The following is an open letter written in response to the speeches given by the Republican minority party leaders in Congress, Rep. John Boehner and Sen. Mitch McConnell, on Friday, Feb. 27, at CPAC 2009 held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. Both speeches were broadcast on CSPAN and the video archive can be seen here.
Dear U.S. Representative and Republican Minority Leader John Boehner
& Senator and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell:
I write to inform you that you are fighting a lost cause. In your “rousing” speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference today, Feb. 27, you showed you still hold the flame for that zealous right-wing idealism. Good for you, but I’ve got news for you: The Republican party will never reclaim power in this country. At least not if the 35-and-under set has anything to do with it.
Republicans ran this country for eight years and during that time managed to start two wars, wreck our international reputation, strip hundreds of rights from all Americans, authorize and sanction torture, roll back restrictions on mercury and other toxins spewed into the air we breath, beat the drums of fear instead of hope, distort the truth about global warming, divert education dollars into private standardized testing companies instead of actual schools, tank the U.S. economy twice, and lied through your teeth about every bill you passed and action you took, claiming they were for the common good when they were really to line the pockets of your richest friends.
For these sins against America, and no other reason, your party is finished.
No amount of cleverness in your emerging candidates or tenacity toward upholding your extremist value system will help you. It’s time for you to accept your fate as the minority and start serving the Common Good with few seats you still hold. We Americans all know it is your vocal obstinacy toward the current effort to revive our economy that is driving down our stock values and vaporizing our jobs. We all know you are the ones who are unable to be team players in face of crisis — to sink your teeth into the real issues and come up with viable solutions. We all know that your party is so far-right ideologically that it was the one that couldn’t even take one pragmatic action that would benefit everyone.
You spoke much about the future. You want to foment a Newt Gingrich styled “come back.” You long for that near-omnipotence you abused over the last eight years. But, I’m so sorry to inform you that Mitch was correct, the Republicans have become a regional “minority” party — and one, I should add, that will soon split. You think you have a communication and strategy problem and point to your new interest in Obama-style social networking technology and tactical training as your answers. Guess what. More communication won’t help you out of your circumstance. Everyone has heard your message — it drove us crazy over the last eight years – and we hate it. Your “message” is destructive. From 2000-2008, it hurt us by weakening our standing in the world, stomping on our rights, and robbing a generation of $12 trillion (Mitch, you need to add more than the Katrina “response” and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan).
CPAC Republicans, I regret to tell you that you have no place in our future. Your value system is misguided and selfish and they are considered wrong in every state of the Union. Mark my word, the majority will vote against you again in 2010 and 2012 because we intend to keep your “failed policies of the past” right where they belong — gathering dust on the pages of history written about the first dismal decade of the 21st century.
It’s time to give up. we no longer require your services.
Sincerely,
The American People
