Amerikai Magyar Hírlap, 2013 (25. évfolyam, 1-50. szám)
2013-12-06 / 47. szám
AMERICAN Hungarian Journal Energizing California Republicans By Ernie Könnyű Our founding party father, President Abraham Lincoln, gave us, Republicans, the key to our political victories. Lincoln said, “Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.” That is the central theme of my speech to you today for it will, when we shall apply it to this state and to this Nation, bring us Republican victories giftwrapped by the people. Ever since last year’s Democratic victories the media from the New York Times to the Los Angeles Times, from the Huffington Post to the Sacramento Bee...you know, those trusted sources of political wisdom...have been writing about what’s wrong with Republicans and telling us that we need to be more like the Democrats. What is it that the liberals want us to copy or imitate? Jerry Brown’s nation leading California unemployment rate of 9.6% or Jerry Brown’s economic leadership that made California’s 24% poverty rating the leading state in the misery index? Probably not ‘cause those alone would put Brown’s re-election in danger. You see if those unemployed or living in poverty ever find out that Democrat Brown’s economic leadership left them with a ton of government programs but outside without hope of climbing the economic ladder they would dump him in a political minute. That’s right governor! Unlike Texas that invested successfully in jobs creation that shows a 5.4% unemployment rate, you wasted our tax payer funded government programs on your utopian dreams on. the environment and welfare for the asking. ' r *- *•' And turning to Washington, what is so great at the federal level that Republicans should adopt? Borrowing over a trillion dollars from China, doubling the National debt in just the last five Óbama years9 Or is the end all, be all Obamacare that the Lefties want Republicans to admire and despite over 5 million people having their existing health insurance cancelled and small businesses having no healthcare exchanges for another year even though their company paid health insurance is being cancelled everywhere. And speaking of ObamaCare not only is the new Federal health care insurance program overwhelmingly not working but those millions of cancellations are strong evidence proving that the existing American medical care system ranked the best but the most expensive in the World is being murdered over and over again. No my friends! Being more like the Democrats has hardly ever been and it is not now a successful solution awaiting Republicans. Have we forgotten that just about three years ago in 2010 Republicans campaigned on the conservative principles of individual liberty and constitutionally limited government led by our Republican Tea Party members and we won in the South, in the Midwest and the Mountain West. Why did we win in 2010? We promised the people to oppose ObamaCare, rein in out-of-control government spending, and roll back our regulatory burdens that are crushing our economy. And our 2010 returns were stunning wave! Yes! We won a net additional 63 House seats, 6 U.S. Senate seats, 19 state Legislatures, 6 governorships and nearly 700 state legislative seats. Now we are told that as a result of the 2012 elections where we lost 8 House seats net, two Senate seats and a 4% loss of the White House we must abandon Republican principles and become some bastardized party called perhaps Republicrats or, if we don’t comply, consign the party of Lincoln to history. Nonsense my friends! And...to the devil with the progressives. We must be our conservative selves and follow Lincoln’s dictum. Correct what the people want us to fix as much as we can facing a Demo Senate and the President’s veto pen. That’s how we will earn our victories in 2014 and beyond. If you want another example closer in history to us, let me talk a bit Of Ronald Reagan, the man I had the privilege to introduce during the DeAnza College Labor Day rally where he kicked off his 1984 presidential reelection. (See Könnyű below speaking that day using the President’s lectern.) Ronald Reagan guided us this way, “Our people look for a cause to believe in. Is it a third party we need or is it a new and revitalized second party, raising a banner of no pale pastels but bold colors which make it unmistakably clear where we stand on all the issues troubling the people. Let us show that we stand for fiscal integrity and sound money and above all for an end to deficit spending, with ultimate retirement of the national debt.” There it is again, the sacred word, “people” repeated by our great historic leaders, Lincoln and Reagan. Fortunately the people listened to Reagan and made him president. So it became morning in America. That would have never happened had we listened to those political soothsayers of the Left wanting to bust up our coalition by changing us into some sort of Republicrats. The logic of not being more like the Democrats is simple. Former Senator Phil Gramm nailed it when he explained, “Why would anyone want a fake Democrat when they can have the real thing?” To understand how Republicans must lead, let us travel down issues lane. I am a Hungarian immigrant who personally knows that America benefits greatly from the work and successes of immigrants. But we are told by these same liberals that Republicans