The Republican Liberty Caucus is on the move in 2009. Suddenly other Republicans are waking up to the fact that the Republican Party under George W. Bush has not been even close to “conservative” in any sense of the word, and, indeed, has been the antithesis of libertarianism.
In the coming months, Republican Liberty Caucus affiliates will be hosting conventions in Maryland, Minnesota, and Nebraska. We hope you’ll attend the RLC’s upcoming events, now featured on the RLC Calendar at www.RLC.org and Facebook page.
If you haven’t yet done so, please join the RLC today. There’s never been a better time! This newsletter outlines the latest news from the RLC and highlights the many ways that you can become involved in our efforts to preserve our liberties and change the direction of the GOP.
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Texas RLC Treasurer Elected to Austin Area School Board
Lisa Mallory, Treasurer of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Texas, was elected overwhelmingly to serve on the Leander ISD Board in the Austin suburbs. The school district serves 25,000 students.
With 25 years of business experience and political training from the Leadership Institute, Lisa focused her campaign on improving the district’s test scores, lowering bond rates, and more oversight.
Minnesota RLC Chairman Elected State GOP Chair in Sixth District
Republicans in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District recently elected Wright County GOP Chairman David Fitzsimmons, a supporter of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul’s presidential campaign last year, to be the district’s new party chairman. Fitzsimmons beat out a former State Representative.
Since 2008 when it was formed, the Minnesota chapter of the RLC has been on the move. They recently received an award at the Republican Liberty Caucus National Convention, in praise of their chapter development and outreach activities.
As the leader of the Republican Liberty Caucus in Minnesota, David Fitzimmons is paving the way for other liberty Republicans to step up to run for party leadership positions.
If you live in Minnesota, be sure to attend the Minnesota RLC Convention on Saturday, June 13 from 2-4pm at Earle Brown AMF Lanes in Brooklyn Center. You can learn more about the Minnesota RLC at www.rlcmn.org.
RLC Member Case Goes to Supreme Court: Featured in The Wall Street Journal
RLC activist Don Zimmerman (pictured) was elected to his local utility board in 2002. One of his goals was to move the polling station from a neighbor’s inconveniently located garage to an elementary school three blocks away.
His effort barely registered among the 3,500 residents of Mr. Zimmerman’s suburb, Canyon Creek. But it turned out to have much broader ramifications. It prompted a case now before the Supreme Court that could bring the biggest change in election law since 1965, when Congress passed the Voting Rights Act.
Although originally set to expire after five years, Section 5 has been renewed repeatedly, most recently in 2006, when George W. Bush signed legislation extending it to 2031.
The case, which the High Court heard on April 29, focused on Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. The clause requires state and local governments deemed to have historically suppressed minority votes to obtain Justice Department approval before altering election practices — even something as minor as moving a polling station.
According to the Wall Street Journal, which featured Zimmerman, “The 15th Amendment, ratified five years after the Civil War, guarantees the right to vote regardless of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude” and grants Congress enforcement power. For most of the following century, Washington did little as many Southern states deployed literacy tests, character requirements and other pretexts to prevent blacks from voting.”
If successful, the court case will be the second case in the last year in which a RLC member has served as a plaintiff in a successful Supreme Court case. In 2008, RLC member Dick Heller was the plaintiff in Heller v. DC, a landmark case that successfully overturned the District of Columbia’s long time ban on gun ownership for residents. Heller spoke to RLC members in DC last July.
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Get the RLC on FOX News “Freedom Watch” Show!
Do you want to hear the RLC on National TV?
“Freedom Watch” is a TV show hosted on FOX News by Judge Andrew Napolitano. It is a liberty-themed program.
But, so far the RLC has not been invited to participate on the program. Please vote for RLC Secretary Aaron Biterman to appear on “Freedom Watch” on FOX News! Once you get to the voting website, you are allowed to give Aaron three of your votes.
Additionally, please write to “Freedom Watch” producer Shelly Roche to tell her why the RLC should be on the show. You can contact her via e-mail and Twitter.
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Politics and Principle in South Carolina
by Dave Nalle
RLC National Chair
South Carolina is a peculiar state. It’s managed to produce both Senator Lindsey Graham and Governor Mark Sanford, two politicians who come from the same place but are literally like oil and water.
Graham is the model of the kind of Republican who infiltrated the party after the Reagan era. He’s religiously conservative, completely irresponsible on budgetary issues, and has a record on civil liberties that can only be described as embarrassing.
