Republicans are doing this “big tent” thing all wrong. Instead of making the tent bigger, they just move the posts and stakes. Instead of including more people, they only shift to different people. By moving the tent to include people who don’t necessarily hold to Republican principles, they leave behind people to whom those principles are vitally important. The “big tent” concept – as recently practiced – does not make the Party bigger; it leaves it weaker.

No one is allowed to join a liberal organization who isn’t a liberal. Even some liberals can’t get in because they aren’t liberal enough. Conservatives, because we are willing to negotiate and compromise with liberals, end up allowing liberals to change them. When Republicans do that, they stop being the party of conservative principles. Instead, they become the party of compromised principles.

Grassroots conservatives don’t want compromised principles. Previous Republican leaders failed to appreciate how important it is to stay true to and speak up for our principles and to articulate our core beliefs. They failed to value conservative voters, an incredibly important group of voters. Instead, leadership tried to get fancy, and they created a circus under their so called “big tent.”

Only people who hold six specific beliefs belong in the Republican “tent.” Further, they must act and vote based on those beliefs.  They have to believe “that the free enterprise system is the most productive supplier of human needs and economic justice.” They must support keeping the government out of our business and our businesses. They have to identify and support candidates who will actually vote to reduce the government’s ability to impede the creation of personal wealth and business success.

People who belong in the “tent” need to believe “that all individuals are entitled to equal rights, justice, and opportunities and should assume their responsibilities as citizens in a free society.” To accomplish that, Republicans need to advance personal freedom by reducing government interference in our lives and by taking personal responsibility for preserving our liberty rather than expecting someone else to do it for us.

Our “tent” welcomes those who believe “that fiscal responsibility and budgetary restraints must be exercised at all level of government.” We promote smaller government, fewer regulations, and lower taxes. Too many politicians are overly concerned with “position, power, and prestige” and are not concerned nearly enough with the fact that the more power they collect for themselves, the less they leave for the citizens from whom it comes.

Republicans gladly welcome those who believe “that the federal government must preserve individual liberty by observing constitutional limitations.” We must fight for legislation that preserves our constitutional liberties, but we also must speak up and speak out in defense of our constitutional heritage, and we must teach our children the true history of America, not the false narrative being pushed in our schools and in the media.

Republicans welcome those who believe “that peace is best preserved through a strong national defense.” And a major part of that defense is for ordinary Americans to be armed with enough firepower to defend their families, their communities, and their freedoms from all enemies both foreign and domestic (and recent events have demonstrated that plenty of domestic enemies are lurking about the country waiting to strike without warning).

Most importantly, people in the “tent” must believe “that faith in God, as recognized by our founding fathers, is essential to the moral fiber of the nation.” That does not mean that only Christians can be Republicans. Even liberals recognize that the country holds together by the common values that have come from the Judeo-Christian heritage that birthed our will to fight for liberty. That is why the communist/socialist domestic terrorists are trying so hard to destroy the church – they want to destroy our moral fiber and make us easy to break down.

Our “tent” can expand to hold all who believe in our principles. And we don’t have to go chasing after them. They will come to us if we boldly tell who we are, because we are what they want in a political party. We just need to stop looking like circus clowns by chasing after those who do not share our beliefs.

The Virginia Republican Party has new leaders who seem to get it. But grassroots Republicans also have a responsibility to proclaim our principles. We have plenty of room in the Republican “tent” for those who hold to our principles and who care enough to get involved. Republicans need to find them and invite them in.

Cordially,
Steve “Doc” Troxel, Ph.D.

There was a country in which Communist leaders decided that the only way to gain and keep power in their hands was to fool the citizens. First, they rebranded Communism as Socialism. To do that they worked hard to create hatred in people – genocidal levels of hatred. The leaders of this movement knew to divide people into well-defined groups that they could get to think alike. They had the option of race, ethnicity, religion, economic standard, anything that could easily be identified.

