Dennis Lennox, the firebrand 29-year-old GOP activist who
is trying to oust Republican National Committeeman Dave Agema, continues to
emerge as a new voice in the party.
The Detroit News’ Nolan Finley wrote in his column today
that one positive byproduct of Agema’s hateful, anti-gay pronouncements may that
a new group of young party members may find their voice and force the GOP to
modernize their views on social issues such as gay marriage.
“It’s given a lot of sensible Republicans a vehicle
to go after the 1 or 2 percent of the party who make up its Neanderthal
element,” said Lennox, a Grand Traverse County precinct delegate.
Finley, whose conservative credentials are solid, suggests the party’s “caveman contingent” is larger
than Lennox estimates. I would remind everyone that a recent poll of GOP
precinct delegates said half would re-elect Agema to the RNC, despite the fact
that the former state representative stands by the decades-old bigoted rants
against gays by a KKK member.
The Agema crowd consists of those who mindlessly label
moderate – or even insufficiently conservative — Republicans as RINOs
(Republicans In Name Only). They are the party’s knuckle-draggers who have
turned off minorities and young people with their right-wing rhetoric.
“The Reagan playbook doesn’t work anymore,” Lennox
said. “My party faces a real challenge. It doesn’t speak to anyone under age 35. Republicans must look and talk
like the America of the second decade of the 21st Century.”