This message was shared with the Seward County Republican Party last Saturday by Earl Watt, Publisher of the Liberal, KS-based High Plains Leader & Times newspaper. A sincere thank you to Earl Watt for giving his permission to reprint this in the KSGOP Friday File.
As a party, we have allowed revisionists to steal our message of equality and unity. History shows the Republican Party led the effort for emancipation, women’s suffrage and civil rights. Today, our opposition has attempted to erase their historic shame by claiming Republican victories as their own. It is my hope to remind Kansas Republicans of our treasured history, from battling the Democratic slaveholders in the 1800s to the Democratic segregationists who tried to separate Kansas schools by race in the 1950s. It was Kansas Republican and President Dwight D. Eisenhower who sent federal troops to allow students of color to enter a university in a Democratic-led state. Kansas Republicans, it’s time to tell our story and reclaim our rightful place in history.
Seward County Republicans,
This county never voted for FDR, Truman, Kennedy, LBJ, Carter, Clinton, Obama or Biden. A majority of Seward County has not voted for a Democratic governor, senator or president in more than 100 years.
But Seward County Democrats are making up ground.
We can no longer expect the status quo to remain without adjusting our approach.
We have to develop a better early voting strategy and a coordinated effort to ensure Republican turnout.
We have a unique opportunity to enhance our outreach with the recent election of 2 GOP women to the Seward County Commission.
But we have allowed Democrats to win nonpartisan races.
We have to be more involved in candidate development and recruitment.
We have allowed the opposition to define Republicans as racist, and anti democratic.
Republicans defended minorities from discrimination and fought to end slavery. Republicans wrote and passed the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments. The 13th ended slavery, the 14th Amendment made former slaves citizens and provided the equal protection of the laws. And the 15th Amendment granted black men the right to vote.
Women were granted the right to vote with the 19th Amendment and supported by 84 percent of Republicans in the Senate and only 40 percent of Democrats.
Four attempts before that, Democrats killed the amendment.
The 1968 Civil Rights Act was supported by 80 percent of Republicans but only 61 percent of Democrats in the House.
These statistics are easy to find, but they have been twisted by irresponsible educators, complicit media, and in a large part because we have allowed it to happen.
Republicans believe in the individual, as MLK said, that we judge people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.
But what have we done? Do we attend MLK marches? Or do we leave that to the Democrats?
We need to increase our exposure in this community. We need to be making our case through our actions and our affiliations and not cede the next generation of voters to the Democrats.
We need to show how individual liberty outweighs governmental handouts.
We need to reach out to our entrepreneurial Hispanic business owners and remind them of the importance of keeping their taxes low so they can invest in themselves.
Family values are strong in the Hispanic community, and those values are Republican values.
We need to tell our story.
It’s no longer enough to believe our voters will simply go to the polls. We have to be more aggressive ,on turning out the vote.
We need to gather email addresses, phone numbers and work advance voting. We need to schedule voting events.
Derek Schmidt won Seward County 1,686-1,077. He should have won by 2,000 votes in Seward County, not 600, and he would have if we would have turned out OUR vote.
Also, Kelly was elected for the second time with under 50 percent. We should be advocating for a change like Georgia that requires 50 percent. That would stop the syphoning off of the Republican vote. Schmidt lost by 19,000 votes, but a conservative and libertarian received 29,000 votes. We should be pushing for a runoff for the top two if no one receives 50 percent.
We need to establish a social media presence where we can advocate for Republican causes, and we can share a positive message about our candidates and our policies.
We need to contact the MLK Committee and see how we can support their effort of advocating for the end of racism by supporting the promise that all people — being children of God — are created equal.
We should be involved in the registering of voters rather than abdicating that role to the Liberal Area Coalition of Families which is usually manned by registered Democrats.
We need to work on establishing a Young Republicans organization.
We should think of ourselves more like a civic organization, like Kiwanis, Rotary or the Lions Club. The public should see us as a positive force for good in this community by implementing the policies to lift up the individual, limit the government and empower free enterprise.
We need to be visible in the community, perhaps a scholarship for a patriotic essay, a table at the Chamber Banquet, and booths at the fair and other get-togethers throughout the year, not just before an election.
This will take work, but we are currently getting outworked by those who believe big government and socialist solutions are the answer to our challenges.
We need to establish some committees to address these areas, and we need to grow this organization.
We can’t wait for answers from Topeka or Washington. Seward County Republicans need to assert our advantage here. We need to be a force for positive change in our schools, in our local units of government and in our neighborhoods. We need to reclaim our spot as the true advocates for racial opportunities by removing the shackles of government from all people, by nurturing positive relationships with law enforcement and all members of our community.
We’ve always believed that. Always.
We originated the concept of freedom, whether that oppressor was a slaveholder or a government designed to pick winners and losers.
Republicans have been fighting for racial equality since 1854.
We are the original liberals, meaning classical liberalism which is a political tradition that advocates free market and laissez-faire economics; civil liberties under the rule of law with emphasis on individual liberty, limited government, economic freedom, political freedom and freedom of speech. Those claiming to be liberals today are socialists, not liberals. But they use the term to mask their true goals. Either we take back our position as that of a free people and a limited government, or we will only have ourselves to blame when socialism takes root in Kansas soil.
My fellow Kansans, who are we going to be?
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