Candidate for
Member, Republican Party Central Committee; County of Alameda; Assembly District 20

I believe America is on a dangerous precipece. We can't afford a government that provides healthcare, a legion of civil employee salaries, infrastructure, public education, and social security. We are printing money, increasing taxes, and borrowing in order to finance a huge and gross federal, state, and county government. This cannot be sustained.

While the financial side of the equation is frightening, it also is a great opportunity. We are not going to solve these problems by small fixes at the margin. There will have to be a structural overhall. This state of affairs provides small government conservatives excellent opportunities to reduce government and decentralize power. We can return government functions to families, churches, neighbors, and business men, and mutual aid societies.

Unfortunately, as both Republicans and Democrats currently stand, neither parties are apt to deal with this crisis. Democrats are generally are enthusiastic about redistributive wealth programs. Republican leaders likewise are warming up to the idea of more government intervention. Not only this, but Republicans have nearly become synomynous with globalized free trade and open borders, undermining our national soveriegnty with deepening and widening NAFTA. Its the centrist wing of the GOP which currently runs the Party. Unfortunately, it has jumped onto the 'green' bandwagon, refused to protect or close the border, welcomed a softer form of socialized medicine, and spent more tax-money than any previous democrat administration. These Republicans presume conservatives will stay in the GOP simply because red-state voters have no other place to go. This is not a wise strategy, because in the end Republicans will loose their conservative base.

Conservatives cannot wait for Republican leadership to turn around. We need to push conservative values and candidates within the Party. If beltway conservatives had stuck to their guns in the 1990's (while Republicans controlled both Houses and the Presidency), we would have won the culture war by the fruit of our ideas. That did not happen; therefore we are at a point were we must rebuild. The message of freedom, family, and community still resonates, bridging people of many different backgrounds and even political perspectives.

Most of us want the same things, have similiar grievances, but we need to get around language or nomenclature so we can communicate to one another. A lot of our issues are not "left" or "right-wing". We can win this because, first and foremost, this is a war of ideas, and we have ideas that are true and appeal to the majority of Americans--family, God, country, and freedom.

I'd like to see Alameda County GOP pave the way as a 'beacon of light' for the rest of the nation, setting an example of how ordinary patriots can turn around and remobilize a conservative movement in an area of the nation that is basically pro-communist. I'd like to see Republicans make a concrete difference, in terms of government reform, on a local level so others can see what is possible.

We can win. We just need to believe in our ideals. This is where the Republican party has gone wrong, and I hope we can save the Party from itself.