A Vital Message From Roland Straten

By Hopeful on January 10, 2019 | Leave a comment

Hi, Montclair Republicans, and Happy New Year!

Roland Straten, Montclair’s Republican Town Committee Chairman

My head has been working overtime trying to make sense of all the political stuff going on. The election, confirmation of Kavanaugh, trade wars, fake news, the Mueller investigation, the Left’s hatred of the administration, and political correctness that has run amok are all things I could write about.

Here are some ideas and links on the political correctness that has run amok:

“Long time no see” is forbidden — it is micro aggression to either Asians or native Americans – the Left is not sure yet.

“I’m dreaming of a white Dorchester” put out by a Dorchester Historical Society is also a forbidden phrase, which puts the song “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas” at risk.

While these topics are all symptoms of the Left gone wild, I have decided to write about the scariest moment of my life.

Here goes:

In a dark, gloomy room, I was standing in front of a blackened one-way window. I was told to slide my U.S. passport into a slot at the bottom of the window. Out came a slip of paper with my name and a few numbers written on it. I proceeded through gates and guards armed with Kalashnikovs. I emerged into a nearly dark, dingy street with old dirty houses lining it.

For the first time in my life I was in a Communist country, as I entered East Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie.

After graduating from Dartmouth with an MBA in 1968, I decided to delay my entrance into the workforce and took a summer job with the Experiment in International Living leading a group of high school students to Germany. After living with German families in the town of Herford, Germany and taking a bus tour of Germany, we went to Berlin, a trip which included a day in East Berlin.

Our group boarded a Boeing 727 in Frankfurt bound for West Berlin. When we reached the East

West & East Berlin, both situated within East Germany

German border, the pilot revved up the engines to full power for the roughly 10-minute, 120-mile trip over East German airspace to West Berlin. I have never flown faster in my life.

We had a great time seeing the vibrant city, shops, beer gardens, and museums of West Berlin before heading for East Berlin.

Even after 50 years, the dichotomy between east and west was so great that it has left a lasting impression on me. It totally changed my world view.

Before visiting East Berlin, I had heard that life under Communism was drab, unfree and not pleasant. But we had also heard that offsetting the lack of freedom was that the government took care of the needy, provided low-rent housing, free educations, and free health care.

Potsdamer Platz During the Cold War (1945 – 1990)

It immediately became clear that free stuff did not offset the lack of freedom. The utter feeling of despair that enveloped us convinced us that we were in an evil place, that no amount of free stuff could make life bearable. Looking at Potsdamer Platz filled with tank traps was unsettling. The scariest moment of my life was to stand on the wrong side of the Brandenburg Gate looking toward the west, 100 yards away, knowing that the only thing allowing me to leave was the slip of paper in my pocket from Checkpoint Charlie.

If you have read Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, it was as if the dark cloud of ravens came over the country, removing all color and hope, creating a world of despair. Houses were gray and dirty. The people were like zombies looking straight ahead with a glum look on their faces. People were dressed in drab, ill-fitting clothes. A feeling of gloom came over our entire group. After 50 years, this sense of evil and despair is still with me.

I wish I had the communication skills to transfer this experience to our young socialists of today who demand free stuff. We need to get the message out to these youngsters who have not seen Hitler’s National Socialist Workers Party, Franco’s FET Party in Spain, Castro’s Communist Party of Cuba, and Mao’s Chinese Communist Party in action. We still have Venezuela and North Korea to remind us of the evils of socialism and communism, but Hollywood, the press and our educational establishment do not adequately show the evil of these systems. Even the story of thousands of people coming to the USA to escape despotic regimes is portrayed as our fault rather than the fault of repressive, corrupt, socialist regimes.

The message we need to get out is that the socialistic philosophy to give free stuff based on need, not ability, is flawed. The people who produce the free stuff are asked to produce for free or low wages. Even the most altruistic person will decide that working very hard to produce free stuff for other people while not getting any of the benefits may be a bit unfair. As the producers get the message, few and fewer people will produce the free stuff. The government steps in to make people produce. The government then has to resort to coercion to force the producers to make the free stuff.

It should not be hard for our young people to understand this logic, but many do not.

The resurgence of socialistic thought demonstrated by the popularity of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a clear and present danger.

It is a shame that we do not learn from history. Each generation makes the same mistakes again and again.

Our only hope is that we can get the message of the evils of socialism out to members of the next generation.

Please do your part to educate them!!

