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Open Letter to the RNC, DNC, Independents, and Lurkers
PART I.
THIS IS WHO WE ARE!
We are contributing members of the Premiere Conservative Forum, Free Republic, (FreeRepublic.com.) Our members are known by the term, FREEPERS. We have been engaged in Conservative Activism since 1996.
Founded in September 1996 as a sole proprietorship by Founder, Chairman and President James C. "Jim" Robinson, of Fresno, California, Free Republic opened to the general public in February 1997. Robinson filed for LLC status on September 11, 1998. (an auspicious date when you recall what September 11 has now come to represent in our history.) It has always been a for-profit company and donations have never been tax exempt.
This bears mention for the fact that Free Republic operates SOLELY on contributions from our members, although it costs nothing to join or participate. We are self-supporting and self-sustaining. The tie that binds us all is Conservatism at its finest.
It is also worth paying attention to because what we can accomplish in ONE fundraising event on this site can amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars, IF we decide to pick and back a candidate.
Free Republic's membership spans the entire Fifty States of the United States of America, scattered members from other countries around the world, and includes Americans from all walks of life and all different faiths.
We proudly boast members representing our Military, (some on Active Duty around the world, including Iraq and Afghanistan,), Law Enforcement, First Responders, accountants, authors, journalists, Veterans from many wars going all the way back to the Korean War, grandmothers and grandfathers, mothers, fathers, husbands and wives, sisters and brothers, and a new generation of the children of original members who have chosen to follow in their parents' footsteps.
In other words, our constituency comprises Conservatives who joined Free Republic because of its basic core principles which have not changed since the day our doors were opened.
At the time of its founding, Jim Robinson and a handful of like minded Conservatives became so concerned with the direction our country was being taken by Bill Clinton, they felt compelled to raise their voices by organizing the FIRST March for Justice in Washington, DC, which attracted at least 3000 Patriotic Americans and was broadcast live on Halloween 1998 by C-SPAN. Featured speakers included Alan Keyes, Bob Barr, Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson of B.O.N.D. and Larry Klayman. Ann Coulter, Lucianne Goldberg and Matt Drudge also attended. Other Free Republic events over the years have also been televised by C-SPAN.
Over the years, Free Republic has been a major force in many political events which usually are not mentioned when referring to us, since we have become anathema to left wing blogs and organizations such as Democratic Underground, MoveOn.org, MediaMatters, Think Progress, etc., which are more interested in pointing out some of the negatives during our growing pains, BECAUSE of our influence in thwarting their left wing agenda.

PART II.
THIS US WHY WE MATTER!

Free Republic and its members have been instrumental in making sure our rights were not trampled and justice prevailed.
Examples of this have been:
1. The exposure of Al Gore's participation in the Clinton fund raising scandals.
2. The unprecedented, and often overlooked, "ex-communication" of Joe Lieberman by the Orthodox Jewish Rabbis who comprise a judgmental body known as the Bet Din, for using his claimed orthodoxy to promote the Gore pro-abortion policies as Gore's VP running mate, which has not been lifted to this day.
3. The design and release of the "Sore Loserman" posters and bumperstickers which caught the attention of all of America and were so successful that they might well have changed the course of history.
4. The protests against the Florida recount, a blatant attempt by Democrats to steal the 2000 election and reverse George W. Bush's victory. We organized successful counter-protests in opposition to the organized DNC protests and demonstrations by their union sympathizers.
WE were the ones who stormed the locked room where democrat operatives were trying to conduct their recount in secret and exposed their disregard for the rule of law. That action stopped the illegal count and changed their planned outcome.
5. The exposure of John Kerry's true background as a Vietnam "war hero" as well as his extensive connections to our Communist enemies in North Vietnam. The book, "Unfit for Command," was coauthored by one of our members.
6. The FIRST exposure of the Dan Rather/CBS Bush National Guard documents as forgeries, along with Powerline blog which eventually led to the firings of those involved.

These are mere highlights, but by no means all we have accomplished with our dedicated researchers and activist chapters throughout the country.