must go all the way with immigrants and change our position on amnesty now and strong border security. Why? Because, they say, we are alienating Latino voters. It is true that Latinos are a growing force of a third of California and 10% of America who voted 71% for Obama. It’s a public secret but political analysts also note that in 2012 Romney won the Latino vote among those Hispanics with incomes of $50,000 or more. That’s right. Latinos are disproportionately poorer than the general population so they vote disproportionately more for Democrats just as non-Latinos do. Now you will better understand why Republicans such as Republican Senator Marco Rubio in Congress and others like me support comprehensive immigration reform but we are insisting that undocumented immigrants wait some 10 years for citizenship papers. What about the Republican war on women say the Libs. First, that is transparently as false a claim as one can make in politics because facts deny that falsehood. The 2012 presidential exit polls showed that married women did not believe that lie because the majority of them voted for Romney. I have been on the inside of politics at all levels and all I ever heard was advice and debate about how to attract more women to vote for our candidates. There was no war on women ever except in the scheming minds of some Democrats...and I emphasize the ’’rats” part of that word. We know, as the old saying goes, that the hand that rocks the cradle rules at the ballot box. So, the Republican commitment to support women in their quest to burst through the glass ceiling in the workplace continues. Three of our four registered Republican daughters are businesswomen with two excelling and being paid very well in a traditional male dominated post, marketing electronics. So you ask, if people are the key to victory.. .and they are...what do the people have in common with Republicans? The 2012 exit poll voters agreed with us on the need to amend or repeal ObamaCare. They agreed with us on government getting too big and doing what should be left to businesses or individuals. They agreed with us on stopping tax increases by a 2-1 margin. They also agreed that, “things in this country today are seriously off on the wrong track”. Ironically, these same people also agreed to elect Brown and re-elect president Obama even though these are the leaders taking them down the wrong road. As to Obama, his popularity is down into the 39% to 41% range mostly because he told massive untruths about ObamaCare and because it is not now working successfully. The generic Republican Congressional candidate on the other hand is now up leading the Democrat 43% to 40%. Thanks to Obama’s failures our candidates are winning on the issues again. That’s right! The people do not love us yet but Republicans are the ONLY ALTERNATIVE to Democrat failures. So we are again favored. And that’ll stay and even improve as long as we stay true to Republican principles. And we must stop the Republican coalition busting quietly going on with BOTH the Republican Left and the Right. On the Left. Several months ago one of our County Republican Central Committee members told me at a fundraiser that he and others believed that we ought to kick the religious right out of party if we intend to survive. When people innocently say that, they don’t know or have forgotten that we did that in 1976. Republican low balling of God by ignoring the voluntary school prayer movement helped our country elect the smiling and all of a sudden God loving Jimmy Carter. Of course, those southern Democrats have no problem liking God. Let us remember another political fact. Throughout the country, those Values Coalition Protestants, those Evangelicals, those Southern Baptists and those charismatic Catholics, they hardly ever vote for a Democrat and mostly they support Republicans. After all they ask, what is wrong with voluntary school prayer? Look! Prayer never hurt anybody. On the other hand I am convinced that our family prayers to mother Cabrini, and to Mary, mother of Jesus, helped our family emigrate from Hungary and come to America. I say you cannot build a Republican Majority by systemically ejecting any of the significant parts of our coalition. You build by adding...not subtracting. Some Right Wingers have called for expelling or marginalizing moderates, sometimes expressed by calling people RINO (Republican in Name Only). That kind of name calling hurts the party, especially the moderate businessmen and business women. Throughout the Nation these business people are mostly Republicans...and quite a few are donating Lincoln Clubbers...because of December6,2013 our Party’s strong support for free enterprise. For the first time in American history, young people face a bleaker future than their parents enjoyed. The golden riches that characterized California are gone as California has become the highest unemployment state with the largest population of poor people...our Census Department cited poverty rate is 24%, the highest among the states in our country. And Jerry Brown is squandering our tax dollars, for example, by trying to prevent global warming through billions of dollars of tax increases on our utilities through forcing them to bu so called carbon credits which raises our energy costs both at home and our businesses. That means your utility bills dear ladies