To David A. Keene, Chairman and Dennis E. Whitfield, Executive Vice President
American Conservative Union
From Ned Barnett, Conservative Republican and ACU Member
We cannot have another straw poll like we had at CPAC last weekend; I think I know what happened (and why), and I believe I have a solution - sure to be controversial - but a solution nonetheless.
I joined the ACU after watching Rush Limbaugh's stirring Keynote Speech at the 2009 CPAC meeting; this year, I was able to attend CPAC myself. It was a wonderful experience, a clear and brilliant example of a republic's electorate in action.
One thing that filled me with a sense of pride was the remarkable number of students in attendance at CPAC. When I was a college student the Vietnam war was in full flower, and even in the Deep South, it seemed that college students were more liberal than conservative. There's nothing like the thought of a Draft that would pluck you from your comfortable life and send you to the world's most hellish jungle to die in a war the President had already admitted was something we refused to win.
That attitude didn't deter me from seeking and earning an Annapolis appointment - and, when I failed the eye test, an Air Force commission through ROTC (with the same result). So I am always glad to see conservative college students - I know the pressures they face holding true to their beliefs.
At CPAC, I met and talked with many students, and was honored to shake the hands of West Point cadets, thanking them for their service to our country. As a former college professor and the father of another college professor, I am always grateful to see students who've become politically active and who've embraced a conservative philosophy.
However, as pleased as I was to see so many students there, I believed that they were there to learn from the incredible brain-trust assembled at CPAC. I certainly did not expect them to lecture us. However, that's exactly what they presumed to do - to lecture us, the adults who've spent their lives involved with politics, how we should believe. It was the Children's Crusade - or America's Vietnam anti-war movement - all over again.
I spoke to a number of students, and among them, their sandbagging of the straw poll by their mass votes was a frivolous game, if not a joke. Their support was for a man - one who no scientific poll suggests he's even in the race, let alone the leader - who even they know isn't a viable conservative candidate. He is and always has been a Libertarian (which is not the same thing as a Conservative); he signed on as a Republican because, in our two-party political system, it's almost impossible for a third-party candidate to hope to win. However, that "flag of convenience" party affiliation doesn't make Ron Paul a conservative, or, really, a Republican.
I have nothing against Ron Paul. I work amicably and in close concert in a grass roots Republican Party organization with men and women who call themselves "Paulistas." However, I do not kid myself into thinking that Ron Paul is either a real Republican or a viable Presidential candidate. And I know as surely as the sun will rise in the east tomorrow morning that Ron Paul is not THE candidate of the membership of the ACU, or of the majority of attendees at CPAC.
We, the members of ACU, were sandbagged by guests - students - we invited in to learn more about politics, and to begin the process of being involved in a lifetime of conservative political activism. Our mistake was in allowing these guests (students were given a significant discount ($25 vs. $175 for adult members, and to me, that doesn't - and shouldn't - make them full voting members).
If we allow students to vote in future straw polls, this will happen again. We will be embarrassed again by another sandbagged vote for a fringe candidate who doesn't represent Conservative and Republican values, this time in the year when Presidential primaries are beginning.
Which is why I recommend this, to you - the leaders of the ACU - to either do away with straw polls entirely (a mistake, in my opinion), or we limit voting to full registered attendees, and not allowing our student guests to vote.
They had their chance, and they blew it.
I don't expect this to be enthusiastically received by those who see any kind of judgment based on age as being discriminatory ... which is NOT the way I encourage you to look at this. Rather, we say to students, "when you're ready to pay your own way, you're ready to be a fully-participating and voting member of ACU - but as long as you're our student guests who pay only 14 percent of what our full members pay, you do not have the right to vote in our straw poll."
Respectfully submitted
Ned Barnett
Conservative and Republican
Las Vegas, Nevada
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Thank you - Ned Barnett
ned-at-barnettmarcom-dot-com
