BNJacksonGA

America, meet the Conservative Republican Women.

I recently had the honor to serve as moderator for one of their candidate forums. In my opening remarks, I made a statement that I would like to share with you; “This is a group of ladies who are passionate about their republic, having the essence of America in our daily lives, and limiting the federal government. These ladies, much like you and I, obviously care or none of us would be here tonight. But these ladies were tired of sitting around and talking about change and, with or without our help, they are actually doing something about it. If we are smart, we will join and support them!”

This is the best description that I can come up with to describe this group. I recently sat down with this group and have to first say this: pay attention people!

This organization is made up by a variety of women of all ages, social, and economic backgrounds. I sat down with public relations manager, Tabatha Duffey, who shared with me her passion.

I asked why they were doing what they were doing and she remarked, "We are tired of the dirty politics and focused not just on politics, but also faith-based principles. Both are the ultimate taboos in our society," and she further stated that this has to change.

The group is made up of a variety of women from various backgrounds. Often, republicans or conservatives in general, are viewed as a stereotypical "rich white people" who play dirty and "are so far removed from every day lives" of "normal people.”  An article in USA Today, by Jonah Goldberg stated:

“Conservatives, according to Weigel, are obsessed with protecting "white privilege" and are bigots for opposing gay marriage. The GOP is the "party of Mordor" and, if left unchecked, will one day deliver the West into the hands of Sauron. (Not really, but if you read between the lines, it's in there.) Note: Weigel's actual work product was far more balanced and seemingly open-minded than what you'd expect knowing his private views.

I asked her about this image and how they differed and she explained the members range from as young as the early 20s to as old as their mid 70s. Many of these women are by no means the typical women involved in politics as activists, regular fixtures at party meetings, or found in many forums. Some are business owners, home makers, and executives among many other backgrounds and professions. She shared that some are politically active but the majority are just regular citizens who care and want to make a different, reigning in the power from Washington and giving it back to the people, where it belongs.

BN: So, how did you come to be?

Tabatha: I met the president, Sahar Hekmati, through my mother actually. My entire family always talks about politics, including me, but I had never been involved in politics. I am passionate and tired of the nonsense that is going on these days. I was impressed with Sahar as I had heard about her, but didn't realize that an every day person could be involved. Some of the ladies had been involved with tea parties and local republican groups and we had a lot in common; we were tired of what the politicians were doing. Freedom is very important to me and we live in a blessed society. However, we have taken God and the constitution out of our daily lives. I am a parent of young children and the thought of where our country is going, I don’t want that for my kids, do you?

BN: I know you have not been an organization for very long, but weren’t you formed under the Federation of Republican women?

Tabatha: You know we were and that is part of the reason we established this group. Much like I had always heard, and as many have said about churches, we let personalities or our own rules get in the way of success. There are apparently, some personality conflicts, people feeling threatened or something, I have tried to avoid all of that, but they didn’t want us to be an organization. After getting our members together, forming the bylaws, board, paying the appropriate fees, they made everything complicated. The last issue was the name that we tried to go with. The last two were the Southern-Crescent Republican women and Conservative Republican Women. “We were told ‘you can’t use that, it may be considered Muslim or may be offensive, the crescent was used during the Obama campaign.’ The last name, our current name, was rejected because it had the word conservative in the name. Now, I agree, it is sad when we have to use the word conservative with Republican, but that was the final straw. We like the Federation, but we could not wait any more and felt it was better to get to work and leave the internal politics to others. They are a fine organization with many dedicated members in the chapters. After 4 months of talking and going back and forth, there was always an excuse or some reason why we couldn’t be charted. We are a passionate and hard working group of women who are solely focused on getting our country back. We want to be active, and have been by having candidate forums, regular meetings, informative emails, and sharing information about the candidates. We do not, however, endorse candidates. We are focused on the party and sharing of information. It is up to each one of us, individually, who we wish to cast our vote for, and we just want to help voters know who the candidates are, what they are about, and give them the resources they need to make their own decision. But the education is not limited to just candidates. At our next meeting, one of our members will give a presentation on parts of the constitution.

BN: Tell me more about your primary mission, you say “sharing of information.” What type of information?

Tabatha: Well we are having a meeting soon, which will be a community event with popcorn, snow cones, kool-aid, etc. and it will be called “Get Your Vote On”. We want to make sure people in our communities are voting, first and foremost. We also want to share resources with our fellow citizens so they know how to learn about the candidates, at all levels, so they can make an informed decision. Too often when we vote, it isn’t for the best person as we often do not really pay attention to the person we are voting for. This is wrong! Just because we have seen the name or heard someone talk about them doesn’t mean they are the best person or who we would normally choose. We have to wake people up and make sure they are informed and most importantly actually go vote! (She said this with much passion.) We also have held candidate forums of most every race which allows people to hear first hand from the candidates. I think this is very important if you truly make an informed vote. We also have guest speakers, some very large names. We will have the chairman of the State GOP, Sue Everhart, in the near future and working on other guests like Michael Steele and Mike Huckabee.

