Posted: July 23, 2009

By John Biver

 

If you're to the right politically, aghast at what the Obama Administration is doing, and frustrated with the gross ineffectiveness of Republicans in Illinois who aren't able to toss out corrupt and failed Democrats, you're a member of a growing club.

 

Like a lot of clubs, though, this one is, as of yet, still mostly consisting of complainers and protesters instead of people involved in constructive political action.

 

Champion News has been posting articles for a long time outlining practical steps that we see as necessary for turning our state and nation around. And we're actively engaged - working to recruit the participation of good people in what we're calling the Republican Renaissance Project.

  

Where I live in Rutland Township in Kane County I'm an elected Republican Precinct Committeeman, and just yesterday I sent out a mailing to a few hundred Republican voters in my township to invite them to get involved in the Western Kane Country Republican Organization (you can visit the new WKCRO website here).

 

The reason for telling you this is because the individuals at Champion News are doing - not just talking.

 

Many new people will be needed to put together the kind of political force required to help elect a higher caliber of candidate to office. The Illinois Republican Party at the state level is dysfunctional. At the local level, more often than not what exists is a façade. If you watch Glenn Beck, listen to Rush Limbaugh, or are involved with one of the many "Tea Party" movements, you're the kind of person the GOP desperately needs to remove that façade.

 

Doing what? Champion News has outlined a good number of suggestions in our "GOP 101" series found here. The Republican Party is supposed to be, in essence, a message and messengers. In Illinois - and too often nationally - it has been neither.

 

The path to the triumph of conservative principles will be inside the Republican Party - not outside of it. For thirty years conservatives have worked outside - it's time to move in.

 

We can't fix the nation - or our state - or even our local governments - without first cleaning up our own political back yard. There is no need to whine about the liberal media in the age of the Internet and talk radio. And no one is stopping a group of concerned citizens from carrying their message door to door.

 

If you think the country is speeding down this wrong road of excessive government and debt by accident, you are mistaken. The political left has been serious about disseminating their information, electing their candidates, financing their interest groups, and making things "political possible" towards their own aims.

 

It's time for the political right to rise to the challenge.

 

Champion News isn't looking for ideological purity. Recent history has shown that many politicians claiming to be "conservative" were completely useless to the cause of advancing any of the Republican Party Platform planks.

 

The Republican Renaissance Project is looking for people who are willing to take an honest look at just how much work is required and then do their part. Join us where you agree with us. We need reformers and fighters. The alternative is surrender.

 

President John Kennedy reminded us that we are heirs of that first Revolution in the 1770s. Now we have to act like it. Founding father Thomas Paine said:

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."

In simple terms - we've got too many ineffectual, uninspired, and poorly motivated elected Republicans in office. We won't get better ones and build on their work without a real Republican Party manned by volunteers who demand accountability from those they elect. Without such a party, the same old crew (and their descendents) will continue to get away with incompetence and laziness.

 

The "Grand Old Party" isn't grand any more - but it can be if enough good people step up and engage. Your help is needed to build the Republican Party into the kind of political force that is able to enact policy solutions rooted on the principles of its platform.

 

You can read our state party platform here, and our national party platform here.

 

There's plenty to complain about - but just complaining doesn't get us anywhere. Action is needed. Join the Renaissance.

 

Click here, here, and here to read more.

 

 

John Biver is the Editor of Champion News.