Abe Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Barry Goldwater wouldn’t have recognized him as a Republican at all. He’s like an old-style southern Democrat but with less integrity.
Mark Sanford is almost his exact opposite. He’s fiscally conservative and a strong supporter of civil and individual liberty. He’s in the Goldwater tradition and willing to stick by his principles regardless of the cost.
Being from the same state, it’s inevitable that two such opposite politicians would clash. When Sanford held firm and opposed federal bailout money for the state, Graham tried to end-run him in the Congress and play havoc with states rights by giving legislatures federal authority to override governors to accept federal money.
At the recent South Carolina Republican Party Convention, it’s not surprising that there were some fireworks.
On the floor, Graham made a speech arguing in favor of compromising Republican principles and moving to the center and was heckled by members of the audience who were Ron Paul supporters. In response, Graham proclaimed “I am not a libertarian. If you are, you’re welcome to vote for me and help this party, but we’re not going to build a party around libertarian ideas. I am a Ronald Reagan, Strom Thurmond, Lindsey Graham, Carrol Campbell Republican.”
It was certainly not news to anyone that Graham isn’t a libertarian, and his self-identification with former Democrats, segregationists and pork barrel spendocrats tells the whole story about why so many in South Carolina aren’t happy with their senior Senator.
More interesting than Graham’s remarks was Governor Sanford’s reaction a few minutes later when RLC member Amanda Moore stopped him in the hallway and asked him what he thought about Graham’s comments on libertarianism. Sanford went on at length, and said:
“Senator Graham spoke and said ‘I’m not a libertarian’, and whatever, whatever, as if that’s an evil word. Liberty is the hallmark of the American experiment. That is the distinguishing characteristic of our republic and frankly, what’s made it great. In my comments last night I said that is the genius of America, of affording liberty so that in your pursuit of happiness versus my pursuit of happiness and the dreams that went with that you unleash individual initiative that can’t be there with central planning.”
“People say, you know, ‘Mark, you’re kind of libertarian’ and they’ll say it as if it’s an evil word like ‘You’re a communist’ or something. I’m like ‘Throw me in that brier patch. I’m guilty. I love liberty’ and I think that ought to be a good thing and I don’t think that it should be something that people back away from. I’ve been accused of being a libertarian and I wear it as a badge of honor, because I believe in, love and support liberty.”
Governor Sanford expressed a vision of the Republican Party which strongly contrasted with Graham’s concept of a party of appeasement and opportunism. Sanford offered a positive vision of a party which embraces rights and individual liberty and enterprise and initiative, a party like the Republican Party that freed the slaves, fought the monopolies, championed civil rights, and won the cold war.
Sanford seems to understand that the arguments between conservatives and moderates in the party is meaningless and that the party needs to move on a course perpendicular to the old ideas of right and left, in the direction of liberty.
Lindsey Graham represents the worst of the failures of the post-Reagan Republican Party.
It’s not just that he doesn’t want to be a libertarian. He doesn’t want to be in a party which bases its policies on principles at all.
Mark Sanford is a rare statesman who seems to understand that ideals and principles and doing the right thing matter.
He represents hope for a better future for the party and a return to core Republican values.
Virginia Republican Liberty Caucus Reaches Out at State GOP Convention
This past Friday and Saturday, over 10,000 Republican Party delegates from across Virginia came together at the Richmond Convention Center to select their nominees for Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, and state GOP Chair.
Virginia RLC Chair-elect Matt Gagnon and RLC National Secretary Aaron Biterman spent all day Saturday (starting very early in the morning and going until the Convention concluded) reaching out to prospective RLC members at the Virginia GOP Convention
The RLC booth at the RPV Convention, sponsored by RLC member Lisa Miller of Alexandria, was a massive success, with:
· Nearly 100 Convention-goers signing up to receive e-mail alerts from the RLC;
· The World’s Smallest Political Quiz at our booth was able to identify many new liberty-lovers;
· The Virginia RLC meeting after the Convention, attended by 35 liberty-loving Republicans from across the state, was a huge success;
· The Virginia RLC solidifying its new Board of Directors;
· The RLC gained a dozen new members on the spot;
· The RLC’s endorsed Attorney General nominee (Ken Cuccinelli) won against three other candidates on the first ballot. Some pundits gave the RLC credit for his victory.
At certain points, the booth was so busy that it was very hard to keep up with the demand.
“I was surprised at how many RPV delegates fell into the ‘libertarian’ quadrant on the Nolan chart,” said Biterman.
For a full report on the Virginia RLC Convention and to view more photos, click here.
