President’s message
In virtually every pole and at every water cooler it’s become clear that “Hope and Change” are nothing more than platitudes sounded from a hollow suit. When the current administration offered “Change You Can Believe In” our docile and complacent American voter fell star struck for an empty suit. Meanwhile, our own party, tattered from eight years of an unrelenting media attack, sought some place where their voice could be heard. Compromising core principals and allowing the Democrats to dictate the tone of debate, we found our boat tossed in the sea of popular sentiment taking on the foul water of liberalism. And yet, we find ourselves a scant thirteen months later and the tides have turned. The still small voice of our Nation’s founding, lying dormant for months and years, has once again made tea.
While an unsuspecting American public has its eyes forced opened to the reconstruction of virtually everything “American”, ladies, we are poised for victory. However, as we have clearly demonstrated time and time again, we are also perfectly positioned to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
In 2008 our party lost across the country and American voters summarily dismissed what our party had become. We failed on a vast scale and election results proved it. Why did we fail? Why did we lose? Certainly it was, at least partially, because we lost our way. With the shifting sentiment of the public, our party found itself shedding core values in a futile attempt to cling to office. However, it can also be argued that our primary failure has been one of education. For decades we have failed to educate the public on what conservatism is and why conservatism works.
On the other hand, democrats have burrowed their message into every virtually every institution. From education to the main stream media, Democrats have taken over our institutions patiently and over time. Liberal ideals and political correctness have, with generations of patient deliberation, finally bound us in a heel hold, suffocating our way of life. Democrats and liberals have succeeded making slow, incremental changes that have culminated in a leviathan bureaucracy commonly known as The United States Government. Gradually growing and swallowing up our private sector, the monstrosity forces dependence on government assistance creating a perpetual nanny state.
However, Douglas County Republican women, the current polls and recent elections don’t reflect a populous running to republicans. No. They represent the citizens of the United State running from liberalism. Our advantage is tenuous at best. Because we have failed to educate our constituency they do not know what we stand for, only what we stand against. That may be enough for one mid-term election in 2010 but it will not be enough to affect and enact real and enduring legislative change.
As I conclude I need to broach a topic many of you may find unpleasant to address. Ladies, we must stop eating our young. We should take this moment and learn from democrats. Be patient. Our responsibility is to deliver solid, marketable candidates that reflect our core beliefs. But, in so doing it’s foolish to be so resolute in our convictions that we are unwilling to take incremental steps. American’s are energized right now, for better or worse, on fiscal issues not social ones. It behooves us to galvanize support based upon fiscal issues rather than divide on social issues. Am I advocating casting aside our core social principals , Of course not. We’ve all clearly seen what happens when we cast aside who we are, instead donning a “moderate’s” coat. Let us all be patient and willing to make incremental changes while we spend the next years and generations reeducating America, teaching her who She is once again.
Tanne Blackburn, President