’t be helping us.
Do us a favor- split to the Tea Party movement, take Sarah Palin as your leader and move on. Us Republicans need to REBUILD the Republican Party based on Republican principles and get away from those that consistantly try and attack it from within.
Adios.
Well if McCain didn’t win, how does that jive with sticking with him to … win?
Oh my gosh! How can we sack the clowns at the state party and replace them with our own clowns? We need to draft Shane right away! He’s our top RINO hunter!
The real problem is the McCain people just launched their take over and nobody is willing to stand up and stop them.
AZ-PC you are the type we need to move on. Yes, we have a lit”M”us test, it’s called the Party Platform. If you can support it, you have no business running as a Republican. McCain is the most divisive force in the Republican Party. He does not support the platform except to give it lip service at election time. He must go and many of us would welcome a democrat over McCain. There is little difference. He is best known for legislation crafted with Democrats and McAmnesty.
The State Party has lost it way. The support in the resent stalker-gate fiasco with the ED is a good example. People leading the Party have little to no integrity. Randy Pullen won for the same reason McCain wins. No viable opponent.
Wouldn’t it be fitting if McCain has to go out as a loser to a Democrat!
Rolda – stay with us and fight!
Jim Deakin has the signatures on the ballot. Hayworth can only ensure McCain wins. Hayworth is part of the 7th reason: who voted for the largest spending programs ever (at the time under Bush) is not acceptable to the large and growing conservative independent voters who left the Republican party.
Stop looking to the past “No Child Left Behind” “Patriot (flag@whithouse.gov Act” 6 terms 12 years 2.5 million piggybacked Amnesty ON HAYWORTH”S Watch.
Look to Jim. He has the answers. It may not be filled with insults however Jim is the first step.
Look, regardless of the reasons for content of the “victory plan” the votes on it are required by the bylaws that a quarum take place for which voting members include: the state elected members at large as well as the chair of each AZ county and their 1st and 2nd vice chairs. Since there are 15 counties and 8 congressional districts in AZ that equates to 15 counties x 3 chair votes per county plus 3 members at large per CD (that is 3 members x 8 CDs) which is a total of 45 chair votes and 24 member at large votes. If you feel this is a serious issue then CALL one or more of these people before this vote takes place and tell them your concerns.
sorry, comment #8 should read If you “CAN’T” support it, you have no business running as a Republican.
It would be a travesty if such a force took over the Republican party! What has been said is true, the Republican party needs to WIN elections! Conservatives all across the state and nation have stood up clamoring No More! Now, we can welcome them in and gain those independents or we can suffer another loss in order to stand by the “Good Ole Boys Club”.
Well, the good ole boys club has not won elections, it has lost them. Many of us in the past voted for them as the lesser of two evils, but now we have decided we will not do that again!
We want our party back and we want our state and nation back. Our stance has been joined by millions of others all across this country. We should be welcoming those people with open arms by offering them true conservative candidates.
I am a true conservative Republican and wish to win our country back, but I refuse accept a takeover of the party by “New American Century” or any other such organization of out of state people or those who work to skate political lines or pay back favors.
I would urge all to support Jim Deakin. His name will be on the Republican primary ballot and he has my vote.
Jeff -
So are you saying that this “Victory Plan” can be stopped by our elected GOP officials? Is that possible since it’s a “division of the AZ GOP”? Can you explain this a bit further?
In their Victory Plan Draft they say that “The key to the success of the Arizona 2010 Victory effort is an energized volunteer base.” Then they shoot themselves in the foot by planning to use over 3.6 million to actually continue “Politics as usual”.
Seriously.
The last question you failed to ask is which retread political consultant they have in mind as the Victory Director making $9500/month? No doubt someone has already been tagged for this position, but who is it and when would that person be announced?
Please remember that the platform itself does not demand agreement with each and every plank.
Please do not equate people that think AZGOP leadership is a disaster with those that support McCain. Probably some overlap, but be careful about the straw man argument.
What is The New American Century? What authority do they have? Sounds like none. If anything, the rank and file Precinct Committeeman need to know the Constitution much better and need to recognize spin and clever sound bites that typically lead to more socialism. Again, this group sounds like they have no real standing.
