(Originally published as a comment to a Facebook thread)

Personally, I could care less who’s running the GOP or the DNC. As far as I’m concerned, the GOP has basically ruined itself and has lost nearly all credibility nationally.

That’s fine with me. That’s one down, one to go.

Political parties are tools. They don’t exist to promote ideals, push for certain issues, or anything other than to promote candidates. Candidates (that win) know this and use their parties as tools for election. Only morons (aka the “grassroots”) believe that their party exists to do anything but be a runway for candidates into office.

Parties create political planks to attract the sheep in the grassroots. Candidates realize that those political planks, once an election is over, are just marketing tools and nothing more.

This is why neo-cons get elected as Republicans. This is why Marxists get elected as Democrats.

Once a political party gets beyond the size of a grassroots organization, it becomes nothing more than a tool, a conduit for elections. The UTGOP is no different. It’s just a conduit for power in Utah. Candidates know that 9/10 times, if you want to get elected in Utah, you need that (R) after your name. That’s it.

This is why big-government sheisters who’re more than happy to rob Peter to pay Paul, to propose hundreds of unconstitutional legislation during their careers, and who’re ecstatic about creating larger bureaucracies and more taxation can get elected in Utah as “Republicans.” Just look at your lovely governor, Orrin Hatch, Mark Shurtleff, and pretty much everyone else in elected office.

The sooner there’s a mass exodus of supporters from the GOP in UT, the better.

Why can’t you people see that the UTGOP is worthless? A total waste of time? Beyond saving? Dump it!

“But then the Democrats will win!”

Stupid argument. That’s the downright dumbest reason I can imagine for staying with a failed, worthless, corrupt, broken, political party. Eventually, you “GOP is God” types will realize that the people who’re getting elected through your party are no different than the Dems anyway. They just use different rhetoric.

Just my thoughts. I lived in Utah long enough to realize that there aren’t any good political parties there. If you must have a political party to give meaning to your life, choose one of the smaller ones. Go LPUT or CPUT or even PCPUT and focus on localized, grassroots campaigns. All of these organizations, at the national level, are no better than the GOP/DNC, though, so don’t fall for that either.

–Aaron Turpen (MilitantLibertarian.org)