Then they created social situations so terrible that individuals started feeling like victims. Then they blamed those situations on discrimination and hatred of one group toward another. Then their minions and “neighborhood organizers” enflamed their “discriminated group” with the demand that they get what the deserved and that it be taken away from the oppressor, the dreaded “others who are not like us.” Then the mainstream media started pushing the narrative and enflaming the hatred and fear and insecurity that the various groups were feeling. These feelings destroyed friendships between members of the groups. It even destroyed marriages. People retreated from other groups and isolated themselves within their own groups because they didn’t feel safe anymore.

Then the socialist leaders waited for a spark to ignite carefully staged and well-organized mass protests all over the country – protests against the presumed oppression and murder on one group by another. Then rioting and burning started. But the country was not yet lost. There were some reasonable people left who understood that they were one country and that they would do much better together than they ever could apart.

But those voices were overwhelmed by the riots. People started erecting barricades on highways, at the entrances to their cities, at the entrances to their neighborhoods. Armed civilians guarded the barricades and resisted every attempt of law enforcement to take down the barricades and de-escalate the situation. Then law enforcement found themselves being ambushed and killed, and peace could no longer be restored. When the military was deployed to calm things down even they were attacked. And eventually the country found itself in a full-blown civil war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives.

It sound like modern-day America, but I was talking about Yugoslavia. When the Berlin Wall came down, anti-communist feeling ran strong in Europe, so the communists changed their name to socialists. In Yugoslavia, they called themselves National Socialists. The name had worked well in Germany in the 1930’s when the National Socialists – or as they were known then, Nazis – took power and required a world war with 60 million people killed to give it up. The socialist leadership of Yugoslavia had power and didn’t want to give it up. They fomented chaos so that the people would look to the government to restore order. The socialists retained their power – at the cost of millions of displaced people and dozens of unmarked graves. They retained their power but of vastly reduced areas. Because of the chaos, Yugoslavia broke into seven different countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia.

Socialists have been infiltrating the U.S. government for years, especially during the Obama administration. Their efforts are showing up as they continually attempt to hamstring President Trump’s efforts to bring peace and prosperity to every American. Despite them, the President’s efforts were working for everyone – until the socialists put the brakes on the economy with their fearmongering about Covid-19, a serious flu strain, but certainly not the worst one in my lifetime.

But even worse than the fearmongering is the brainwashing of America. Socialists have taken over our education system. People take on thousands of dollars of debt so they or their children can be taught that America is a colonial demon – failing to teach the truth that America was once a colony that, in the strength of a common Christian faith, threw off the chains of the world’s greatest colonial power, Great Britain, and gained the right and the freedom to determine their – and our – own futures, futures that we are now on the verge of throwing away.

Some people are already talking about the coming civil war in America. The socialists want it. I pray it never happens. We should well remember the words of philosopher George Santayana, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” And we don’t even need to go that far back in history. We just need to look at the last 30 years in Yugoslavia, or the last 30 days in Portland and Seattle.

Cordally,
Steve “Doc” Troxel, Ph.D.

Delegates to our Virginia GOP state convention will make several important decisions during balloting on Saturday, August 15. Information on the issues and the procedures are found at https://virginia.gop/rpv-convention/. The convention is “unassembled” (see Article XII of the State Party Plan), which in this case means that voting will take place at twelve different locations around the state.

Perhaps the biggest decision is selecting a new State Party Chairman. The three candidates are current state chairman Jack Wilson, former delegate Rich Anderson, and Lancaster County Unit Chair Michael Schoelwer. In order to make sure the new chairman is elected by a majority vote, we will use a “preferential ballot.” On a preferential ballot, voters mark their first choice for chairman. Then they mark their second choice for chairman. The first time the ballots are counted, every candidate gets a vote for each time they are marked as someone’s first choice. If none of the three candidates gets a majority of the votes during the first count, then the third-place candidate is dropped from contention. The ballots on which he was first choice are counted again. This time each of the eliminated candidate’s ballots are counted for whichever of the two remaining candidates the voter selected as second choice. The candidate remaining in the race who receives the most first and second choice votes combined is the winner. That means if your first choice is eliminated, you will have been able to vote your preferred second-choice candidate from among the two remaining. It’s like doing a second round of voting, just on a single ballot.

