Rooney: Republicans Need to Learn How to Get Along With Each Other

Matt addressing the assembled crowd after the swearing in ceremony.

It was grateful to have our founder and blogger-in-chief Matt Rooney at the swearing of the Bergen County Young Republicans Wednesday evening. 

Matt delivered a very well-received keynote address, Save Jerseyans.  Plenty of positive feedback; one attendee even remarked to me after the event, “Boy, can he talk!”  

Yes he can! Matthew spoke from the heart and, from what I could see, did not have any prepared remarks in front of him.

One of the remarks that I found particularly poignant was the need for Republicans to get along with each other….

 Or at least coexist!

Republicans are duking it outright now on the national stage, tearing into not only their records, but their character as well.  Some might say that a healthy debate will help improve our eventual nominee in the election against President Obama, but a line definitely needs to be drawn somewhere, and a code of ethics needs to be kept within the party.  The so-called “Eleventh Commandment” that was once set in stone for the Republican Party has now all but been shattered and that needs to change.

The same can be said of New Jersey, where so often the battle is not against the Democrats but against ourselves as Republicans and conservatives overall.  Many, including former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan and other conservative voices have been critical of the Governor, often fail to realize that he is working with a hostile Democratic Legislature.  Everyone is certainly free to critique the state of affairs in Trenton; at the same time, this criticism needs to be accompanied by real solutions. 

Maybe what we need is a better venue for this to occur. Save Jersey serves this function online. But what about in the physical world?

I believe it is of paramount importance for the Governor and Republican leaders in Trenton and Washington to be responsive to the concerns of their membership; a “town hall for Republicans” so-to-speak wouldn’t be such a bad idea!  Large-scaled events like the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) hosted by the American Conservative Union are great, but better communication between the various “factions” of our movement could go a long way towards uniting the Republican Party here in the Garden State.