The Western Reserve America Group

2009 will be studied by historians for years to come. It is a seminal year in American politics equal to 1968 in which changes in American society spontaneously bubbled up from a citizenry demanding a restatement of the relationship between the government and the governed.

The economic collapse in September, 2008, in the midst of a presidential election, propelled a true leftist progressive into office. Although Barack Obama ran on a centrist platform, he was shaped by his Indonesian childhood and his work as a community organizer in Chicago’s South Side. He meant it when he said he would fundamentally transform America, but the public didn’t understand the nature of the change he was promising.

Contrary to his promise of centrist post partisanship, he used bullying tactics to implement his policies of massive spending and debt, government bailouts of select corporations and banks, government control of all aspects of America’s energy sources, and his attempt at intrusive government interference in America’s health system.

With no central opposition leader, the center right majority of Americans reacted spontaneously to policies too well understood and not wanted. The public began to read Jefferson, Adams, Washington, and Paine. They came together in ad hoc groups of citizens called “Tea Parties” to demand accountability from an ideologically based government who chose to ignore the will of the people. Folks actually began to read the founding documents: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

They marched and protested and attended town hall meetings as their representatives derided and scorned them calling them “Astroturf” and “Nazis” and “vigilantes.” And they elected opposition candidates in Virginia and New Jersey. Finally, in a coup de grace that forced the attention of ideological left, they elected a centrist Republican to fill the Massachusetts senate seat of Ted Kennedy, the iconic progressive.

Notwithstanding, the progressive movement doubled down, and continued to dirty deal behind closed doors to enact its agenda into law in spite of overwhelming public opposition. The opposition demanding the consent of the governed for this type of legislative agenda continues.

The Western Reserve America Group is an organization of war horse conservative political activists who watched what was happening and concluded that although the immediate political battles were interesting, something had fundamentally changed in our society over the past 30 years. This change took place under both Democratic and Republican administrations.

WRAG believes that our society has lost its understanding of the fragility of freedom, the importance of responsibility for one’s self, and that common sense should not be lost in the din of political rhetoric or legalities. This is the result of the failure of our schools to embrace these principles; an emphasis on the collective by media outlets; government programs and taxation policies which teach government reliance and punish individual effort; government trade and environmental policies which make it difficult for folks to get good manufacturing jobs; and the massive intrusion of the digital age on American life destroying our sense of well being and privacy. Big Brother is watching, and has the means to do it.

WRAG hopes to restore Freedom, Responsibility and Common Sense into American life both through outreach into our education system and issue oriented political activism to promote a measured conservative approach to the debates of today.

The Western Reserve America Group is based in Youngstown, Ohio, the first major settlement in the old Connecticut Western Reserve. It is a microcosm of the problems caused by intrusive government, and a bastion of self reliance in the face of adversity. Although it is considered to be a Democratic stronghold, the citizens aren’t San Francisco liberals. These are hardworking, fiercely independent folks rooted in our industrial past. They are survivors. This is something shared by both the Democrats and Republicans in our area. Youngstown is currently poised to lead Ohio out of the recession…due to our firm belief in freedom, responsibility, and common sense.