(An open letter to Rush Limbaugh)
Rush, Rush, Rush...
We love you.
We really, really do.
And we support you.
I would even venture to say that the vast majority of the members at Smart Girl Politics Action are, in fact, Rush Babes. Probably a great number of the members on your newly launched Facebook page--Rush Babes for America--are Smart Girls. (As a side note, we even think Bo Snerdley might be the coolest sidekick out there.) We agree that the Republican "war on women" is a farce. Nary an SGPA member has had her contraception taken away by Republicans, and we'd like to suggest (respectfully) that Sandra Fluke take up knitting.
The N.A.G.S. do not speak for us.
Rush, we know you're right 99.999% of the time, but some of your comments this past Tuesday fell into the tiny percentage of times when you're not completely right. You were just dead wrong on something, and we have to set you straight.
On Tuesday's show, you made some great points about Bill Maher and the "War on Women" he's waged on behalf of the left. You even brought up the fact that the number of women in your audience dwarfs the membership for the N.A.G.S. (even though they've partnered with Media Matters).
All true.
Where you went wrong was implying that there aren't other organized conservative women's groups out there (that match the numbers boasted by the National Organization for Women). There are, and we're one of them.
Smart Girl Politics Action (SGPA) is a 501(c)4, non-profit organization. It was started in 2008 by Stacy Mott and Teri Christoph, two stay-at-home moms turned activists. In a few short years, and with little more than word of mouth as advertising, SGPA has become one of the fastest growing social networks for conservative women in the country and we are 45,000 members strong. We have established organizational structures in twenty-eight states and continue to increase our reach to women.
We are making an enormous difference.
We believe in the same political concepts, values, and objectives as the vast majority of your listeners--we are focused on bringing as many conservative women as possible into the political process. We are a grass-roots community of female activists (of all ages) who believe in the free market, personal responsibility, and limited government. (not merely community organizers)
In 2010, Smart Girl Politics Action was named by Politics Daily as one of the “Top Political Powerhouses to Watch”. We have built the organization using such tools as Ning, Twitter, Facebook, and now NationBuilder. In 2009, the #sgp hashtag was the seventh most used hashtag for the year on Twitter. By 2010, our team had successfully promoted #sgp to number three on that same list. In 2011, we added an additional communications vehicle through our online quarterly magazine, Smart Girl Nation.
Our mission, like yours, is crystal clear: to engage, educate and empower conservative women.
While our strategies to achieve our mission and goals are continually adapting, our basic mission has remained consistent since the beginning. We reach out to conservative women and encourage them to get involved. We provide the training and resources that enable/encourage them to stay involved, and we do our best to empower them to take the next step and run for office, if they so choose.
- Engage: We use current and new social media tools to increase our reach and presence online. We continue to build infrastructure within the state organizations to ensure our presence on the ground is as strong as our presence online at all times.
- Educate: We educate women to understand basic political party structure and how they can get involved in their community to make a difference. We provide the policy data and information to show women how their vote is directly related to their financial security. We educate women on how to register voters and identify voter fraud in their local precincts. We assist those women who choose to move into leadership roles in their communities and we provide them with the tools necessary to apply, run, and win an elected office.
- Empower: We are seeking to build a community of activists who empower one another to stand up for their conservative beliefs. We will defend the right of conservative women to share their voice, their opinions, and their right to serve this country in any capacity they so choose. We will give conservative women a voice in the party system that allows their beliefs and principles to be heard. One primary goal is to empower these women to VOTE.
So Rush, while we wholeheartedly support The National Organization of Rush Babes and love what you're doing, we know it's of utmost importance to you to remain as close to 100% right at all times (a lofty and very attainable goal for you). Therefore, we felt compelled to set you straight. We've been around for several years now--we really are just a bunch of conservative women of all ages, race, and religious backgrounds who deeply wish to make a difference, encouraging our members to get involved like never before and making sure their voices are heard. The N.A.G.S. do not speak for us, nor do they speak for the majority of American women (and Tom Brokaw has never covered one minute of our annual Smart Girl Summit).
Keep up the incredible work you're doing and know that we're working right alongside you in this, the greatest fight of our lives.
Respectfully,
The Babes at Smart Girl Politics Action
Theresa Sedlak-Hanslik commented
2012-05-12 20:12:10 -0400
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Lori Parker commented
2012-05-11 11:44:45 -0400
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Your sister in patriotism~
Lori Parker, President As a Mom… A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots
