Act now to save our party

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Dear Friend  ,
        Dear Fellow Member of Federated Republican Women, 
        
        I have been a member of the National Federation of Republican Women for 
over ten years and for a good part of that time I have been a Regent. I am 
worried about the future of the Republican Party.  I know that if you are like 
me and my friends you are worried too.   
        As Republicans we know how difficult it is becoming to elect our 
candidates to office.  As women we know how many of our own number vote for 
candidates of the Democrat Party.  Many Republican women are quietly making 
that choice.  They have their reasons; those reasons are, unfortunately, not 
wrong.  
        It is up to us to give all women reasons to support Republican 
candidates. 
 Politics is the way we work for the future we want for our selves and our 
children.  I have five children.  Their future matters to me.  That is what 
keeps me in politics.  
As Federated Republican Women we believe that our daughters and grand daughters 
should enjoy equal protection under the law and equal opportunity with their 
brothers.  Those values, a belief in individual freedom, the free market, and 
personal honor, propelled each of us into politics.   Our reverence for and 
love of the wonderful vision of unrealized possibility that is America keeps us 
from walking away when times are tough and nothing is working.  Those same 
values are forcing many of us to vote for Democrats.  
It is an outrage, but it is going to get worse. 
In a recent election in California post-election polling revealed that 30% of 
Republican Women living in the 23rd Congressional District voted for the 
Democrat candidate, Lois Capps instead of our candidate, Beth Rogers.  Beth was 
an ideal candidate, successful, well educated, active in politics, savvy, a 
loving grandmother, bilingual in Spanish, and committed to our ideals.  She is 
the kind of leader we hunger to have represent us.  She received scant support 
from the Republican Party.  We know how our Party acts towards women, even 
though we also know that without Federated they could never elect anyone to 
office.
   To quote from the letter Beth sent out recently:
“The key demographic is, how core women – especially Republican women – are now 
voting in this area and in California at large.  The only truly unhappy day I 
experienced in the entire campaign was when we received our internal polls 
which showed that 30% OF REPUBLICAN WOMEN WERE VOTING FOR CAPPS WITH 18% 
UNDECIDED.  ONLY 52% OF REPUBLICAN WOMEN WERE VOTING REPUBLICAN.”  
We originally became Republicans because we insisted on thinking for ourselves 
and refused to accept a lesser role. We stayed because we continue to hope and 
because we care deeply about our country.  We are committed to doing the right 
thing both for ourselves and our families.   But things have not gone as we 
hoped, no matter how many hours and dollars we pour into campaigns, 
registration drives and phoning.

Along with getting no credit we are failing to give our children the future we 
want for them.  It is time to demand our own Party to do the right thing.  
  As women, mothers and Americans the vision of a world of equal opportunity 
and individual justice is at issue.  What is our Party saying to America when 
it refuses to give ALL women their rights and instead appoints a few token 
women to positions of influence? 
We are women in politics who are aging and struggling to maintain.  Clubs are 
merging and shrinking. We watch as the younger generation of women reject all 
we have worked for.  The reasons are clear.  
The Republican Party must change what it DOES.  Actions speak louder than 
words.  

Here is the exact wording of the Equal Rights Amendment is:

"Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United 
States or by any state on account of sex."

Who could object to THAT? Not the overwhelming majority of Americans. Two years 
ago, a group of women, outraged at the situation, sought an accurate measure of 
the current beliefs of the American public regarding men's and women's rights. 
They commissioned a nationwide survey that was conducted in July 2001 by the 
highly respected professional survey firm, Opinion Research Corporation. The 
women had been concerned that the American public might not really be "ready" 
for truly equal rights for all citizens without regard to their sex. But they 
were WRONG. 

              The survey findings: 96% of American adults -- 97% of American 
women and 95% of American men -- answer YES when asked this simple, 
straightforward survey question: "In your opinion, should male and female 
citizens of the United States have equal rights?" And when asked, more 
specifically, "In your opinion, should the Constitution make it clear that male 
and female citizens are supposed to have equal rights?" 88% (91% of women and 
85% of men) answer YES. 

              This very strong consensus of the American people in favor of 
equal rights is underscored by the additional survey finding that 72% (75% of 
men and 69% of women) actually believe/assume the Constitution ALREADY 
guarantees those equal rights -- when in fact it does NOT. (Click here for 
details on the survey and its findings: Equal Rights Survey.) 

              The only right the Constitution currently guarantees to the 
female citizens of our country is the right to vote -- and that took until 1920 
to achieve. Without the ERA, women still have to continually struggle to 
persuade national and state governments, courts, and institutions of all kinds 
that they deserve fully equal rights with male citizens. Even when women's 
efforts succeed, their gains remain vulnerable to being overturned because they 
are not backed by an explicit Constitutional guarantee. 

              This situation is bad. It can become much worse when America's 
female voters, including Republicans, learn that not only do they still lack 
the guarantee of equal rights that should be their birthright, but also that 
our Republican Party and its leadership is OPPOSING the Equal Rights Amendment, 
and working AGAINST its addition to the Constitution. 
   
              It is essential for the survival of our Party that we, as 
Federated Republican Women, deliver the message that the ERA must be added to 
the Constitution. No Republican leader or legislator should stand in the way. 
Instead, they must actively support its inclusion.

              I have heard it said that the ERA is largely symbolic and that 
the need for its adoption is past. Even if this were true, why is the ERA being 
opposed? By acting to support the ERA, the Republican Party can refute the 
assertion of Liberals that Republicans are working against the proper rights of 
women. Democrats have also failed on this issue and many women know it. 

As Federated Republican Women it is our responsibility to make sure this 
happens.  We need to be informed.  We need to act now, before it is too late 
for the Republican Party.    
 
 Guaranteed equality in law is a reality we still need today.  We remain just 
three states away from ratification.  If you are a Federated member in one of 
these states please contact your Republican legislators. 

The 15 currently unratified states are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, 
Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, 
Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia.  Letting your legislators know 
can revitalize the Republican Party and bring women back to Federated Women.  
www.ERACampaignNetwork.org
One way or other, it is going to happen.  

God bless you for reading this, listening and taking action..  I know that 
together we can – and will – bring the Republican Party back from the brink of 
disaster and make it possible for us to achieve the future we have each worked 
so hard to create for our children.    

Sincerely,   



Melinda Pillsbury-Foster
Member, National Federation of Republican Women 

P.S. Send this on to your friends in NRFW.  We need to get the word out and get 
the Party back on track. 
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