Boger lectures PCO Liberty Alliance about Republican Party
Moderate Republican Brent Boger took the PCO Liberty Alliance to task on his Facebook page today.
The alliance was created this year to give a voice to non-establishment political candidates and their supporters. Boger, a former chair of the Clark County Republican party who left the party earlier this year, referred to some members of the alliance as “self-righteous ideologues” whose extremism will ultimately harm the party.
At first, Boger left these remarks:
“The local County Rep Party faces being taken over by a bunch of self-righteous ideologues–a significant number of whom did not support Mitt Romney, Jamie Herrera (Beutler), or Rob McKenna.
“For example, I was just forwarded an e-mail string where one candidate for County Rep Party office was attacked just for having a Master Public Administration degree. His opponent is a Ron Paul-supporting John Birch Society member. If rank-and-file Republicans knew what these ideologues were like, they would be dispatched.
“It’s lonely being a moderate Republican.”
Apparently, one person took offense on Facebook, leaving this comment for Boger:
“Thank you for leaving your position in the republican party. As a moderate, you are worthless in politics when it comes time to following the constitution and protecting personal liberties. Moderate republicans are just as much to blame as liberal democrats for most of our political problems.”
Boger left a rather lengthy response, in which he said many constitutionalists overlook crucial historical context when discussing the document, and that those in the PCO Liberty Alliance represent views that would only alienate the more than 60,000,000 people who voted Republican this year.
“Paramount to my principles is an understanding that adherence to rigid ideology and refusing to compromise always results in sacrificing the ‘better’ in the quixotic hope of getting the ‘best,'” Boger wrote. “You need to understand that the views of the 60,000,000 Republican voters are much closer to mine than they are to the PCO Liberty Alliance–many of whom don’t even vote Republican. Did you?”
Boger’s remarks may foreshadow what’s ahead as Clark County Republicans choose new party leadership this week. The PCO Liberty Alliance succeeded in getting about 90 like-minded precinct committee officers elected this year out of 222 precincts in the county, some of which have no committee officers representing them.
The alliance has said they believe they have enough PCOs to change party leadership at the county level. The alliance has described itself as made up of Tea Partiers, libertarian Republicans, and values voters. They formed after this year’s Clark County Republican Convention and were primarily supporters of Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum.
PCOs get to vote on who should chair the party, and who should serve in other significant leadership positions.
Stevie Mathieu: 360-735-4523 or stevie.mathieu@columbian.com or www.facebook.com/reportermathieu or www.twitter.com/col_politics