Roland

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO

Join the Montclair Republicans on Thursday, January 31, 7 pm at Greek Taverna for a sociable dinner and presentation by Douglas Steinhardt, Chairman of the New Jersey State Republican Committee. Reservations are required. Purchase your tickets using PayPal or credit card here:

Single ticket ($35)

Two tickets ($70)

Youth ticket (age 11 – 18, accompanied by paying adult, $15)

Montclair Republican Club and Republican Town Committee members may email the club with their reservation and pay at the door by check or cash: montclairrepublicans@gmail.com.

Registered Montclair Republicans may join the Montclair Republican Club by using these links (annual membership):

SINGLE ($25)

COUPLE ($40)

Become a Registered Republican by clicking HERE

mrc 1880

Beginnings

By Hopeful on January 3, 2019 | Leave a comment

Written by Club President John Van Wagner, during the recent holiday season:

As 2018 ends, I want to talk about beginnings.

Social media was used, by both anarchist- and PTA mom-types (above, and right, respectively), to create a small frenzy over Montclair Republicans’ rights of association and speech.

We started the year with a fighting spirit, in the face of local political tyranny, when Nutley Commissioner Steve Rogers , a top Trump campaign operative in New Jersey, came to speak about the many accomplishments of the administration’s first year. In concert with our frequent hosts at the Greek Taverna, we repelled an attempt to silence us. In so doing we put the town on notice that we matter, that our voices will be heard, and that without freedom of speech, of expression, there can be no community.

In similar spirit we welcomed Dr. Murray Bessette from the Victims of Communism Foundation, who underlined to us the importance of history, and truth, and the need to comprehend the suffering brought to millions over decades by the scourge of totalitarian socialism. Dr. Bessette’s presentation drove home the key role we play in Montclair, where ideological commitments often obscure facts, right before our very eyes.

And speaking of facts, of information, this year marked the beginning of the club’s active commitment to re-shaping the narrative in our schools. In 2018 we proudly issued the first Montclair Republican Club sponsored scholarship, given to two High school seniors who demonstrated commitment to, and understanding of, the primacy of individual freedoms. The scholarship was an achievement both symbolic and practical, and impacted two young lives in positive ways we can’t begin to know as they begin their life journeys.

Another seminal achievement was the inclusion of Steve Rogers, representing President Trump’s initiatives, as a speaker for the Citizenship and Government Institute at Montclair High School, the first time a conservative spokesman addressed the group. Step by step we’re prying the door open on the educational establishment in New Jersey. This is not an adversary for the faint of heart, and my deep thanks goes out to everyone involved in this initiative.

On the 4th of July, we proudly fielded twenty-one marchers in Montclair’s parade. Our group was vital and diverse, old and young, men and women, black and white, all united by a passion for liberty and by the courage to take it to the streets in the most visible way possible. I’ve never been prouder to lead such a fine group of people, and I could see the future taking shape in our contingent. At the end of the parade we were already talking about growing our number of marchers next year. We many have outnumbered Montclair’s Socialist marchers for the first time in years.

This past Fall I determined to help lead the club more directly into active campaigning. The results of our Senate and Congressional elections, while they weren’t what we’d hoped for, don’t reflect the many victories we experienced while campaigning street to street, door to door, reassuring the thousands of Montclair Republicans among us that they have a safe haven. The individual conversations we had, and the insights we gained into the lives of our fellow citizens and conservatives, galvanized a new determination among any of who participated to keep moving, to bring in as many as we can, and to fight for a future day when change will come. And for many, the hope for that change resides in us.

So on to 2019.

Please save the date for our January 31st meeting with Doug Steinhardt, the Chairman of the NJ State Republican Committee, at 7:00 p.m. at Greek Taverna. Chairman Steinhardt will provide guidance on our direction and focus as we rebuild the party in New Jersey. Also, in the first part of the year, we’ll have field organizers from Americans For Prosperity come to outline how their organization can help us with our own messaging in Montclair. We going to start strong in the New Year, so please join in.

A new beginning awaits.

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A Message From Roland Straten

By Hopeful on November 5, 2018 | Leave a comment

Roland Straten Montclair GOP Chairman

November, 2018

Dear Montclair Republicans,

It is extremely important that you not only vote on Election Day, but that you encourage others to vote, as well. Let me share some thoughts with you.

What has happened over the years is that Republicans have compromised with the Democrats, and then accepted the compromise position as the Democrat new bargaining position. As we have done this, over the years all positions such as taxes, spending, size of government, health care, regulation, border control, and many more have drifted slowly to the left.

About ten years ago, Republicans came to the conclusion that this was a no-win strategy. The Tea Party was, as I see it, the beginning of the strategy change in the Republican Party. While the Tea Party succumbed to fierce Democrat attacks, it nevertheless initiated a sea change of attitude within many Republicans, specifically: we will no longer compromise, but stick to our core values.

