Shortly after the storming of the nation’s Capitol building by supporters of Republican President Donald Trump on January 6 and the failure of President Trump to forcefully rebuke the protestors whilst they were before and in the Capitol building to get out as soon as possible seemingly gave proof to the dire warnings of the President’s fiercest critics that he would not honor the election of Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris to President and Vice President, respectively. The defiling of the Capitol occurred after numerous court cases on behalf of the President to challenge the propriety of the 2020 elections had been overruled. It was President Trump’s right and duty to contest what was seen by some as unfair. But the failure to concede the election to Vice President Biden went over the line. With the storming of the Capitol building by pro-Trump rioters, the Republican Party’s brand took a big hit. For some, the name “Republican,” the Party of Lincoln, has become the equivalent to “mud.” What happened on January 6 was both a failure and victory of our government. It was a victory as both parties and those in the levers of power recognized these law breakers for what they were and held steady. Vice-President Pence and the electors duly recognized the victory of Vice President Joe Biden. Jail time and punishment should come to all of the rioters who assaulted and breached the Capitol building. But it was also a failure of government as the Capitol Police had been warned of threats to the Capitol on January 5th Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House was and is the boss of the Capitol Police. Why did they not arrange for more manpower to prepare? They were able to do that for protests in the summer and for the inauguration itself. Was it a political calculation by Speaker Pelosi that her party and she would gain more if she did nothing and the Capitol should fall regardless of the consequences for our nation?

Then for Connecticut Republicans a second hammer dropped as longtime Chairman J.R. Romano, who had served dutifully and loyally for five and a half years, resigned on January 12, 2021, less then one week later. Mr. Romano resigned in part due to the lagging donations to the CT GOP, which had been dwindling even more in the previous six months. With $28,183 in the till as of December 31, 2020 according to a report in the CTMirror, things were getting bad. There will be two elections for CT GOP chair, one at the end of February by the seventy four members of the state central members to finish Mr. Romano’s term and then again in June to elect the next CT GOP chair. So who would want to take on the mantle of chair in the aftermath of the storming of the Capitol by supporters of President Trump and with low fundraising appeal?

If the standard operating procedure of the CT GOP is followed then the primary function of the CT GOP chair is to raise money. “How can you raise money for the party?” “Have you been successful raising money before?” “What contacts do you have to raise money?” These are the wrong questions to ask. To do what the CT GOP has done for the past forty years almost assures the number of registered Republicans will continue to fall below twenty percent statewide. This may be putting the cart before the horse. You have to have something to sell in order to get people to donate money. You have to have people proud of their donation as a contribution to improvement of our state, nation, environment and world. Just being the Party of Lincoln and opposition to taxes and regulations will probably not cut it.

The CT GOP needs to have a bold plan for economic growth, racial and social justice, school choice, a vigorous, pro-American foreign policy and a rational environmental policy. It could be a mistake for state central to focus on fund raising ability versus making the CT GOP a national leader on things Republican. When was the last time the CT GOP was a leader on national issues, let alone Connecticut as a leader? Connecticut currently leads from the bottom as forty-seventh worst fiscal health for a state when it has the highest per capita income in the nation. That is really hard to do, but the statists in Hartford pulled it off.

The CT GOP should consider the example of candidate Kim Klacik who ran for the U.S. House of Representatives for Maryland’s 7th congressional district against Democrat nominee Kwiesi Mfume. Her video inviting the viewer to follow her through the City of Baltimore and the many failures of the political machine that has run Baltimore for decades went viral and made her a heroine nationwide in the 2020 elections. More importantly she brought in millions from out-of-state for her uphill battle. Connecticut has about 3.5 million residents. The United States has about 330 million citizens. If the CT GOP can lead the nation on numerous issues the donations can follow at a higher level then possible within the confines of 3.5 million residents and a generally statist press.

What should the Republican Party become in the post President Donald Trump era? How can the CT GOP build on the economic successes of his administration, mostly experienced outside of Connecticut, the expansion of school choice for children from high needs families, recognition of the Chinese Communist Party as a foe of democracy, a rational environmental policy to take into account the concerns of global warming but also our poor and economy? Here are what the positions that a candidate for the CT GOP chair could possess to appeal to Republicans, unaffiliated voters and Democrats. The issue is not just what policies appeal to Republicans, the issue is what policies will appeal to Republicans, unaffiliated voters and Democrats?

Veteran: In these days of an all-volunteer Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard, honorable service in our military forces is an indicator of service to our nation, which appeals across all party lines.

Executive Committee Member of a local NAACP branch: In the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, there was much talk of “systemic racism” and Black Lives Matter. Many people scaled their personal soap boxes to tell the world how amazing they were, but more often then not they counseled doubling down on ruinous policies of the past so that nothing would change. To be an executive committee member of a local branch of the NAACP might give a Republican pause as the national leadership of the NAACP was vociferously against the candidacy of President Donald Trump which actually put their non-partisan political status at risk, but the NAACP is not a monolithic whole. There are differing opinions in the local branches which is where the voters are.

