Oregon Republican Party Needs New Direction

Reclaiming Our Republican Heritage: The Oregon GOP Must Become "The Human Rights Party"

Fellow Oregon Republicans,

The Oregon Republican Party stands at a crossroads. For too long, we have allowed ourselves to be defined by the narrow debates our opponents choose—taxes, regulations, and culture-war skirmishes—while the deeper soul of our party has been quietly set aside. It is time for a new direction.

Not a reinvention, but a reclamation.

The Republican Party was born as America’s party of human rights. In Oregon, we must proudly reclaim that mantle and declare ourselves, boldly and without apology, The Human Rights Party.

Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president, showed us exactly what that means. In the midst of a civil war, when the Democratic Party of his day was the party of slavery, secession, and human bondage, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and fought to pass the 13th Amendment.

He did not do it because it was politically convenient. He did it because the Republican Party was founded on the principle that every human being possesses inherent dignity and unalienable rights. That principle did not originate in some European collectivist manifesto. It came straight from the Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson and rooted in the philosophy of John Locke: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal” — equal in value, equal in rights, equal before God and the law.

No political party in American history has a better human-rights record than the Republican Party. We ended slavery. We passed the 14th and 15th Amendments. We fought for women’s suffrage. We championed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 against fierce Democratic opposition.

And today, we continue that fight by rejecting every form of identity-based discrimination, including the divisive and dehumanizing ideology of DEI — Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion — that has swept through our universities, corporations, and government institutions.

DEI is not progress; it is European collectivism dressed up in modern language.

It divides people by race, gender, and grievance. It tells Oregonians they are defined by the group they were born into rather than by the content of their character. Republicans reject that lie. We stand, as we always have, for the rights of the individual.

That is why I am calling on the Oregon Republican Party to make human rights advocacy the very first plank of our platform — not an afterthought, not a footnote, but our central mission. We should adopt the subtitle The Human Rights Party and engrave it on every banner, every website, and every piece of literature we produce.

Let Democrats explain why they support race-based hiring, race-based college admissions, and race-based government contracts. Let them explain why they remain silent while Oregon children are taught that their skin color determines their worth.

We will answer with the timeless American creed: every person is created equal in value, endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights.

This commitment must be more than rhetoric. It must be grounded in a positive philosophy of human relations. For that reason, I urge the Oregon Republican Party to embrace the principles of Ethical Individualism — the human-relational philosophy I set forth in my book on human relations.

Ethical Individualism rejects both selfish isolation and collectivist conformity. It teaches that true community is built when free individuals voluntarily recognize and respect one another’s inherent dignity. It is the natural political expression of the Golden Rule in a free society.

It is the philosophy that animated Lincoln, that inspired the civil-rights movement, and that can once again make the Republican Party the optimistic, inclusive, and morally confident voice Oregon needs.Oregonians are tired of politics that pit neighbor against neighbor. They are hungry for a party that reminds them what we all share: the same unalienable rights, the same God-given potential, and the same desire to live in a state where every child — regardless of race, background, or zip code — can rise as high as their talent and character will take them.

That is the Republican heritage. That is the human-rights tradition. And that is the new direction the Oregon Republican Party must take if we are to win not just elections, but the hearts and minds of the next generation.

As your candidate for the United States Senate, I pledge to carry this banner to Washington and to fight for it every single day. But the real work begins here in Oregon. Let us stop apologizing for our history and start celebrating it. Let us stop whispering our principles and start shouting them from every mountaintop in the Cascades to the shores of the Pacific.

The Oregon Republican Party must become The Human Rights Party. The time is now. The choice is ours.Together, let’s give Oregon the principled, optimistic, and freedom-loving leadership it deserves.

Sincerely,
Russ McAlmond
Republican Candidate for United States Senate, Oregon