Many establishment Republicans rejected this strategy, but many, to their credit, have come around.

This shocked the Democrats.

For years they were used to moving the bar slowly to the left, using deceitful compromises, taking over the educational system, and using the courts to achieve their agenda.

To see Republicans stick to their guns was intolerable. The election of Donald Trump was, in their eyes, the last straw.

Just as a child will whine and throw a temper tantrum when he does not get her way, the Democrats first whined and then attacked. Their anger is so great that they will stop at nothing to thwart the Republican resolve. Personal attacks, media contacts, courts, illegal voters, education establishment, and of course the cadres of Democrats appointed by previous Democrat administrations known as the deep state are all weapons that have been unleashed.

We have nothing — except the Constitution and people with integrity, logic and intelligence who vote –to hold off this onslaught.

Please vote for and encourage everyone you know to vote for Hugin, Webber, and the rest of the Republican slate. I have been informed that Irene DeVita, who is running for State Assembly in our 34th AD, was left off the sample and original ballots. I am hard pressed to accuse the Democrats of doing this deliberately, since they think they have a lock on the seat, but then it just shows their incompetence.

VOTE!!!

Roland Straten

Montclair Town Republican Chair

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Van Wagner’s Weekly Message

By Hopeful on September 13, 2018 | Leave a comment

In the countdown weeks to Election Day 2018, Montclair Republicans are focused on grassroots efforts.

To join the Get Out The Vote (GOTV) team with right-of-center neighbors and friends in Montclair, especially the 11th Congressional District, email montclairrepublicans@gmail.com to be placed on our ‘Weekly Van Wagner’ newsletter email list for the latest meetings, efforts, technology, tee-shirts, pizza and fun.

John Van Wagner, President Montclair Republican Club

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GAME ON: NJ’S 11th Congressional District

By Hopeful on August 18, 2018 | Leave a comment

GAME ON

After Labor Day the gloves will come off in the battle for NJ-11.

The Sherrill forces have been organizing and canvassing for a year and a half (as if we’re not aware of that in Montclair). But for all of that the race is still a dead heat.

Our sources on the ground tell us that this election could be won or lost by 1500 votes. That means that Montclair counts. A bit of extra turnout, a few changed minds…we could make the difference between a return to the stagnant economy of a Pelosi congress, or a continuation of the burgeoning prosperity we’ve witnessed over the last eighteen months as regulations have been cut and taxes slashed.

We’ve come so far. Let’s not risk losing our future.

On August 30th, a representative from the GOP field office will visit Montclair to help organize and train all those who wish to join the fight to elect Jay Webber and retain NJ-11, as well as to flip the Senate seat currently held by the possibly criminal Robert Menendez.

If you see what I see about what’s at stake in these fights, please come out and learn how you can actively campaign. Even if you can participate for a just few hours, or maybe a weekend this Fall, you’ll help to bring the fight to them.

We’ll meet at Greek Taverna on Bloomfield Avenue on Thursday, August 30th at 7:00 p.m. Light appetizers will be served, but there will be no charge. Please come and join the battle. We can do this.

RSVP BY CLICKING HERE or emailing montclairrepublicans@gmail.com with your name, address, and telephone number.

Thanks.

John Van Wagner, President

Montclair Republican Club

HIS Daughter WILL Vote For Him

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Libertarian Murray Sabrin to Appear July 26 in Montclair; Running for U.S. Senate from New Jersey

By Hopeful on July 21, 2018 | Leave a comment

Sixty nine years ago a two-year-old boy stepped on to the shores of his newly adopted

U.S. Senate Candidate (Libertarian) Murray Sabrin

country with his parents and older brother, left hopelessness and inhumanity behind, and embarked on a marvelous journey of freedom and renewal.

With the devastation of the holocaust looming in their recent past, and with precious little besides resilience and the welcoming embrace of a dynamic and powerful new country, the Sabrin family started to create a new life. Ten years later, at the age of twelve, Murray Sabrin raised his right hand in a Federal court, and, swearing to defend the Constitution of the United States of America, began a lifelong quest to define and nurture individual liberty in every aspect of American life.

As a journalist, author, academic, political candidate, and public intellectual, Murray Sabrin is one of the nation’s premier voices of Libertarian philosophy. Many criticize his ideas as radical, unattainable, or irrational. In the crucible of machine politics, his views threaten special interests on the right and the left. But whatever one’s own opinion on protectionism, US engagement abroad, or the corrupting influence of the Federal Reserve on economic life, no one provides a more reasoned, disciplined counterpoint to political and economic orthodoxy as Murray Sabrin.

