According to a 19th-century legend, the Truth and the Lie meet one day. The Lie says to the Truth: "It's a marvelous day today!" The Truth looks up to the skies and sighs, for the day was really beautiful. They spend a lot of time together, ultimately arriving beside a well. The Lie tells the Truth: "The water is very nice, let's take a bath together!" The Truth, once again suspicious, tests the water and discovers that it indeed is very nice. They undress and start bathing. Suddenly, the Lie comes out of the water, puts on the clothes of the Truth, and runs away. The furious Truth comes out of the well and runs everywhere to find the Lie and to get her clothes back. The World, seeing the Truth naked, turns its gaze away, with contempt and rage.
The poor Truth returns to the well and disappears forever, hiding therein its shame. Since then, the Lie travels around the world dressed as the Truth, satisfying the needs of society, because, the World, in any case, harbors no wish at all to meet the naked Truth.
Election integrity, Pro-Life, rising Taxes, CRT in schools, Pornography in our libraries. These are just some of the very important issues facing our county and our nation, and they are the very reasons many of us joined the GCRP. We saw the 2020 election be stolen. We watched while our majority Republican legislatures around the country sat and did nothing. And we decided NO MORE! We, more than anyone, know that local action creates a national impact. So, in a world of sleeping citizens, we got up and started working to make a difference.
Local politics affects what happens nationally, but its biggest value lies in how we utilize the machinery of the local party to effectively organize thousands of voters, scattered throughout a massive number of precincts. Are representatives afraid of a handful of people who keep calling them to complain? No, because they know it takes a bit more than that to kick them out of office. But would a well-organized county, in which you could activate the voters of each precinct to send an email, make a call, or speak with their neighbor about a critical issue, make an impact? You had better believe it! Well-organized counties are a scary thing to any politician who wants his or her votes to remain secret and in the dark. If you don’t believe me, ask the SC Freedom Caucus members to tell you about how they were ejected from the Republican Caucus after posting images of everyone’s votes online. A well-run local party is of vital importance!
Most recently, a group of GCRP Executive Committeemen (ECs) called for a Special Called Business Meeting of the GCRP. Unfortunately, after the meeting was called, many of the current GCRP Officers focused their time and energy on telling GCRP members that those ECs calling for the meeting were “acting in bad faith” and instructed members to “vote no on all motions” presented, motions they’d never even seen! Officers also attempted to alter the form and structure of the Special Called Business Meeting in an effort to either cancel or otherwise derail it.
This behavior was indeed prejudicing the voting body of the GCRP, and clearly outside of the role of said officers. In other words, they engaged in the liberal tactic of dehumanizing their perceived “opposition.” Therefore, many members arrived at the meeting with preconceived notions and negative biases. They jeered and engaged in name-calling throughout the night. What had prompted those ECs to call the meeting in the first place? They were there to plead with the body to force the Officers to be transparent, and to advise the body that unless the actions they were calling for were taken, the SCGOP could exercise their right to dissolve the GCRP. Rules are in place for a reason, and they are meant to be adhered to. There ARE consequences for not following the rules of the state and county bylaws, regardless of what anyone may tell you. Yes, that’s correct. In essence, they were saying: “Please help us preserve this body by requiring the Officers to produce documents we all have a right to see and many of us have been asking for for five to nine months.” What types of documents? A budget that was approved but no one has seen, approved meeting minutes, and the lease on the building that the body is renting for headquarters.
The ECs carefully laid out the times they asked for the documents and the responses they received from the Officers. Responses that were often rude and condescending. Some of those asking were unlawfully banned from GCRP Headquarters. Although some in the crowd, trained to dehumanize their fellow members, seethed at those presenting motions, they could not deny the requests were common sense and voted for each one, thereby ensuring that if the Officers adhere to the motions passed, the GCRP will live to fight a little bit longer.