Onward…Jeff is saying that the plan can still be voted down by a majority of the State GOP Executive Committee. Calls should be going out to your county committee chairman, vice-chairs, and other local party leaders to indicate your support or displeasure for this plan. It can be stopped, but the usually unknown people at the county level need to be contacted.
I serve on the Executive Committee as an At Large member of CD-8. I have been exchanging emails on the 2010 Victory Plan the past couple of days. I suggested we consider the Plan at our State Convention next month and was told there isn’t time and that it is an annual budget item; therefore, under the prevue of the Executive Committee and we must act now to get started. Then I suggested the Chairman call a Special Meeting of the Executive Committee per the bylaws since it was a budget item and was told it wasn’t an annual budget item, I objected to the teleconference as a violation of the bylaws, and finally, I objected to a vote by teleconference as a violation of the bylaws. I object to this plan and I will voice my differences with it. There are some good parts of the plan, but unless substantial changes are made, I will vote NO. The Republican Party is bleeding because of “business as usual” actions such as this plan. I fear the Party just does not get it. This is not about Sen. McCain or out of town lobbyists, this is about returning to the principles the Party once held and bringing those who have left back in the process. This plan doesn’t do it.
Onward and the other Jeff -
Yes it can be stopped if that is what you believe should happen. I am a county chair and I will be on that call. I know of several others that will be on that call as well.
You need to contact your county chair and vice chairs and members at large – and if you do not know who they are, then I suggest you find out because these issues are too important to not have their information handy.
Also – please don’t abuse the right to have their information because they are people too who don’t get paid to do this – they do it out of their concern for this state and country.
Haven’t we had enough of McPain? I have. I am working against him and everything he stands for when he is in DC. He acts conservative as long as he is in AZ and as soon as he gets to DC he becomes a progressive democrat (in other words a communist). Now because he is up for election he is playing the conservative card again, but if you listen carefully to what he says and how he says it he is trying to rope us in again while not alienating zero and his crowd. Maybe we can have him run as a democrat.
Ron Harders
Thanks for the clue in that this violates the by-laws. I have contacted an attorney who will consider taking this up with out cost if necessary. It’s too bad the State Party feels the need to ram this down our throat like it was a bad health care plan.
Why do we have by-laws if they are to be ignored when inconvenient? FIGHT BACK PEOPLE! WE DON’T HAVE TO TAKE THIS.
Wow! If you had any doubts about how much the base hate McCain, they should be gone now. He must really be worried if he had to resort to this kind of Obama tactics.
I’m an independent in agreement with the thirty Republican governors who in 1994 said:”Federal action has exceeded the clear bounds of its jurisdiction under the Constitution and thus violated rights guaranteed the people.”
I know of NO Federal official from Arizona that has made an effort to support the pledge made by the thirty governors “to restore to the states and the people the prerogatives and freedoms guaranteed them under the Constitution.” WHY? Could it be because all Federal officials that are supposedly representing Arizona are RINOs who – though under oath to protect and defend the Constitution – have fallen prey to the eastern establishment and their ability to create ‘money’ from nothing and feed it to their minions?
I am one Arizonan (Bullhead City) that WILL NOT support any incumbent Federal official from Arizona regardless of political persuasion. The people I vote for must demonstrate knowledge of the Constitution and the integrity to honor it through their walk; not their talk.
But McCain always wins big in primaries and the general. It’s a fact, look it up.
What’s the big deal? The AZGOP can’t raise a dime on its own. Whose money are these folks going to spend anyway? It’s the money of the RINOs that “real” Republicans never miss an opportunity to denigrate. It’s their cash… “real” Republicans have no claim over these peoples’ check books. Get over it and grit your teeth through their pro-McCain bias and instead pocket all the benefits for 100%-certified-true-blue-real-conservatives that sneak into a GOP nomination at the primary.
Really, what are the “real” Republicans doing to take advantage of the opportunity Obama/Reid/Pelosi/Napolitano have handed the party?
All these political onanists can do is abuse themselves silly obsessing over McCain.
