To Win Back Our State We Have To Win Back Our Youth!
April 23, 2023
Val Ojeda, Writer
Illinois needs a wake up call. This includes lighting a fire to our youth to motivate them in order to save themselves. For we aren't getting any younger and someone needs to carry the torch of freedom.
We live in a society of lazy teens. They are rebellious and find it acceptable to live at home beyond their twenties. Half of our nation is overweight and no one wants to work. We have grown men in their 40s playing X-box video games. Pathetic!
The United States Military can't even find qualified recruits to pass their physical and education standards let alone find men that can take being yelled at or hazed. This means lowering the standards in training just to have them graduate and we are on the brink of a war with China and Russia? How are these "Woke" servicemen to serve in the cold trenches of the Ukraine or the hot jungles of Taiwan?
Now, I ask you a question. If Illinois Republicans are losing our state now, how can a weaker generation save our state later?
Let's examine our losses so far.
The Illinois Republicans lost control of the state in almost every seat challenged by a Republican.
Illinois has only 59 seats in the Senate. The Democrats now have control of 40 of them. The Illinois House has 118 seats. The Democrats now control 78 and the Republicans control only 39. The Democrats gained so many seats in the midterms that Democrats are being seated in the Republican side of the house because they ran out of desks on the Democrat side. Unheard of!
If you are a Republican lawmaker in the Illinois House and Senate, it is nearly impossible to pass new legislation because it will never make it out of Committee or ever see the floor for a vote. The lobbyists and unions own the Democrats. Good luck getting a capital project in your town or funding for schools or the Police.
The Republicans are like third graders going to class with high school seniors. Who do you think would win in these athletic competitions?
The Democrats swept all the constitutional seats. All of them. Almost every seat in the General Assembly in Cook County is Democrat. Many counties went from red to blue, namely Dupage County, Kane County and Will County.
This was the most devastating losses to Republicans in Illinois history. It was a massacre. The Democrats rejoiced.
The Democrats in the consolidated and school board races won 80% of the races furthermore celebrating their continued wins.
In exit polling for every one voter that said they voted Republican, 4 more came out that said they voted Democrat. Republicans didn't even bother to show up to vote let alone become election judges or observers. Nothing!
So what can be done to win and secure our place in leadership in the Illinois government as Conservatives?
Let us begin with young Republicans, for they are our future. They must pick up the torch of freedom and Republican conservatism for the next generation. They are our last stand.
It begins with becoming examples. It's time to put down the Playstations and start picking up the flag. To become Patriots again. For how are our children going to take us seriously by us sitting down and doing nothing while our Constitutional freedoms are trampled on being revoked from us?
We need to become parents and examples again. This starts with becoming more involved in their lives. To show them conservative values instead of the "woke" ideologies jammed down their throats everyday as being acceptable.
The investment of the future generation depends on how much you're willing to invest in your own children. I get it. We lived in dual income homes and at times it's difficult to find time for our kids, but make the time. Our values are leaving conservatism with every decade we live until we become liberals. We have to stop that cold!
Illinois is due for change. A return to Conservative values. For far too long Illinois has been replaced with out of controlling youths. 90% of black households are with single parents begining when they are young. Abortion is used as birth control and is normal and acceptable amongst teenagers and parents look the other way instead of challenging them.
We need direction and it can be done. But it begins by training up the next generation. To finally discipline our children and instruct them on them becoming contributing members of society. Real Americans. Conservatives.
To save our state we need to replace the current leadership with these young leaders that we can produce who want to put in the hard work to win the next elections. If we don't work hard now, the job becomes more difficult later and everything we worked hard for is lost.
We need young leaders to make that difference!
This reminds me of why we have a Republican Party in Illinois. It's because of a young man that ran for Illinois House of Representatives at just 23 years old after serving with the Illinois Militia, the National Guard of its day. Abraham Lincoln.
Abraham Lincoln was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the Union through the American Civil War to defend the nation as a constitutional union and succeeded in abolishing slavery, bolstering the federal government, and modernizing the U.S. economy.
