It’s Can the Republicans Wake Up, Not Will They?

by Jody Pitcher, Peoria 9-12 Project

On Tuesday June 9th the Vice Chair of the Republican National Committee, Jan Larimer, held a town hall meeting at the Embassy Suites in East Peoria, Il. Many conservatives were in attendance hoping to see a new push from the GOP toward conservative values and principles.

Jan began with a brief statement informing the audience of her background, as well as the RNC’s new direction. In the opening statement she mentioned things like: a return to conservative values, not compromising our values, returning to the base of the Republican party, etc…

Jan went on to explain how Republicans need to become more tech savvy. They need to use Facebook, Myspace, and begin using Twitter and other forms of social networking to grow the base of conservatives in this country. Many agreed.

After answering the question of how to get the message out, it became clear very quickly, that she skipped over the most important thing. What is message the RNC wants to get out?

Several members of the audience tried to pin down exactly what the RNC stands for with piercing questions. The answers ranged from “A return to conservative values” to “working with our base” and other vague platitudes.

It became pretty clear that while the RNC says they want to “hold true to their conservative values,” when it actually comes to doing it, they are still too scared of losing strategic voting groups to make a clear statement.