Let the scorn begin…
Roger – What is stalker gate??
I will not support McCain. He doesn’t support Arizona so I feel I don’t have to support him. I still can’t bring myself to vote for a Dem so I’ll just pass if he wins the primary.
The real problem here is the State Party trying to Obama us with this. We can complain all we want about Pullen, but remember who was the alternative.
The “Plan” was unanimously sent back to the drawing board for some major revisions. Good job everyone!
The alternative was Lisa James for gosh sake! With that said, Randy has worked hard for the Party and he certainly has done a good job of allowing everyone have their say at the Committee meetings. It is very unfortunate that someone sent the DRAFT plan to Freedom’s Phoenix. As pointed out in the meeting, that was not ethical and it was needless. The DRAFT plan was defeated by a unanimous vote and it will go back to the drawing board to correct many of the problems, along with others, that were pointed out in this blog. I hope the blog will write a new entry reporting that.
McCain, Kyl, Flake and Shadegg still think we are willing to be dictated to from the top down.
On Jan. 16th Maricopa County PCs will elect either the Joe Arpaio endosed slate of candidates or the Establishment endorsed slate.
Who’s winning? Top-down or Grassroots-up? Jan. 16th will tell the score real well.
The Joe Arpaio slate is also top-down, from Arpaio/Pearce/Haney. Who’s winning? The democrats. We are destroying ourselves.
You better believe this ole grama ain’t gonna let the likes of McAmnesty get back into office and screw the people. Right now he is the only one making noise so as to try to win over us seniors. The rest of them are mute. I say get rid of them all but for Trent Franks. I have had it and it is time our voices are heard and as an active Precinct Committeeman I am not taking it lying down. Watch out you rinos and open border types like Jim Ward. We won’t take it anymore. Pullen, Steele and all the rest of you the people will prevail and it is a hell of a thing when we’ve got to fight the libs in our own party in order to throw out the grandlib of them all in the WH.JD get off the pot if you aren’t gonna have a movement. We need committed conservatives to find their back bone and fight for our nation NOW!
#30 Joe, It is the grassroots-up which make Arpaio, Pearce and Haney popular.
McCain/Kyl/Flake/Shadegg know they have to engineer popularity for themselves. And you don’t need any more proof than the current controversy.
I’m glad “establishment” has become synonymous with RINO. It fits the McFour well.
AZ GOP is infested with McCain and his defenders. Retire McCain Now.
How convenient…just before the party election. The puppet strings are being pulled all right but it isn’t the so-called “elite” as some of you so love to believe and are so easily led to follow. It is the Haneyite/Ron Paul crowd who has made an unholy alliance to control the party, each in hopes of being the victor in the end to the demise of the other.
Will someone please read this for what it is…? It is at best a working document, posted by a LIBERTARIAN group used to do just what it is doing on this site…inciting further division within the GOP. Is there anyone who see that making public a plan, even unfinished, for our cycle is playing into the Dems? OR— developing a catalyst for certain folks to feel a need to maybe join a third party?
How gullible are you sheeple? Read this post…it is not a Pro-GOP effort. It wasn’t getting enough play on the LBT site, so they post on SA. The writer goes to great lengths to stir the pot anyway they can, most of it based on wild conjecture and emphasis on manipulating the reader.
This is, once again, nothing more than name calling and labeling in order to evoke negative connotations with no substance as a power play by a few who would rather see the party go down in flames, and the platform with it, than ever see John McCain win another election.
For all the talk of top-down dictators and “elite”, I have never seen a more vicious and destructive example than the Haney/Pearce/Arpaio sect of the party. I may agree with their political views 99.8% of the time, but that .2% will label me an infidel and open up anyone else who dares for attack.
If you don’t believe me…just wait for the responses to this post.
Witch! WITCH!!!! Burn the WITCH! BURN THE WITCH, ANN!!!!!!!!!
Isn’t it interesting that some nobody-troll who barely won a single county party election with 1,500 or so electors (after losing in his home district) suffers under the delusion that his version of political orthodoxy is more legitimate and more representative of the “grassroots” than McCain, Kyl, Shadegg or Flake who each have repeatedly earned renomination and reelection from polities ranging from hundreds-of-thousands to millions? The elite, indeed.
