Why Move-On-Up.org?

[Chris Arps]

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 cultural values and view of the role of government in our lives, but the 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, or vice versa. There are millions of us out here! John McCain only received 2% of the African American vote, but how many millions of African Americans does that translate too? That was the initial purpose of organizing the Move-On-Up.org social network; to have a centralized meeting place for us to network, share ideas, and let the closet Republicans and conservatives among us know that they are not alone.

The second purpose of this site is to grow a true grassroots, un-bureaucratic organization that will be a force on the national scene to advance our agenda within the party and in the national debate. I do not consider myself the leader of this social network. I would much rather prefer that every member of this network take ownership for this site's success and it's mission to empower ordinary individuals to do extraordinary things. That is what true grassroots activism should be all about.

Most of us will attest that the outreach efforts by the Republican Party have been pretty anemic at best. Past history tells us that they're probably not going to improve much in the future, especially now that an African American will be our next president, and Hispanics now comprise the largest minority group in America. 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 squeaky wheels that gets your cause attention, not your past loyalties. We have a choice. We can either continue to complain and keep experiencing neglect during and after the campaign season, or, we can build an organization that literally has hundreds of thousands of members and that advances our agenda due to its sheer size and influence.

A third purpose of this site is to find tomorrow's future leaders and candidates for elected office at the local, state and federal levels. I envision in the very near future, a Move-On-Up.org 501c4 PAC that will provide needed funds so that these candidates can wage credible campaigns. I also envision the PAC being heavily involved with issue advocacy through the use of 30 second videos and the new media. The late Missouri State Representative Sherman Parker wrote in 2005 about the need to elect more African American Republicans to expand the base of the party.

"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."

In future posts, I will expound further on my ideas and vision I have for Move-On-Up.org, but as i wrote earlier, this is your site. I heartily encourage you to spread the word and invite others! Be relevant. Join the revolution. Make history!

[Windflier]

Chris,

I just read your bio and your write up about the purpose for MoveOnUp.org. I'm impressed by both, and am glad to see that you're actively working to bring black people back to their native conservative roots.

I don't think it can be said enough that black Americans are at heart, a conservative people, and that they have (as a group), been carefully (and deliberately) shepherded away from their own political party and ideology by the left.

One of my many purposes in life is to help enlighten my fellow black Americans about the cruel trick that has been played on our people by the left. This is an uphill battle, I know, but one worth waging.

Conservatives who are ex-liberals often use the analogy of "escaping the plantation" when speaking of their conversion, but that analogy is ironically apt when applied to the same experience of black conservatives.

Black liberals are angry for all the wrong reasons, and at the wrong targets. Oh, they ought to be mad, alright, but they ought to be furious at the left for lying to them, and for selling them into yet another condition of slavery. Any black person who's educated themselves to the level where they can see what's been done to them, experiences a righteous anger toward the left that goes to bone.

However, in true conservative fashion, that anger doesn't result in anarchy. I find that the more truth a person has about the real politics of this country, the more intelligent becomes their response to it.

Thank you for inviting me to participate. I hope I can add something of value to your efforts.