RNI Chairman, Michael Erickson
Republicans for the National Interest believes fundamentally in the words of President Ronald Reagan, when he said: "We are the showcase of the future. And it is within our power to mold that future - this year and for decades to come. It can be as grand and as great as we make it. No crisis is beyond the capacity of our people to solve; no challenge too great."
The promise of our future has been enshrined in the immortal words in the Declaration of Independence, when we recognize in ourselves and in our neighbors, that indeed "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."
When we walk forward, together, as the inheritors of the Declaration, the future indeed emerges as that Shining City on a Hill, as Ronald Reagan described. It is not a false or imaginary utopia; there will remain strife and misfortune. There is only the promise that the practical relations among men, in their civic, business, and family lives, may be governed by law, rather than force; liberty, rather than slavery; and life, rather than death. Crisis and challenge do not pass away, but they are able to be overcome; and the possibility remains that men may become that much more noble and charitable in virtue of their triumphs.
Republicans for the National Interest believes that, in order to remain the inheritors of the Declaration, we must recognize first and foremost that it is the Declaration of a unique and truly independent nation. It does not thrive in some sort of cultural vaccuum; it may not be imposed upon a foreign soil. It is our birthright as Americans, and it ennobles the affairs of all men, only to the extent that the American nation remains unique and secure, a Republic in touch with her founding principles, not an Empire of mere commerce and force.
As a practical matter, Republicans for the National Interest believes that the Republican Party is the historic political home of those Americans desiring to secure those very same principles in the contemporary context. The Republican Party emerged as the protector of the American Union, in the crisis of the Civil War; today, it should be the voice of national sovereignty and security. The Republican Party emerged as the primary political voice for those demanding the Abolition of Slavery; today, it should be the voice of Free Labor. The Republican Party emerged as the primary political drive behind a national economic policy that focused on developing our own prosperity; today, it should be the voice of a national economic policy that focuses on investing in our own national future and wielding the "big stick" of American economic might to create a more even playing field for real free trade.
To the extent that the Republican Party fails to uphold its own traditions in regards to the issues of national sovereignty, national security, immigration, and economic policies, we strive to empower Republican activists to take back the Republican Party for themselves, by providing a consistent voice for conservative nationalism and by assisting conservative nationalist activists and candidates in winning seats of power both within and outside of the Republican Party establishment. We strive also to bring non-Republicans into our own Republican Party, who share in our determination to turn the Republican Party once more into a consistent political voice for traditionalism, conservatism, and nationalism.
In empowering Americans to preserve the verities of our own past, we are paving the way for an ever greater future. The greatness of America indeed emerges ever before us. We need only to lift up our eyes, to spread the good news of our potential, to extend the great promise of assimilation into our culture, and to invest in ourselves and our children. When we so walk in fortitude with our own past, the ever newness of America then ennobles us.
