Republican Corner:
Campaign
Season is Here
By Steve Thompson, Chairman of the Butte County Republican Party
Campaign season is here again. It’s a time that I can’t wait for then quickly grow weary of. I’m already mired in late nights and early mornings again, and my kids can tell I’m starting to get busy. But I’m excited this year, more than I’ve been in quite a while.
The last time I felt this excitement was in 1994. I was helping out on a congressional campaign and you could feel the energy. Democrats controlled Congress and the White House. They were trying to pass socialized medicine and gun control, their leaders had no respect for the people, and the people were fed up. Not too different from now.
Now the people are really fed up. Democrats are running the country into the ground, their leaders have no respect for the will of the people, it’s déjà vu except this time it seems so much worse. I look at our president now and almost long for the days of Bill Clinton. At least he still pretended to be a patriot, and although he was a finger in the wind kinda guy, at least he still sometimes listened to the people.
It’s time for real change this year. Let me tell you that conservatives are energized. I’ve met with a lot of new local candidates lately who are ready to take back their country, and I’ve never seen so many conservative, heart of America, first-time candidates before now. They’re popping up to run for town councils and school boards all over the place. They’re energized by recent victories from republicans like Scott Brown, Chris Christie, and local Supervisor-elect Larry Wahl. The liberal elitists won’t be able to stop all of them. Some of them will get elected and start enacting real change.
I met with a bunch of them tonight at the new Republican Headquarters in Chico. We haven’t opened to the public yet, but when we announce our location, it will turn heads. We have volunteers already lined up to call voters, walk precincts and register new republicans. The people are waking up. They know their country needs to be turned around. They know our state is a disaster. They know, because they pay their own bills, that they have nothing left for the government to fleece from their pockets. They know that having scores of public employees making over $100,000 in communities where the average taxpayer only makes $35,000 is not sustainable. They know that this is a creation of the unions, of the bureaucrats, of the democrats, of liberalism.
It’s a busy time for me. I’ll do what I can to help those campaigns that need and deserve help. I’ll attend the late meeting and dinners. I’ll spend my Saturday mornings organizing neighborhood walks with my friends. I’ll miss my kids a lot. But I’m doing it for them. This is their country, and the future of their freedom is at stake. We will turn the tide back against those who believe more in government than liberty. We will turn it back and we will keep pressing forward. Government has grown too big, too powerful, and too resentful of the working class. It is time for good Americans to remind that government who is truly in charge.
Campaign season is back and conservative victory is in the air. It’s going to be a good year.
