The United States of America — the place where more people immigrate than any other nation in the world, the place they come to improve their lives and live in safety. We have a history of hard work, personal success and individual freedom. This required the bravery and stamina of many, many people throughout history. Our way of life can be maintained only through understanding our past and diligently fighting for our freedoms as individuals.
In the last 70 years, our country has steadily strayed from the tenets upon which it was established — limited government and individual responsibility. Our government at all levels has continued to expand and is one of our largest employers. Our taxes have increased to the point where we worked last year until April 29 just to pay our national and local taxes — that’s 33 percent, one-third of the year, one-third of our annual income!
The Republican philosophy is fairly straightforward. We believe the government should provide security for our nation, the individual is responsible for himself and his property, and private enterprise should be able to flourish without undue taxes and controls in order to provide good jobs for our citizens.
A few examples of what needs to be changed:
The government is the least efficient agency to help our needy. The social issues should be left to local communities. Charity needs to be local. Our neighbors will help each other, personally and through local charitable organizations, and that will strengthen the individuals and the community. When assistance is needed across the nation or elsewhere in the world, our people have already demonstrated they will respond. We need to rely on ourselves and each other, not the government.
Private enterprise must be allowed to flourish. Over-taxation and burdensome controls are pushing businesses out of our state and out of our country. We should be energy independent and allow private enterprise to make efficient decisions.
We believe in strong stewardship of our environment based on sound scientific study.
People entering our country to live a better life must be willing to learn our language, become citizens, and accept the personal responsibility that enabled our founders to establish a country that others wanted to reach in order to find individual freedom and develop personal success.
Our government has kept us secure since 2001, but we must remain diligent. Our borders must be protected to prevent illegal entry. The laws of our country must be respected and enforced.
We must elect individuals who will support our Constitution, work diligently to protect our community without usurping local control, reduce the size of government, lower our taxes, and maintain a balanced budget.
Are there issues about which all Republicans do not agree? Absolutely! We are not clones. We are thinking, caring individuals who will vary on issues and their resolution. However, I believe we are together on the concept of individualism versus collectivism. Thus, we recognize the local community is the very best place to resolve our differences. And to help each other!
Our country was established on the principles of individualism. And today we must, as individuals and as a nation, decide which belief we accept. For a review, see http://freedomkeys.com/collectivism.htm.
It is not sufficient just to say you’re an American — you must be an American. If you’ve not recently read the documents upon which our great country was founded, I urge you to do so. Turn off the television for an hour a night and review our purpose. It is genuinely inspiring. Yes, we have strayed over the last 70 years, approaching the very tyranny of state control and oppressive taxation from which our founders escaped, but it is not too late to turn the tide.
We can change the direction of today’s government, but we must be willing to contribute our time. If everyone contributed an hour a month, we could be certain the general public knew what we support and insist that our elected politicians return to representing our best interests, as expressed in our Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
Please consider carefully how you can help change the local, state and national trends that impact our goals. We need candidates who will support these goals. We need more people to step forward and support these goals, our candidates, and our elected Republicans.
Contact us at www.snocogop.com or 360-653-1100. Our new office is located at 514 State Ave., Suite 109, Marysville. Do stop by and visit www.snocogop.com.
Geri Modrell is chair of the Snohomish County Republican Party (www. snocogop.com).
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