Most if us were, at one time, registered Republicans. We supported you, RNC, through thick and through thin with our dollars, our volunteers, our dedication to OUR core principles which you espoused.
We watched, as over the years, you turned away from those principles and led our party to defeat after defeat by becoming a duplicate version of the Democratic party, rejecting one after another, the planks in your platform in favor of your "big tent" approach, putting party over principle, party over the morals and the family values you claim to represent, but do NOT.
After fighting every single day everywhere in the country to elect a Republican Majority to the Senate, we were shocked to our core when RINOs went behind closed doors and agreed to "Power Sharing" which we considered a bargain with the devil. WE were right.
After the hard fought 2000 election, we watched in utter dismay as OUR president partnered with Ted Kennedy to extend government control into our families and over our childrens' lives with the "No Child Left Behind" bill.
As if that was not enough, YOUR candidate for the past election, John McCain, teamed up with one of the most liberal Senators in history to give us McCain/Feingold, which Bush promised to veto, but didn't.
After 9/11, we were stunned yet again when Republicans allowed the delay of the implementation of the Department of Homeland Security and allowed the Democrats to politicize it by making it just another boondoggle and a home away from home for their constituent semi-literate and illiterate union workers.
To add insult to injury, the Republicans used it as a repository for deficient small r politicians as political favors. The highest offices were replete with hacks who paid more attention to their interior decorators than to the security of our country.
Since then, it has evolved into simply another dysfunctional, out of control bureaucracy, which has now actually put into writing that CONSERVATIVES in this, our own country, were somehow subversives and potential terrorists.
We have seen RINOs like Jim Jeffords hand over our hardwon majority to the democrats in the Senate. We watched Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe, and Susan Collins "cross the aisle" to defeat Conservatives and give victories to liberal bills we have abhorred.
We watched the insanity of trying to provide amnesty for illegal aliens disguised as "Comprehensive Immigration Reform."
We watched Republicans spending us into oblivion, but NOTHING on earth prepared us for what Bush did upon leaving office with the help of RINOs in our Congress, and John McCain, our "nominee," the TARP bill handing Obama total countrol over our Treasury.
It was the final blow and a smack in the face to anyone and everyone who supported Small r republicans disguised as Conservatives and which put us on this path to our own destruction, the wholesale dismantling of our beloved Constitution, and the end of Freedom and Free Market Capitalism as we have known it.
We watched as you withheld OUR contributions from Conservative candidates from local offices to federal offices in favor of liberals with small rs who betrayed us once they were elected.
You held your noses when McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate, but you must also note that before her candidacy, the RNC AND John McCain couldn't raise enough money to run a presidential campaign. When Sarah Palin joined the ticket, the Conservative coffers opened wide. NOT for John McCain, but for Sarah Palin, whom you continue to try and diminish.
Some of you might have heard of us. Those who haven't soon will because today, the world as you have known it changes. Today we are delaring our emancipation from party politics as usual. Today is the day that as Conservatives, we declare that in OUR PARTY, we will accept NO MORE RINOs!

Wrong strategy. The goal of the RNC is to elect the most Republicans. Both parties naturally seek quantity over quality that is not going to change. In fact, looking to the RNC, even if in anger to seek change, is misguided energy.

The party should support whoever wins the primary.

The call to action of FREEPERS and all conservatives should be two-fold:

First, conservatives must spend more time finding and supporting ways to spread the word and NOT just complaining amongst ourselves. We need to convert voters NOT a party…what I’ve called “adopt a moderate.” Conservatives relying on their national party, is akin to people who rely on their national government; and

Two, conservatives must actively support the most conservative candidate in a primary that can both win the primary AND the general election. All too often, in conservative areas, the RINO wins the primary because various conservative candidates dilute that vote. That’s not an RNC issue.

On the other hand, it is also a reality that there are several states and districts where a RINO is a victory. Lindsey Grahamnisty in South Carolina is a tragedy and the Republican that angers me the most but I take him 7 days a week here in California instead of say Babs Boxer.

The problem isn't RINOs in office, it's RINO in the voting booth. The former is the symptom, the later is the disease. Work to cure the disease and the symptom will go away.