By Shermichael Singleton

The Republican Party should be in a point of transition. It is healthy and progressive that we become an engaging, responsive, inclusive and most of all a progressive party. We must restore confidence in our activism, by organizing our leadership on a national, state and local level. Grassroots participation is a necessity along with technology in order to have successful outreach-is crucial to a progressive political activism which translates to electoral success and meaningful policy. As African Americans we have a unique perspective on how the issues that our party represent play out in communities that we have failed to make conversation partners-black and brown persons share socially conservative and economically neo-classical ideas with our party.

      We have allowed ourselves to be marginalized in our discussions and relegated to single cultural wedge issues-our party at its best is one that promotes ideas that affirm life, freedom, safety, and justice. For those principles to reach our communities we much have proactive outreach. Reaching out to minorities on the collegiate level is something that we in the Republican Party has neglected to do-reaching out to Historically Black Colleges and universities are a necessity. It will be a difficult process but if we are to have progress and reach uncharted courses with a message of conservatism-this is what has to be done.

      For far too long the Republican Party has allowed Democrats to monopolize the black community. Simply because we think that we cannot get the minority vote-that sentiment has to change, if we were to come up with an action plan that specifically targets urban communities we can begin to see progress. Every vote counts, even those we think we can’t get.

Shermichael Singleton a freshman and class President at Morehouse College he is also the executive Chairman of the schools Young Republican Club. He is pursuing both a major in Political Theory and Philosophy with a minor in International Relations.