The GRA’s Ghoulish “Confession”

The ghouls at the Georgia Republican Assembly are praising Jesus over House Speaker David Ralston’s serious health issues which have forced him to step down as Speaker.

In their latest missive sent via email to their list titled We have a confession to make…, the GRA can hardly contain its glee about its mortal enemy having to step down.

“We are not sad to receive the news about David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) resigning from serving as Speaker of the Georgia State House of Representatives. We are not going to miss him,” the GRA begins. Of course, we are used to wildly inappropriate, over-the-top, musings from the GRA. Back in August, they took aim…pun intended…at the Speaker, likening Ralston to a Nazi firing squad.

This time, however, they employ a brand of Christianity that only a Fifteenth Century Spanish Inquisitor could truly appreciate. The GRA continues, “But Speaker Ralston cited health concerns, about which rumors have been spreading for months. We take no pleasure in Ralston’s bad health, but we do rejoice in the Lord for providentially using such an illness to rescue us all from Ralston’s reign of tyranny over the last decade. We confess that we are unapologetic in making that statement” (emphasis added).

Many of the leaders of the GRA profess strong Christian, sometimes fundamentalist, beliefs, but rarely illustrate the ideals of Christian charity and mercy.

The Bible says to pray for your enemies and those who persecute you (Matthew 5:44) AND to pray for those in leadership (1 Timothy 2:2). Blocking legislation is hardly persecution and certainly, Constitutional Carry, the LIFE Act, and many other conservative pieces of legislation have sailed through the House under Ralston’s leadership. What’s more, some of the GRA’s biggest criticisms of David Ralston is he picks winners and losers in the GOP primaries, often supporting incumbent House members in primary races or recruiting challengers to incumbents caucus members who tend to be more out-spoken against the Speaker. In other words, they hate him for doing what the GRA is doing and being more successful at it.

Jealousy is a sin too.

It seems all too obvious that the leadership of the GRA, an organization of which I was once a Life Member, has raised a false idol of worship…politics…and by their own words show they aren’t just wrong-headed, but should be run out of the Georgia GOP. Too bad state party leaders, including Chairman David Shafer and 2nd Vice-Chair Brant Frost V, both make sure this organization doesn’t just have a seat at the State GOP table but often directs policy. Once again, something I observed during my two years on the Executive Committee of the Georgia Republican Party.

What’s more, the GRA has chosen to focus on Ralston less than 72 hours before the polls open on Election Day at a time when true Republicans are focused on beating Democrats. This shows how out of touch the GRA is with the realities of electoral politics. Rather than encouraging the final push to the polls, the GRA has chosen to take an unwarranted victory lap, and when called out on it, the GRA has taken to Twitter, once again comparing the House Speaker to mass murders (as far as I’m aware, David Ralston has not killed anyone, let alone multitudes of anyones) Like Osama bin Laden and Adolf Hitler. I’d dare say the friends and families of the nearly 3,000 Americans who died on 9/11/2001 think bin Laden and Ralston are exactly the same.

However, the vileness of GRA is not new. Being offensive and ridiculous is their bread and butter. What has even those in the GOP who are not fans of Ralston disgusted is the blasphemous statement, “we do rejoice in the Lord for providentially using such an illness to rescue us all from Ralston’s reign of tyranny over the last decade” (emphasis added).

Of course, it goes to show a theory I have in politics…the more someone has to remind people how “Christian” they are, the less they act like one.