The focus of the CT GOP on the NAACP should be on the fact that the NAACP is the largest civil rights organization in America. A vision for the national GOP could be that it become again the largest civil rights organization in America. You may recall that the Republican Party was formed as the largest civil rights organization in America in the 1850s out of the Free Soil Party and the Whig Party, to first contain the inhumane institution of slavery and then to abolish it. You may recall the three Republican amendments to the U.S. Constitution; the Thirteenth Amendment against slavery and involuntary servitude passed in 1865; the Fourteenth Amendment to extend the civil rights of the Constitution to the states passed in 1868 after the defeated Democratic Party had tried to deny these civil rights to the freedmen; and, the Fifteenth Amendment passed in 1870 that the citizens of the United States would not be denied their right to vote based on their race, color or previous condition of servitude, which was a response to the Democratic Party disenfranchising the newly freed slaves. Women did not get the vote until the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.

This is what a candidate for the CT GOP chair could champion, that the Republican Party become again the largest civil rights organization in America.

“Make America Greater Still”: A candidate for the CT GOP chair should have a slogan and vision of what America should become. President Donald Trump had a slogan: “Make America Great Again.” It was useful and had the value to underline the exceptional nature of America as a land of immigrants and the largest experiment in democracy in But as it says in Katherine Lee Bates’ song “America the Beautiful:” that God would mend thine every flaw, thy liberty in law and in self-control, these are powerful words underlining the fallibility but perfectibility of our country. If one were black and you were asked about the Golden Age of America that you would like to go back to, that person might say that though there are good things about America we can make it even better for all Americans. In that vain “Make America Greater Still,” is at one time a recognition of the goodness in America but at the same time aspirational for what America can become.

Article 1, Sections 1 and 2 of the Connecticut State Constitution and Connecticut’s Constitutional Imbalance: A candidate for the CT GOP chair could have a book coming out this winter which could be titled “Connecticut, formerly the Constitution State: How the Politicians and Judges have Subjugated the Citizen to the State.” A candidate should have an understanding of not only how Connecticut ended up with sixty-six billion dollars in unpaid pension and health care benefits to people who no longer work for the state as well as loan debt at the state level and how that was accomplished in violation of our Article 1, section II of the Connecticut Constitution states that all free governments are instituted for the benefit of the citizen. All of our sister New England states have similar language. This means that whatever our government does, it is supposed to do for the benefit of the general citizen and not a special class of citizens.

When the pay, benefits, sick days, disability benefits, health care and pension benefits for state workers far outstrip what our sister New England states are paying, ‘The New England Average,” that violates Art. 1. sec. 2 of the Connecticut Constitution and is void and unenforceable as a matter of constitutional law as there is no authority to give the people’s money away to special classes of citizen, the public worker, however nice they may be. Article 1 section 1 also prohibits public emoluments or exclusive benefits from the public to a private class of citizen or citizens.

Such book could also go through the many ways that the judges fail to support the citizen in competitions between the state and the citizen and how the statists have made jobs harder to get, wealth harder to earn, housing made less available and less affordable, utilities made more expensive, and staying in Connecticut less attractive to stay in. The fact that Connecticut pays the highest wages, benefits, health care and pensions of all the fifty states to its public employees is a scandal and violates our own constitution.

2017 SEBAC Agreement is not inviolate: The SEBAC agreement, passed in 2017 by a statist dominated legislature and signed by Governor Dan Malloy, claims to prevent the firing of state employees for four years and claims to lock in the employment terms of state workers for ten years. That the statists and their allies in the press would pedal this agreement as unchangeable for ten years was false and a candidate for the CT GOP chair should call it as such. The Connecticut Constitution provides for the manner in which legislation is passed by the legislature and signed by the governor and when a governor does not sign the legislation how the governor can be overridden by even more votes of the legislature. This means that any act of a legislature can be undone by a subsequent legislature. There was no golden ink in Governor Malloy’s pen that gave any more power to the negligent act of claiming to lock away 35-40% of the budget for ten years so that people who were seventeen years old in 2017, would not be able to vote through their representatives to undo the SEBAC agreement until that citizen reached the age of twenty-seven. There is no such concept contained anywhere in our constitution. That is unconstitutional but SEBAC will not be changed so long as the legislature, governorship and courts are peopled by statists who place the state above the citizen.

School Choice: A Republican candidate for CT GOP chair could promote school choice for high needs black, white, Hispanic, Asian and other children in Connecticut. Such candidate could have a book being edited at a publisher to be printed in the spring of 2021 on school choice. The name could be “The School to Prison Pipeline: How School Choice is denied to high need black, Hispanic, white, Asian and other students.” The book would highlight how the traditional narrative of the School-to-Prison pipeline about placing security officers in school to assure a safe learning environment for all school children leads to some children having disciplinary records is not what the School-to-Prison Pipeline is about. Rather the School-to-Prison Pipeline is about the public school monopoly and how it is failing high economic needs children in urban and rural areas. The Pipeline is about how the NEA and AFT stand with Democrat George Wallace in the school house door to deny entry to black students just as George Wallace did in 1963 at the University of Alabama. The NEA, AFT and its allies in Connecticut have limited our public charter schools to only two percent of our K-12 student About 10,000 students are in public charters with about 6-7,000 mostly black and Hispanic children are on wait lists to get into a charter school. There should be no wait lists for a child’s dream. The denial of school choice is about adults against children and that is never fair. A candidate could have a strong view on school choice for all students.

