Crossposted from RightMichigan.com

Let's face it; Republican outreach to the African American community is terrible.  We ignore urban areas until a few months before an election when we try to make a half-hearted effort to swoop in and ask folks to vote Republican.  Most of the time, we don't even do that.  We have neglected these areas to the point of losing the vote by ridiculously huge margins.  We let local races go uncontested.  We let Congressional races go uncontested.  For all intents and purposes we have written off the African American community.  We have given the Democrat Party a political monopoly in this area and they have taken full advantage of it.

Since the election there has been a lot of discussion on this topic.  Many people are saying we have to be more "inclusive".  Honestly, I don't care for this argument because it implies that the current Republican Party is somehow excluding people and not allowing them to join the fold.  Folks, it is an open secret that the door to the Republican Party is wide open.  Just come in and take a seat!  The opportunity within the Republican Party for Blacks is mind boggling.  It is amazing how many Republican precinct delegate seats in Detroit alone are left empty after every election.  

Opportunity is not the issue.  The lack of an open door into the Party is not the issue.  The problem is our lack of a viable outreach effort within the African American community.  We can no longer politically abandon urban areas and expect to make up the vote elsewhere.  Those days are over.  A year round aggressive outreach effort must be made from this point forward.  A Republican presence has to be established in major cities across the country that have been specifically targeted by State Parties in conjunction with the RNC.  Once we see gains in those areas the program should be expanded.

When I ran for Congress in 2006 I spent most of my time in Detroit.  The most frequent question that people would ask me was "where are the Republicans when there isn't an election?" It's an excellent question and a fair one.  We don't have a permanent office in Detroit and we should.  I know that just opening an office won't change things for us overnight, but it is a start.  We have to look at this outreach effort as a long term project.  Eventually, we will see amazing results, but it will take time and we must be patient.

Communication will be the key to this effort.  We have to meet the African American community on their terms.  We can, and should, leverage technology such as Facebook, My Space, Twitter, discussion forums, etc.  But, we have to get out on the street if we want to be successful.  There needs to be a constant dialogue between the Black community and the Republican Party.  We have to be involved in the community on a daily basis and show people that we are serious about changing things for the better.  A relationship has to be built over time because one does not currently exist.  

Currently, the African American community does not trust the Republican Party.  Period.  This is unfortunate because our Party was founded on the principle of ending slavery in this country.  The first elected Black officials in the United States were Republicans.  We were the original fighters for African Americans in this country and we have lost there trust and respect.  We need to earn that trust back.  We need to gain that respect back.  We need to get into the Black community and make positive things happen for them.  These urban communities across the nation desperately need a new direction.  We can provide that new direction if we make the commitment to do it. 

http://spotlight.getyourjusticelive.com/2009/03/18/us-congressman-pete-hoekstra-and-phyllis-schlafly-of-eagle-forum-discuss-parental-rights/

Congressman Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) discusses his upcoming reintroduction of the former Parental Rights Amendment from 2008 into the 111th Congress. The Congressman confirmed that efforts from citizens are working with an increase from 24 co-sponsors to 54 co-sponsors to the proposed Parental Rights Amendment.  Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America, will be on an upcoming episode. We were also joined by Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Form. Congressman Hoekstra stated very clearly that "I don't want anybody coming between the parents and the kids, and creating a barrier."

Crossposted from RightMichgan.com:

Judging from the results of the 2008 election it is painfully obvious that the GOP has virtually abandoned major urban areas of the country. A quick glance at this election result map from the Washington Post tells the ugly story.  Cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and Manhattan went heavily to the Democrats.  Why have we ceded ground in these cities to the opposition?  Why do we let conservative Democrats come into rural and suburban areas to win elections while we ignore the city?

In two special elections in 2008, one in Mississippi and the other in Louisiana, Democrats ran conservative candidates in rural areas and beat their Republican opponents.  In Louisiana you would have been hard pressed to identify the political affiliation of the Democrat candidate if you didn't know it already:

Cazayoux portrayed himself as a culturally conservative candidate in the Republican-minded district, citing his opposition to abortion rights and gun control measures and tough talk on border security.

These victories, combined with the loss of former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert's congressional seat in Illinois, were then held up by the Democrats as examples of Republican political irrelevance and took precious momentum away from the GOP leading into the 2008 election.

Meanwhile, Republicans continue to ignore congressional seats in cities across the country and let Democrats run unopposed.  Here in Michigan Detroit is ignored and written off by Republicans.  In 2006 Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick ran unopposed in the 13th District and in 2008 Rep. John Conyers ran unopposed in the 14th Congressional District.  These two congressional districts cover Detroit and several other cities in the area.  Unfortunately this is not a rare occurrence.  It gets worse when you look at the state level races.  When you have fifteen Democrats running against each other in a primary and zero Republicans something is wrong folks.