Let’s hope when the “real” conservatives betray their promise to support the party’s nominees this fall they continue to be as ineffective and irrelevant as they are today… in that way Republicans will beat Democrats anyway.
We have to stop the McCainiacs. They are tyring to run the party — into the ground. And put McCain man Jim Warring in as Treasurer insted of Thaeyer Verschour.
Jefferson, I’m betting on the grassroots supported Platform Republican Arizona legislative candidates to win contests in 2010 like they did in ’08 against Tony Bouie, Kevin Gibbons, O’Halleran, and the other forgettables.
Platform Republicans win. Moderates substantiate the independents claim that there isn’t any difference between the parties.
What’s with this fetishizing of the Republican platform? Isn’t it truly a “living document” that is regularly, every 4 years I assume, updated and changed? Or is it revealed Truth and etched on stone tablets? Republicans used to be hardcore protectionists who favored high tariffs. But that policy changed more than 50 years ago. What’s the non-RINO “platform” trade policy now? The GOP used to be the home of anti-Catholic bigotry that we “platform Republicans” continue to feel the sting of because of the adoption of Blaine Amendments (named after 1870’s Republican House Speaker James G. Blaine) that to this day frustrate school choice and bans private school vouchers is many states including Arizona. All this talk of “platform” Republicans is simply the latest club these dime store Stalionists running the county party use to justify their impotence and inability to be good stewards of the trust their positions require. Once they disagree with a key “platform” position in the future, they’ll find some other lame excuse to continue their jihad against RINOs.
Ann,
You are the one who needs to wake up. I am a part of the Republican Party. No Ron Paul fan here. The American people are sick of the top-down politics that just about happened with the attempted takeover of the party. If it had happened, we would have seen the destruction of the party. There are a lot of short sighted people who are trying to start a third party. There are an equal number of short sighted people to are trying to control us from the top down. How about trying to work with us and actually represent what we want. We are the grassroots and have a better feel for what people are thinking. Unfortunately for McCain, most of the grassroots people are over him and want him to retire. We don’t want to be told by the RNC that in order to get money from them, we have to support McCain.
I’m a Pinal PC. The draft plan is real. I got it yesterday and confirmed it with my county chair who got an earful from me on it. It is also confirmed by members of the executive committee (Ken (19), Jeff(20)). The key point here is the unmitigated gall of our GOP elected local, state and national offer holders to even meet and propose a top down takeover of the 2010 election that cuts out the PC’s and party’s grassroots. In AZ GOP still stands for “Good Old Boy” politics. Don’t like being dictated to? Then look at the stakeholder list, pound on them and take real political action against this group of arrogant wheeler dealers. PC’s should pound on this issue at their county meetings. The party PC’s can fix this mess. We have the opportunity to clean out the elected McRINO’s and people who want to dictate to the base in the primaries. We have the opportunity to fix county and state leadership in the party as those positions come up for a vote. Maricopa GOP leadership get elected on Jan 16. I know some of the candidates and they have an outstanding conservative group up for election. Pinal GOP leadership elections are this fall and you beat I’m going to look hard at who we should keep and who should get a boot in their backside.
Are you all serious? And this is exactly why you don’t get NEW Blood in the party. This is exactly why you are a bunch of old farts and will always be a bunch of white hair old republican males. This garbage you are spewing is making my head spin. And as a social and fiscal conservative 20 something year old female I am completely turned off by this talk and embarrassed to be part of this party. I thought I joined the Republican Party becasue they didn’t act like crazy liberals…but I guess I was wrong…:(
“The real problem is the McCain people just launched their take over and nobody is willing to stand up and stop them.”
And the best part is that no one’s coming to save you. They’re all “going rogue” and “working outside the mainstream” and collecting fat, easy paychecks without doing any of hard legislative work – and as a result you’ll get milquetoast GOP candidates that the Democrats will be able to knock down.
Your only hope is start a third-party. Basically burn the GOP down and start again. But I don’t think you’ve got the stones to do that – you’ll never be able to mentally handle short-term political losses for long term gain.
