Fellow Republicans,
Spring is finally here, with winter’s ice and snow fleeing before sunshine and flower blossoms. Winter grains will ripen soon, as males and females from bison to swine begin the cycle of reproduction, ensuring that life begins anew in our wonderful world. As Americans and as Republicans, we have much to be thankful for. Our job as conservatives is to preserve what is good in our lives and in our nation, and improve those things that need improvement.
Our Founding Fathers, clothed both in brilliance and in folly, bequeathed us stalwart institutions and guiding documents to ensure the blessings of liberty despite the fears, foibles, and fiendishness in the hearts of men. Our government as designed, from local to national, with its vital separation of powers, is strong enough to lead the American people and yet weak enough so that it does not rule the American people. For nearly 250 years, the men and women of our great land have prospered with their hard work, optimism, regard for posterity, cooperation with their countrymen, and belief in Truth higher than themselves.
The world, too, has benefited from a benevolent America. The Kaiser, the Fuhrer, the Emperor, the General Secretary, and the President for Life have been thwarted in their grabs for power, and will continue to be thwarted, by a simple, industrious people who believe in individual rights, individual responsibilities, and a small government. For over a century, America has asked for little more than enough land to bury our dead. Though not unblemished, our record holds up well against the powers in world history.
We, today, have the same brilliance and folly of our Founding Fathers. Many of our political opponents no longer believe in America. To them, America is not the shining city on the hill, but a town of slime and infamy. To them, babies are dispensable, men and women are the same, thrift is undesirable, and life is a video game. Though one day, men and women of every race will stand in glory and unity before our Creator, today some of our adversaries stand only to scream, to riot, and to destroy.
We must hearken to the better angels of our nature. Reality wins in the end, and those who put their trust in the vapors of fantasy will find themselves blown away by the winds of fashion and circumstance. The progressive agenda will collapse under the weight of its own contradictions. Indeed, the tottering has already begun.
If we remain faithful to the truth, we cannot lose. Republicans, like all other men and women, are tempted by the new, the shiny, the sexy, the easy, and the quick. If we stick to our founding principles, and the Law which underlies them, the house known as America will be built on the rock. If we do not, our house will be built on the sand. If we build America on the sand, when danger comes, both from traitors within and tyrants without, great will be our fall.
Restoring America will be neither quick nor easy. Republicans must extend a hand to our all countrymen of good character, regardless of party, as we cannot fight our nation’s battles alone. Even if we could, no solution can last which we all do not own and we all did not devise. The national good, not individual glory, must be our goal.
Let us enjoy this time of renewal in the natural world, and engineer a renaissance in our United States. West Virginia, America, and the world will be blessed.
Mark D. Harris
Chairman, WVGOP
