Dear Source:
Mr. Boschulte exhibits Alpha and Omega of the ineptitude of the Republican Party in the Virgin Islands. In light of his views, his representation of the party at the national convention is scandalous.
For example, in his recent letter to the Source, Mr. Boschulte accuses the president (the leader of his party) of:
(1) Lying about Iraq, leading to the pointless death of Americans; (2) Presiding over an utterly corrupt administration, spawning scandal after scandal; (3) Illegal domestic spying.
And this is just the warm-up act in Mr. Boschulte's windy missive.
He cites as his source for these and other grave indictments as the World Socialist Web Site. So let's add it up: his views are perfectly aligned with the far left of the Democratic Party and the source for his daily intake of information is explicitly socialist. Mainly because I need to write it again so I can believe it, Mr. Boschulte went to the Republican national convention as a representative. Hmmm.
By his own admission, Mr. Boschulte believes his political party is: A) headed by a proto-fascist; B) populated in congress and the executive branch by persons who are, individually, ineradicably venal and inclined, generally, towards reckless greed; C) the national party stands for all the wrong things in America; D) the local party is feckless, petty and out of touch.
If one is sincere about reforming a wayward movement, one normally illuminates ills and then prescribes a corrective. It is telling that Mr. Boschulte only provides a grim description of the Republican Party— and no less lurid than Milton's vision of hell. Certainly he offers nothing in the way of direction out of this abyss for his group. He simply damns it (imbuing it with something analogous to original sin) and then hoists its flag. In this, he is baldly insincere.
So a question arises: What kind of a person would belong to such a maligned organization, much less represent it nationally? How could one claim to have an ounce of self-respect when freely laboring under an abomination and then publicly proclaiming allegiance to such?
We are left, unfortunately, to select from two competing explanations of this profound contradiction: either Mr. Boschulte is a fraud or he lacks the intellectual wherewithal to recognize that a far-left liberal is going to brush up against some sharp elbows within a center-right party.
Does this seem harsh, perhaps exclusionary? Well, any organization has to stand for something or it stands for nothing. Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and Socialists all have a fairly well defined ideology. You like what you hear; you come inside the tent. You don't like the cut of their jib; well, you walk on to the next tent.
Instead, I figure Mr. Boschulte for the kind of fellow who grazes at the buffet table while the keynote speaker thunders on. Sure, he profits nothing from the oratory, but he does get first dibs on the cheese and cracker tray. His luckless comrades are then stuck with the sweaty lunchmeats.
Mr. Boschulte poses a question in his letter: "Ask these V.I. Republicans why they are Republicans […]" Okey Dokey, Mr. Boschulte, I'll ask it of you: why do you associate yourself with people you find repellent and, who, in turn, generate policies you find criminal?
To be fair, I can think of a few reasons why a Socialist would want to turn himself out at a Republican national convention: chatting up right-wing hotties like Ann Coulter, open bar at cocktail parties, scoring free gift bags and baseball caps, holding forth on Marxist theory in front of William Buckley, etc.
All of these things sound like great fun. But I doubt it's the real reason behind Mr. Boschulte's mendacity. So I'll take a wag at it while I await the gentleman's reply: he relishes the opportunity to parade about as a grandee in an organization so enfeebled that it will send forth a man who opposes it at every turn. It is deliciously Orwellian.
It is also disgraceful. I am quite sure the Republican Party in the Virgin Islands is beyond redemption.
Jay Craft
St. Croix

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