Political Party Corruption

Both Parties are corrupt, but Democrats don’t seem to mind that their elected officials ignore the voters.  The role of the political party needs to be examined in all of its layers. 

Elected officials often choose their Party based on voter demographics.  If they live in a Democrat District, they will probably register as a Democrat candidate.  If the District turns Republican, they will switch Parties.  This kind of “pragmatism” brings their adherence to the Party Platform into question.  The end result in Georgia is that most elected Republicans do not base their votes on the Republican Party Platform.  They are Hybrid operators who could easily switch Parties. 

In Georgia, our “Republican” elected officials are 90% Hybrid.  The other 10% are Republicans, but are ignored by the 90%.  The Hybrids also try to defeat them in the Primaries.  It is clear that they are the outsiders.  The Hybrids campaign as if they were Republicans, but they aren’t and the never were Republicans.  They are equally dismissive of Democrats who submit wrongheaded populist Bills, but they also know that they are the same.

In Georgia, federal funds rule.  If receiving these funds required “human sacrifice” our Republicans would support it.  In fact, most federal funds come laced with freedom-robbing poison, but our Republicans don’t mind.  They believe their job is to bring home the bacon.  They are also anxious to subsidize wealthy corporations with tax dollars.  90% of the 300 bills passed during our annual 2 month sessions are designed to muzzle voter input to allow city councils and county commissions to do whatever they want to do.  It is government, by the government and for the government.  The other 10% are usually for special interests. 

UN Agenda 21 implementation goes on unimpeded in Georgia.  Our Regionalism bills were passed in 2008 and 2010 and nobody in the Legislature is interested in protecting citizens from this cancer. 

Nobody in the Georgia Legislature seems to know that excessive government subsidies does nothing but drive up prices.  That is particularly true for government funded education, healthcare and transit.  We need to remove State funding from these sand-holes.

The Georgia budget is based on wrong conclusions about responsibilities, outcomes and priorities, seasoned with a clear distain for the US Constitution.  Because they blindly follow the federal government’s wishes, Georgia Legislators allocate most tax dollars to subsidize public education and healthcare.  The rationale is that Georgia must raise its high school graduation rates to above 90% in order to attract jobs to Georgia.  This is nonsense. Education is the Student’s responsibility, not the States’. Public transit is so expensive, it would be cheaper for government to buy everybody a car.

The healthcare overspending comes from their blind-spot that makes them miss the fact that healthcare spending is a bottomless pit.  Add to that, their emphasis on replacing stadiums, subsidizing shopping mall development and pushing public transit, dangerous bike lanes, underutilized multi-use trails and greenspace and whatever it takes to “attract big companies” and “tourism” and you have it. 

In the meantime, needed water reservoirs are not built and highway expansion is decades behind, sewer treatment systems, roads, bridges and storm sewers are not maintained.  Selling Bonds doubles the cost of everything.  This is the end result of squandering tax dollars on unnecessary building replacement.   

There is dysfunction in the Party volunteer groups, because elected officials are Hybrids and volunteers are strangled by their own rules. The County level Political Party organizations suffer from control by the Hybrids, who want the status quo. But the Party volunteers are supposed to expand the base and the base usually wants change.  It’s easy for volunteers to burn out unless they are able to at least control the County Party organization. In Georgia, the GOP Reformers are closing in on the State-side GOP Establishment with 40% of the vote in 2013 and 45% of the vote in 2015. 

Nationally, the GOP Presidential front-runners are reflecting support for the GOP Reformers.  If we can replace enough Liberals in Congress, we have a chance to turn our sovereign bankruptcy around.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leaders