Although the national NAACP wants a moratorium on public charter schools, the Stamford NAACP is in discussions about the comparison of the scores of the Stamford Charter School for Excellence for their black third and fourth graders, who make up half the school, scoring eighties and nineties on English and math exams whilst black third and fourth graders in the Stamford Public School system were getting twenties and thirties in English and math. That is fundamentally wrong and a failure of the Stamford school system. Naturally the Stamford Charter School of Excellence has a wait-list to get in but the allies of the NEA, AFT and the public school monopoly wish to put the dreams of these black, Hispanic, white, Asian and other students from high economic need families indefinitely on hold. That is unjust and a candidate for CT GOP chair could state that.

Stop defunding the education of blacks, Hispanics, whites, Asians and other high economic needs students: After the killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in the spring of 2020, demonstrations broke out not just in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Louisville, Kentucky, but across the nation and abroad. The term “Black Lives Matter” broke into the national consciousness and in some cities extremists called to “defund the police.” Disregarding that defunding the police has little appeal to the majority of people who live in higher crime communities, the term “defund the police” was written about with regularity. Besides mayors like Bill DiBlasio who has been overseeing a decline in the quality of life in New York City, who approved removing millions from the police budget, defunding the police is not a good move.

How about defunding schools that teach primarily black and Hispanic students in Connecticut? Is it a good idea to defund those schools? Of course not! But that is what the allies of the NEA, AFT and the supporters of the public school monopoly have been doing in the state of Connecticut for years. Hopefully Governor Ned Lamont will put a stop to defunding schools that serve primarily high economic need black and Hispanic students. The per student amount that the State of Connecticut pays per public charter school student had been stuck at $11,000 per year. Way below what it actually costs.

Then a $250 per student fee was implemented to $11,250 but that is still way below what it costs. At present, advocates for the education of students in Connecticut’s cities such as Bridgeport, New Haven and Hartford are lamenting the spending of about $18,000 per student compared to wealthy suburbs. If a public charter school were paid $15,000 per student per year, a public charter school would be doing back flips of joy! But the statists persist in the unfair campaign against the future of these black, Hispanic, white, Asian and other students who seek educational choice which would include public charters schools and vouchers for private religious and non-religious schools. The candidate for CT GOP chair could speak up for school choice and against their defunding.

Choice and Voice Education Act: A candidate for CT GOP chair could have legislation that allows the parents and guardians of high economic needs to create public charter school seats in existing schools. The majority of public charter schools in New York City are co-located in the same building as conventional public schools. The Choice and Voice Education Act would allow the parents and guardians of children in Alliance Schools and also other public schools to express their voice for their children and make a choice for the education of their children. The parents and guardians of our children know their children best. The state does not know their children. The state is to act for the benefit of the citizen as the citizen sees fit. If in a six month period over ten percent of the student body of a school filed a ballot with the registrar of voters of their city/town and opted to have their child in a public charter school, then ten percent of that school would be changed to a public charter school. If over sixty percent of the parents and guardians file a ballot with their local registrar of voters, then the entire school would be changed to a public charter school. The public charter school would lease the existing buildings and grounds of the school for one dollar per year and would be able to use the records and statistics of the school going forward. The local educational bureaucracy would not be the arbiter of whether a school becomes a public charter in whole or in part as the local educational bureaucracy is part of what the parents and guardians have identified as failing their students. Scores in the twenties and thirties out of one hundred in the Stamford public school system for black third and fourth graders is an example of a failing school system. Even a sixty is failing for most of us unless mediocrity is your standard? The local educational bureaucracy will fight tooth and nail and will enlist their allies in the PTA to fight against better educational outcomes. This is what a candidate for the CT GOP chair could support.

The Paris Minimum and Climate Change: The candidate for CT GOP chair should have a rational policy on the environment such as “The Paris Minimum and Climate Change: Why we should do everything we can for the environment provided it does not increase the cost of living for poor people.” All Republicans love the environment. It is stupid to debate whether the threat of climate change is real or not real. That is not the point. What are we going to do to help the environment? And when we do something to help the environment will it raise the cost of living for poor people? The cost of living includes being able to hold and get jobs. People who are well-off are better able to cope with rising utility bills, more expensive gas at the pump, increased grocery bills, higher construction costs and a slower They have the resources to absorb these higher costs. In fact, rich people had even gamed the system to have the governmentgive them $7,500 in credits to buy a $135,000 Tesla electric car or to have a utility buy electric off of roof panels on a homeowner’s roof at retail rates whilst it increases the utility bills for renters who are disproportionately black and Hispanic. This, so the well-to- do can burnish their green credentials whilst they live a carbon-pig lifestyle. Don’t get me wrong, Connecticut needs and wants as many wealthy people as we can get. They do wonderful things in buying houses, building additions, buying cars, hiring landscapers, eating out, buying clothes, paying taxes, hiring help etc. They are great.

Just don’t confuse them as green. The candidate must ask why there must be fewer houses and apartments built? And why those houses and apartments are made less affordable? The candidate must ask whether rules are increasing the cost of living for poor citizens and whether that is equitable?

