Today I read something that just made me proud to the core. I plan to have it printed into a plaque and place it in my office so that I can see it regularly. What is this profound statement? The first paragraph of the Chairman’s Preamble of The 2008 Republican Platform. Let me delineate this paragraph.

This is a platform of enduring principle, not passing convenience…  Foundational principles don’t change. We don’t shift our beliefs with every new fad or special interest group. These are principles that last.

…the product of the most open and transparent process in American political history. Certainly time will prove whether this is true or not, but the very attempt to be transparent speaks volumes of the party and what it is trying to achieve. The desire is for every American to be a part of the process.

We offer it to our fellow Americans in the assurance that our Republican ideals are those that unify our country:  This is an extremely important statement. It is not the purpose of the Republican Party to win, to prove that they are right, or to make sure that they stay in power. It is the purpose to unify our country. At times we will find areas of disagreement, but we will strive to uphold those ideals and bring our country together.

…Courage in the face of foes. There are many who would love to see us fail, would dominate us, would eliminate us.  But we will stand courageous, together, as one country.

An optimistic patriotism… I think that I like this little phrase above all.  Being a “patriot” is almost considered an evil thing by so many. Patriotism defined as love of and/or devotion to one's country and those who identify with the Republican party are patriots, we love our country. We don’t love it when it is convenient, or when the person we wanted to be President is in office. We love it all the time.  We are not only proud of our country when things are going our way. And we are optimistic, we think that things are getting better, because they are.

…driven by the passion for freedom. This isn’t freedom for just people who think like us, it is freedom to all. We want to see every man, woman, and child living with the freedoms that are our rights.

Devotion to the inherent dignity and rights of every person… This isn’t something that we just say, it is a devotion to this principle. We respect all and fearlessly defend the rights of all humanity.

Faith in the virtues of self-reliance,…  We are not here for someone to take care of us from birth to death, but we are here in a country that has been built on the virtue of self-reliance.  We are a country where our founding members braved incredibly difficult situations only to thrive. We are a country where every single person can make it on their own if they want to. We might help each other because we want to, but we are not a country of self-decency.

…civic commitment… Our society thrives when we band together to make it better. While we certainly have the right to not participate, we as a people encourage each other to be a part of the process and do all that we can to make our country, state, county, and street a better place.

…and concern for one another. It is certainly more than making our country better, it is helping each other. We don’t live in isolation, we are passionate about people, loving our neighbor.

Distrust in government’s interference in people’s lives. While some see government as that entity that should do absolutely everything for us, the Republican Party stands to have us free from the shackles of the government. It is the very reason that we sought these shores so many years ago. We wanted to worship without being told how we should. We wanted to purchase things and make things without giving tribute to the king. We wanted to live in such a way as we wanted and not how the government said that we should. So as Republicans we don’t want the government to tell us how to live and we want them to stay out of our lives.

Dedication to a rule of law that both protects and preserves liberty. This rule of law protects us from each other as well as those from outside. We respect that law, even those that we might as individuals disagree with. We despise those that would break the law. We love those laws that keep our freedoms in place.

We need to remind ourselves from time to time what are our core principles. I would hope that these are the core principles of all Americans. Certainly there are those that don’t agree with this, but it is my hope that it is a small minority and that liberty and freedom will ring from shore to shore. I hope that you will join me on this journey.

~Rick