We have a multiparty system in this country. Not a two-party system as some would say, for anyone can form a party. If you don’t like the one you are in, you can find another.

The preferred method of gaining political power is to organize the voters and deliver them to the polls on Election Day. You do this by first committing to organize your neighbors and your friends. This means you talk to each one and find out who agrees with you politically, and work on convincing those who don't. You ask them if they will vote with you when it is time to vote.

The next step is to organize your block, and get someone to agree to be a block captain who will find those who agree with you politically, and work on convincing those who don't. Then you organize the next block, and so forth. After that you organize a phone chain or email list or text message blast, or twitter group of the voters who agree with you politically. None of this requires that you belong to a political party.

If you are a true believer and totally committed, eventually you will have organized so many blocks and friends and email addresses that you will be able to marshal all the voters in a precinct or maybe in several precincts to go and vote with you. At some point somebody decides to hold a meeting. When you get up to the size where you become a viable recognized party the objective is simple: Elect your people at every level to every office so that your program will be implemented, and your members will be hired for all non-elected positions so your program will be supported.

What is required now is for you to maintain party discipline. How is this done? You have to control who the candidate is. It is essential that the candidate is someone who agrees with your members politically, because if they don’t it is nearly impossible to get everyone in the group to support and vote for the candidate. This is where in my opinion the major parties have fallen down on the job.

Candidates should be vetted and approved by the local precincts in the executive committees before they even dare run in a primary. They should be known quantities, not only by the rich and powerful, but by the rank and file. It is the rank and file through their representatives at the Executive committee who should choose the candidate, because they are the ones who will make phone calls, give money, walk precincts, and vote for the candidate. The primary should be a contest between two well-vetted candidates.

Nevertheless even if the party has fallen down on its responsibilities to keep ideology pure, maintain consensus, and properly vet candidates it is the responsibility of the member to work within the party to set it right, and to work to elect party candidates. If you cannot do that the only honorable thing to do is to resign and go somewhere else. You cannot claim to be for the party, and then work against it.

No one is more critical of the process and candidates than I, and as all know I am merciless with elected officials of our party. During the primary season I go about as a raging bear. But, after the primary process is over, I know that our candidate is the best candidate that the Republican Party has been able to produce. The alternative, usually a Socialist Democrat is absolutely unacceptable.

Election time is a time for unity. I will wait to criticize Republicans after they are elected and in a position to do something about it, and they will hear me because I have done whatever I can to support them with my time, my money and my vote. If I absolutely abhor a candidate, I will shut my mouth because voting for him is still better than voting for a Democrat. I will go and work for another Republican candidate I do like. When Republicans win, the Party wins and we move closer to our goal of establishing republican philosophy and practice in government here and in Washington.

All men are imperfect. But as Ben Franklin said "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately." The people on the other side are presently seeking our fortunes, but it seems to me that if they become firmly entrenched, they will soon be seeking our lives. All that is left to us is our honor, and this must be expressed either as party loyalty or our resignation from it. I am a Republican, I know what it means to be a Republican, and if my party occasionally forgets, I will remind them, and be happy to do it while working to elect Republicans, and only Republicans, to political office.

Louis William Rose is a political philosopher and the Parliamentarian of the Republican Executive Committee of Duval County. You can contact him at louisrose@yahoo.com

I have been visiting various churches for several weeks with a candidate who I am hoping will be elected to office in a few days. There is nothing is wrong with this as far as I can tell. We are both Christians, we come for church school and stay for the service. We worship and we don’t talk about politics. We are introduced as any new visitor might be and mention is made that the candidate is offering himself for public service. Other than that we a just like any other visitors. We have attended a diverse variety of churches, diverse both culturally and theologically. Everywhere we went we were welcomed, had a good time at the Bible study and the service which focused almost exclusively on spiritual matters. But last Sunday we attended the Bethel Institutional Baptist Church under the preaching of Bishop Rudy W. McKissick, Junior and, of all people, the Reverend Al Sharpton.

Things I heard there were startling.

In Bethel, I heard McKissick say a few times that I was in a “Black” church. He said that everyone had to vote because "otherwise ‘they’ were going to shut it down.” I heard Sharpton say that Obama shouldn’t be blamed and that “Obama didn’t say ‘yes I can’ but ‘yes we can.’" When I heard these things I felt that I and “my kind” were not welcome.