The Electric Car Equity and Elimination of Jim Crow Separate but Equal Act: A candidate for CT GOP chair might seek equity for our citizens and the elimination of vestiges of Jim Crow in Connecticut. Preliminarily, electric cars are driven by millionaires and the well-to-do who can afford the $85,000-$135,000 Teslas and less expensive electric cars. Electric cars pay nothing in the way of gas taxes to maintain the roads and bridges on which they drive. For a more equitable system, there could be an annual bridge and tax fee on electric cars so that the less fortunate do not subsidized the bridges and roads for the well-to-do. More offensive is the reservation of the best parking at rest areas with gasoline and food services on the Merritt Parkway and our interstates for low emitting cars. The only people who can afford Teslas and low emitting cars are millionaires and the well-to-do as the poor do not have an extra $4-5,000 jingling in their pockets to upgrade to a hybrid vehicle or tens of thousands of dollars more for an electric People of color are disproportionately represented amongst those who cannot afford these low emitting cars and are told that they should park at the back of the parking lot and walk the extra distance whilst their betters get the best parking. That would be similar to making blacks sit at the back of the bus as part of the Jim Crow laws of the Democrat South. Why has this Jim Crow type rule been enforced here in Connecticut?

Candidate should have the support of Senators Blumenthal, Murphy and a local congressional representative for legislation of national significance/ The National Slavery Memorial: In these hyper partisan times, that seem to be stoked by the talking heads of CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, who only seem to want their audiences to become further enraged and angry at the politics of “the other side” in order to drive their own ratings, the well-being of the nation be damned, it is important for Democrats and Republicans to find common ground and show the ability to act together for the benefit of our nation and state. The candidate for CT GOP chair could point to a legislative effort that has the support of Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy as well as the support of one of the congress people with the likelihood that the entire Connecticut congressional delegations will sign on within days if not weeks. This is particularly important for the CT GOP as it lacks an elected official in any statewide office or within the United States Congressional Delegation today.

An example could be the proposal for a National Slavery Memorial, National Registry of Donors to the National Slavery Memorial and aid to Historically Black Colleges and Universities that the ad hoc Committee for the NSM is pursuing at the Stamford branch of the NAACP. The concept behind the National Slavery Memorial is similar to the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, Germany. Germany is the only major military or economic power in the world that has a memorial to an historic wrong of the nation in its nation’s capital, the Holocaust Memorial. It is across the street from he U.S. Embassy and mere steps from the Brandenburg Gate, the symbolic heart of Germany, and a few more steps to the Reichstag, the Capitol Building of Germany, and yet Germany still stands. By the same token, a National Slavery Memorial could be erected on the Washington Mall within sight of the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. The reason that the NSM should be near the memorial to the Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican President, is fairly straightforward. The reason it should be visible to the Jefferson Memorial is the Dred Scot decision of 1857 that said that any descendent of an African could not be a United States citizen regardless if a state had recognized that man or woman as a free citizen. This meant that the children of President Thomas Jefferson, the drafter of the Declaration of Independence, and his partner Mary Hemings, his slave, could not enjoy any of the rights declared under the Declaration of Independence penned by their father nor the U.S. Constitution and its Amendments! The Dred Scot decision shook the political accommodations that had been made to the Slave Power as promoted by the Democratic Party, and brought Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party into power in 1860.

Our nation is strong enough to recognize the original sin of slavery and the strength of the African-Americans who had to endure the indignities of the age old practice, which same African-Americans were needed as freedmen in the Union Army to ultimately defeat the Confederacy. The NSM is not to be interpreted as only recognizing the suffering of blacks in America but it also recognizes that the Slave Power and slavery almost destroyed our nascent democracy before she was even one hundred years old. It almost destroyed our constitutional form of government for all of us.

U.S. Congressman Jim Himes, in a Zoom conference in July, 2020 confirmed to the ad hoc Committee for the NSM that he was enthusiastically supportive of the NSM concept and reported that both Senators Blumenthal and Murphy were also supporters. And why wouldn’t they be? It is anticipated that all U.S. senators and representatives, Republican and Democrat will be on board and will support the NSM, the National Registry of Donors and aid to HBCUs. The National Registry of Donors would be an online list of donors that allows individuals and corporations to give in their name or anonymously at any amount from one dollar per person and up. As in church, the one dollar donation from a person of moderate means can mean more than a large donation. As it is anticipated that the annual donations will far exceed the cost of building the memorial, the excess funds would go to America’s historically black colleges and universities based on their student enrollment in 2019 to go first to paying off debt. The NSM and registry of donors, although conceived prior to the death of George Floyd, is an avenue for people to be counted in unison and to give to a universally recognized good, our HBCUs! This is the type of national and unifying legislation that a candidate for the chair of the CT GOP could be able to show that he or she can get the entire Democrat Congressional delegation of senators and congresspeople on board to make Connecticut and the United States greater still.

Decriminalize Work: The candidate for CT GOP chair could show that he or she would push to decriminalize work. In the effort of statists and perfectionists to make this a perfect world, they have worked to put things on neat lists and require orderly paperwork in order for the citizen to earn their living. There are things such as three day rights of rescission for consumer transactions mandated by federal authorities, but here in Connecticut there are requirements that people who work on other people’s homes have to be licensed home improvement contractors. That these contractors have to have certain minimum terms in their contracts otherwise the courts will not support the laborer in getting compensation for work and materials provided to the homeowner.