Lincoln was born into poverty in a log cabin in Kentucky and was raised on the frontier, primarily in Indiana. He was self-educated and became a lawyer, Whig Party leader, Illinois state legislator, and U.S. Congressman from Illinois. In 1849, he returned to his successful law practice in central Illinois. In 1854, he was angered by the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which opened the territories to slavery, and he re-entered politics. He soon became a leader of the new Republican Party.
He reached a national audience in the 1858 Senate campaign debates against Stephen A. Douglas. Lincoln ran for president in 1860, sweeping the North to gain victory. Pro-slavery elements in the South viewed his election as a threat to slavery, and Southern states began seceding from the nation. During this time, the newly formed Confederate States of America began seizing federal military bases in the south. Just over one month after Lincoln assumed the presidency, the Confederate States attacked Fort Sumter, a U.S. fort in South Carolina. Following the bombardment, Lincoln mobilized forces to suppress the rebellion and restore the union.
As President, he freed the slaves, defended the union, and its constitution and defeated the Confederate States. After the war, he was assassinated by southern fanatics.
Lincoln could have continued practicing law and became wealthy, but he felt the call for service at just 23 years of age. Illinois needs a next generation of Lincoln's.
A next generation of young Republican leaders that want to work hard to give the people the presentation that they deserve in government to be their voice. To secure a future of honest government for all of our children, so they can live a life free from regulations and debt. So that they can live in prosperity and have the financial security that they deserve.
Where do we begin?
It starts with you. You can be 23, 33, 43, 53 and so on. We are still young in the heart. When I speak of replacing the old dinosaurs in the party it's not because of their ages, it's their ideologies. Many of these “leaders” think that it's 1985. The era of Reagan and the way they campaigned and operated. It's today 2023, and it's the cyber age. It is now the Trump era.
President Trump taught us one thing. To think outside the box to win. In 2016, Trump defeated the most powerful Republicans in the GOP primary embarrassing them. He later defeated Hillary Clinton, a former first lady, U.S. Senator and Secretary of State, who spent a billion dollars in her campaign to defeat him, but she lost.
Trump organized the greatest grassroots campaign ever, knocking on one million doors a week. Many in the RNC thought this was a bad idea, but he mobilized the Trump army and got the job done. He also used cyber campaigning. He couldn't afford TV ads like Clinton, but each of his followers became virtual ambassadors of social media.
Trump himself had 150 million followers combined on Twitter and Facebook. Trump was the first to organize weekly rallies the size of rock concerts with 30,000 attendees. He started a movement. His rallies were bigger than RNC primary events.
He started a new movement.
It can be done again, by embracing new ideas, not the failed plans of before.
This starts with the Trump concept of grassroots campaigning. Currently, the Illinois GOP has a 50% deficet of Precinct Committeemen. The Democrats are up to 95%.
How can this be?
It begins with involvement. We have few Republicans who are Committeemen, but many nowadays they show up to the monthly meetings for the free coffee and doughnuts just to gossip or complain.
The old-timers.
The problem we discovered when I campaigned in Illinois is that many of these PCs flatly refused to gather petition signatures or knock on doors. Many demanded to be paid and compensated, or even a promise from a government job.
That is why we took such devastating losses. Everyone wants something in return. To be paid. What happened to the days of volunteering out of service. To invest in our country. I was managing a campaign for the Illinois Senate and the cousin of this candidate stated he wanted to help her campaign.
I structured the campaign for this candidate with the people that would be on unpaid staff. I gave him the title of deputy campaign manager because of his time available to help and his relationship to the candidate I thought he would be the man. Someone I could depend on. Then a couple days later he said he researched his official title for the campaign on Google and then he demanded $40,000 a year plus expenses.
I about had a heart attack. I had no budget to pay him. I was barely charging the client $125.00 a week with no retainer. She had no money. I then continued to ask him about his political and campaign experience. He said he had none. So what happened to him wanting to help his own family, state and country? He was gone for being selfish!
