Hi all,
James here again. As we prepare for the 2010 election I look around the Republican table for real national leaders.

So far our team of national leader is the same tired and losing team we have had for the last 4 years. Many are getting to be too old and the new “stars” have been troubled, by affairs and corruption.

Many of these people, Pallin, Romney, Sanford, Ensign believe in many conservative values, but let us remember that failing to live up to conservative principle’s is what got our collective asses kicked.

We failed to be fiscally conservative. We failed to lessen government in our lives. We failed to ensure the government was a neutral observer in our social lives.

The Republican revolution of 1994 lead by Newt was about Less government, and less government interference and therefore less spending, more state control and smaller government for less taxes. It was this class that balanced the budged with a democrat in the White House.

In 2000 Karl Rove took over. He used two presidential elections to push a social based agenda to give the Republicans a stronger majority. We ignored all other “true” conservative values. The result; two wars, a bloated government, that was more invasive, massive debt build up and serious social meddling. The American public gave us the benefit of the doubt in 04, but was fed up by 06. We failed to see the writing on the wall and continued down our, destructive social agenda above all else, path. We were completely trashed in 08.

The reaction to this defeat should be a return to core Republican values. We have a great opportunity, as the Democrats, drunk with power, keep screwing up, to ensure we balance the odds. Most of the time it take 2 election cycles to get back into balance. We have a unique opportunity to become more balanced in 2010 and so far we are blowing it!

We lost because we adopted the wrong strategy. Let us not make that same mistake twice. The principle of limited government interference does not blend well with demands from the left and right for major government interference on only a few issues, weather it is stem cell research or health care. Both are massive invasions of personal issues by the federal government.

And this kind of federal meddling is what make most Americans frustrated with government.

Everyone deserve a seat at the table and everyone’s opinions matter. We must stop ignoring those with somewhat different opinions in our party if we are to remain relevant in the next 100 years. I personally do not want to wait for Democrats to screw up to have more say in the federal government.

If they had played their cards right, they could have sidelined our party for a very long time after the complete failure for us to live up to our own values.

The time has come to get together and start listening to each other; to stop dictating to the majority. The jockeying for position among the most right wing of our party is such a mistake. The record speaks for itself on these issues. Those that only hold up their social record, fail! We have to have real leadership and come up with real alternatives to what is being done in Washington. We must stop being the party of “no” and become the party of ideas.

After failing to live up to our own standards it will take a while for the majority of Americans to trust us again. We must work extra hard and hope the Democrats keep tackling too much for us to regain the public trust.

Cleve Jones, Grand Marshall of the Utah Pride Festival announced a call for a march on Washington, scheduled for October 11, 2009.  Cleve Jones is a long time gay rights activist who had a chance meeting with Harvey Milk on Castro Street and 18th Street that involved him in working along side openly gay political leader Harvey Milk. Jones is the founder of the NAMES project.

In the spirit of Harvey Milk Jones said, “We seek nothing more and nothing less than equal protection in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states,”   Jones brought a message to Mormon leader and specifically the prophet with regards to theri role in supporting Prop 8, which overturned legal same-sex marriage in California.

“I’ve got a message for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I’ve got two words from California … I’ve got two words for the prophet … Thank you. Thank you for uniting us. Thank you for galvanizing us.”

New Hampshire this week became the 6th state in the country to allow same sex couple to marry. Like Maine, New Hampshire voted through the legislature to allow same sex marriage and the govenor, who is personally opposed to same sex marriage, signed it within hours of passage. No court order needed!

This is exciting. This leaves only Rhode Island in New England without approval of same sex marriage. There is a bill to allow this in the state but it is expected to fail this year.

New York is currently debating the subject and Log cabin is in the middle of this debate encouraging Republicans to provide the final crucial votes for equal marriage rights.

Maine will allow a citizen referendum on the new law for same sex marriage. We must work to ensure this fundamental right is not taken away from our friends and “family” in Maine.

Pride season is here!

Here are some things to be proud of as a Log Cabin Republican

• In New England, 57 Republican state legislators have voted for marriage equality – providing crucial votes in every state
• 18 Republican House of Representatives members voted for Hate Crimes laws, seven being original co-sponsors
• Republican Governor Jodi Rell of Connecticut signed Marriage Equality legislation into law
• In post-election research, it was found that Log Cabin’s “Republicans Against Prop 8″ campaign was one of the most effective and quantitatively successful outreach groups in the larger “No on 8″ coalition.

— from Log Cabin Republicans – Los Angeles

Maine became the 5th state to allow same sex marriage on Wed, May 6th, 2009. The state will allow “any two people” to wed starting this summer. This was historic in several ways.

First, it was not court mandated.
Second, It was approved in the legislature with little opposition
Third, It was signed by the governor straight away.

We are seeing a trend in the northeast that is encouraging.

New Hampshire has a similar measure expected to be on the governor’s desk by next week and Rhode Island has a bill before its’ legislature that may not pass this years but seems sure to pass soon.

New York’s governor has indicated he will send a same sex marriage bill to the legislature soon as well. I spoke with the Hudson Valley Chapter President of Log Cabin last week about this and he indicated that Republican leadership in the legislature has been told it will be ok to vote for same sex marriage this time around. New York already recognizes same sex marriages performed legally from other states and the world.

Lastly, the Washington DC city council approved a measure this week to recognize all marriages including same sex marriages performed throughout the various states.

The tide is turning in our direction on this issue and we applaud all of the Republicans that has crossed the isle to vote for equal civil right for our LGBT community on this issue.

On Sat. Night, at the national convention, the Log Cabin Republicans will honor the 6 Republicans legislators in Vermont who voted to approve the new marriage rights for same sex couples.  They all voted for passage in the regular debate and in the override session to override the veto the Republican governor had issued.  Like our national friends we applaud those individuals who resisted the pressure from all sides and voted with their hearts to provide equal rights to more people in Vermont.