Tough luck. Or if a worker, who is not registered, cuts the grass for someone or paints at a person’s house, they could be arrested. That is usually only reserved for itinerantly bad apples, but the fact that the state has the right to arrest a person for working demands examination. It is a right to work with your hands and back to put food on your plate and the plate of your children. The government may not fetter that right no more then the government may not deny you your freedom of speech, press, assembly, and religion. Without the right to work with your hands and back, a person could be denied everything as they could not earn anything. Working, however, poorly, should be left to a case-by-case review at the time that a laborer brings an action to collect for work and materials provided. And the worker should not be able to be arrested for exercising a civil right. This is what a candidate for chair could promote.

Affordable housing: A candidate for chair, could support affordable housing and even have a background in the building business. And housing is affordable when it is plentiful and it is not artificially inflated in the cost to build. This could require a return of the State Residential Building Code to its first code in 1971. Before then, there was no state building code in Connecticut. Vermont, with its quant airbnb’s and houses still doesn’t have a state building code in 2021 and the houses do not fall down. Who wouldn’t dream of living in a mid-century modern house built in Connecticut in 1955 but with new bathrooms, kitchen, refinished floors, new windows, appliances and paint job in 2021? That could be fun living. But wait. It wasn’t built with a state building code. And it is still standing and will stand another one hundred years. The king has no clothes. By going back to the building code of 1971, and keeping improvements in fire and electrical safety, one would make home building less expensive which means more would be built and there would be more houses which drives prices down for the rest of the citizenry.

There should also be an affordable home building section within the code that allows for more efficient building methods for homes under 3,800 sq. ft, excluding 900 sq. ft. for garages in order to allow inexpensive, but energy efficient houses to be build for the poor but also house that complete a citizen’s effort to realize the American Dream. These are but a sampling of what a candidate for CT GOP chair could propose for the most expensive thing most of us buy: our house or apartment.

The Chicago Tragedy and analysis of “structural racism” after the killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor: Although the killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor did not happen in Connecticut, the candidate for CT GOP chair might have some proposed solutions for a better way forward. It might even be better if they had a book ready for a publisher on ‘The Chicago Tragedy and the 100 Questions after the Killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor with Policy Recommendations.” That might show some facility in discussions that the head of the CT GOP might be asked about? This book could start with “The Chicago Tragedy,” which discusses the silence of our nation to the tragedy where two young men of color died a violent death every day in Chicago in 2016. And our nation says nothing. The leading institutions say nothing. CNN, MSNBC, The New York The Washington Post, The L.A. Times, The Miami Herald, USA Today, Huff Post, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, etc. will not discuss The Chicago Tragedy because it concerns young black men. Their deaths do not register unless it is at the hands of police. Then they use the latter for their own purposes. The Chicago Tragedy is not limited to Chicago, but also occurs in Philadelphia, Baltimore, St. Louis, Kansas City, Flint and other American cities. It is a national tragedy when the cause of death for a young black man between the ages of 18 and 24 ranges around fifty percent for a violent death, then about thirty percent for an “accident” and only after those causes do you find some like an illness or cancer. If young women were being killed at that rate in Chicago, there would be a national debate about it, but since these are young men, they are invisible to our nation. That is wrong and needs to change.

A candidate might deal with the 100 Questions after the killing of George Floyd as an opportunity to examine what the amorphous term “structural racism” is? Nobody knows for sure, so it is helpful for the citizen to write it down. It could then turn out that what comprises “structural statism” are all of the barriers and burdens that the state places before its citizens to get ahead in school, in work, in cost of living and in life are barriers and burdens to all citizens but they disproportionately impact African- Americans. These 100 Questions might show that structural statism and structural racism are more often then not the same thing in a Venn diagram. The policy solutions might examine how the statists have made life more difficult for the poor and how to lessen or eliminate those barriers. The danger of the death of George Floyd and Breaonna Taylor is that for all the people who got on their personal soap boxes to declare how amazing they were nothing will change and structural statism will remain and even be fortified thereby lessening the chance for advancement for African- Americans specifically, and for everyone else, generally.

It could be good if the candidate had a book on policy recommendations after the killing of George Floyd that had been analyzed and critiqued by an African-American minister over countless Tuesday meetings. What if the genesis for the book was a request by such candidate’s NAACP local branch president for a two pager on “how can white people help [against] systemic racism.” That project could have turned into two hundred pages as the issue is so multifaceted. This could help a potential CT GOP chair to represent the CT GOP in good faith.

Pro-Russian history and politics taught in Connecticut Schools: It is curious for all of the ink spent on special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and all of the keyboard strokes made to stoke the public’s interest in some sort of collusion between President Trump’s campaign and Russians that the teaching of pro-Russian history in Connecticut schools would be studiously ignored. A candidate for CT GOP chair could be aware how the Academy, our schools and colleges, teach history and politics with a pro-Russian bias as if it were nothing It could be helpful if such a candidate were able to point out these omissions and revisionism. An example can be found a www.SaveConnecticut.com for a list of omissions in a popular, though inaccurate, AP history book used to teach our best and brightest history students in some of our Connecticut schools. A candidate for CT GOP chair could call out this pro-Moscow bias in our public schools.

