RNI

A friend inquires about the details of a motion purportedly made last year at one of the state conventions of the California Republican Party. Michael Erickson does not know of any specifics, but he offers his comments as follows.

In his capacity as a Priest in the Anglican Catholic Church, Michael Erickson writes and delivers the following sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity. In it, he focuses on how difficult it is to "hate the sin, but love the sinner," even though as Christians this is the task to which we are called.

In response to the United States Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case (which overturned restrictions on political speech by corporations and unions), Democrats (and also RINO Delaware Congressman Michael Castle, who is running presently for the chance to become the new "Lincoln Chafee" of the United States Senate) are proposing the DISCLOSE Act. This will impose draconian restrictions on the free speech of political advocacy groups, as well as mandate that they publicize their donors. For groups like the National Organization of Marriage, whose supporters have been pilloried relentlessly by the homosexual lobby, a disclosure mandate threatens to put them out of business. Activists rightly cry "foul," when the NRA responds with a back room deal. Michael Erickson offers his explanation of this NRA sell out.

As Republican Gubernatorial Nominee Meg Whitman gears up for what promises to be hundreds of millions in campaign dollars denouncing out of control public pensions, and other fiscal boondoggles of the Leftist regime in Sacramento, we should hope that she and others will call attention to pension abuse committed by fellow "Republicans." Republicans for the National Interest Chairman Michael Erickson refers here to the practice of pension "double dipping" and, even more broadly, to a culture of conniving self-interest within our bureaucracy. Once, good old fashioned shame could restrain public men from their worst impulses; when that no longer works, we need to wield the "big stick" of reform.

Presumably because of at large voting in a predominantly white village in New York, no Hispanic ever has been elected to the Board of Trustees there. A federal judge sees this as a violation of the Voting Rights Act and accepts a plan for cumulative voting. The clear expectation is that the Hispanic minority then will focus their six votes a piece behind one, Hispanic candidate, while the whites dissipate theirs among a number of other candidates. "Vote early, vote often" becomes the latest means of enforcing political correctness - the public, and the United States Constitution, be damned.

Michael Erickson laments the recent passage of California Proposition 14, which creates an "open primary" for partisan elections. If political parties do not alter how they approach partisan elections, then they effectively will be made irrelevant by this new system. Even if problematic, the short term solution may be in turning to a caucus system for endorsing candidates prior to these "open primaries."

Since resigning as formal Chairman of the Sonoma County Republican Central Committee, Michael Erickson has been asked to offer his thoughts on reforms in several other County Republican Central Committees. Here is a letter that he wrote recently in that regard.

Wall Street Journal editorialist Dorothy Rabinowitz contends that President Obama is losing the confidence of the American people, and his grip on effective political power, because his view of the world is "alien" to that of most Americans. Rather than being an "American President," as citizens historically would have understood that phrase, Obama is the head of what Rabinowitz refers to as an "ideological faction." Michael Erickson then elaborates.

In his private capacity, Michael Erickson publishes his endorsements for the California statewide primary elections in June 2010, including explanations for each. Here are those endorsements.