That’s right folks, I resigned as Chairman of the Hamburg IP. Several weeks ago I was asked to sit as Chairman to the Hamburg IP by Anthony Orsini and I accepted on behalf of all the hard working reform minded members of our town party. At that time I had every intention of continuing as Chairman through this election cycle and hopefully past the next.
I decided to get out after I started petitioning for candidates this year and heard all the discontent from those who are actually real IP members and not plants from the Democratic party. Although these plants had something to do with my decision it was mainly because I’m tired of beating my drum for reform and not getting any help from the very people who want and need it the most.
The Democrats in Hamburg have flooded the IP with transplants from their party the last 2 years and the Republicans haven’t responded in kind. I have preached to the Republican leadership that if they want a fair shake with upcoming endorsements then they needed to match with the same effort and effectively nullify the invasion of Democrats into the IP.
That never happened and even then I felt we could still win if the Republican leadership would at least take the Hamburg IP membership list to their own elected committee and find freinds in the IP to run as committee members this year. The local RP leadership basically put this off until it became to late to do anything about it. Now it is basically futile for me to run my 70-80 existing committee members because they would not be able to win enough seats to take this town away from the Democrats outright.
So the RP now needs to lay in the bed they allowed to be made. The Democrats will control the Hamburg IP for at least the next two years and their is nothing I can do to stop it. County Chairman Orsini is trying to pull a fast one on the county IP by getting the State IP to take complete control of our local matters. I feel this is just as bad as what the Dems are doing.
Because of all this I must follow my heart and resign as Hamburg IP Chairman. I would love to stop this dirty politics but I can’t do it alone and I refuse to bust my ass all summer for folks who won’t even help themselves. The RP has been warned of this day for the last 3 years and now it’s here.
The motivation for the State IP to get involved is pure and clear. The State IP leadership work primarily for the big name State Republican leadership and they are about to lose control of the State Senate. So the State IP leadership wants to control all endorsements inside counties with 750,000 people or more to ensure the Republicans get the endorsements needed to keep control of the State Senate. By doing that the IP leadership get to keep their own big paying jobs with the State. This also ultimately allows Orsini to name local endorsements as he sees fit. Otherwise known as a cease to democracy and an annointment of a party dictatorship.
If this action stands then it will not matter who gets elected to any town or county committee seat in the IP for at least the next two years. Orsini will effectively become a “King” and everyone else will not have any say. No executive committees, no local committees and no town chairman, just Orsini.
Because of the fall of true democracy in the IP I feel it necessary to change to the party that next closely reflects my political beliefs and that is the RP. I may still participate in the IP if things change soon but I don’t foresee that happening. It would take a concerted effort by the Hamburg Town RP to help find IP members willing to run as committee members to start with and a strong group of IP members willing to fight off the state wolves and allow us to have our local control back. I don’t think their is a chance in hell of either of the two happening, much less just one of them getting done.
So let me get this straight. You do not like the way things are going within your political party, so rather than standing on your principles and fighting forward, you are going to take your ball and go home (or to a different party).
Really? You have spent plenty of time railing against the leadership of the IP and now becuase things have not gone your way, you’re going to abandon your fight.
Even though I have never agreed entirely with your political views, I also thought more of you than to say you are a quitter. I figured you had more of a committment to your causes, and more integrity in your views, than to simply abandon your causes.
I guess I was mistaken.
As far as your excuse of saying that the people who would benefit most from your efforts not being willing to put in the work necessary to make those changes; cry me a river. This is the game. Politics is a game of persussion, and organizing those who’ve you persuaded to your point of view to work for that cause. If you’ve been unsuccessful in persuading/orgainizing those folks, don’t blame them. Instead you should ask yourself how can you better organize these people.
As far as your excuse of the structural difficulties of making any type of change; cry me a river. Every time someone has attempted to make changes in a Democracy, there has been strutural challenges. Think of slavery, womens’ voting rights, workers’ rights, or Jim Crow. I think those fights were a bit tougher than your fight to change things within the IP. The difference is that those who stood up for the aforementioned issues were willing to stick it out, fight like hell, and not take no for an answer. They also did not whine when a few things didn’t go their way.
There comes a time when you have to admit to yourself that no matter how hard you work or try to do what is right, you can’t make a change for the better by your self. I have been in this fight for just about 5 years now and I’m tired of doing all the work myself with nothing to show for it.
