Editorial: Cheatham County GOP Divided

-Krystle James

Enthusiasm for Cheatham County GOP activism is fading fast under the leadership of young political activist Mark Moore. The twenty-eight year old Chairman is manning a sinking ship when Republicans should be gathering momentum on the heels of spontaneous ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ cheers across the nation. The truth is that Conservatives and Republicans are split on the party’s decision to hold local primaries at taxpayer expense. The decision was made in a 4 / 5 vote within the board, with one vote abstaining because the Vice President had resigned. Despite member attempts to obtain unredacted recorded audio from the August 19th meeting where the vote was challenged for not receiving input from active party members, their emails and text messages have gone ignored by former Secretary Tonya Steele. Local attendance has significantly dropped from 40+ members during the party’s reorganization meeting in March to just over a handful of party loyals in September. The attendance drop was more than 75 percent.

True Conservatives and Democrats are on the same side of the local primary issue. Both recognize that the unplanned spending will have a detrimental impact on the county budget and negatively impact taxes if money is spent on future local primaries. Young families want to see improvements in our education system and more jobs attracted to Cheatham County, not tax dollars being sifted to unilaterally support a political party. The economic shutdowns and inflation have also created additional food insecurity within our community amongst those recovering from job loss and on fixed incomes. The local primaries have historically low turnout and are not the best use of our county budget at this time.

Local GOP members are disturbed by the violation of their chapter bylaws by the new Chairman. From an initial violation of interest submission with only four days before the vote to rubbing elbows with other TN GOP candidates and publicly favoring them as a Co-Host on the campaign trail; Mark Moore has made it apparent that he has less regard for law and order than the Donald Trump cutout he parades around town like it’s the new confederate flag. The party has obstacles in the upcoming 2022 elections including Trump actively discouraging Republicans from turning out at the polls in protest of voter fraud, “If we don’t solve the Presidential Election Fraud of 2020 (which we have thoroughly and conclusively documented), Republicans will not be voting in ‘22 or ‘24. It is the single most important thing for Republicans to do.” The combination of alienating Conservative candidates by forcing them to announce a political party rather than running on platforms that represent the community at large; and aggravating members with authoritarian action on these majorly impactful spending decisions that will have ripple effects for years to come are destabilizing the party. Conservatives are demoralized, unrepresented and forced into a category that no longer reflects their values.

We are all ‘Watchmen on the Wall’ called to speak up against abuses of power, not only commentating on trending news topics, but on the issues affecting our local community. November 19th is the last day to rescind the decision to host Cheatham County local primaries. Say something. Labels are Messy, Vote Independent.

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