Alabama Republican Party Chairman John Wahl shared his thoughts on the current state of legislative affairs in Montgomery during an exclusive interview with the Examiner on Tuesday, July 25th of 2023. Looking back in the rearview mirror at the 2023 legislative session and fully assessing the threat posed by zealous adherents of the deranged woke agenda, Wahl reflected on recent events and looked forward to the near future. First up for discussion was the ubiquitous disappointment felt statewide by limited government purists in the aftermath of the 2023 legislative session.
Wahl addressed the sour mood among Alabama conservatives by stating "I want to see Alabama leading the conservative movement around the country. We talk about states like Florida where Governor Ron DeSantis has implemented conservative policies down there and you see how popular they are with the public, taking a swing state that Republicans had hoped to win by three or four percent and winning it by twenty points. When you see a win like that you have to ask the question 'Why?'. What are the policies being implemented, what are the people of Florida responding to. I think it is pretty clear, they are responding to a message of bold, conservative leadership. They are responding to protecting children from woke policies. Pushing back against the political correctness that the Democrat party has been advocating for."
Further expanding on his thoughts, Wahl continued "I think that is what people want to see from their elected officials, no matter what party they are. They want to see elected officials that are boldly speaking truth, not backing down and willing to get out there and push back on this culture war that is at odds with the values of Americans and at odd with the values of the people of America." When asked if Alabama Republicans were in effect snatching defeat from the jaws of victory by squandering their legislative leverage, Wahl responded "100 percent! We are a supermajority Republican state, so much of this legislation is strongly supported by the public. It's strongly supported by the membership. I hear from a lot of legislative members, they are just as concerned as the people are. They want to see this stuff pass. I think these need to be the items that we make a priority legislatively going into the next session." Finishing his thought, Wahl emphasized "I always tell our state elected officials that you are the first line of defense against a federal government that has lost touch with the American people and lost touch with the people of Alabama."
When asked about a pattern of failure by Alabama Republicans to limit the size and scope of government at the state and local level stretching back a decade to the introduction of common core to the education system, Wahl answered "If we are honest with ourselves this is something that both parties have had trouble with for fifty or sixty years. The growing size of government, the growing control of government and individuals losing their freedoms and constitutional rights. It's gotten to the point where it's so blatant and so obvious, even the Democrats are waking up and understanding that things are out of control." Expounding further, Wahl remarked "You have common core, you have critical race theory, you have the transgender education push. These are all things that are happening under the watch of a Republican controlled state government. I do think these are areas where our Republican elected officials are concerned and a solution is coming. The question is not if, but when."
Addressing the baffling boondoggle at the state house that has seen solidly supported conservative bills go to die in the senate for two consecutive legislative sessions in a row, Wahl commented "I think a lot of that comes back to what I call the 'Montgomery Bubble'. There are so many lobbyists in Montgomery who are all pushing their own agenda. That is who is there in the state house. The people don't have a lobbyist, the constitution doesn't have a lobbyist. I think it is important that constituents do reach out to their elected officials. I think it is important that the party take that role of reaching out and being a voice for the people and for our founding documents."
Clarifying the critical trends that are at the heart of the current political zeitgeist, Wahl noted "We did some polling during this last legislative session, we asked the question 'What issue is most important to you?'. Across the entire state with Republicans, Democrats and Independents the most important issue was protecting children from woke policies. First with Republicans, first with Independents and it was even third with Democrats out of nine issues, it was the third most important to Democrat voters."
Asked to conduct a post mortem on the lackluster results of the 2023 legislative session, Wahl explained "The 2023 session was a little bit shorter because of the ARPA money at the beginning of it. We had a lot of freshmen, especially in the state house. For those reasons I think it was kind of a unique session where people were finding their roles and a reorganization. I am very hopeful that the session of 2024 is going to see a lot of movement on the conservative side and we do protect our children from woke policies. Look at things from that more conservative model and what we can do to make Alabama a leader nationally on principles that will keep our people free and be in line with the vision of our founding fathers."
Attempting to delineate the root cause of the Montgomery malaise, Wahl stated "I think it comes back to this disconnection from the average American and the average Alabamian with so many positions of leadership whether that is in government, or in our universities or our school system. We as a people have to start asking that question why are the leadership in these institutions, especially in education, pushing a social agenda that is so far out of touch with the people. I think that has to be asked and it needs to be addressed. If there are government controlled or government funded institutions that needs to be looked into by elected officials."
Contrasting the urgency felt by conservatives in Alabama in the face of the woke onslaught with the mystifying apathy observed in the state legislature, Wahl noted "It's hard to believe that you can have some of things that we are seeing in Alabama. If we are seeing this in Alabama, imagine what some other states like California or New York are seeing in their institutions. This is incredibly concerning because our children and our young people coming out of these institutions will define the future of our country. This is not something new, this is something that socialists have always targeted the education system. They are very open about it. They know that whoever controls the minds of children today, control the country tomorrow. That is something that conservatives and our elected officials need to be very mindful of to watch for those trends and make sure that they are not allowing a socialist agenda to creep into our education system."
Seizing the moment of opportunity in the current legislative special session, Wahl provided a glimmer of hope for conservative voters by announcing "One thing that we are looking at as a party are several rule change amendments to make contributions from the NEA and AEA more restricted towards our candidates. We will probably have a vote of some kind on August 5th."
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