I found this problem at Republican gatherings. Republicans are famous for throwing elaborate dinners, events and gatherings. They will pay the high ticket prices to pay the speaker fee of a nobody VIP speaker or entertainer but if you pass the plate like in church to help a Republican candidate……nothing, no on would donate. Don't even ask many of the same people to waste their time on a weekend to knock on doors like the rest of us for eight hours a day.
Only 8% of registered Republicans voted in the 2022 primary election. Only 20% in the general election and only 20% in the school board races.
What good is it to have an Army if they aren't willing to fight? In this case, the Republican machine became broken, and the party failed to get out the vote. Candidates and some volunteers worked hard, knocking on thousands of doors every weekend, to no avail because the party system failed them. I have seen the matrix first hand.
In one county, the chairman there was cherry-picking candidates and locking out others. The ones that were picked to run had to pay the chairman a consulting g fee paid in the thousands of dollars for doing nothing. Township Chairman and committeeman took to his example and did the same. Pathetic!
How did we get to this point?
Many potential candidates were turned away for being unqualified or too young! Excuse me, To too young? Unqualified? Is there a manual that sets these standards by the Illinois GOP? Who would have told Lincoln the wrestler that at 23 years old he was too young to run for the Illinois House of Representatives? Unbelievable!
As for our young Republicans. The old guard of the GOP have shunned them away. They even refuse to support their young Republican organizations. They fail to help them organize. Furthermore, they cannot even recruit them as Precinct Committeemen. Likewise, they cannot recruit new candidates to run for office. They cannot campaign or fundraise, but they love those free coffee and doughnuts.
Let us rid ourselves of the elite “country club Republicans" in leadership who want you just to donate to them to pay for their lavish parties and all-inclusive paid convention vacations. We need to rebuild the party by bringing in new ideas and pushing our young people to become involved. We have to recruit our children, nephews, nieces and our neighbors' children. Start GOP High School clubs. The teen you recruit today may become tomorrow's next President. The next Lincoln.
In 2020, Republican newcomer Madison Cawthorn comprehensively defeated his Democratic rival in North Carolina's 11th Congressional District, securing about 54% of the vote.
The motivational speaker and real estate investor only turned 25 - the minimum age for Congress.
Mr. Cawthorn is potentially the third-youngest person in US history to be elected to Congress. He is a few months behind Jed Johnson Jr, a representative for Tennessee, who took office in 1965 seven days after his 25th birthday.
Madison was not only young, but campaigned in a wheelchair because he's paralyzed from the waist down. If he can get elected to Congress at his age and with his disability, then anyone can. He's a true example.
We need more young people like him to run for leadership positions as Chairman in the GOP leadership from the townships, county and state levels.
Most Chairman are in their 60s. The biggest complaints that I, personally, heard from candidates was the lack of motivation for the Chairman to become involved. Don't get me wrong I personally know some of these chairman's that are up there and they are producing. Yet, others are not.
There are others that are lazy and don't even have meetings? They have failed to do their jobs effectively wanting the title and praise but doing nothing to get people elected. Two-thirds of county GOP Central Committee Organizations don't even have Young Republican Organizations?
How about the other County Chairmans that don't have time to do their jobs?
An example of this is Stephan Boulton in Chicago. Boulton, who is the Chairman of the Chicago Republican Party, is also a State Central Committeeman for the Illinois GOP. How much power does one man need? Why wear so many hats? He was also the Chicago chair for Irvin's campaign for governor.
Recently on his Facebook post, he was discussing having to endorse a DEMOCRAT for Mayor of Chicago, Paul Vallas who lost by the way. A DEMOCRAT LIBERAL who promotes abortion and has attacked Republicans including Governor Ron Desantis and President Trump demanding his arrest.
Boulton has failed to produce a Republican to run for Mayor of Chicago, even though it's a "nonpartisan" race. The Democrats produce nine!
The Democrats control over 90% of the seats in Chicago. Sad!
Republicans need to be represented too. Yet, he will be actively campaigning for Democrats because he wants to unify the parties "together"?