So no one will be mistaken, I want to say that the Bethel Institutional Baptist Church is a fine Baptist church full of wonderful Christian people. The Gospel of Jesus the Christ was solidly preached both by Bishop McKissick, Jr., and delightfully by the Reverend Al Sharpton. It was wonderful to find out that even if we disagree most strenuously on political issues yet he is my brother in Christ. As an eclectic lover of music, I found the song service exhilarating and the choir inspirational. In the Bible study I found a bunch of old men just like me who love the Lord and the Word of God. Everyone was gracious and loving and friendly.

There is an old joke about the priest, who during the homily exhorts the congregation to “not to forget to vote on re-election day.” Well fine. If a pastor wants to express his own political viewpoint around election time he should be able to, but he might consider doing it gently so as not to offend those of a differing opinion. A pastor should preach the Gospel fearlessly not caring if he offends anyone. However, when it comes to politics he would do well to remember that “there is none righteous, no not one.” James Madison writes in Federalist 51: “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” So in church at least I think it is a good idea to remember that neither side has all the answers.

When Bishop McKissick, Jr. says “they are going to shut it down” he cannot be talking about anybody but the Republicans unless, of course, he is only talking about the patriots. For it is becoming obvious that one way or another we are going to shut it down, before we are robbed of all our money by a government that has been out of control for decades. Now surely there had to be a few Republicans in that crowd, I think perhaps more than a few. But it is impolite to interrupt a preacher you see, when just anybody can throw a tomato at a politician.

It is offensive for an anointed believer in Jesus Christ, to be referred to as “they.” I have as much right to be in that church whether I am a Democrat or a Republican, and I am just as much a part of the priesthood of believers as McKissick or Sharpton. He knew I was there, he could have just as well said I was going to shut it down, because I am. But then of course he would have had to give me an opportunity to tell the congregation what “it” was.

Calling Bethel a “Black” church is outrageous. Should other churches start referring to themselves as “White” churches? Are we going to segregate the Fount of Living Water as we once segregated regular water fountains?

The good bishop should take note that there is no room in the Kingdom of God for black churches; any more than there is room in the Kingdom for white churches. There is only room for God’s church where all men of all colors are brothers and where each thinks the other more worthy than himself.

Ya’ll go vote now.

Louis William Rose is a political philosopher and the Parliamentarian of the Republican Executive Committee of Duval County. You can contact him at louisrose@yahoo.com

Let me say this publicly so no one will be surprised when I repeat it at the Republican Executive Committee or at any other Republican meeting I attend. All of those boys who voted for the tax increase need to get out of Republican politics. If you are a fellow Republican, you should be saying it too, everywhere you go. They have either been paid off by big money contributors, or think that they are able to buy votes by giving other people your money. Maybe it is just that they have become closet Socialists, or simply don't give a darn about the people whom they represent and what they want. Maybe they are just too dim-witted to understand their duty.

Dick Brown, Mike Corrigan, Ronnie Fussell, Kevin Hyde, Stephen Joost, Art Shad, and Jack Webb are an embarrassment to every decent Republican who believes in smaller government and lower taxes. Just listen to them talk now! Listen to them blow smoke, and I don’t mean smoke rings in the air. They drone on about the process, how difficult and complicated it is, and how vast and diverse a constituency they have. Normally we are resigned to have to listen to this political double-speak and move on. But we simply cannot afford it any longer. These men are lying, plain and simple and they can no longer be allowed to speak in such a manner.

They are the ones who voted for the budget and they could have voted against it. Clay Yarborough voted against it, because as usual he was too honest to do anything else. Glorious Johnson, who doesn’t have enough sense to register as a Republican, still had enough sense to vote against it, because all the padding and patronage in it goes against her basic sense of patriotism. The Republican rock of the City Council, Don Redman voted against it. Republicans Bill Bishop, Richard Clark, and even Ray Holt voted against it. What is wrong with the other Republican men who voted for this onerous tax increase?

These men knew what needed to be cut and it wasn’t police or fire or any of the other utilities. In fact they were given a list of sixty-seven million dollars of possible budget cuts from the attorneys and accountants of Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County, a group whose sole motivation is to prevent government from stealing our money.

When city officials take our money by taxing us and spending it on special interest projects or to redistribute income they are committing the crime of robbery. Taxation without representation is robbery and the men who do it are criminals, highwaymen pretending to be Republicans. Besides the CTDC, citizens and other organizations showed up in droves to the hearing to tell the council not to vote for taxes and to tell them specifically what they should cut. Dick Brown, Mike Corrigan, Ronnie Fussell, Kevin Hyde, Stephen Joost, Art Shad, and Jack Webb had a clear choice and plenty of options and the one they chose was to screw the citizens, again. They screwed their fellow citizens and their fellow Republicans who voted them into office. They make Republicans look bad and now the time has come to vote them out.

