Tea Party has used GOP, must be set adrift by Republicans

ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” story. It is an editorial by the editor.

The sordid sexual tales of State Reps. Todd Courser and Cindy Gamrat actually have much wider implications than just the futures of these two embattled political figures, the latter who represents Hopkins, Martin and Watson townships.

Exposed is an uncomfortable relationship between the Republican Party and the Tea Party, not just in Michigan, but also nationwide. The Tea Party movement, suspiciously born in the wake of the election of America’s first black president, has been functioning as the lunatic fringe of the GOP, but it has been skillful in using the Republican Party to win local elections and gain positions of power in the councils of state government.

There is evidence that former Congressman Ron Paul got the ball rolling in late 2007, but it was in the fall of 2009 that I first started to see and hear about Tea Party rallies in which posters were seen of President Obama with a bone in his nose or wearing a Hitler mustache.

Tea Partiers bristled at any suggestion they were racist, some maintaining that, “Some of my best friends are Negroes.” They also claimed to be open to Democrats and Republicans alike who wanted to “take our country back.” Yet I have never seen a Democratic candidate for anything who has acknowledged allegiance to the Tea Party.

It’s come to a head now with the salacious story of two Tea Party candidates elected as Republicans by pluralities in the August 2014 primary. They both took advantage of a flawed electoral system, knowing that if they won a primary with more than two candidates, they were assured of being elected over Democrats in November.

Both Gamrat and Courser won a year ago with less than 50 percent of the total primary vote, Gamrat with 41 percent and Courser with 39%. Their general election victories in November amounted to a cakewalk because they appeared on the ballot as Republicans.

Gamrat and Courser then wasted no time in being creepy in Lansing by combining their offices in January with the phony excuse it would save taxpayers money. From their offices they continued their extra-marital affair and have been accused of using their aides to help cover it up.

So this week the Allegan County Republican Party voted 14-4-2 (two abstentions) to ask Gamrat to resign. The Allegan County Tea Party, by contrast, is standing by their woman. Only Gamrat has the power to resign, but the GOP–dominated State Legislature could make things even uglier with a possible vote to censure or expel.

So what we’re seeing is a civil war between the GOP and Tea Party. If the latter cannot continue to use the Republican brand name, it will lose elections as a fringe third party. If the GOP party sets the tea free into the ocean, the tea partiers will wither and die because their only electoral power comes from using the most powerful political party in West Michigan and perhaps Michigan.

The Michigan Republican Party is at a crossroads. It must either allow this electoral farce to continue, or cut all ties to the Tea Party. Setting them adrift just might restore GOP prestige.