Zachary Earl Smith

Hello readers, this will be my first real personal blog to my new web site, so this may get interesting. I was going to open with ‘greetings Zak fans,’ but then it occurred to me that not everyone reading will be a fan and or may change their minds after reading this blog. A mild attempt at humor, meh, although it is my goal hopefully to have this post be something resembling constructive and thought provoking if not a little informative.

Perhaps some criticism is best left behind closed doors, but then again sometimes if things are ever going to change someone has to be brave enough, or just dumb enough to be the first to speak up. I certainly don’t want to be ‘that guy,’ but considering how many people express the same frustrations I am thinking when no one is around to hear, well it troubles me that more action hasn’t taken place yet.

I’m talking about the Maine Republican Party, its state committee really, and the general attitudes that seem to dominate it. Most recently anyway my frustration and some anger comes from the recent cancellation of the state committee meeting, the one that was to be in Fort Fairfield coinciding with the Potato Blossom Festival. We in Aroostook County don’t complain about driving to every single meeting down in Augusta, we just bare it and hope/pray that the other people in the committee appreciate our sacrifice. I now truly believe that not only does much of the committee not appreciate us, they don’t care. The committee only has to once every two years, once, make the same journey that we here in The County have to for every single other meeting. It is insulting that they can’t just once, just once make the drive, are we so much less then them, are they some how more entitled or important then we are? I do begin to wonder what rationale the rest of the committee used in deciding why they wouldn’t come up. What ever reason they used how is it any different for us here, why are we expected to be happy every time about coming down, especially now when a good number of the committee seems to make it obvious we don’t matter to them. To those who were planning on coming up I thank you as this is not directed at you, but I am referring to a pretty large number it seems, as it was clear we weren’t going to have a quorum or anything close to it.

These same people still wonder why this party is still in the minority, well have you looked in a mirror recently? While the Democrats vigorously go after every corner of the state and sink us into ruin, we Republicans seem to be content with warring between our internal factions. We seem to be more focused on seeing the different groups within the party as targets of opportunity, rather than focusing on what it is we have in common, what made us all join the Republican Party in the first place. Instead of finding ways to recruit and enfranchise people, we drive away, purge, and disenfranchise people to go and stay away. Then we actually have the audacity to wonder why we are still in the minority after nearly forty years. I think the answer is quite simple, attitude. It is clear that our attitude is a losing one. A large number of our members in the committee are just plain apathetic, are obsessed with purging our party of those who disagree with them before targeting our common enemy, or just plain wasting our time dealing with little details that in end don’t mean anything what so ever to the voters. You know those people who actually decide whose party is in the majority or not.

Until we can learn to set aside our differences, focus on what it is we have in common and things that actually matter to the electorate, thus and more importantly see every part of the state as equally valuable, we will continue to remain in the minority. As I believe the recent committee meeting cancellation is indicative of a much larger problem, that is our attitude, the cancellation is a just symptom of a that larger problem. I am very disappointed we up here in Aroostook will be denied the ever so rare opportunity to host the state committee, but maybe perhaps two years from now that will be different. In the meantime for those of you who chose not to come up for gasoline price reasons I have this question. At the next meeting should I expect a motion from you to reimburse me, and my fellow committee members who have to drive great distances for the cost of their gasoline? I am not less than you and you are not more important than me, we are equally important members of the group that need to work together if we are to work at all. The last thing we ever want the State committee to become is a social club, (check out this BDN article), as I do hope this never happens.

I do want those people to think, truly think about what it says in a larger sense about us as a party. What are our young people supposed to think? I can tell you as one and as one who hangs out with other young people taking an interest in state politics, we are not happy! It is time for us to think about that, our image, what it is we say by our actions or inactions because of our attitude. If we are going to gain the majority we have to transform our image, from one of apathy and divisiveness, to one of action and moving forward in a positive direction, together. We have to become more then a social club that debates politics, we have to make ourselves relevant, we have to take action, and we have to show people why we are different from the Democrats. If we are going to achieve that then it starts with our attitude, as ours needs some serious adjusting, after that the rest will fall into place as our new attitude will bring the rest about in hand. Then maybe we can give young people something real to be inspired by other then hollow promises of hope and change.

At least the situation has not gone totally unnoticed, as our party Chairman Mark Ellis has decided that the next meeting will be more centrally located, wise and fair for everyone I think. Anyway, I hope my message wasn’t lost on those whom I earlier criticized, and maybe just maybe we can get things going in a different better direction.

One is glad to be of service, cheers,

Zak

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