Stalking the political elephant in the room

You may or may not have noticed that a libertarian coup has taken place in Alaska’s GOP. In April, the Ron Paul contingent staged a takeover at the state convention, complete with signs, chants and the shouting down of U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski and guest speaker U.S. Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming.

OK, you might ask, so what? Granted, the shouts and catcalls during Barrasso’s speech were a little like inviting a guest for dinner and having one of your kids kick him in the shin; a little embarrassing, but not the end of the world.

But why should any of us concern ourselves with this? In fact, I’m not even a Republican (that’s probably not a shock), so it would seem I don’t have a pachyderm in this particular fight. The fact is I, like everyone else in Alaska, do have a stake in these goings on.

I find myself in the awkward position of sympathizing with Randy Ruedrich. One of the items on the agenda was choosing a new party chairman for the state. Outgoing Republican chair Ruedrich is a back-slapping, glad-handing, smoke-filled-room denizen straight out of central casting. He also is someone who understands how the political sausage is ground and is OK with the idea that deals have to be made and no one person or party gets its way all the time. This last bit is what sets him apart from the populist Paulies who adopt more of a my-way-or-the-privately-owned, toll-booth-littered-highway approach.

Ruedrich, for all his faults, had no delusions about his profession. He was a political operative whose job was to get things done. He knew how to play the game, and he played it as rough as anyone. He also knew that compromise is not a dirty word. In fact, he understood that the only people who get their way all the time are called dictators. I think I’m going to miss Reudrich’s reasonable attitude. I also think that has to be one of the signs of the apocalypse.

Not much is known of the new chairman, Russ Millette, at least I haven’t been able to find much. But what is known doesn’t look good. He’s been linked to the organization givemeliberty.org, part of the We The People Project. Another member of this group is our favorite sovereign citizen Schaeffer Cox. That’s right, the guy currently on trial in Anchorage for allegedly planning the bombing of a federal building and conspiring to murder several judges and state troopers. Could it be that the new Republican chairman was pallin’ around with terrorists?

But wait, there’s more. The Paulies were all atwitter (pun completely intended) when it became evident that they had strong-armed their way into the party leadership. Tweets came flying out of the Anchorage Hilton ballroom and some of the best were published on the website themudflats.net. My favorite is:

“We’ve got the establishment shaking in their shoes! Do they really think they can hand us YET ANOTHER mediocre Status Quo puppet without any of us taking a stand?! This is OUR country, OUR money, OUR liberty and we’re taking it back! TO HELL with Romney, Obama, and every other puppet of the Status Quo! There is only ONE candidate in 2012 worthy of being called The People’s President: Dr. Ron Paul! It’s Ron Paul or NO ONE at all!”

This unsettling missive is why we all have a stake in what is happening in the Republican Party.

These Ron Paul firebrands seem to think that they are the real Republicans/Americans. Heresy will not be tolerated. It doesn’t matter that Paul placed third in the state caucus behind Romney and Santorum. It doesn’t matter that the majority of those in their party had no intention of turning the reins over to a populist zealot. For them, the Republican Party is theirs to do with as they wish. The Paulies know what’s best and dissension equals treason. They have been tracking this elephant for some time now.

Like it or not, Alaska Republicans nominated Mitt Romney — not Ron Paul — for president. Whether you’re a Republican, Democrat, independent or undeclared, you still have a right to be heard, but you don’t have the right to monopolize the conversation. Politics can be dirty, brutal and ugly, but it’s also an arena of competing ideas.

In order for that to work we all have to build on our victories and accept our losses. Even a political warrior like Randy Ruedrich understands this very basic element of a free society.

There I go again, singing the praises of Ruedrich. The apocalypse must be right around the corner.