Check”American” and the 2020 Census: A candidate for CT GOP chair could work towards unity of all Americans. One way could be to push back against the poison of identity politics that seeks to categorize people by their skin tone, gender, sexual orientation, immigration status, age, etc. The more categories to divide Americans by, the happier are the proponents of identity politics. They like to set one group against another as opposed to the unity of Americans as one. The antidote to the poison of identity politics and political correctness could be “Check’American.’”

What color is an American? There is no color, but we are a people whether we were born here or immigrated here.

“Now therefore, let it be adopted that any United States/state/local government form that requests that citizens identify their race, creed, color or ethnicity, have as the first category “American” to be put in an equal or more prominent position than the other categories.”

It is not a stretch to say that the passage of this legislation, would be the first day of post-racial America. It could even be an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Almost all Republicans and unaffiliated voters would check “American.” Most Democrats would check “American.” In all cases it is an individual’s choice on how they see themselves. This would be a strong plank for unity of all of us. It is likely that Congressman Joe Courtney representing the Second Congressional District of Connecticut would be the first in Connecticut’s Congressional delegation that would endorse and support the “Check ‘American’” legislation. He constantly puts himself out as a friend of veterans and a supporter, as all politicians would be, of strong military spending for submarines made in Groton, Connecticut. He would really have no choice but to embrace it, or give up being Congressman for the Second District.

A candidate could have a website promoting this legislation to look something like the site at www.CheckAmerican.com. Even better would be a candidate with a book entitled “Check ‘American’ and the 2020 Census: Why ‘American’ should be the first category for your race, creed, color and ethnicity” coming out in the winter of 2021. If a candidate had a book in the offing it could make selling unity easier and promoting the Connecticut GOP.

DACA and DREAMer Solution: Although the issue of illegal immigration and the children of illegal immigrants has receded from the national conversation, it would be beneficial for candidates for the CT GOP chair to have a plan to resolve this thorny question whilst at the same time staying true to the Rule of Law and the future of not only the United States but also that of the Republican There are approximately 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States. About two-thirds are Hispanic and one third Asian, they either came illegally or overstayed their visas. As a nation we are not going to throw twelve million people out of the country when eighty percent or so of them have been here for ten years of more. Immigrants have come here for a better life for their children and themselves. They wish to live in this Rule of Law country and try to realized the American Dream in their own life or in the lives of their children. No more would they fear, as some had feared in their original country, that a family member would be kidnapped for ransom money or family members disappear after a visit by government police or vigilantes. Immigrants in general do not seek any special favors or treatment for the privilege to live in the United States.

On the other hand they are here because of the Rule of Law. To disregard what is legal is to undermine what they seek. A political solution could be granting a legal status to those who have been here more than a number of years as designated by Congress, be law abiding and love America. If they are not law abiding or love America then they can hit the bricks and leave. In exchange for a legal status to stay, the minority categories of “Hispanic” and “Asian” would disappear as minority categories in America. Fewer categories means greater unity. This is a compromise that may appeal to forces on both sides. A candidate for the CT GOP chair could have a plan to address the DACA and DREAMer children and adults that resolves a persistent issue. Cynics have said that Democrats do not want to resolve this situation but rather use the anguish of uncertainty of the illegals for the financial and political gain of the Democratic Party, when realistic solutions are available. Prove the cynics wrong.

A website with viable solutions for the issues that face Connecticut and our nation: To take on the mantle of leadership of the CT GOP a candidate could have a readily accessible website which identifies what values are important to her or him as well as arguments for better policy for the state and nation. These policies should help make the CT GOP the majority party of Connecticut. An example can be found at www.SaveConnecticut.com.

“Life, Love, Liberty” as part of a contract with Connecticut and the nation: In 1994 Congressman Newt Gingrich and other Republicans came up with a Contract with America, which was a series of policy promises that the Republicans made to the nation in that years’s Congressional elections that the Republicans won. Usually, the adage is that politics are local. In that case they made a universal appeal to the American people and won. The Republicans took the House of Representatives for the first time in forty years. The CT GOP has been in the woods for forty years. They can win back the General Assembly. In addition to the policies set forth above, the CT GOP could make the commitment of Life, Love, Liberty to the residents of Connecticut and the national GOP could make the commitment to the rest of the United States that their elected officials and candidates for office who put the “Life, Love, Liberty” logo on their campaign website and campaign material would indicate that the candidate has committed to attend an African-American Baptist service once a month or to join the local NAACP or to attend an Evangelical Hispanic service once a month.

That’s it. There is no presupposition what the candidate or legislator or executive branch politician will learn over time, but they will learn something. “Life, Love, Liberty” is from the Sunday worship bulletin of Faith Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church, an African-American church in the City of Stamford, the city that works. “Life” is that every day is a gift and no day has been promised to us. We should be grateful for every day that we have. “Love” is that we are all brothers and sisters children of God. The non- religious version is the 99.6 percent of our DNA is identical. All we see is .4 percent. So much more of our DNA unites then separate us. Don’t be a .4 percent. “Liberty” at Faith is of a different meaning than that used politically to refer to the political rights inherent in the human being and in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution and Bill of Rights.