I have gone to the players in the major parties that need the system to change for their own benefit and they just don’t care. I have gone to the people in my party and they don’t want to get involved. I have tried to get people in my party to do what is right and they are all for themselves.
I figure at this point I can make more of a difference in the RP than in the IP. So I think that is where I belong. At least there is a team of folks who work to get things done and they do it as a team not as individuals all for themselves.
Sorry i disappointed you but I’m willling to bet you aren’t one of the few people who did anything to help in the IP.
So you are joining the party that, in your words, “local leadership basically put this off until it became to late to do anything about it”, “needs to lay in the bed they allowed to be made”, won’t make a “concerted effort to help find IP members willing to run as committee members”. It seems that you are going against your own principle as being a true “independent”. By my count this will be your third political party during the millenium. Honestly, I don’t get your reasoning.
You are correct that I am not one of the few people who did anything to help the IP. I am not a member of the IP. However, regardless of one’s political affiliation and/or views, I always admire someone who is willing to go against the tide and fight for their particular causes/beliefs. How else would this (at the time) experiment of America become what it has?
5 Years? Yeah, I can understand why five years can seem like a long time, but can you imagine being Dr. King in 1958? Can you imagine being Frederick Douglas when he was secretly learning to read as a Slave in his childhood, with the hopes that someday the abolitionist movement would take hold, and he could one day call himself free? Not that I’m attempting to compare the cause of reforming the IP with the Abolitionists or the Civil Rights movement, but I’m only pointing out these two people as examples of activists who faced incredible odds (and undoubtedly enormous set backs), but never swayed from their core principles and never backed down.
As far as going to the major players in the respective parties, I will once again go back to Frederick Douglas who said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand”. Don’t ever count on the powers that be. They all have something to lose by bucking the system that is.
People in your party not willing to get involved? Maybe those folks have something to lose. If they don’t, maybe they simply do not have the type of leadership qualities necessary to get behind reform propositions. Either way, why not reach outside of the box to bring new people in, and challenge those who hold committee seats but are unwilling to stand on their principles?
Making more of a Difference in the RP? These are the same folks that you stated in your original post were not willing to put in the work of recruiting and running folks in the IP committee spots. Their hold on Town government is tenuous at best. Based on their unwillingness, or inability to take on tough tasks like challenging sitting committee people in the IP, why do you believe that this crowd has the fortitude to move forward as a viable and legitimite reform party?
The bottom line is change is hard. Democracy is difficult. Only those who are completely committed to reform, willing to put in the work, and willing to tough out the hard times can make any real change.
I’ve enjoyed your blog, and (even though our political views very rarely line up) I’ve enjoyed the fact your willing to take on the establishment. Backing down the way you have gives me pause.
It gives me pause about your committment, credibility, and sincerety. Please prove me worng. Get back in the game. Do not take the easy way out!
Ford who made you stop? Who bought you off? Did you get a job with the town or county? Someone got to you. Your site has been VERY quiet of late and you are no longer speaking up at the Town Board meetings. They got to you, one way or the other. What do they have on you? Did they find something in your past that made you stop being the Town of Hamburg’s eyes and ears? Did the Big Tree Fire Department get you to you, all the stuff that you had on them maybe they got something on you.
FORD TELL US WHAT MADE YOU GO UNDERGROUND! THIS IN NOT THE fORD THAT WE HAVE ALL GROWN TO LOVE.
No-one got to me, so to speak. I didn’t get any job, no dirt on me. I’m just tired of trying to do the whole job myself. No-one said I won’t continue reporting on the political situation in Hamburg. I’m just disgusted with the process and the sheer laziness of those who asked for and need the help of the IP to get good candidates elected.
This will bite Walters and the RP in the ass next year if Orsini’s blatant attempt to stop the democratic process succeeds. The choice this year is support Orsini and his BS or go with Gaughan and the Democrats. Their aren’t enough real IP members stepping to the plate to help free this party.
I worked very hard to get 80 real IP members to join the town committee but the Dems flooded the party with 78 transfers last year and about 100 the year before. I can’t fight that alone. The RP needed to step to the plate to counter the move and they didn’t. Now they will pay by losing endorsements if Orsini fails.
I want to continue to fight in the IP but I see no end to this problem. I feel that if I join the RP, I can at least help real fiscal conservative candidates get elected. They will just have to do it without the IP line.
Politics is Jobs. Ford has now become Just another party (RP) shill, too bad, although, good for him, it’s about time he gets back to work.