BN: So it sounds like you are very busy!

Tabatha: Yes we are. We are all focused and committed on bringing the information to the people. The forums, we have gotten the most positive feedback on. We promote them, and have a goal to have every candidate running either attend the forum, have a forum for them, or both. Some of the feedback from citizens we have gotten is that they did not know they could meet and talk with the candidates, for example. We are very open to all citizens, which some may not usually attend GOP, Tea Party, or general candidate forums.

BN: Why a women’s forum and are you opposed to other organizations such as county GOP, 9.12, and Tea Party groups ?

Tabatha: Absolutely not! Women are a vital role in every family and in many, such as mine, make many of the day to day decisions. My husband and I are equals but the day to day things, such as which cell phone providers, which stores to shop at for the best deals, what types of clothes to buy and the like, are made by women. These are minor examples, certainly, but you get the idea. Women are everywhere and very influential. Think about advertising. Think about leadership. Think about just about every part of our lives. Women are everywhere and over the years, have gained greater amounts of respect. We also pay attention, look for the details and seek to learn. We are in no way better than men, but we have different contributions that we can make, as most of the time a woman’s perspective may be different. We want to promote conservative values, and work very closely with county GOP groups, Federation Charters, and are open to working together with Tea Party and 9.12 groups. It is time for all of us, regardless of which group we belong to or what meetings we attend, to work together. Too often we let personalities or internal conflicts get in the way of the greater mission. It is time to put all that aside and come together for the great good and future of our country. It is through unity that we will win our country back and for far too long we have worked against one another, sometimes over silly reasons. We have also had Tea Party leaders come and speak to our group. We are all on the same team and need to work together.

BN: Do you expect to make any changes?

Tabatha: We do, actually. We are tired of yelling at our TVs and together, with our different backgrounds and experiences, are working together. We can bring the information to the people. It is up to each of us, as voters, to really make changes. I know if my husband leaves his socks on the floor, and I pick them up, wash them and put them away, he will keep leaving them on the floor. If I stop picking them off, he will either run out of socks or start putting them where they go. We have way too many dirty socks sitting around in Washington and the white-house; its time for us to shout them out (at this point I laughed, it was quite punny) and put them away. If the politicians are not going to change, it is time to change the politicians. That is what we are trying to do: help people see who is doing what and their backgrounds and have them make their own, informed, choice. Hopefully they vote “right”. (at this she laughed)

BN: How can people get involved, see what you are doing, or if they have questions?

Tabatha: They can visit our web site at www.conservativerepublicanwomen.net and click on “contact-us.” We answer all inquiries, and we also are open to starting more chapters throughout the country. We have three in Georgia and are in the forming stages of a few other states. Our next meeting is July 7^th and we will have, in addition to having candidates present themselves, a forum of the 13^th district, moderated by Virginia Galloway, Americans for Prosperity, in Smyrna. On July 8^th, we will have the local candidates of Henry in various positions including school board, county commissioner, as well as state-wide candidates making presentations including Attorney General, Agricultural Commissioner, and our primary speaker will be Shawn Hanley, Chairman of the Fulton GOP. Our speaker in August will be Sue Everhart.

We are also holding a “member appreciation” meeting in October. Since this is around Halloween we thought about how to include a holiday theme and decided to dress as your favorite founding father. We thought this would be something fun. Our meetings are not just political. We study US history and try to keep things as fun and as informative as possible.

The only requirement to join is to share our conservative and faith-based values. We believe that if we want to change our country that change begins at home. As, I think it was Benjamin Franklin, stated “an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure”. We are trying to provide as many ounces of prevention as it takes to avoid the tons of cure needed with the track our country is on.

This is why education is so important and our meetings are family friendly. I was so surprised when I got involved and could actually bring my children. My son thinks it is the neatest thing to go up to a politician, introduce himself, and shake their hand.

Tabatha, and the members of this group have a great deal of enthusiasm, and I have actually witnessed it first-hand. Each month, they have held forums and had many candidates in attendance."You don't want to mess with moms who are rising up," Sarah Palin said. "If you thought pit bulls were tough, you don't want to mess with mama grizzlies." There is a lot of truth in this statement, and this is a group of highly dedicated and protective mama grizzlies. Please check them out and attend their next meeting.

Our next article will showcase the Tea Party and look in depth at the various chapters and groups.i

Tags: 9.12, Conservative Republican Women, Dick Morris, Federation of Republican Women, GOP, Jonah Goldberg, Michael Steele, Republican, Sahar Hekmati, Sarah Palin, Shawn Hanely, Sue Everhart, Tea Party, USA Today