August 20, 2012 05:18 PM UTC

Burning Daylight

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• by: American Patriot

A Commentary by American Patriot

The troubled GOP candidate Jared Wright is just the tip of the iceberg; the focus of the moment.  He is the current manifestation of a systemic problem within the GOP on the western slope.  

It’s his turn in the same barrel that Scott McInnis, Josh Penry. Laura Bradford and Craig Meis have all spent time in.  It’s getting pretty crowded in that barrel, since the Mesa County Republican Party violated their own tenets by supporting (with a wink and a nod) a third party candidate over their own primary winner, in the last gubernatorial election, which resulted in almost relegating the Colorado GOP to a minority party in the state.  Clearly this is not your Father’s GOP.  

What was once the super-power of western slope politics has been in decline since their public split with the local GJResult.Tea Party.  In what should have been a wakeup call to rank and file Republicans, a well advertised protest of Obama’s visit to GJ organized by the Mesa County GOP, their surrogate group Western Slope Conservative Alliance, American’s for Prosperity and Compass Co. only managed to muster about 60 GOP loyalists to participate in the event at Sherwood Park.

Conspicuous by their absence (locally) were the thousands of Tea Party supporters and conservatives who have taken sharp issue in Mesa County with the GOP’s failure to field or support viable conservative candidates.  The addition of Paul Ryan to the Romney ticket has sparked new hope in conservative voters that the GOP (at least nationally) has recognized the need to include conservative and Tea Party voters in order to win elections.

Unfortunately the local GOP appears to be dragging their feet in coming to the same conclusion, whether from fear of loss of control of their party or just the local party bosses failure to recognize the importance of the coming presidential election and the role (as a swing state) that Colorado will play in that election.

Republicans are headed for a train wreck and the current House Dist 54 Jared Wright candidacy viewed in prospective is simply a road sign warning of the hazards ahead for rank and file Republican voters in Mesa County and on the western slope.  A clear message to the GOP: You had better check yourself before you wreck yourself and take our nation along for the ride.

Time for the necessary GOP transition to the boots on the ground reality of the conservative movement is rapidly running out and that light the party bosses are seeing at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of the oncoming, rushing Obama train.  

In what was once seen as confident resolve by the GOP rank and file it is now taking on all the trappings of bullheaded stubbornness.  The next move is yours, Mesa County GOP.  Choose wisely.