SEAN SALAZAR INDEPENDENT LEADERSHIP. REAL SOLUTIONS.

I first met Sean about a year ago. He was my first introduction to the idea that "we must show up" in the poor communities, the minority communities and the inner cities. Sean Salazar is far from the typical media's image of a country club Republican. Sean is a son of a single mother with several siblings who grow up in government housing, moving from one poor inner city project to another. In fact Sean's family is a symbol of American diversity. Sean has a multicultural family, with one brother who is half Hispanic, and a sister who is half Black. Just last week he was campaigning in the High-Point projects and in May, Sean and I were building relationships with people in Seattle's South Park neighborhood, which is one third Hispanic. When referring to growing up in Seattle's black communities, He said "Growing up, it had always puzzled me why the black communities which I understood really well were always democrats or seemingly always opposed to republicans." Sean feels that the solution to this problem beings with reengaging these communities and clarifying all the popular misconceptions about the Republican party by showing up and educating people about the real meaning of the GOP.

It's seems to me that after the last elections diversifying our base of support is increasingly important. We must not take a strategy of waiting for the Democrats to make so many mistakes in two years that the country hast to vote Republican. We need an active strategy not a passive one. The Republican party needs to garner more support from the inner cities, but how? Which leaders are listening, who shares this vision of the Republican Party moving forward and embracing diversity? Who out there has already been spreading this message and building relationships in the inner-city? How can Republicans plant seeds and build roots in the inner cities in spite of overwhelming misinformation about what it means to be Republican. I believe that we must follow Sean Salazar's and Michael Steel's motto of "just show up!"

While talking to Sean yesterday morning he said "Right now as we speak the Democrats are running ads on Spanish TV telling Hispanics that the Republicans are attacking Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme court nomination relentlessly because she is a Hispanic female." To me the point is clear, Democrats are calling all republicans borderline racists or at the least outright mean. The truth is Sonia Sotomayor's has maid lots of comments that lead people like me to think her judicial philosophy includes legislating from the bench, and believing that the Constitution is a malleable living and breathing document that should be continually reshaped based on a standard of moral relativity that steams from the current supreme court justices preferences more so than a strict understanding of constitutional law. How do we combat such a massive national commercial campaign that's pure intention is to misrepresent the Republican party too the eye's of the Hispanic community? Not all of us can watch Spanish TV like the Salazar family, and since most traditional Republicans are non-Hispanic, how would we even know when these misrepresentations are happening? The truth is if we do not have good relationships with the Hispanic community the misrepresentations will always speak louder than our message. Sean described an event in Mount Vernon to me once were him and his wife were helping congratulating new Americans after passing their citizenship test. Sean said that the liberals were everywhere and besides the two of them there were no conservatives. So from the very beginning new immigrants too this country are fed liberal propaganda and no conservatives are there to challenge the liberal vision of what it means to be a Republican.

Last Friday while working a booth for Sean Salazar's US Senate campaign at the "Republican Resurgence Rally" I learned that Michael Steele and Sean Salazar share the same vision for the future of the GOP and the importance of diversity. Michael Steels had an exciting speech with a clear message, we need to be moving the party forward, embracing diversity, showing up everywhere and leading without stopping to ask permission. He then said "I hear by give you permission to no longer ask permission to get involved. No more no I can't do it cause they won't let me. Just do it!" I heard the message loud and clear, don't ask permission, just show up, embrace everyone, and don't shut people out. Visit liberal communities show you care and if a Republican wears a different hat still embrace him.

On Friday "Steele criticized Republicans for not focusing on building support for the party, for not moving the party forward and embracing diversity." The Republican Party needs someone like Sean! Someone that has the right vision and the energy needed to bring our message to the inner city in a way no other Republican candidate for the US senate can or will. Sean's fear is that if we do not act now the republican resurgence will be limited too waiting for the Democrats to mess up our country so bad that Republicans will win their elections primarily because their not Democrats. Sean is leading an effort to gain footholds in the inner-city in addition too campaigning to his conservative base. He say's "its time to plant seed's in these communities and develop some root's." This is also one of the reasons Sean is running so early. He wants a coalition of non traditionally republican voters too "Rediscover the Republican Party" as he puts it. With no newly developed inroads built by Republicans in the inner city the battle for hearths and minds in these communities will remain lost. During this off year election cycle if we don't use this opportunity too grow the party in a way that embraces diversity and the metropolitan areas now, the Republican Resurgence might amount to nothing more than a one time political stimulus given to us by the Democrats and not a lasting and permanent gain in support.

Joshua Adam Hicks from the Bellevue Reporter wrights "Republicans are searching for ways to adapt." The answer to this problem is right in front of our eyes and ears. All we have to do is start looking and truly start listening. We already have two prominent leaders showing us the way.

Every since the combination of my brother Chris and I visiting this years Seattle Martin Luther King rally and being a wall flower at a private statewide GOP chairman event, my 1st rule of politics is "Politics is about showing up." If we don't show up and address the misconceptions about our party and provide our message to these people "AS A PARTY" we leave our message for the Democrats to deliver it for us. We must admit that our message is not even reaching lots of people as it really is. Believe it, a lot of liberal communities are really interested in another view point. However, it seems their only getting one viewpoint, what the Liberal Democrats think and what the Liberal Democrats say our message is. Sean Salazar is the kind of fresh blood the Republican Party needs. It's time for Washington too rediscover the GOP. We should all take Chairman Steels advice when he say's "Folks, just show up." That's what I have seen Sean doing and I thank him for leading by example.

SEAN SALAZAR INDEPENDENT LEADERSHIP. REAL SOLUTIONS.
Join the movement at Seanforsenate.com

Written By Corey Ihler
coreyihler@yahoo.com
425-299-0960