Michael Schoelwer is my first choice. The RPV desperately needs to be revitalized and redirected. I have spoken at length with Michael, and I believe he can provide both. I am especially encouraged by the philosophy he gained during his career in the State Department of providing the field ops with the supplies and support they need and then letting them do their jobs without interference from on high.

Rich Anderson will get my second choice vote. I have not talked with him as much as with Michael, but he is solid on most of the issues that matter to grassroots conservatives. I believe either Michael or Rich can get the Party out of our current doldrums.

Morton Blackwell ran unopposed for reelection as National Committeeman. For National Committeewoman we are choosing between Jean Gannon, a long-time establishment Republican, and Patti Lyman, a grassroots leader who has been on the political firing line for a number of years. I will be voting for Patti.

We will elect two Presidential Electors. The only candidate I know well enough to support is E. W. Jackson.

We have the opportunity to vote on four amendments to the State Party Plan. The first amendment seeks to make the State Central Committee (SCC) more lean and agile so we can deal with issues much more quickly. Currently it is bloated with members who are elected by other SCC members. They have no real constituency unlike those of us who were elected at District or State Conventions and represent actual voters. The false flag being raised about how the amendment will disenfranchise our Republican auxiliaries is just that, false. Currently the CRs, YRs, and VFRW have 11% of the vote on SCC. After this amendment reduces the size of SCC from around 80 to 56 members, the auxiliaries will still have 11% of the vote. Additionally, they still each have a vote on each district committee. No one is trying to disenfranchise them. That is just a false flag. I will vote in favor of this amendment.

The second and third amendments will add to the SCC bloat, not reduce it. I will vote against them both.

The fourth amendment we will consider will require members of SCC and District Committees to “recuse themselves from consideration of any question in which a conflict of interest exists due to compensation by an elected official or candidate.” This should have been in the Party Plan all along, but there are enough SCC members who have such conflicts that the best we could get was a requirement to report the conflict, but no requirement of recusal. I will be voting in favor of this long overdue measure.

The only way amendments 1 and 4 will ever be adopted is if enough convention delegates vote for them. Too many SCC members look at factors other than the good of the voters for us to ever get the necessary three-fourths majority of SCC to make these needed changes. I firmly believe that my choices will bring the greatest good to the Party, more importantly to Virginia, and by extension to the United States of America.

Cordially,
Steve “Doc” Troxel, Ph.D.

On Tuesday, July 28, the Sixth District Republican Committee held its first meeting since our new leadership team was elected at our July 11 convention in Lynchburg. We wanted to hold an in-person committee meeting for several reasons: 1) to show our opinion that the Governor’s prohibitions against normal life are both unwarranted and overreaching, 2) because it is easier to convey meaning and intent to someone in person than via electronic means, and 3) we have several new members, and we needed to meet them and get to know them.

We met at the Stonewall Brigade Bandstand in Staunton’s Gypsy Hill Park. We chose this pleasant, open-air setting because the Governor won’t let us meet at most of the places where we would normally meet. It was a warm, still evening, but we set up a couple of fans that moved enough air to make it a comfortable evening.

Our Republican guests, Staunton City Councilmember Amy Darby and Staunton Mayor Andrea Oakes brought greetings from their city and an open invitation to meet in Staunton whenever possible. Other guests included Ian Parish, area director for US Senate candidate Daniel Gade, and State Party Chairman candidate Michael Schoelwer, who provided the specifics of his plan to make Virginia a Republican state again.

