Recently, columnist Janice Ellis asked the question: “Who is the real Republican Party? Look at how it governs.”
As the Missouri state chair for Our Republican Legacy, here is my answer. The Republican Party belongs to history, not to one man. The principled Republicans and conservatives are still here. And we’re not going anywhere.
There is a temptation, understandable if mistaken, to believe that what we see today is what conservatism will look like forever. That the Republican Party, the party of Abraham Lincoln, Dwight Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan, has been permanently remade in the image of one man, one moment, one movement defined more by grievance than by governance.
We reject that premise. And we are ready for what comes next.
Those of us who have spent our lives in the tradition of principled, Reagan-style conservatism have not abandoned the party. We have not gone quietly into political exile. We have been waiting, organizing, and preserving the intellectual and moral infrastructure of a conservatism worth believing in — one grounded in Unity, The Constitution, Fiscal Responsibility, Free Enterprise, and Peace through Strength.
That is precisely the mission of Our Republican Legacy, the organization founded by former Missouri Sen. John Danforth, a man who has devoted his life to public service with integrity, who served as U.S. Senator, United Nations Ambassador, and Missouri Attorney General, and who has never confused loyalty to a party with surrender of conscience.
Sen. Danforth understands something that too many in today’s Republican Party have forgotten that the party is a vessel for values, not the other way around.
President Donald Trump will not control the Republican Party forever. No political figure does. The currents of American political life are too unpredictable, the electorate too dynamic, the demands of governing too complex for any one personality to permanently define a major political coalition.
History is littered with figures who seemed immovable — until they moved. The question is never whether change will come. The question is whether honorable people are ready when it does.
We intend to be ready.
What does that mean in practice? It means identifying and supporting candidates, at every level of government, but most importantly a candidate for President in 2028, who hold genuine conservative values rather than merely pay lip service to them.
It means building a coalition of Republicans who understand that winning elections is important, but that what you do with power matters just as much. It means insisting that a strong America abroad requires a stable, honest America at home. It means fiscal seriousness in an age of ballooning deficits.
It means respecting the Constitution and adherence to the rule of law.
Reagan called America a “shining city on a hill” —not a nation defined by its enemies, real or imagined, but one animated by its possibilities.
Reagan conservatism was never simply nostalgia. It was an optimistic, forward-looking philosophy that trusted the American people, believed in limited government, and free markets.
That vision did not die. While it went underground, it has persisted in the convictions of millions of Republicans who cast their ballots with unease, who winced at what was said from the podium, and who whispered their doubts to trusted friends.
Those Republicans deserve a home. Our Republican Legacy exists to be that home — and to build the bridge between the conservatism that made America strong and the conservatism that will be called upon to lead again.
The moment is coming. And when a candidate rises who embodies these values, who governs with competence, speaks with honesty, leads with humility, principled Republicans across this country will answer the call —that we are the real Republican Party.
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