Recently, I spoke, along with U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint and a bevy of other conservatives, at a Colorado political rally in support of Senate candidate Ken Buck, a candidacy I have supported vocally for almost a year. The reaction to my remarks demonstrated once again that even Republicans, and, yes, even conservative Republicans, have their own catechism of political correctness.
At that rally I said that, in my opinion, President Barack Obama poses a greater threat to the Constitution and to our freedoms than al-Qaida. Al-Qaida is an avowed enemy who wants to kills us, but we can mount a defense against avowed enemies like al-Qaida and radical Islam. But it is far more difficult to defend against an enemy of the Constitution who sits in the White House.
The really odd thing about the current political climate is the enormous chasm that exists between the complaints and criticisms of Obama from Republicans on the one hand and the solutions offered on the other. When anyone proposes a solution that is commensurate to the extreme dangers posed by the Obama regime – that is, launching an impeachment campaign – he is ridiculed as an extremist or someone who has gone “off the reservation.”
A similar situation has developed in Colorado over the past two weeks in the race for governor. The two candidates competing in the Aug. 10 Republican primary, former Rep. Scott McInnis and businessman Dan Maes, have both been caught in serious ethical lapses that render them unelectable. There is no way either of them can beat the certain Democratic candidate, popular Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. But when I propose a solution that would give Republicans a fighting chance to win that election in November, it is dismissed as unrealistic and unworkable.
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The solution I proposed has two parts, each of which is moral, legal and politically doable. The winner of the Aug. 10 primary should announce the following day that he is withdrawing from the race and asking the state Republican Party vacancy committee to select a new candidate who is capable of winning the election. That committee could draw from a list of four or five veteran Colorado Republicans, all of whom would have a better chance in November than either McInnis or Maes.
And here’s the second part of the political solution to this unprecedented problem. If the two candidates do not agree to withdraw and let the party select a new candidate, I will run for governor of Colorado on the American Constitution Party ticket.
The obvious question is: What are my chances of success as a third-party candidate? My answer is this: Whatever the odds against me in that scenario, they are better than the odds of the Republican Party’s victory if McInnis or Maes is the candidate.
When the road you are on leads only to certain defeat, it’s time to try an unconventional path, one that at least offers the chance of victory.
I would much prefer that the victor in the Aug. 10 primary turn to the state Republican Party and allow the selection of a new candidate. Yes, I might be one of the half-dozen candidates considered in that process, but I am willing to abide by the choice whoever it is and fully support the individual selected.
Asking the winner of a state primary to immediately step aside has been criticized as “unrealistic.” Yet, stranger things have happened in politics. Why is it “unrealistic” to ask these two candidates to do what is clearly the right thing to do – right not just for the Republican Party but for Colorado and our country? Is it “realistic” to expect thousands of party activists, tea-party patriots and independent voters to get behind a candidate who has absolutely zero chance of defeating a popular Democratic candidate? While my proposal is certainly unconventional, it is far more realistic than the alternatives.
Our nation is facing unprecedented challenges and dangers because political leaders in Washington, D.C., have failed us. We have a chance in November to set our nation and our states on a new path, the path of fiscal sanity and common-sense solutions. Should we not ask and demand that leaders and candidates for public office think “outside the box”? Is it not time for creative and courageous solutions, not business as usual?