It is just beyond the pale to think that they will be allowed to come into the Executive Committee or Republican club meetings to be honored and recognized and politely applauded for. No, instead they need to be cat called, booed and shown the door so that in the future no Republican candidate in his right mind would ever consider taking the actions that these men have taken while in office. My fellow Republicans should not shirk from making their displeasure known, nor should they be afraid of offending the party “elite.” I mean what’s the worst thing that can happen; you won’t be invited to the next fund raiser?

Dick Brown, Mike Corrigan, Ronnie Fussell, Kevin Hyde, Stephen Joost, Art Shad, and Jack Webb must understand they will not be elected to office again unless and until they have proven by their actions, not just by their speech, that they have got their minds right. Next time I see them in person, you can be sure I will tell them how I really feel. I hope you do too. In the meantime I urge them to stop pretending to be Republicans and to go and register as Democrats, so that they can strut and preen upon the stage hugging Barney Frank and kissing Hilary Clinton while they assure everyone they are willing to take your money to provide for the needs of everyone and anyone who will vote for them.

(Louis William Rose is a political philosopher and parliamentarian for the Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida, you can contact him at louisrose@yahoo.com)

The Milk Party also says that they are non-partisan and that is a damned lie. Under the cloak of non-partisanship the Milk Party is a coalition of socialists, who like all socialists believe that all they need is your money and big government to solve the problems of the world.

What they want for children is not what I want for my children. For what I want for my children, more than anything else is Liberty. Liberty instead of slavery. So the question is will our children be free or slaves? Will they be citizens of a capitalist free market republic or drones in a socialist centrally planned society? How disgusting it is to see children being used as pawns in an attempt to manipulate the electorate. The Milk Party is not a children’s movement, it is a propaganda movement.

I want my children to have the chance to be creative and rich, even if it means that they may run the risk of failure and poverty. I want my children to be able to say what they they think even if it means that their words may offend others who disagree with them. I want my children to be able to associate with whom they choose, even it means that others may complain that they are not practicing diversity.

My children should be able to proclaim their understanding of God and the universe freely, as well as their opposition to other theologies and philosophies without fear of being attacked. My children should be able to benefit from the wisdom and experience of their parents and neighbors, and to be grounded in the philosophy and ideology of those who truly love them and want the best for them. My children should be able to strive and win or lose on the playing field and with each other; rather than be coddled for fear that some will suffer from lack of self-esteem. Disraeli said, “There is no education like adversity.” Yes, our school system does not need more money it needs less, and along with that less regulation and freedom from micro management of state and federal agencies.

Home schooling or private schooling is always preferable to public school, and if parents cannot so arrange their lives to accomplish this they should ensure that they have the final word on how their children are to be educated. The curriculum; the ideas, history and worldview with which their children are to be inculcated should be decided upon by a locally elected school board responsible only to the parents and voters in their community, free from the pressures and restrictions and brainwashing that so often accompanies state and federal funds.

Pre-school and kindergarten is never more than a poor substitute for instruction at a mother’s knee. It is infinitely better for small children to be socialized in the company of their adult relatives instead of learning to be part of a mindless, impersonal collective. When a child enters the first grade she should know that she is an individual with rights, a member of a family with a family name, with people who love her and who will stand up and fight for her. You don’t learn that in Pre-K. What you learn in Pre-K is that you have been abandoned at a tender age, and that you better toe the line and fit in if you hope to survive.

It’s for the children, you say? I want my children to be able to keep their own money; spend it, save it, and invest it as they wish, instead of having it stolen from them by bureaucrats who purport to know better than those who have worked for it what should be done with it, and who would give it to those who have not earned it. This is not the proper use of tax money. It should be opposed as vigorously as one would oppose the highway man who pointing a gun at you and asking for your wallet. State and federal tax money should be used for projects that benefit the entire populace equally. Highways do this, libraries do this. Better to give the rest of state and federal resources back to the citizens from whom it was taken and let them spend the money on their own children in the manner that they see fit. You can bet that is not what the Milk Party Stands for.

I have never been rich, and have only in these later years begun to accumulate wealth and assets that I hope to preserve so that they may be given to my grandchild, and his children. We all love our children. We all want what is best for them. The parents in the Soviet Union, and in North Korea, and in Iran want the best for their children too. That we love our children should not be used as a political argument for excessive regulation and taxation, nor should innocent children be used as a front to advance a social agenda designed to ultimately enslave them.

(Louis William Rose is a political philosopher and the parliamentarian of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Northeast Florida. You can contact him at www.louisrose.com)