The Republican Party was formed for its abhorrence of slavery and a wish to curtail it and then to eliminate it. Whilst the Republican Party had had a long relationship with the black community, that started to shift with the Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1932 and with the New Deal. At the same time, the Republican Party focused on the menace of communism and then the Cold War after World War Ii with the Soviet Union and her allies. That ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the dissolution of the USSR in 1991 and 1992. Whilst the United States is presently occupied by the menace posed by the Communist Party of China, it is time for the Republican Party to return to its relationship with the African-American community and become the largest civil rights organization in America again.

“Life, Love, Liberty,” with relationships established and increased dialog, will show the vast areas of agreement of these two seeming ships passing in the night that are unaware how much they share in common. One of those items being faith and family. You will not offend many in the black community if you should refer reverently to God or to the strength of family. In the First Amendment it is “freedom of religion” and not “freedom from religion.” For that reason people of faith have a seat at the table of policy making. They are not to be relegated to the back by the secular forces of the state that do not want to share power. The state is there to serve the people and not for the people to serve the state.

There is much that can be learned from the NAACP. Whilst the national leadership is of a strong statist leaning, that does not mean that of the over two thousand local branches there is no common ground on what is best for our children and how to increase the economic success of all American citizens. This is how a candidate for the CT GOP chair could get people excited to be Republican and to become Republican and boost the number of registered Republicans in Connecticut.

No Tolls: While it might appear to be self-defeating to oppose tolls for working people to get to and from work when many people travel through Connecticut and would also pay tolls, there are too many taxes in Connecticut and this is yet another method of making people pay just to go to work, just to go about their everyday life. A candidate for CT GOP chair could be against tolls. The statists, who have ruled Connecticut for over forty years, have consistently raided transportation funds from gas taxes to give money to the ever growing general fund. Then they add ever more spending programs as part of the “transportation budget” to make the general budget work, which undermines the finances of our transportation network. The first thing that should be required is an accounting of why the administrative cost per mile of road in Connecticut is tops in the nation? Again, these are not categories that you want to lead in. In 2018, Connecticut spent $99,417 per mile of road in administrative costs versus the national average of $10,864. There should be no discussion of any tolls or any other funding until a detailed explanation is given why it costs nine times more to do the same thing in Connecticut? What if the threshold were to be at only twice the national average? That would still be bad but for Connecticut to pay twice the national average would somehow seem to be a victory. “Average” means about half the states are below and half the states are above. Connecticut would be at twice that. As described above under Article 1, Section 2 of the Connecticut Constitution, there is no authority to pay more than the New England Average plus three percent. Anything more than that is special privileges to a special group of state employees and state contractors. Article 1, section 1 against emoluments also prohibits these exorbitant cost overruns. All of this can be remedied by simple act of the legislature and governor. A candidate for chair could require no less than this.

China and the menace of the Chinese Communist Party: China has become a significant issue not just for Connecticut but our entire nation. While Connecticut needs to rebuild some of its manufacturing base to help provide good jobs to its people, this is not a competition between the American and Chinese people. This is a sober view of the tactics of the Chinese Communist Party in subsidizing industries in China to undercut competition; the pilfering of intellectual property from Western firms to be used by Chinese firms at no cost; and, the spying on government and private American entities through online methods and otherwise to give an unfair advantage to Chinese firms and damage American firms. A candidate for CT GOP chair could have a book coming out in the winter of 2021 on the subject of China such as “China, Demise of a Civilization: The Eleven Principles of History and Economics against the Chinese Marxist Model.” It is important for the chair to be somewhat conversant in Chinese affairs as there are no Republicans holding any offices in Congress from Connecticut. Whatever happens to the second impeachment of President Trump, Democrats and Republicans are more likely to continue his policies of questioning the fairness of China’s trade practices, mercantilist policies and human rights record. It would be good if the chair could challenge the Democrat senators and congresspeople if they backslid on China. Having travelled to China and the Soviet Union and some basic knowledge of French, German and rudimentary knowledge of Russian could add to that understanding by a candidate?

Cuba’s subjugation of Venezuela: The human misery that has been occurring in Venezuela since the rise of Hugo Chavez has been dispiriting. Over eighty percent of the population is malnourished and without access to health care. Over five million Venezuelans have fled what is now a Cuban puppet state. It would be the right thing if the CT GOP chair called out the silence of our congressional delegation on the methodical subjugation of Venezuela by Cuban interior police. Whereas one might not have called Venezuela a puppet state six years ago, she is now fully within the control of the Cuban interior police. Their current leader, Nicolas Maduro, would not be in power today if it were not for the Cuban interior police and assistance from Russia and China to help their finances. The silence of the Connecticut congressional delegation on this human tragedy to our American sisters and brothers is deafening. This issue would resonate with Nutmeggers as well as appeal to a national audience.

Comprehensive Plan for an EMP Strike: We are slowly extracting ourselves from the misery of the Covid-19 epidemic. We can be grateful to the distribution of quality vaccines. Questions have been asked, however, whether we could have been better prepared? How could our nation perform better with the next contagious coronavirus?

