Posted on 07/20/2002 2:11:31 PM PDT by forest
By: Douglas Lorenz, RLC National Chairman (1)
There have recently been a number of significant changes in the national Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC). Among the more obvious changes, the National Committee picked a new chairman. Of course, most people haven't heard about this recent change yet, and that is largely because, over time, the national RLC has lost contact with some of its state and local activists. Starting now, that is changing.
The most important function of the Republican Liberty Caucus is to build an organization that helps Liberty-minded Republicans get active in politics. Our goal is to encourage Liberty minded folks to band together within their communities and their states to form RLC chapters. Which means, of course, that we need to make tools available to help people build an organization, recruit members, and get involved in their local campaigns. Towards that end, we plan to establish a communication network that will allow RLC members and chapters to discuss their successes and failures so that we can reach a future where success is commonplace.
The National Board of Directors of the Republican Liberty Caucus recognizes that the real work is done at the state and local levels. It is at the state and local levels where individuals work closely with campaigns, getting votes, influencing policy, and getting Liberty minded Republicans elected to office. Our members need to be involved closely and actively with current campaigns, and we will be encouraging some members to run for office themselves whenever possible. From our point of view, all elected political offices are significant because all elected offices can impact on our Liberty. A lot can be accomplished running for a school board or a city council seat. And, let's face it, today's local leaders are often tomorrow's state and national legislators.
Therefore, we must also be actively involved in Republican Party activities at the state and local level. Republican Party policy needs to be influenced by individuals who hold the real Reagan beliefs that "Government is not the solution to our problems, Government is the problem". In some states we actually have individuals who claim to be Republican who are fighting to implement state income taxes and other anti-Liberty laws. We have some of these "Republicans in Name Only" or "RINO's" who see nothing wrong in curtailing the very freedoms that make America great. Simply put, the Republican Liberty Caucus does not think that these individuals should be the standard bearers for the party of Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater.
Simply by making it possible for Liberty minded people to get involved, the Republican Liberty Caucus can and should become the standard bearer of the Republican Party. And, that is where the organization of the national Republican Liberty Caucus becomes important.
While the state organizations are best at battling in the trenches and winning individual campaigns, the national organization can sometimes be better at getting recognition for our efforts. The national Board of the Republican Liberty Caucus can reach out to the media in ways that state chapters often cannot. And the national organization can connect with other Republican groups, issue groups and think tanks in ways that would be inefficient for 50 individual state organizations. With such recognition, other groups and individuals will see our quest to have Liberty minded candidates elected to office as a winning cause, and they will be willing to help us at the state level.
The primary goal of the Republican Liberty Caucus is to help Liberty minded candidates -- those who will "support and defend the Constitution of the United States" -- get elected to office. Our secondary goal is to provide a viable organization that will help Liberty minded Republicans join together to succeed in our primary goal.
Douglas Lorenz is the National Chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus, which was formed in 1990 to promote the principles of free enterprise, limited government and individual liberty within the Republican Party. He can be reached by e-mail at Doug@Lorenz.Net.
NOTE: The RLC is active in a few States. Most notably are Texas(2), California(3) and Kentucky(4).
According to Scott Jordan, the newly proposed California State Chairman, their chapter is quite active:
"In this election cycle, for example, California's Reagan-style Bill Simon was the come-from-behind landslide winner against the establishment-supported mainstream RINO favorite. This was no surprise to the RLC, which was the first national organization to endorse Simon's campaign -- about a year before the primary! And the RLC worked hard to ensure Simon's nomination, including telephone-bank efforts mounted in the Bay Area(3), which Simon amazingly carried, despite the region's well-known liberalism.
"Under its new leadership, the RLC is coming out swinging to ensure that Liberty principles and Constitutional fidelity prevail in this and future elections. These are the most exciting days yet for the RLC -- check it out."
Texas, of course, has the RLC's first Chairman, Rep. Ron Paul, and other office holders. They already have a slate of candidates ready for this election cycle.
Kentucky RLC helped six out of seven RLC candidates get elected in the last election cycle and is already working on a very impressive slate for this and the next cycle.
4. Mike Moreland at: mrm.bluegill1@insightbb.com
Texas, of course, has the RLC's first Chairman, Rep. Ron Paul, and other office holders. They already have a slate of candidates ready for this election cycle. Kentucky RLC helped six out of seven RLC candidates get elected in the last election cycle and is already working on a very impressive slate for this and the next cycle.
Is this implying that the main body of the GOP is not oriented this way?
If they were the RLC wouldn't be necessary.
Some chapters have had great success helping liberty minded candidates get elected to office. Their techniques should be shared with other RLC chapters. Because, my feeling is that, working together, we should be able to send Rep. Ron Paul about forty friends in two years. Imagine what a difference forty-some Liberty Minded Congressional office-holders could make on Capitol Hill!
But, Doug Lorenz makes an excellent point: We must also elect liberty minded candidates to offices in every level of government. Every position can be significant for the protection of liberty. Therefore, every elected position is important.
There is yet another important point that should be made. The Republican Liberty Caucus is a club and not officially an arm of the Republican Party. Therefore, the RLC can often operate under different rules -- with much wider latitude -- than the "official" Republican Party can. This presents many rather interesting possibilities for positioning liberty minded candidates in the primary elections and helping them to get well known by the voters early in the game.
....ping.
I once had an e-mail discussion with a high level member of the RLC and asked him his position on jury nullification. He gave me the standared libertarian answer favoring it. When I asked if the main line RNC shared his view, the answer was NO. So what good is being a part of the RLC with no influence on the RNC?
If your opinions are libertarian, join the Libertarian Party or you are being used as a patsy.
No, the RLC claims all the same values as the Libertarians. They regularly advertise in Libertarian publications and I have seen them at Libertarian state conventions at times. They are specifically trying to suck up the true freedom lovers from the Libertarians and put them in a harmless debating society.
The liberty lovers have no influence in the overall Republican party.
The Libertarian position and platform is not some kind of libertine license but true constitutional liberty. It is just what you conservatives say that you want.
Jim, with all due respect, you have an uphill struggle ahead if you expect to find many other activist Republicans who are as devoted to liberty as you are. Kind of like finding black conservatives, only a little tougher.
It's not that all the folks deeply committed to seeing a rollback of government in our lives are in the Libertarian Party. Obviously, they're not or we're in deep doo-doo.
But the very few Republicans -- who remain Republicans after years of disenfranchisement and obscurity -- that truly believe in personal liberty are just not likely to join up in a political organization that goes so counter to the prevailing orthodoxy. It puts them at risk if they ever plan to go somewhere in the party.
Or, putting it another way, the party activists who plan to ascend to the State Central Committee or the RNC won't touch the RLC, even if they agree with its positions (which few of them do) because they're looking for support from the "broad middle."
The RLC may have decent ideas, and they do, but as far as gaining a foothold in the Republican Party is concerned, it just ain't gonna happen. The numbers are too much against us.
I gave up on the Republicans in '96 and haven't looked back. Friends of like persuasion who stayed with the party are now ostracized for not falling in line with the Bushies. "We're at war, don't ya know? We can't get all wrapped up in ideological battles now!"
I hate to say it, but chances of reforming the GOP are about the same as reforming the government schools.
I am a Republican because I believe good chance can be made from within. There may come a day when I may lose this youthful naivete.
rw, my friend, well said! I feel exactly as you do about being in the GOP.
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