I have heard all of the excuses against running Republican candidates in these areas.  "We can't waste precious resources on these races that we will lose anyway!" or "We just can't find anyone to run!"  Give me a break.  If we can't find candidates then the district Chairmen need to be fired and replaced. Period. That is their main mission.  If resources are tight then recruit some young people to work these campaigns and see what happens.  Turn them loose and you will be surprised at what they can do.  A lack of financial resources can unleash some serious creativity within a College Republican.

We can no longer afford to write off these seats.  I have heard many people talk about the Republican Party as being racist toward African Americans.  That is obviously not the case, but what message do we send to that community when we ignore them election after election?  If we don't go in the city the vicious stereotypes and caricatures of Republicans will go unchallenged.  If you don't know any Republicans you will believe what you hear.  It is much harder to demonize people if they are your friends and acquaintances.  There are many Black Republicans that live undercover in urban areas.  If we gave them the support they needed they would be more vocal and visible.  

Democrats are not afraid to come into rural and suburban America.  We shouldn't be afraid to come to the city.  The GOP continues to ignore urban areas at its own peril.  If Republicans keep walking down this path we will be relegated to a permanent minority party.

I, like many others I am sure, have some thoughts on the future of the MIGOP and the GOP.  I have heard many excuses fly in the last 48 hours and that needs to stop.  Sarah Palin did not cost John McCain the election.  The country has not gone to the left.  Planets did not align in a Great Conjunction.  The Republicans lost the old fashioned way… we earned it.

What do we do now?  Well, for starters we need to clean house.  I know that many people will not want to hear that, but that is the way it has to be.  You don’t reward failure.  Leadership positions, elected and unelected, need to change hands.  We need new blood in the Republican Party.  We need young blood in the Republican Party and we need it bad.

We need to leverage technology and the Internet.  This is critical.  I have been saying for years that the Democrats have been running circles around us on the Internet.  That needs to change.  There were entire blogs dedicated to nothing but criticizing specific Republican candidates here in Michigan.  All it takes is one YouTube video to sink a candidate (remember the macaca video?).   We need to seriously exploit Twitter, YouTube, texting, mini websites, FaceBook, MySpace, Skype, podcasting, etc.  If you did not understand that last sentence then you are part of the problem.  Did I mention that we need young blood in the Party?

Our minority outreach sucks.  Period.  What have we done in Wayne County?  What have we done in Detroit?  Nothing.  When I ran for Congress in 2006 I took a lot of verbal abuse over the fact that Republicans are MIA in Detroit.  What could I say?  It’s the truth.  We need a presence in the Democrat strongholds.  The inroads will take a long time, but it must be done.  There is common ground for us to meet people.  Education and lower taxes are just two examples of issues we can focus on.  We have got to stop letting Democrats run unopposed.  Let me say that again, we have got to stop letting Democrats run unopposed.  These races are valuable learning experiences for future candidates and they give us the vehicle to get our message out to places that it otherwise may not be heard.  Did I mention that we need young blood in the Party?

Where is our Stryker?  How can one guy bring the MIGOP to its knees?  That is completely unacceptable.  We should have learned after 2006, but unfortunately we didn’t.  How can Michigan Democrats raise taxes and win more seats in the next election?  That shouldn’t have happened.  We need to re-structure the Party and re-evaluate what we are doing because we are dong things very, very wrong.  Did I mention that we need young blood in the Party? 

Chad Miles was the 2006 Republican candidate in Michigan’s 14^th Congressional district and is a veteran of the U.S. Army’s 82^nd Airborne Division.

The Excel Energy Center was totally out of control last night.  The last time I saw an arena cheering like this was at a rock concert.  Seriously, people were on their feet and going crazy.  John McCain has totally flipped the script in this campaign and stole all of the thunder away from Obama.

Michael Steele got the crowd going and had the two surprise chant slogans of the evening.  After he said “drill baby drill” when talking about energy policy the crowd chanted it back loudly and it was repeated throughout the night.  What that really got the crowd going, and what I think will stick, was simply the word “zero”.  Referring to Obama’s leadership experience, Steele used the word zero.  The Republicans in the arena loved it and it was the main chant of the evening.  For the rest of the night it rivaled the chant of USA, USA, USA.  I think 0bama (notice the zero) needs to be seriously worried about his prospects in November.

