 some passing thoughts before the gop state convention  as we prepare to go to the state convention this weekend to select people who will run to represent the republican party on the ticket for governor and lieutenant governor attorney general secretary of state the supreme court the state board of education and various university boards we need to think about where we are going as a party i have been a conservative republican all of my adult life believing in the party platform that they profess to stand for i wasn rsquo t allowed to be politically active for most of my working career because i worked for a nonpartisan legislative agency and that wasn t allowed after leaving state service i remained inactive politically until after the election of 2008 when the township i live in went from a 43 republican majority to a 70 democrat majority because of president obama rsquo s routing of john mccain i didn t get involved for political gain to run for office or with a personal agenda i became involved because the country and state i love were being destroyed by progressives of both political parties i decided to get involved because i wanted future generations to have the opportunities i had growing up in america the clinton county republican party was in the process of implementing a website and i was asked if i would be interested in helping out which i agreed to do this gave me an opportunity to keep people informed about what was happening locally in the state and in washington dc my understanding of what the county party s basic responsibility and function was not what i assumed it was i thought they would be focused on conservative issues that are important to all of us like protecting the constitution being fiscally responsible protecting the life of the unborn defending traditional values the rule of law and many others however what i learned was that the county party is expected to be the rubber stamp of its candidates and the state party my problem was that i didn t see it that way consequently over the last four years the mindset of the people that have become politically active in the county party believe issues matter and that elected officials should be accountable as a result the county party s executive committee became informed on the issues and what was going on in clinton county lansing and washington dc a byproduct of that philosophy was that we began to take an active role in making our voices heard by our elected officials on several occasions i was contacted by various people with vested interests to back off on taking a position that might go against the governor or other elected officials it was made clear to me that i shouldn rsquo t question our own people because it might hurt them politically in the future my response was that it s not the person it s the issue the personal attacks didn t bother me because i knew my intentions were sincere and based on the issues my stands were aligned with the stated republican party s platform and what they profess to believe i was accused of wanting our candidates to pass a purity test whatever that is my expectation is that if you are running with a r after your name you should believe what the party platform says they believe in if you don rsquo t then maybe you are in the wrong party when i vote for someone i want an individual who will honor their oath of office to defend our constitution and defend our core beliefs it seems that the liberty minded and christian right elements of the republican party are always made out to be the malcontents because they don t vote for the moderates that always become the candidates i think it rsquo s time that the powers that be reevaluate why they insist we have to go to the middle to get the candidate that will win well that hasn t worked out so well in the past the republican party wants these wackos to vote for their candidates but not have a place at the table in the party as evidenced by what has happened regarding this upcoming state convention all i know is that in 2012 734000 evangelical christians stayed away from the polls because they felt that the lesser of two evils was still evil thanks for reading what i have to say and please read my blog and the detroit news article about the upcoming convention if you have the time at the following web link http clintoncountygoporg content stackingdeck1 see you in novi on saturday steve willis chairman clinton county republican party  all emails addresses  