Well, people did stand up to them. And we will again. They have stirred up a hornet’s nest with this little trick.
You guys are smoking conspiracy crack. ALl this is is a plan to win. “Holding” the governors seat simply means not losing to the Dems in spite of our embarrasing RINO governor. These are all normal stakeholders, the location is at GOP HQ, and the PCs have to vote on this. What’s the problem? What I really like is the focus on winning because all we’re doing now is allowing our primary candidates to spend money tearing people apart. They still have to face the Dems. And have we lost the Republican base? Yes, but they aren’t conservatives. They are regular people and business people who want to talk about how we’re going to fix the economy and sick of hearing about everything else. No wonder we lost to Obama.
Sounds as though the “Good Old Boys” are worried and have every reason to be. Onward Patriots!
Henry,
It is the definition of winning that is the disconnecting piece. To the slash and burn, self-appointed purists winning is anything that defeats certain people…they care not what that does in collateral damage or if it is based on truth. Look back at what the Haney/Pearce/Arpaio sect did to Nancy Barto for having the audacity to NOT fall in lock-step based on her principles! Pearce sends out a diatribe linking her to ACORN!! Talk about killer. Now rumor has it Pearce is setting up a PAC to take out incumbents R’s who did not support him. The threats and actions of this band of marauders is without a conscience. Their right makes might style is all they need.
Sheriff Joe’s open endorsement of Napolitano for Governor…all but forgotten. But watch how quick they edit the tape of McCain speaking well of her for the DHS post. Context means nothing. It is a cult of personalities masquerading as leadership.
Worse than any perceived gain by attacking certain individuals in our delegation, the result of this infighting is causing discouragement at a deeper level. I’m a PC and just spoke with another PC last night who told me that she and her husband are quitting. They have tried, worked faithfully at the grassroots level for 4 years, but can’t take the posturing, small-mindedness, and vendettas.
Something has got to give. People that have old axes to grind need to call each other and actually talk, person to person. Make apologies where needed, eat crow where needed, but for the good of the party, stop infighting.
Ann, they lose me when they say they’d rather have a DemocRAT than McCain. That is ludicrous, considering what is going on in Congress today, pushing through their stupid Health Care bill that practically NOBODY wants, and in such a thuggish manner.
GOP Boomer Gal:
McCain voted for the stimulus, pushed Cap n
Trade before he changed his mind, was for amnesty before he was against it, wants to close Gitmo, etc. He needs to go.
I agree with GOP Boomer Gal, Bingo Henry and Carol. They are the only ones talking sense on here.
As a young PC myself it is discouraging. The hardcore self-claiming “grassroots” are pushing their own out and they don’t even realize it. Not voting for McCain or other politicians becasue they supported McCain is ludicrous. You think the alternative is better? Well look at what we got Obama. And our other options could be what, Terry Goddard? God Help us…
“The Klute” says it all: “Your only hope is [to] start a third-party. Basically burn the GOP down and start again. But I don’t think you’ve got the stones to do that – you’ll never be able to mentally handle short-term political losses for long term gain.”
If we take the four words “Republican in name only” seriously for what it means in American English… isn’t “The Klute” a RINO? Despite what some think, the Republican Party has never been a narrow, rigidly ideological party like European parties are. It has been a broad-based coalition party of the center-right where traditionalists, free marketeers and national security blocks come together to win elections. In America, we work out our governing coalitions before the elections within a two-party system where the center-right and center-left compete for the 20% in the “center-center” who haven’t a clue what they believe politically more than the latest fad.
“The Klute” and the so-called “Platform Republicans” can’t abide anyone who isn’t a 100%-er… and in so doing, they’ll repeat the electoral successes of other rigidly ideologically-based parties… like the Libertarians, the Greens and the Constitutional parties.
And the tea party folks… are they the core of a Tea Party ascendance as “The Klute” and others might hope? Maybe, maybe not. Be careful what you wish for “Platform Republicans”, especially on social issues like abortion, these tea party activists are no more in lock-step with the GOP platform than the RINOs you despise… most likely much less so.