In his remarks to the committee, new district chairman John Massoud focused on working together, without recriminations from the past, to reach specific voter turnout goals in the Sixth that would overwhelmingly re-elect Congressman Ben Cline, and provide the margin of difference to elect Daniel Gade and re-elect President Trump despite the Democrat majorities in certain parts of the state.

Our first major order of business was to elect a Vice Chairman, Secretary, and Treasurer for the District Committee. Incumbent Treasurer Donna Moser was the only candidate for Treasurer, so she was re-elected by acclamation. Former Waynesboro chairman Ken Adams and Liberty University graduate student Tommy Kelley ran for Vice Chair. They each gave excellent speeches focused on unifying the committee and winning in November. Tommy made a statement we should all bear in mind. He said he worked well with people on both sides of the Republican aisle, and he hoped that in two years there would be no aisle.

The two candidates for district secretary were incumbent secretary Karen Kwiatkowski and Rockbridge unit secretary Jan Lowry. They also spoke of their hopes for each of us to work together for victory in November.

During a ten-minute period in which committee members asked questions, each of the candidates provided thoughtful answers. The vote was by secret ballot. After the ballots were counted, Tommy Kelley addressed the committee, withdrew from the race and asked the committee to elect Ken Adams as Vice Chair by acclamation. Likewise, Jan Lowry withdrew from the secretary race and asked the committee to elect Karen Kwiatkowski by acclamation. The entire committee agreed to this with applause for all four individuals.

This was only one example of the spirit of cordial cooperation with which the entire meeting was held. However, a tiny group of sore losers from our convention posted a sarcastic meme belittling the results of our meeting. This childishness said more about those who posted than about the Committee. This type of small-mindedness should be condemned by those who see that the real issue in the Sixth is winning by exceptional margins in November.

I gave a report on our preparations for the “unassembled” State Convention vote on August 15. Every state delegate will vote at their designated polling place between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Delegates from Roanoke City, Roanoke County, Botetourt, and Rockbridge/Buena Vista/Lexington will vote at the Salem Civic Center along with two units from the 5^th District and several units from the 9^th. Delegates from Lynchburg, Amherst County, and Bedford County with vote at Tree of Life Church in Campbell County along with about two-thirds of the 5^th District’s units. The other ten units (from Augusta County north) will vote at the Augusta County Government Center in Verona. The voting will be walk-up. (Delegates will park in the lot and walk to the voting tables to cast their ballots. Individuals who for health reasons choose not to leave their cars will be accommodated.)

All in all, this was the type of meeting we need to be having every time – focused on a common goal and working toward that goal in harmony with each other.

Cordially,
Steve “Doc” Troxel, Ph.D.

On January 10, 1963, Florida Congressman A. S. Herlong read into the “Congressional Record” an excerpt from “The Naked Communist” by Cleon Skousen This excerpt listed 45 goals communists had established for the United States. Numbers 17 through 31 sound like a summary of today’s news.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. Eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, and substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms instead.
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy.”
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a “religious crutch.”
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the “common man.”
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the “big picture.” …

We thought we won the Cold War. We did not; we only drove the enemies of our freedoms underground. While in the shadows of society, they have quietly and effectively turned lies into “fake truth.” Those of us who were alive in 1963 can easily see how much worse off our country is now than it was then. Goals 25, 27, and 28 have been particularly destructive. Destroying the moral fiber of America has left us without a common bond and without a common truth. Without those bonds and that truth our country is ripping itself apart.

Goal 42 from the list is also worth noting: “Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use ‘united force’ to solve economic, political or social problems.” Unfortunately, too many Americans believe the fake truth of our enemies. The only thing that will bring America together again is a wholesale return to the faith of our forefathers, that is, the Truth found in the grace and mercy offered by Jesus Christ. Without it, America is doomed. But then, that’s what communists have wanted all along.

Cordially,
Steve “Doc” Troxel, Ph.D.