His vision for the nation is one in which markets are free to flourish, unchained by government regulation and taxation. Where the US achieves peaceful coexistence with the world via non-intervention. And where the individual is the alpha and omega for every political and economic undertaking in the great, ongoing experiment which is our nation.

It’s to champion these simple but powerful precepts that Murray Sabrin is running for the US Senate in 2018.

Democracy is about freedom, and freedom is about choice. Mr. Sabrin’s candidacy is the embodiment of the sacred choices we face as Americans.

Please come to the Montclair Republican Club meeting on Thursday 7/26 at Greek Taverna at 7:00 p.m., to hear Murray Sabrin tell us what’s possible for our nation when a champion of true freedom comes to the Senate.

Learn more about Sabrin here: sabrinforsenate.com

Click below to purchase your tickets for our socialable dinner here (RSVP required):

1 Guest ($35)

2 Guests ($70)

1 Student aged 12-18 ($15, must be accompanied by a paying parent)

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Get In Summer’s Game: March on July 4 (And More)

By Hopeful on June 26, 2018 | Leave a comment

Greetings, Montclair Republicans!

John Van Wagner, Club President

It’s beach time, lake time, baseball time, and generally time for kicking back.

But before we all grab our fishing poles and head down the Parkway, we need to give some thought to what happens on Tuesday, November 6.

That’s the day our nation will vote on whether or not to retain the powerful Trump tax cut, to accelerate the liberating regulatory reforms and the devolution of the corrupt administrative State, to continue the transition of the judiciary, and to institutionalize our newly assertive foreign policy.

The alternative?

Lose it all to the progressive vision of a controlled and slow growing economy where income equality takes precedence over individual initiative and opportunity.

NJ 11 Congressional Candidate Jay Webber With Two of His Four Daughters

So, in your beach bag, be sure to pack a copy of Newt Gingrich’s “Trump’s America“. It might just propel you out of the waves and into the ranks of active campaigners and donors, particularly for Jay Webber in the crucial race for NJ-11.

In the meantime, we have some fun and informative events in the coming weeks, including Montclair’s Independence Day Parade (register HERE) on the 4th (all comers, friends and family welcome, for truly fun and uplifting experience), a meet and greet brunch with members new and old on Saturday, June 30 at 10 am, and a visit by Murray Sabrin, Libertarian candidate for Senate, on July 26.

Finally, before vacations begin in earnest, please remember to activate/re-activate your membership for the year 2018/2019, either by PayPal / credit card or by check by clicking HERE.

Happy dog days! And then let’s get in the game!

John Van Wagner, President

Montclair Republican Club

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Keep a Conservative 11th: Meet Jay Webber, 11th CD Candidate on Apr. 5, 7 pm in Montclair

By Hopeful on March 27, 2018 | Leave a comment

JAY WEBBER HEAD SHOT New Jersey State Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-26), candidate for U.S. Congress in NJ’s 11th Congressional District (a seat currently held by Rodney Frelinghuysen), will visit with and address members and guests of the Montclair Republican Club on Thursday, April 5, 7 pm at Greek Taverna, Montclair.

Purchase your tickets for a sociable and delicious dinner meeting at the links below (special student rate available), or email montclairrepublicans@gmail.com with your reservation: send your check, postmarked by March 29, to Montclair Republicans, 12 Marquette Road, Upper Montclair, NJ 07043 ($35/pp; $15/student rate (11-18) when accompanied by a paying parent).

Jay Webber, 46, a resident of Morris Plains, is a Clifton native, father of 7, Johns Hopkins and Harvard Law School grad. In private law practice in Whippany, he has served in the New Jersey State Assembly since 2008. He is a member of the Reagan Ranch Board of Governors and is founder of New Jersey Reagan Day, the Garden State’s celebratory gathering of conservatives. Read more about Jay Webber HERE.

Jay Webber is known as a conservative voice in the New Jersey State Assembly. Find a ten-year history of video presentations to review HERE.

Listen to a 4-minute radio interview / video on why Jay Webber is running for Congress HERE.

Read nj.com’s recent story on Jay Webber HERE, and Morris County Young Republican’s Jordan Chester’s endorsement of Jay Webber HERE.

Learn more about New Jersey’s 11th U.S. Congresssional District HERE.

We need to put our best foot forward up here as Republicans, and I think I’m the candidate who can keep this seat and keep the progress that we’re making in the country. – NJ Assemblyman & U.S. Congressional Candidate Jay Webber

Purchase 1 Adult ticket ($35) HERE

Purchase 2 Adult tickets ($70) HERE

Purchase 1 Youth ticket ($15, ages 11-18) HERE. Must be accompanied by a paying parent.

