Republicans need to consider something this election year

GUEST COLUMN

By Mike Lauritsen
South Dakota Republican Party


As the Democrats have demonstrated this year a party can easily be divided. Many in the Democratic Party have stated they staunchly support one candidate and not the other, fracturing the party down the middle.

I keep hearing Hillary supporters saying “If Obama wins I’ll stay at home on election day” or vice versa. I say "Great!!!"

This division has serious consequences for the Democrats. Obama has gained access (bought) from the US Post Office the list of people that recently filled out Change of Address Forms in South Dakota; in doing so he has registered somewhere around 4000 new Democrats in South Dakota. We can only hope that Hillary continues to fight, further causing damage to the Democratic Party.

The Republican voters should be taking notes on what’s going on here. We have a majority here on the western side of the great state of South Dakota. But instead of learning from what is unfolding in front of us we continue to make the same mistakes as our opponents.

We continue to attack each other, maybe only for the reason that we have no one else to vent towards. We can learn from what’s happening here, instead of quarrelling over minimal differences we should be uniting and working toward an ultimate goal: a Republican Majority in both houses.

We as Republicans stand for something. If a candidate has an "R" behind his or her name we know they stand for something. They have values, beliefs, and stances that are similar to ours as Republicans. It’s important to remember that we may differ a little on any issue here and there, but this would be a poor reason to dismiss our fellow Republican, or even worse denounce a candidate.

As Benjamin Franklin said, “We must all hang together, or assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” We need to rise above arguing over the little differences and unite.

We can make a grand sweep this year, we have the voters but we need to connect and work together to overcome our opposition.

This Primary election has sparked a new interest in politics for many Americans, causing them to register as Democrats so that they can take part in the action.

The main message we need to send to our legislatures is, “United we stand parted 'party' we fall.”


Mike Lauritsen is the Regional Political Coordinator for the South Dakota Republican Party. He works on all of the legislative races on the western side of South Dakota and lives in Rapid City.