Social Network of African American Conservatives & Moderates
NOW Is Our Time to Get Focused & Organized!
Move-On-Up.org
“It is time for blacks to begin the shift from a wartime to a peacetime identity, from fighting for opportunity to the seizing of it.” -Shelby Steele
Dear Friend:
In the past, whenever I met a fellow African American Republican or conservative, it was always a bitter sweet moment for me. On the one hand, I was elated to meet another African American who shared my same cultural values and view of the role of government in our lives, but that elation subsided rather quickly when the realization set in that there wasn't an efficient mechanism to connect them with my conservative African American friends from around the country, and vice versa. There are literally millions of us out here! Sen. John McCain only received 4% of the African American vote, out of 16 million votes cast in 2008, but that translates into over 800,000 African Americans who voted for Senator John McCain - even with the first major party African American on the presidential ballot! Former President George W. Bush received 11% of the African American vote in 2000 and 9% in 2004. That’s 1-1.5 million African American conservatives! That was the initial purpose of organizing the Move-On-Up.org social network; to have a centralized meeting place for African Americans to network, share ideas, and let the closet Republicans and conservatives among us know that they are NOT ALONE. In a year and a half, the network has grown to over five hundred members in forty states and three countries!
Move-On-Up.org stands on these five principles:
Renewing our Economy- Our goal is to empower the African American people by expanding employment and entrepreneurial opportunities.
Health Care Reform - Health care is a personal issue, and informed individuals can make better decisions about their own care than government.
Securing our borders - We need to gain control of our borders and enforce our immigration laws while encouraging legal immigrants who come seeking the American Dream.
Education - Education, while a national priority, is a local responsibility. We believe that parents, teachers, and local school boards are the key to true education reform -- not big government. We support school choice initiatives such as vouchers, charters schools and homeschooling.
Strengthening our families - We uphold and respect traditional institutions such as marriage between a man and a woman. We are committed to protecting the life of innocents from conception through the infirmities of age. This value must be nurtured in both our culture and our laws.
The second purpose for Move-On-Up.org is to grow a true grassroots, un-bureaucratic organization that will be a needed force on the national scene to advance our agenda within the Republican Party and within the national debate. Many of us will attest that the outreach efforts by the Republican Party have been pretty anemic at best over the years. Past history tells us that they're probably not going to improve much in the future, especially now that an African American is president, and Hispanics now comprise the largest minority group in the country.
To be candid, the party is somewhat justified in ignoring us because we bring nothing to the table; no organized numbers, no ability to raise large sums of money. In politics, numbers and money are the grease that gets the squeaky wheels (your cause) attention, not any past loyalties. We have a clear choice. We can either continue to complain and keep experiencing neglect during and after the campaign season, or, we can begin right now to build a grassroots organization that has hundreds of thousands of members that will advance our agenda due to its sheer size and influence.
A third purpose for Move-On-Up.org is to find tomorrow's future leaders and candidates for elected office at the local, state and federal levels. Move-On-Up.org's 527 PAC will provide the infrastructure and moral support necessary so that these candidates can wage credible, winning campaigns. A May 5th New York Timesarticle titled, “Black Hopefuls Pick This Year in G.O.P. Raceschronicled several credible African American Republicans around the country running for elected office in 2010:
Among the many reverberations of President Obama's election, here is one he probably never anticipated: at least 32 African-Americans are running for Congress this year as Republicans, the biggest surge since Reconstruction, according to party officials. Black Republicans are running across the country — from a largely white swath of beach communities in Florida to the suburbs of Phoenix, where an African-American candidate has raised more money than all but two of his nine (white) Republican competitors in the primary.
State and national party officials say that this year’s cast of black Republicans is far more experienced
than the more fringy players of yore, and include elected officials, former military personnel and candidates who have run before.
State and national party officials say that this year’s cast of black Republicans is far more experienced
than the more fringy players of yore, and include elected officials, former military personnel and candidates who have run before.
We also envision the PAC being heavily involved in issue advocacy through the use of viral, 30 second videos, the Internet, and the new and old media. The late Missouri State Representative Sherman Parker wrote
in 2005 about the urgent need to elect more African American Republicans to expand the base of the party.
Click here to watch video
"Electing African-Americans to legislative, statewide, and congressional office is the only way we are going expand the base of the Republican Party...Democrats were successful in the battle over African-American voters by presenting them a convincing message, that message may have never been received had it not been used in conjunction with the Democrat Party’s considerable effort to legitimize that message by electing African-Americans to office...In electing African-Americans, Democrats gained messengers capable of relating to the communities that they were asked to persuade."-- Sherman Parker
Today my friend, you have an opportunity to be a part of something groundbreaking and exciting, and as we survey the political landscape, the fields are ripe for harvest. I am humbly asking you to commit today to donating $10 or more to Move-On-Up.org PAC. We know there are millions of Africans American in this country who are not liberal and who are looking to network with other individuals and an organization that represents their traditional, common sense conservative values. We need your financial gift of $10 or more to get our organization and message out to the millions of conservative African Americans who don’t know we yet exist.
For your one-time contribution of $30 or more, we will send you your choice of two free gifts; either Pastor Raymond Dix’s inspirational and thought provoking DVD titled, “Repairing a Broken People” where Pastor Dix expounds on the crisis among Black Americans drawing parallels from Isaiah 61:1-4, or, a one year subscription to “The Freedom’s Journal” online magazine founded by Dr. Eric Wallace. The Freedom’s Journal magazine aims to be the political voice of conservative reform and seeks to provide the standard for black conservatism
For the price of two lattes or two McDonald’s value meals, you can help start the ball rolling on a movement that will change the political landscape for generations. THE TIME IS NOW! Can we count on you today for your support and a $10 or more gift to the Move-On-Up.org PAC?
Please click here to send your gift securely thru PayPal, or, you can send your check to the address listed below. Thank you my friend and God Bless America!
Christopher R. Arps
Founder, Move-On-Up.org
Move-On-Up.org/ P.O. Box 410334 / St. Louis MO, 63141
Rebecca Davidson, Treasurer
Not endorsed by any candidate, candidate committee or political party.
© 2012 Created by Chris Arps.