Boulton is the old Republican breed that does nothing to win elections. The last Republican Mayor was 100 years ago. The Democrats' seats are never challenged and they hold the power in the City council.
The Chicago GOP is ready for a change. He wants to take it slow and take it easy when we need to go forward and much faster. We need to restructure and start running candidates in every Alderman seat, including Mayor. The last midterms Boulton wanted a pat in the back for slating a record of GOP candidates but lost every single one because they had zero support. No one knew they were running let alone having websites or even signs. Many of them called me in desperation for help!
Boulton is not the only one!
Tim Ozinga in Will County is running his family's business, is a Illinois State Representative, the Will County Republican Central Committeeman and the Illinois Republican State Central Committeeman for the 1st District. Now with all those titles when is he supposed to find the time to recruit candidates, help them run and raise money?
Speaking of money, wasn't it Ozinga that dumped one million dollars into his campaign committee to "help" candidates only ONE day before the election? I can't make this up! I had candidates in Will County and others I was helping that could have really used that cash a month before!
I place this challenge for you. What will it take for you to make this change? To make a difference!
We must begin a new chapter of the Republican Party. As a guide for the younger generation to take up the mantle for a better state and country. Nothing ever comes easy. The fight will be strong, but that is why we need our youth so that they can carry this party into the future. It is necessary that we do this.
The GOP requires representation in government because the people speak though the representatives that they elect to represent their conservative values. To lower taxes. Smaller government, the elimination of needless regulations. To protect the constitution and the right to bear arms. To save the babies. We shouldn't have to sacrifice our children's freedoms like we did during COVID-19. It's about parents' rights and their school choice.
To make this happen, we have to admit that our party is broken, but it's time to rebuild and restore, so the Democrats will no longer laugh at us, but instead we will chase them out of government, so they can no longer destroy our freedoms.
One thing that gets me in 2023 is that we are too busy living in 2021. We are continuing to dedicate our time to attention on election fraud and the vaccines that we lost focus on why we are losing now. We have done most of what we could to combat election fraud and we will continue to fight to address and fix it. As for the vax, that's a dead cause.
We have to fight right now to get out the vote. To recruit candidates and to raise money for them. Instead of spending four hours on Facebook would you be willing to volunteer for a candidate for that long?
We will only become better when we place our faith into action. We must do this now because time will run out. Are you ready for this challenge? If so, let us do this together for the sake of our children, the party, the state and our great nation.
Become involved now as we prepare for the 2024 elections and the Presidential race. And by the way if you believe that Ron Desantis is the second coming of Christ let me tell you he is not. He is the victim of bad advice and consulting. His advisors are telling him he can win the presidency. This ain't Florida. It's national and he's a rookie. He is polling at 20% and Trump is polling at 60% and it's growing everyday for Trump.
If one thinks he can beat Trump in a primary you have to be a special type of dummy. For Desantis entering this presidential race it would be political suicide for him and ending his career with MAGA supporters.
So what do you have to do to get involved? Start attending GOP meetings with YOUR CHILDREN ESPECIALLY TEENAGERS!
Educate them about the Constitution, religion, conservativitisim and the Republican party. Help them understand why we need to fight for this state and great nation. Maybe encourage them to serve their country in the military instead of a loser college.
Volunteer by knocking on doors, phone banking or getting out the vote. Have your children involved in this great endeavor.
We need to become a stronger generation of Republicans. To fight back. To rationalize our thinking. Gone is the strategy of embracing and unifying with liberal ideologies to win races. They can still be won with conservative ideologies. Only quitters appease, we don't!
The presidential election is in less than two years. Let us set the stage to also recruit candidates to run for state and federal office. Let this be the test for true change. I am confident that together we can regain the pride the GOP once had as Lincoln did when they founded the party.
©️Val Ojeda is a Republican Author, Media Personality, Strategist and Consultant. Ojeda manages federal political campaigns also serving as President Trump's Hispanic Coalition Leader. Ojeda is also a businessman, entrepreneur and the founder of FAMA a 501c3 Chamber of Commerce. Ojeda served as law enforcement Veteran Officer/Detective