Letters – Republican Party needs an overhaul

To the Editor:

Recent revelations from the Republican Executive Committee really have me concerned. It appears that the recent landslide by Democrat candidates has caused much anger and frustration within the party and much finger-pointing and blaming. I can certainly understand; it’s not easy to lose elections.

Introspection is a good thing, a

nd I really hope the Republican party will look deep into what has happened the last two years to really understand why the election went the way it did this time. Ever since the majority of Republicans was elected to the court in 2010, they have passed onerous regulations that the community came out in force to speak out against, engaged in cronyism and partisan politics, grown our local government to unbelievable levels, added immensely to the burden of county tax payers all the while belittling and demeaning anyone who dared speak out.

To illustrate, a Facebook page was created (by a county employee) mocking those of us who are fighting for private property rights. It is beyond disturbing that several Republican candidates belonged to this social media group, including a sitting commissioner and the Democrat mayor of Lockhart. Incidentally, the candidates who were members of this Facebook page lost their bid for office. However, I digress.

To add insult to injury, none of the Republican candidates publicly distanced themselves from the Bonn Administration, which only added to voter apprehension for fear of business as usual in county government.

My point is that we have a representative, republican form of government that is mandated by both the U.S. and Texas Constitutions, but the local Republican elected officials have completely ignored the will of the people and the law and have taken a dictatorial approach to governing. When you have Republicans voting straight ticket Democrat locally, it begs the question… what is going on with our party?

The elitists in the party can certainly blame those of us who have stood on principle and spoken out against the shenanigans going on within the Bonn administration. But, if they truly want to change the direction of the party and revive support for their cause, they need to look no further than the people they have chosen to support and run for office and hold the ones elected accountable for their actions. They need to get back to following the Republican platform and more importantly, the Constitution.

Now, more than ever, we need leaders with integrity. Unfortunately, we have elected officials and unelected bureaucrats maneuvering behind the scenes rigging things for personal gain.

Playing the blame game is a cop-out, and to ignore the results of the election defies logic. We have to put principle above party and not accept anything less.

I hope you will join with me to hold all of our elected officials accountable. After all… they are supposed to work for us!

Tracy Forester

Lockhart