and it means Silicon Valley electronics companies’ utility bills. What’s weird about that AB 32 spending is that even Jerry Brown and other Democrat leaders admit that the billions of tax dollars will have been wasted over the next ten years on buying carbon credits will not mend global warming. Just this past week alone, accordihg to the Sacramento Bee $297 million in carbon credits was auctioned off by the state. Yet, it will not even cure California warming. They say they are just doing the right thing. I say nope, and let me repeat, those wasted AB32 tax billions won’t cure a damn thing. Republicans say let’s spend those enviro billions on creating business based jobs in California. Let Republicans fix our 9.6% unemployment and 24% poverty rates dear people! Our party is repairing itself bit by bit in the Golden State. In our county a redeemer has surfaced, our G.O.R County chair, Charles Munger Jr. who has been a godsend to us such as when he funded by tens of millions the fight against the Brown tax increase and the fight to keep government unions from taking the taxpayers on too much of a ride. It is no accident that ethnic leaders are on the rise in our party. These candidates will bring many of their ethnic followers into our party. One of the three 2014 Republican gubernatorial candidates, former Lt. Governor Abel Maldonado, is of Hispanic heritage. Because he killed his chances with most conservatives by supporting Arnold’s tax increases, Abel’s only hope in getting into the governor run-off is heavy Latino support. He will bring more Latinos in our party. Another Republican candidate for Jerry Brown’s job, former Bush and Obama Administrator, the Indian-American Neel Kashkari is of Asian heritage. He is focusing on the 24% of Californians who are in poverty saying to them that he, a Republican free enterpriser, can do better for them than Brown. Even Tea Party favorite, Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, is running a campaign video for governor ad featuring his Filipina wife and talks about jobs creation that will help all Californians. Yes! Republican candidates are appealing to all races and economic strata to win, especially so in ethnic rich and poor people rich California. The hallmarks of our free society are the opportunity for happiness, fulfillment and prosperity. Without that people-caring direction, without the bold colors Ronald Reagan said we need to paint, the Republican Party has no real chance to be redeemed, energized or shine again. In Congress I served with the bombastic Texas economics professor, Representative Dick Armey, a former majority leader in the House. He explained why Texas elects so many Republicans and why our Bay Area Republicans do not have a single Congress member, state senator or Assembly member out of the current 24 office holders. Not a single one. Armey said, “When we act like Republicans we win. When we act like Democrats we lose.” I liked Conservative Margaret Thatcher enough that I gave our four daughters her biography to study and emulate. She put winning in politics this way, “First, you win the argument. Then you win the vote.” We conservative Republicans will not win the election war until we win the battle over our principles for that is the argument we must win. Our candidates must learn to fight boldly on those selected Republican issues the people admire. If I offended anyone here by not being sufficiently moderate for some let me tell you what Ronald Reagan taught us on division among the Republican ranks. The great communicator said, “The person who agrees with you 80% of the time is a 100% friend, not a 20% traitor.” Let this Republican crusade awaken in the heart of Silicon Valley with the same success as Silicon Valley’s Apple that started here in a garage and grew to be America’s largest company measured by capitalization. Let our teachings spread throughout California and this Nation just as our technology conquered America and the World. If we communicate our principles effectively, we can compete in every corner of the country including Democrat leaning Silicon Valley. In a deep blue state, Chris Christie just proved that a Republican who wins the political argument can win the governorship. A decade or so ago that ego driven Arnold proved in California that a Republican who can win the argument can win in our state. Of course, aged as I am, I am also living proof that a Republican who can win the argument in Silicon Valley can win in the race for the Assembly and for U.S. Congress. Victory is our Republican challenge! And we will achieve that for salvation of our state and our country is at stake. Help our Party energize our people who think like we do. Lead if you can. California needs an effective two party system that it does not now have. YOU can give that to her! God Bless California! God bless America! God Bless America! * * * Ernie Könnyű, Republican of San Jose, is a Hungarian immigrant, a retired Air Force Major and former member of the California State Assembly and the U.S. Congress. He gave this speech at the December 5, 2013 meeting of the Silicon Valley Republican Women Federated. Congressman Könnyű is available for public speaking engagements with those organizations interested in reviving an effective two party system in California. Contact him at tweet @KonnyuMC or by email at konnyu@live.com.
