[Publisher’s Note: Last weekend, just two weeks after the California Republican Party’s organizational convention, new CRP Chairman Jim Brulte brought together his Board of Directors for a retreat in the Inland Empire. We asked CRP Vice Chairman Harmeet Dhillon if she would share with FR readers some of what took place. Dhillon has penned a two-part column, the first of which appears below. Part two appears here… Flash]

CRP Board Retreat March 15-17 Wrap-Up – PART I By Harmeet Dhillon, Vice Chairman, California Republican Party

I was honored this past weekend in Ontario, California to participate in an intense weekend board retreat of the California Republican Party. Planned and organized by our new Chairman, Jim Brulte, the weekend included presentations by over a dozen leading and thought-provoking political professionals on the challenges ahead for our party.

Jim Brulte set the stage for the weekend retreat at our first board meeting on March 3, immediately… Read More

An interesting argument has sprung up on FlashReport between Ray Haynes and John Hrabe about gays.

Haynes went first in a long article that tried to make a libertarian case for two social conservative causes, pro-life and pro-traditional-marriage.

Haynes said:

“The pro-life position is the more difficult position to defend… because the pro-abortion lobby has seized on the liberty agenda to promote abortion.”

But the usurpation of the liberty argument isn’t Haynes only problem. It’s not even the biggest. Haynes’ first problem is weak assumptions, like:

“Government is created to protect the weaker members of society from the involuntary intrusions on their personal security or property interests by the more powerful.”

And like:

“Families were developed to create as safe an environment as possible to raise children. Marriage was created as an institution to grow and nurture children, and protect women, who are the usual caregivers to children, from economic harm as they are raising children.”

We don’t know who created government. Somewhere in the mists of history governments began, evolved and now… Read More

Government power is backed by force. And when that force is used to require someone to perform an act which violates their personal moral code or religious belief, that force is an invasion of individual liberty.

Under current law, everyone has the right, regardless of sexual orientation, to

“determine how to purchase property, transfer property after death, or share property as joint tenants. These contracts hypothetically might include the freedom to contract for services, such as making health decisions when incapacitated, or providing comfort at a patient’s bedside,”

quoting Mr. Hrabe, in his response to my article on liberty. The debate on gay marriage and gay rights today is not a debate about freedom of contract, it is a debate about using the force of government to require people to accept homosexual behavior, no matter what their personal or religious beliefs happen to be. It is an invasion of religious freedom, no matter how the argument is couched. That is why the current debates on gay marriage and gay rights are anti-liberty.

It is about forcing people to accept that behavior. Everyone, gay or straight, already has… Read More

I wanted to finish off this series before beginning any other new discussions, and so, my response to Mr. Hrabe will wait a day.

This series has been about rebranding, as much about the language of liberty which is sorely missing from most discussions on public policy, whether those discussions come from Republicans or Democrats. The people of this country ache for someone to stand up for liberty, so much so that they run to anyone who misuses that language to justify their policy positions. If Republicans actually take up the challenge of promoting liberty, and start honestly using the language of liberty, they will win. It is that simple.

But that actually requires Republicans to engage in the fight for liberty. And to engage in that fight requires work. If Republicans have any major failing, it is that they refuse to work to promote liberty. And by work, I don’t mean sending out a few press releases and talking to the service clubs in their districts, or even fighting with other Republicans at a convention. I mean taking the fight to the streets. House by house, neighborhood by neighborhood, community by community, town by town, city by city,… Read More

When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping. But not in downtown Sacramento. There isn’t anyplace to shop in Sacramento’s downtown any more, other than the one remaining Macy’s in the wilting Downtown Plaza shopping mall. But even that store is on the chopping block, should Mayor Kevin Johnson’s vision of a “world-class city” with a downtown arena, actually come to fruition.

But now, there is yet another new plan to “save” downtown and the K Street Mall.

The historic K Street Mall

K Street, along with J Street, was Sacramento’s original main street, chosen because it was the most direct route to Sutter’s Fort from the river.

During the gold rush, K Street became the main business street. Dry goods stores and hotels appeared along K Street to sell goods to new arrivals and miners. Many of Sacramento’s first… Read More

Last month, I began a series of posts on how I believe Republicans, especially Republican officeholders, ought to talk to voters about where Republicans stand on issues. The theme has been that we stand on liberty, restoring the rights of the individual, whether those rights relate to political rights, that is, free speech and free press, economic rights, that is, the right to feed one’s family without interference from government, that is, without excessive taxation or interference with the free market (freedom of contract and private property rights) by regulatory excesses, or other personal freedoms, such as the right to own a gun. If Republicans start thinking and talking about liberty, in my opinion, it will bring a consistency to our approach to politics, a framework for intellectual honesty in our pursuit of public policy, and a means of connecting with voters in a way that helps them understand that a Republican controlled government will actually be better for them than the tax, spend and regulate Democrats.

My project got delayed a bit, because I had to do things that actually pay my bills, something my creditors truly appreciate, but it is time to… Read More

This week we are going to be compiling the top 100 California conservatives on Twitter. I know who I follow on Twitter. But FlashReport reader feedback is always important for this kind of feature. So, who are they? Politicians? Thinkers? Columnists? Policy wonks? Activists? Celebrities?

The requirement of anyone in consideration is that they must be from California, or have a legitimate nexus to California politics or policy. Other factors that will be weighed include originality of tweets, quality of RT’s, and number of… Read More

As long as I have followed politics closely — since Junior High school in the 1970′s — I’ve said political consultants will be the death of the Republican Party.

And now, finally, a political consultant finally agrees with me. “The way it works is this–ever since we centralized politics in Washington, the House campaign committee and the Senate campaign committee, they decide who they think should run,” Pat Cadell said at the CPAC conference. “You hire these people on the accredited list [they say to candidates] otherwise we won’t give you money. You hire my friend or else.”

“Pat Caddell, the Fox News Contributor and Democrat pollster who engineered Jimmy Carter’s 1976 Presidential victory, blew the lid off CPAC on Thursday with a… Read More