"The Revolution Begins on April 7th"

by Robert E. Brokish, Jr.
Rockford Committeeman, 3rd Ward, 7th Pct.

My friends, battle lines have been drawn. We here, in the Land of Lincoln, are particularly aware of the fight we face, in this, the bicentennial of our Martyred President’s birth. It is a time of discontent and a season for frustration.

Frustration weighs on us with the governance in Springfield: impoverished through waste, soiled by scandal, and chained to Chicago’s Democratic Machine.

That Machine has compounded our frustration by giving rise to a President who has co-opted Lincoln’s message of personal freedom for one entire nation and twisted it into an invoice for economic enslavement to one nation-state.

If that were not enough, to subvert the memory of our first Republican President, our opposition reaches the heights of hubris in claiming the mantle of The Great Communicator. Our current President has been declared Reaganesque and they say it is again, “Morning in America.” Mr. President, I remember Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan was my Commander-in-Chief. Mr. President, you’re no Ronald Reagan.

What do these offenses in Springfield and Washington have to do with the aldermanic, township, and other “off-year” races being decided on April 7th?

Long ago, before Native hunters of the Great Plains could ride amongst the thundering herds of bison and bring down prey, they had to cut their teeth on smaller game. As they honed their skills, so shall we sharpen ours.

While they are small in scope, the 4th and 14th wards are in the opposition’s hands. The 4th Ward seat was snatched away from us in a moment of weakness, and the 14th Ward has seated a Democrat for more than a decade. It is especially important to rise to the challenge in the 14th Ward, since our candidate faces not one, but two opponents and was beset with machinations to keep him off the ballot altogether. Winning the seat will be, no doubt, challenging.

If, however, we fail to take on that challenge, we will have the scorn of would-be Republicans and ersatz Conservatives heaped upon us, to say nothing of how the Democrats will make mockery.

To Ed Geeser in the 14th Ward, to whom this challenging candidacy is given and to Pete Scordato, the GOP candidate in the 4th Ward, as well as our incumbents striving to retain their seats, I say gird thy loins, stiffen the sinew and summon up the blood. Time and tide are against you, but we shall all rise to your support. While aldermanic seats seem but a small matter, they shall be the morsels by which our appetite for victory will be whetted.

Yes, the battle lines are drawn. Let us win these skirmishes and stride forward to victory in the greater struggles in 2010 and triumph in the War of 2012.

If you would like to contact the author, Robert Brokish, you may
e-mail him at robertbrokish@aol.com.

Message from the Chairman

Dear Friends,

As we celebrate the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln, we celebrate our heritage as Americans and as Republicans. May the life of Lincoln inspire us as we remember his rise from humble beginnings to President of the United States. Lincoln was self-educated, read borrowed books, memorized large portions of the Bible, fathered a family of four sons, and practiced law in our capital city. Lincoln represented the frontier virtues of hard work, initiative, self-reliance and personal kindness.

During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln once stated, "... I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side." Lincoln understood that a nation needed to take stands that lined up with God's principles so that God's blessing could rest on the nation. As your chairman, that is my hope as well.

After a very busy election year, Winnebago County Republicans are pleased to celebrate the following accomplishments for 2008:

• Successful fall elections with the re-election of Congressman Don Manzullo, all of our state senators and representatives, Judge Gene Doherty and Judge Ron White, County Board Chairman Scott Christiansen and four county wide candidates, as well as maintaining a Republican majority on the county board.
  
• Campaign coordination with all candidates, sharing volunteers and expenses.
  Printed and distributed 20,000 candidate fliers and mailed 14,000 fliers prior to the election.
  
• Successful GOTV effort with 126 poll watchers and 200 volunteers on Election Day.
  
• Our office served as the campaign headquarters for McCain-Palin. We supplied yard signs, bumper stickers and buttons while identifying over 500 new Republican volunteers.

Thank you to all our volunteers and precinct committeemen who made these accomplishments possible!

Mark your calendars now for Tuesday, April 7th, 2009, as a reminder to vote for all the Republican candidates running in the municipal/township election. Volunteers will be needed during the month of March to help our candidates with their campaigns. Please call our office (815-387-2874) to offer your time or financial assistance.


Jan Klaas, Chairman
Winnebago County Republican Central Committee

"Spending"

by Steve Scherrer

Few would argue that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has a well earned reputation for partisanship. He was quoted saying, “Obama will challenge Americans to embrace a new era of responsible behavior and reject the culture of anything goes”. He also said that “a crisis should not go to waste”. One month into the new administration we have markets dropping faster than a meteor and a restructuring of the American economy into a European style of socialism. The market reflects not only a no convince vote in his economic plan but shocked disbelief in the manner and lightening speed it was jammed through Congress.

Keynesian economics contends that economic prosperity flows from the hand of government. Both common sense and history has shown that to be utter nonsense. Government creates no wealth. It has the power however unless restrained by a free people to confiscate the wealth and productivity of a society. Margaret Thatcher once said that the trouble with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people’s money. All power in Washington is now in the hands of the most anti-capitalist politicians in the history of this Republic. With Democrats holding an overwhelming majority in both Houses of Congress a sympathetic media will have a difficult time making excuses for the sheer recklessness of their actions. The Bush administration cannot be held up as a scapegoat forever. They expanded government far too much to the disliking of true conservatives. The left was right to criticize Bush but now they embrace the expansion of government far beyond the previous administration and tell us that we have to give it a chance. Where’s the logic in that kind of reasoning.

The so called stimulus bill has virtually nothing in it to support small business which is of course the engine of economic growth. The amount of wasteful spending is unprecedented. A trillion dollars is a million million. Numbers like that are hard to fathom. The spending bill amounted to about a billion dollars per page which by the way not a single member of Congress had a chance to read after it came out of the conference committee and came up for a vote. Not a single Republican was involved in the crafting of this monstrosity thus sending down in flames Obama’s promise of bipartisanship and transparency. Obama however behaved as a petulant child when none of the Republican House members voted for his bill. He of course was looking for cover from the Republicans when this massive expansion of government buries our economy. While in Peoria at the Caterpillar plant he promised that his stimulus package would put their workers back on the job. Later Caterpillar’s CEO was asked if that was true and he remarked that more layoffs were planned.

Buried in Obama’s stimulus plan is a giant leap towards imposing a government takeover of all health care. Billions of dollars will flow to a newly formed bureaucracy called the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology. As in Canada and England health care will be rationed. This agency will deem who will be unworthy of care because of age or severity of illness. Decisions that in the past that were made between a doctor and the patient will be gone. This bureaucracy will maintain an electronic database giving it access to everyone’s medical records so that decisions regarding rationing of care can be made. Why was this put in the Obama’s stimulus plan? The fact that there was no debate on this is frightening. It’s not how the country is supposed to work. So much for Obama’s campaign promise that the American people would have the same health care plan as the members of Congress.

We were told that last September’s $700 billion bailout was necessary to deliver us from that crisis and now $350 billion cannot be accounted for. National debt as a part of GNP is now projected to be 13.5%. Historically it’s been between 2 to 4% and we’ve always recovered from recessions which normally last 18 months. The Democrats who are in power are behaving like out of control adolescents who now have the ability to do whatever they want. His cabinet appointee’s alone have been found to owe $450,000 in back taxes. Obama promised hope and change. He is delivering on his promise to radically change America. The hope part of the equation is where he will fail miserably.