The night was filled with serious speakers.  Republican heavyweights lined up to praise John McCain and Sarah Palin.  Mike Huckabee gave a great speech and received a warm reception.  Mitt Romney took the stage to a standing ovation by the entire arena.  He gave a terrific speech as well.

Rudy Giuliani took to the stage and tore it up.  This is probably the best speech I have ever seen him give and the crowd was loving it.  He had the delegates and guests in attendance yelling, chanting, laughing and cheering.  I have to admit I was skeptical about him being the keynote speaker, but I quickly realized that I was wrong.  A fantastic and rousing speech.  As soon as Giuliani left the stage Governor Palin walked out.  The crowd went nuts.  The applause lasted for at least five minutes.  You could feel the affection for her in the arena.  People were on their feet and hanging on every word that she said.  The name Excel Energy Center is appropriate because the energy that Sarah Palin generated with her speech was immense.  I heard many people repeating her line “what is the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull…lipstick” throughout the rest of the night and this morning as well.  When Governor Palin was finished her family joined her onstage.  Then something happened that surprised me.  When John McCain took the stage the place erupted.  I have never seen anything like it.  It sounded like a bomb went off in the area.  A shockwave of applause and cheering literally shook the arena.  Seriously, I could feel the vibration from the sound.  It was incredible.  The 0bama Biden ticket is in serious, serious trouble.

Zero…Zero…Zero…Zero  

The convention came to a virtual halt when former President George H. W. Bush arrived.  The crowd was on their feet when he walked to his seat. President Bush's service as a naval aviator was highlighted as well.  You could feel the affection for him among the audience.  You could also see the affection for the current President Bush.  The crowd greeted him with thunderous applause even though he spoke to us via satellite from the White House.  Despite the fact that the President has been demonized and attacked for eight years, Republicans still admire him.  

John McCain's service in the Navy was highlighted along with his family's history within that branch of the military.  You might think that we have heard all of that already, but when you hear all of the details of what he went through recounted by his own prison mates it really hits home.  You don't really appreciate the determination of Senator McCain living through the savage treatment he received in Vietnam without learning the gritty details of his time in captivity.  Again, he was an absolutely amazing soldier.

The best speech last night, in my opinion, was by Fred Thompson.  He hit it out of the park.  Thompson hit all of his marks highlighting McCain's character, Obama's lack of character and what a terrific choice Senator McCain made with Sarah Palin.  The crowd was fired up and on there feet.  If only he had spoken like this when he was running for President...

There is electricity in the air here in Minnesota.  Everyone is really looking forward to hearing Governor Palin and John McCain this week.    

I had a wonderful opportunity to run into Chris Matthews from MSNBC here at the convention.  A guest of a delegate wanted to meet him and have a picture taken.  I agreed to hold the camera and take the picture for her.  When she went up to talk to Matthews a press photographer walked over beside me.  When she asked him for a picture he agreed and turned toward the press photographer smiling broadly.  When she told him that was the wrong camera and pointed at me with a small digital camera Chris Matthews was visibly angry.  His smile vanished instantly and he started to pull away.  He said “come on, let’s go.  I am complying with your wishes” and he was rolling his eyes the entire time.  When I snapped the picture the delegate guest said thank you very much, to which Mr. Matthews replied “whatever”.  This didn’t surprise me at all.  I had previously meet Chris Matthews at the Presidential debate in Dearborn and he was the same jack ass then too.  I think I saw an Obama t-shirt through his white dress shirt…    

US Senate candidate Jack Hoogendyk was kind enough to sit down with me for an interview.  He is taking on Senator Carl Levin this November.  Here what he has to say about Carl Levin, Detroit Public Schools, the automotive industry and more.

You can listen to the interview here.

We were treated to an advanced screening of the movie An American Carol yesterday.  This movie will offend EVRYONE.  The movie gives us a glimpse of what the world would be like if liberals had their way with the military and the Global War on Terrorism.  People will either love the show or hate it.  I don't think there is much middle ground.  It is done in the style of the Naked Gun and Airplane movies.  How offensive is it?  Well, let's just say there is a scene where slavery still exists in the South and a certain Senator from Illinois is mentioned.  Yes, this movie is completely out of control.

The movie opens October 3.  You can view the trailer here.

This is one of the most amazing things that I have ever seen.  A blood donation station has been set up here in the Michigan delegation hotel.  Hundreds of people are lining up to give blood in an effort to help victims of hurricane Gustav.  What an incredible outpouring of generosity.  The first person in line was the Chairman of the Michigan Republican Party himself, Saul Anuzsis.