{"id":351,"date":"2007-03-15T07:31:42","date_gmt":"2007-03-15T12:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/?p=351"},"modified":"2007-03-15T07:32:38","modified_gmt":"2007-03-15T12:32:38","slug":"who-left-who","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/?p=351","title":{"rendered":"Who Left Who?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sen. Mike Williams, of Maynardville, has left<\/a>\/quit<\/a>\/defected<\/a> (depending on which paper you read) the Republican Party.<\/p>\n

Williams says he hasn’t changed; the Party has:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Some in the party are leading us down a path to bitterness and divisiveness and in doing so have left me and the people I represent behind,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Williams said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We have not left them. They have left us.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

In 1993-94, I chaired the local Republican party through that year’s historic victory — an interesting 12-year ride which came to an end last year. Back then, it was very important to Republicans to be the party of the “big tent,” to allow for a great deal of diversity of thought while coalescing around a few basic principles: that government should be smaller and more focused on its core missions, that government should do only what people cannot do well for themselves, and that local governments should be empowered because they are closest to the people.<\/p>\n

But just a few years later in the late 1990’s, change began taking place at the local level. The subsequent party leadership insisted on more ideological purity, shutting out anyone who differed on any issue — especially socially conservative issues that really run contrary to the principle of the government not doing what people can do for themselves (make moral decisions). I thought this was an aberration, a personality problem more than a change in the party; I did not think it related to power, as the new local leadership was completely disconnected from our state and federal Republican elected officials.<\/p>\n

However, I’ve seen that change creeping up at the State level as Republicans squeaked out a majority four years ago, then accelerate with the election of a Republican Lt. Governor this year.<\/p>\n

Power changed the Republican Party at the national level; exercising and expanding that power seemed to become more important than adherence to the principles that put them there in the first place. Losing power changed the Democrats too — after a while, it made them more agile, more willing to be open to a wider variety of voices in order to grow.<\/p>\n

I think that power has changed the Republican Party at the State level as well, and I don’t like the change. Yes, we should have a Republican Speaker in the Senate, and we do. But that does not mean that the Party should clamp down like a vise on any divergent ideas or votes.<\/p>\n

I don’t know what constituted the breaking point for Mike Williams, but I’ve known him long enough, and I think well enough, that I’m gravely concerned about what may have been going on behind closed doors to make him decide he didn’t want to be part of it any longer.<\/p>\n

Our collective strength — whether as a nation, state, political party, or community — lies in our ability to maintain our individuality, yet work together on areas of agreement, while negotiating to find common ground in our areas of disagreement. Sure, it’s messy. But it works well when allowed to work as it should.<\/p>\n

I hate to see the Republicans shoot themselves in the foot so early in the process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sen. Mike Williams, of Maynardville, has left\/quit\/defected (depending on which paper you read) the Republican Party. Williams says he hasn’t changed; the Party has: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Some in the party are leading us down a path to bitterness and divisiveness and in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}