Feeling Politically Helpless?  Try This | Eastern North Carolina Now

Feeling Politically Helpless?  Try This

BY: HOOD RICHARDSON

A majority of the population of the United States is enraged.  I talk to many people who are depressed.  They may not know why but they are.  I feel their pain.  I feel like a leaf in a huge political tornado.  Never, in my many years on this earth have I felt so helpless and bewildered.

We have an opportunity to make a change in our political situation coming up on Saturday March 5^th.  The Beaufort County Republican Party holds their annual convention beginning at 8:30 A.M. at Southern Acres near White Post.  At a later date, there will be a district convention and a state convention.  The Democrats will do the same thing, though on a different schedule.

This is how politics work.  If you want to multiply your influence on how liberal or conservative your party is you need to participate.  Attend the meeting and become a member of your precinct committee.  The precinct will nominate voting delegates to the County Convention which begins about 10:00 AM the same day.  The County Convention nominates delegates to the District Convention and the State Convention.  This is true of all counties for both the Democrat and Republican Parties.  Do not worry about not being selected to participate.  I have never seen all the delegate or alternate positions filled.  It’s just important to show up.

Your influence on the party platform, and the quality of candidates who run for office will be felt by how you vote at these conventions.  If you do not like RINOs (Republicans In Name Only),  this is your opportunity to do something about it.  I can tell you, based on many years of experience, that liberals and RINOs know how to get their way. They always show up.  Do not allow them to intimidate you during the meetings.

One of the reasons we have so many RINOs running and fail to carry the conservative banner high is because the RINOs pack the conventions.  All of them will tell you they are very, very, very conservative.  Take it with a grain of salt.  During the past ten years I have seen many people show up that I have never seen before, do not know and have never seen them again.  I have had many of these people tell me that they have only lived  in Beaufort County two, yes two, years and they are there to put down the conservative element.  They were recruited and lied to by the RINO element on the Beaufort County Republican Executive Committee.  Do not allow that to happen again this year.  Showup and assert your rights.

If we want political change all the way from Beaufort County to Washington, DC we must change the people who are running government.  Continuing to return them to office will only produce the same results we now have.  One of the popular definitions of insanity is:“to continue to do the same thing while expecting different results”.

We now have a socialist government that is communist leaning.  Simply changing the people we are electing to office will change government.  If changing politicians does not make enough change, we will change them again.  Ninety percent of our sitting politicians should be turned out of office in the 2022 elections simply because they allowed the socialists to take over.  This will be a “Throw the bums out election year”.

On election day many people just vote on the basis of name recognition.  They know very little about what has actually happened in county government, or state government as well as the national level.  That’s why the pundits talk about the “power of incumbency.”  Too many people simply do not do their homework to check to see what kind of record these politicians have accumulated.

In Beaufort County it is dangerous to vote along party lines.  Just because a candidate says he is a conservative because he/she if a registered Republican means very little.  The proof of that statement is the Gang of Four on the Beaufort County Commission.  They pretty much vote alike.  Yet, two of them are Democrats and two are Republicans.  So that means either there is no difference in the principles of the Democrats and those Republicans that vote with them or somebody is lying to you.

We do not have, nor have we ever had in a long time, conservative county government.  Yet most people in Beaufort County are conservative.  So what is going on?  The answer is simple:  the candidates who claim they are conservative but vote with the Democrats are lying to you.  Don’t you think we should give honest to goodness conservative government a try?  If you believe that, you should find out who is conservative and who is not and only vote for conservatives…up and down the ballot.  We only have to elect four conservatives to change county government.

The Republican Executive Committee dealt with the issue of vetting candidates during the February meeting.  The RINOs are fighting against any vetting.  Not vetting candidates allows them to get more RINOs elected.  During the past several years we have had Gary Brinn, Frankie Waters, Ron Buzzeo and John Rebholz elected as commissioners.  I have heard all of them testify as to how conservative they are.  All four of these commissioners have formed an alliance with the two Democrats on the Board and regularly have voted with the Democrats on the majority of issues.

Presently we have five Republicans and two Democrats; Jerry Langley and Ed Booth.  Langley and Booth joined Frankie Waters and John Rebholz to elect Waters Chairman and Langley Vice Chairman.  For the past ten years Democrats Langley and Booth have had more to say about spending and taxes than all the elected Republicans.

The first time Frankie Waters ran for office he refused to answer a series of questions presented to all candidates by the Republican Executive Committee.  Fake Frankie had been a registered Democrat until about 90 days before he registered to run as a Republican.  Frankie could not afford to answer those questions truthfully or he would have exposed himself as a Democrat.  He has since proved he is a Democrat by his votes.

Frankie Waters has managed to destroy the Belhaven hospital, degrade the qualityof the filming of commissioner meeting to the point that very few people watch them and  Frankie has supported increased spending, and a huge increase in the number of county employees.  He is a supporter of Sheriff Ernie Coleman and his corrupt management.

I have served on county executive committees in three states.  The vetting of candidates has always been an important part of the Executive Committee.  Executive Committees are charged with the operation of the party, whether Democrat or Republican, during the absence of the convention.  It is their responsibility to make sure true Republicans are recruited to run for office and to challenge those who have inferior credentials.  It is not their job to elect RINOs.

The recent vote of the GOP Executive Committee to vet candidates failed by one vote.  So, now, we can have fake Republicans running un-challenged for any of the vacancies in the November elections.  Help make change.  Almost all change in political policy starts on the precinct and county level.

Registered Republicans do not need an invitation from anyone to attend the Saturday March 5 meeting at Southern Acres of Bath beginning at 8:30 AM.

You do not need an invitation to attend the precinct training session beginning at 10:00 A.M. and lasting one hour to be held at Republican Headquarters in Pamlico Plaza  fronting on Hackney Avenue on Saturday February 26.

If you are frustrated, come out and help make a change.