|
Those of you who know me well are aware that I have been concerned about the direction of the Republican Party in Florida for quite some time. I finally--at many friend's urging--decided to do something about it. Therefore, I am officially announcing my candidacy for Hillsborough Country Republican Party State Committeeman.
My positions on the issues are simple and straightforward: I am pro-Constitution, pro-gun, pro-low taxes, pro-liberty, pro-limited government, pro-individual responsibility, pro-life, pro-defense and pro-states' rights. In other words, I am a conservative.
The Republican Party of Florida seems to have fewer and fewer conservatives every year. I suspect that is because some of the senior leadership have decided that Republicans can do without core principles, and the party should simply be a new type of marketing organization. Essentially they appear to believe Republicans should say and do anything in order to get elected.
I disagree. They forget or ignore that once elected, there must be a defined set of agreed upon principles to guide our representatives while in office. Individual Republicans must likewise have a set of core principles that unite us and provide a standard by which we evaluate our candidates. That is what I want to change; that is what I believe must change for the party to survive and prosper.
In addition to my general goal of returning the Republican Party to its conservative roots--not corporatism but true conservistism--if elected, I have two specific, facilitating goals:
The Republican Party of Florida needs a Platform. The platform is the tool which defines the party, its principles, and the standards to which Republicans, candidates and elected officials must be held accountable. All officers in the Republican Party should also be held to those standards. No individual officer in the party should have the unilateral ability to judge the fitness of another Republican by any other standard.
The Republican Party of Florida needs a Convention. Historically, the Republican Party has always been a grass-roots, bottom up organization. We have no super- delegates. We prefer primaries to caucuses. All our activities should be exposed to the sunshine. Our current process for selecting Convention delegates uses a very elitist approach: A small group of party leaders chooses the delegates for each district. Why? I believe that the entire REC's should choose state delegates to the convention through a public vote. Let those delegates to the State Convention then choose the delegates to the National Convention. A true grass-roots approach which avoids the potential for political insiders hijacking the party.
We Republicans need to return to our conservative roots, and remember the ideas and bold visions of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. We need to return to a true party of the people whose principles rise from the common values held by ever Republican in Florida.
I humbly ask for your vote on August 26th, 2008.
|
Where do you stand on that issue, and why did you leave out pro-life?
Just a typo. if you look at http://freedomsadvocate.com/articles/3-politics/21-steven-j-burden-for-hillsborough-county-republican-state-committeeman.html it has pro-life. Thanks for catching it. I will fix it.