An EMP strike, however, could wreck much greater havoc on our great nation, if we have neither planned nor prepared for it. An “EMP strike” is an electromagnetic pulse weapon that would be detonated above the United States to fry our electrical supply and information network. One or two weapons fired by a disgruntled North Korea or Iran could paralyze our electric grid. What happens if food stores cannot stock their shelves with food? What happens if farmers and ranchers cannot get their products into the food refinement and distribution system? Food is the basis of life. The lack of food would kill scores and could lead to the breakdown of civil order. By the same token, the distribution of heating oil, natural gas and propane could be disrupted which could freeze millions in the winter time. All of this can be averted through the mobilization of National Guard troops to back up local police to secure all food stores. Farms, ranchers, food processors and transportation companies would have priority for fuels to run their operations in an analog fashion. The electrical systems of most food stores would be backed up by generators that are not tied into the electrical grid. The pumping of oil and natural gas would be prioritized to heat and run the nation on an analog basis. The generators could all be in place and the semi-annual practice drills could have been run repeatedly. A payments system run on an analog basis could also be designed. This is all to preserve our union and shield the least and last from deprivation. It would not be a Democrat or Republican plan, but an American plan. This Connecticut could lead the nation on.

Prayer: A candidate for the CT GOP chair might suggest that each meeting of the Republican Town Committees be opened and closed with a prayer. The NAACP generally opens and closes its local meetings with a prayer and the national as well. The prayer could be a very simple one as found on the Connecticut flag:”qui transtulit, sustinet.” This means “God who has brought us here will sustain us.” Any prayer could be used and it could even be said in Latin and left at that. Do not forget that in the Pledge of Allegiance which is recited at the beginning of most RTC meetings instructs that the United States is “indivisible.” This is a tribute to when the Democrat South seceded from the Union so that the slave would never be free but the white Southern Democrat would always be free, Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party brought the Civil War to prove that our nation was indivisible after the bombing of Fort Sumter.

Humility, compassion, forgiveness and redemption are the antidotes to the poison of cancel cancer of the intolerants who are the politically correct: A deadening scourge is spreading beyond the Academy, our colleges and universities, into our country and institutions and deadening all that it touches. “Cancel cancer” is also known as “cancel culture.” A culture, however, indicates something alive as in a science experiment. Culture also indicates something alive like music, dance, literature, painting and song. But cancel cancer is dead. It is vibrant on the outside but dead on the inside. It was not invented by Chairman Mao and his fellow Marxists but they have used and continue to use cancel cancer to maintain control. Struggle sessions in Mao’s time were where a citizen would be made to stand before tens, hundreds or thousands of fellow citizens and castigated for being one of four types such as rich landlord, successful farmer, counter revolutionary and bad types. During the struggle session, the citizen might have a sign hung around his or her neck and maybe ink smeared on their face. If the citizen were lucky they would be allowed to live otherwise they might be driven around town on the back of an open truck for more citizens to see and then driven to a field where they were executed. Or the Marxists might make a cousin or family member beat the person to death on stage with a farm implement in front of their fellow citizens. The purpose is not so much to end that person’s life or to thoroughly vilify her or him, but to intimidate the rest of the citizenry. Anyone could be next. It is an effective tool of control.

The intolerants in America want you to know that you could be next. They will scour your record from youth to today for any sign of disloyalty to their political program. Cancel cancer has been exercised by Marxists, their fellow travelers and useful idiots at the Academy for years. The issue is never debate or seeking out the truth, it is always about shutting down anyone they disagree with, whether it be a student, professor or administrator. The target is vilified, fired and professionally ruined. If a young person steps out of line, he or she will be attacked. The concepts of humility, compassion, forgiveness and redemption have no place for the practitioners of cancel cancer but humbly, compassion, forgiveness and redemption have a place in America. In Mao’s China, you could be killed just for the fact that your father had been a rich landlord or prosperous peasant. It did not matter what you did or who you were. Cancel cancer is practiced in America by the intolerants who are the politically correct amongst us. Ask most any citizen: “Do you agree that the more politically correct a person is, the more intolerant they are?” The answer is usually: “Yes.” We must protect our children from these bullies and we must protect our democracy from these intolerants. Who are they specifically? Many have signed their names to petitions to have colleagues or political opponents canceled in their professional and personal lives. Or they have organized a mob online to cancel someone as opposed to debating ideas. They know nothing of humility, compassion, forgiveness or redemption. They know nothing of our humanity and the fallibility of man.

Policy leadership as a means to attract donations: To solve its fund raising problems it may be that the state central committee look beyond a fundraising candidate for chair of the CT GOP and consider transforming the CT GOP into a national leader in Republican polices for the post-Trump era in order to attract donations. Leading the nation on two, three or four policy areas will get notice. Connecticut only has about 3.5 million people out of 330 million Americans. It would seem altogether more likely that money could be raised across that broad spectrum of America to support the CT GOP in its effort to reestablish constitutional principles in Connecticut and to bring greater unity to our nation. Many of the proposed policies above may also excite people as to who the GOP is and why they should join it to “Make America Greater Still!” It could almost be like a political action committee but on a broad range of issues. When has the CT GOP lead the national conversation on anything? It could try.