Greek Taverna’s family-style dinner is delicious, authentic, and plentiful. Looking forward to seeing New Jersey Republicans, Independents, and sociable old and new friends from across the political spectrum on April 5.

Jay Webber Kids

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Victims of Communism: “We Put An End To Political Correctness,” Part 2

By Hopeful on January 23, 2018 | Leave a comment

Republicans and other sociable guests are invited to attend:

Capitalism Communism On Thursday, Feb. 22, 7 pm in Montclair, join Murray Bessette, PhD, Director of Academic Programs of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC), a Washington, DC-based educational and human rights nonprofit foundation devoted to commemorating the more than 100 million victims of communism around the world and to the freedom of those still living under totalitarian regimes, for a sociable dinner and illuminating presentation. Location: Greek Taverna, 292 Bloomfield Avenue, Montclair, New Jersey.

Purchase your dinner & discussion tickets using Paypal (or credit card) below. Student rate available for youth aged 12-18 when accompanied by parent. RSVP required. Or, email montclairrepublicans@gmail.com with your RSVP and send your check (postmarked by February 14, 2018) for $35 (1 guest), $70 (2 guests), $15 (youth) to Montclair Republican Club, 12 Marquette Road, Montclair, NJ 07043.

Click HERE for 1 ADULT TICKET ($35)

CLICK HERE for 2 ADULT TICKETS ($70)

CLICK HERE for 1 YOUTH TICKET ($15, youth aged 12 – 18, when accompanied by a paying adult).

The ‘People’s Republic of Montclair,’ as Star-Ledger editorial page editor and Montclair resident Tom Moran nicknamed our prominent community, has had a steady, growing socialist/communist presence or connection for generations. We live side by side, joke on social media, but…is it time for the romance language of communism — making everyone equal in some sort of Utopia (in our case, a ‘perfect’ Montclair?) — to be deconstructed? To do so would mark yet another end to political correctness. This conversation is especially important for young adults.

Communism promises to make everyone equal, but delivers radical inequality. Every time it’s tried, it ends in economic collapse or a police state. From the famines, purges, and gulags of Soviet Russia to Mao’s Great Leap Forward and the Killing Fields of the Khmer Rouge—from the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre to the Castro regime’s 2012 murder of Oswaldo Payá—communists have killed more than 100 million people. Countless more suffered and suffer still. – VOC Memorial Foundation

CLICK HERE to support or join Montclair Republicans.

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“We Put An End To Political Correctness” Part 1

By Hopeful on December 30, 2017 | Leave a comment

Montclair Republicans kick off 2018 with two very important meetings that each span subjects from immediately local to broadly global. We hope you’ll join in.

Republicans and other sociable guests are invited to attend:

January 18, Thursday, 7 pm at Greek Taverna (Montclair):

Steve Rogers Trump STEVE ROGERS, Manager for New Jersey Trump 2020

He’s a regular guy, and our neighbor. Steve Rogers of Nutley is the New Jersey manager for Trump 2020, and a familiar face to Montclair Republicans. Join in a sociable dinner on Thursday, January 18, 7 pm at Montclair’s Greek Taverna to hear President Trump’s message through the perspective of Rogers‘ boots-on-the-ground operation. Steve was one of the few pundits who predicted a Trump presidential win in 2016. ‘We put an end to political correctness,’ he said following Trump’s 2016 election, as New Jersey campaign manager. Purchase your dinner & discussion tickets using Paypal (or credit card) below. Student rate available for Montclair resident youth aged 12-18 when accompanied by parent. RSVP required. Or, email montclairrepublicans@gmail.com and send your check (postmarked by January 10) for $35 (1 guest), $70 (2 guests), $15 (youth) to Montclair Republican Club, 12 Marquette Road, Montclair, NJ 07043.

January 18 Dinner & Presentation: Click below to purchase by Paypal/credit card:

1 Adult Dinner Ticket $35 2 Adult Dinner Tickets $70 1 Youth (12-18) Ticket $15

SAVE THE DATE: February 22, Thursday, 7 pm at Greek Taverna (Montclair):

MURRAY BESSETTE, PhD, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation

Mark Your Calendar: On Thursday, Feb. 22, 7 pm join Murray Bessette, PhD, Director of Academic Programs of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC), a Washington, DC-based educational and human rights nonprofit foundation devoted to commemorating the more than 100 million victims of communism around the world and to the freedom of those still living under totalitarian regimes, for yet another Montclair Republican Club very sociable dinner and very illuminating presentation.

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