The New Standard

by D.R. Tucker

You cannot have leadership unless you have a leader.

This is a lesson that Republicans in Massachusetts have been forced to memorize over the last few years, as the GOP has lost ground while the Bay State Democrat Party has consolidated its power. With Deval Patrick's defeat of Kerry Healey in the 2006 Massachusetts gubernatorial election, and elected Republicans in the Commonwealth almost nonexistent, the need for legitimate leadership in the state GOP is as grave as it has ever been.
 

Bob Parks, a Boston native and veteran GOP activist, has witnessed firsthand the consequences of the dearth of leadership in the state GOP, and he is determined to remedy this critical situation. To that end, he has announced his candidacy for the chairmanship of the Massachusetts Republican Party. It is difficult, if not impossible, to think of anyone who could bring more to the table.

“It’s obvious to anyone in Massachusetts who was either a candidate or a party volunteer, the nickname for the Mass. GOP was in reality, The Committee to Elect the Governor,” Parks noted in a recent e-mail interview. “This has been a constant for so long that the drubbing Massachusetts Republicans recently received was inevitable. So let’s be done with the negative. What I propose to do is empower the town committees, as they know their own area’s issues, the best candidates, what doors to knock on, who to call….the state party will, under my leadership, provide the logistical and financial support the candidates and town committees require.”

Parks, a Navy veteran, has been a passionate Republican advocate for years, making his well-reasoned, intellectually crisp criticisms of the Democrat Party in radio commentaries and on his high-profile blog, Black & Right. He plans to do the same as head of the state GOP: “As party chair, I will write an op-ed every week and create a weekly radio spot so the citizens of Massachusetts will hear our positions on the State House activities of the week. No longer will the Massachusetts media define us as a party unfettered.

As part of his effort to reinvigorate the state Republican Party, Parks plans to combat the mythology that the GOP is a hotbed of racial intolerance. “If Republicans are so racist,” asked Parks, “why was the Party formed to abolish slavery? If the GOP is so racist, why did that party--after a Republican president abolished slavery--give us the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to give blacks civil rights later stripped by the very Democrats who admitted to creating the Ku Klux Klan? Please explain to me how the Democrats, who originally called themselves The White Man’s Party, can be called the Party of Civil Rights, when they gave us poll taxes, literacy tests, Jim Crow laws, and for the most part failed to vote for either the Voting or Civil Rights acts? The list goes on.”

Parks is committed to making the Republican Party a vital player in the Bay State. He has worked closely with the Republican leadership in Washington, and notes that Newt Gingrich has pledged to work with him to restore viability to the Bay State GOP if he becomes chairman. “When planning my run for Massachusetts Party Chair, I deemed it necessary to have a good plan for future party victory,” Parks said. “While we can all speculate on how to do it, I felt it important that we employ a tactic that has worked before. Newt Gingrich has won in the past, thus I felt his input was imperative.”
 

Parks is as committed to Massachusetts as he is to the Republican Party, and is critical of Mitt Romney and Bill Weld for making jokes at the Bay State's expense. “After a state elects you to the highest office, why would one make fun of that state?” Parks asked. “I haven’t a reason and I guess you’d have to ask them. As a native Bostonian, I have my criticisms of my party’s performance, but that criticism would never cross the line into humor at the expense of the people who helped get you from Point A to Point B.”

Parks pledges that as party chair, he “will support every candidate that makes a commitment to the citizens of the state, both monetarily and with the party infrastructure. We will turn our back on no candidate in favor of one seeking the corner office, as was the routine of the past…I humbly ask the support of the people of Massachusetts. A Massachusetts Republican Party I lead will be accessible to all candidates and town committees. I promise the days of our being fraudulently tarnished by liberals will end once and for all.”

To borrow a catchphrase currently popular in the Commonwealth, Bob Parks is no ordinary leader. He has a commitment to this state, to the GOP, and to public service that is unmatched. He is an intellectual warrior, a dynamic public speaker, and a fervent defender of his ideals and values. As chairman, he will provide an energy and spirit unseen in the Massachusetts Republican Party since the days of Ray Shamie. He is more than suitable, more than capable, more than ready to lead.

Blog:  http://drtucker.blogs.friendster.com/my_blog/

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