Growing Our Party

What is a Republican?

A Republican is a citizen legally entitled to vote who checks a box on a registration form that is designated "Republican". That is all it takes to become a Republican.

The bigger question is what is the Republican Party and what does it stand for. That question is answered every four years at the National Convention when the delegates enact the Party Platform. These delegates are elected in a bottom-up process. Republicans in every voting precinct elect delegates to the county convention. Each county convention elects delegates to the state convention where the delegates to the national convention are selected. The national delegates write and approve the Party Platform that sets the standards for the Party principles.

Just as within your church or within your neighborhood or community service organization, there are those who do not abide by the agreed creed, manual or rules. The Republican Party has many who have agreed to join the organization for selfish reasons - mostly to get the benefits of being in the majority party. Their actions many times run counter to the interests of the Party as a whole and their actions are used by outsiders to ridicule the party as being hypocritical.

In fact, a majority of the Republican Party has maintained the Reagan Constitutional, conservative, free enterprise, American sovereignty, states rights, smaller government tenets clearly detailed within the current Repubican Party Platform.

Controversy becomes the rule when people who have identified themselved as Republicans rise in the political system to be "leaders" within the Party and then govern in complete violation of the very principles they said they believed in when checking the box "Republican." Growing Our Party is ashamed to admit that the last three large tax increases have been foisted on Arizonans by Republican governors - Hull and Brewer. Their actions are Democratic.

Let us be clear, the controversy within the Republican Party does not come from upholding the party principles, it comes from those who want to violate those principles with impunity. Their continued efforts to destroy those who support the Platform are the same blame-game tactics used in every other area of society by those who don't want to follow the rules.

When Republican presidents, governors, congressmen and legislators push for Kids Care, All Day Kindergarten, Amnesty, No Child Left Behind, Sales Tax Increases, Budget Overrides, Career Ladders, and Science Foundation programs and fight against unbridled First Amendment and Second Amendment protections, parental choice in education, smaller government and lower taxes, they place themselves in a special category. That category is Repubican In Name Only (RINO).

Their complaints that they are being treated badly by Republicans who believe in and uphold the Party Platform principles are unjustified and speaks to their lack of character. If they do not want to be referred to as RINOs they should come into compliance with the principles in the Platform and they will no longer carry the stigma of being a RINO. Until then . . .