RE: Analysis of today's Stokes GOP Convention

Steve Brenneis writes:

The Stokes County GOP organization has not been a Republican group for quite a while. The assorted fruits and nuts, Becky Boles, Selwyn Matthews, Eugene Lyons, have decided to camp out on the periphery of the organization to ensure that it does not return to the mode under which it operated between 1992 and 1998.

There has not been a seriously Republican majority there for quite some time. It creates an interesting dichotomy in that most of the elected officials in Stokes County are quite conservative, while the GOP organization is simply Democrat light. This is somewhat inevitable given the sudden power vacuum left when the organization was converted from the Buster Robertson/Willis Overby fan club back into something resembling a political group.

Given that the national mood of the GOP is swinging at a breakneck pace to the left, it should surprise no one that the Stokes GOP would simply flounder for a while. If a strong leader emerges in the next few years, I'm sure the organization will resume some direction. However, I doubt that direction will be to the right unless the state and national parties make such a shift.