Unfortunately, some still question the usefulness of the night. They cannot see the importance of having their own house in order before they begin to point the finger at others. The GCRP cannot publicly condemn representatives for lack of transparency when our own Officers have not been transparent with us! When people make the claim that we are “wasting time” by focusing on issues that ensure our organization is being run properly because we have “bigger issues to deal with,” they’ve fallen into a logical fallacy. Wanting the GCRP to be run properly, and advocating for that, is NOT in direct opposition to fighting for important causes locally or nationally. In fact, they actually go hand-in-hand. Without a well-run local Republican party, many human resources are wasted, because they cannot be organized efficiently and used to affect change where they live. We can do BOTH! We can fight for issues that matter to us in our local government AND demand transparency and proper management of our party! Transparency leads to confidence and trust, and trust builds strong organizations.
Another line we’ve heard repeatedly is that the GCRP is an entirely volunteer organization, insinuating that requests for documents and fulfilling the day-to-day tasks are burdensome. Each person holding an office in the GCRP, from the precinct level to the GCRP Officers, ran with full knowledge of the level of time and commitment it would take to fulfill the role. If they feel they do not have the time to pull active records out of a file and send them to a duly elected EC, then possibly they should reconsider their ability to fill the role. In addition, there’s been an attempt to confuse the body by stating the ECs who called the Special Meeting don’t understand the difference between Archived and Active documents. To be clear, the body does not need to ask any past Chairmen for meeting minutes or records because they were recorded, presented to the body, approved, and are stored with the SCGOP right now. In addition, the GCRP is purposefully structured so that the business from each term overlaps. Therefore, the new Chairman presents the minutes of the previous term’s last Business Meeting to the body during the new term’s first Business Meeting. So, it was the responsibility of the current Chairman to present the January 31, 2023 Business Meeting Minutes to the body for approval at the June 5, 2023 meeting. Any statement otherwise could be considered a deflection from carrying out proper duties. Asking for active documents that should be at the fingertips of the Officers is not burdensome nor should that excuse be used.
Another tactic being used is repeated thanks to volunteers for work they’re doing on county causes as a not-so-subtle means of insinuating that the ECs who called for the Special Meeting are not actively engaged in those same causes. This is an intellectually dishonest and egregious move, especially since those using the tactic are aware that
the ECs are actively involved in a myriad of areas. All are actively working to reach their precincts and grow the party. Some dedicate time to Pro-Life causes: they counsel women considering life, organize baby showers for moms who choose life, mentor women as they walk through their unexpected pregnancies, etc. Some are actively involved in Medical Health Freedom: they track legislation every season, watch DHEC board meetings, engage in calls to action, and travel to the capital to testify against bad legislation. Others are actively involved in the School Board issues: they spend hours in meetings, work actively to make others aware of the inroads nefarious ideologies like CRT have made into our schools, volunteer for the campaigns of better school board candidates, etc. Not to mention those actively participating in the Candidate Recruitment Committee, working on committees that are vetting candidates, and working to fundraise right now for the 2024 elections. These are just some of the areas they are involved in. The tactic of dehumanizing those actively in this fight and minimizing the countless hours of great work they’re doing is beyond reprehensible, especially from leadership, and should be rejected by all fair-minded members of the GCRP body.
We should never forget that the Special Called Business Meeting would not have been needed if the Officers had simply provided the documents that should already have been presented and available to the body. Instead, ask yourself why some of the Officers chose to stonewall elected ECs and march the GCRP to the edge of being dissolved as a body right before a vital election year. Rather than being angry with the people who pointed out that the GCRP was at risk of being dissolved, perhaps it would be better to ask why some of the Officers let it get that way.
To quote a great patriot, don’t be discouraged when people prefer the well-dressed Lie over the naked Truth. We are still responsible for speaking truth to power! You may be called a “Sunshine Patriot” for your efforts, but I encourage you with this: If you choose to be a Patriot that Shines the Light of Truth onto issues that others are trying to hide in the dark, you can never go wrong!
Until next time.
