By Annabeth Miller,
ShowMe Times Editor
The chief of Missouri’s Republican Party was in Dexter this weekend to fire up the faithful for the 2012 election.
“I look at the election cycle of 2012 as being one of the most important in our lifetime – if not the most important,” said Missouri GOP Executive Director Lloyd Smith. Smith, a native of Mississippi County, was in Dexter for the annual Lincoln Day Banquet.
Smith told the enthusiastic crowd of GOP faithful that they need to equip themselves for the election season ahead.
“You need to be able to go out and talk to your friends and neighbors,” said Smith. Smith worked for U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson and the late Bill Emerson for more than 25 years before becoming the executive director of the state Republican Party. Smith referred his audience to Scripture – 2 Timothy 2:15: “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”
“I think this election cycle you need to equip yourself with the facts so you can go out and talk to your friends and neighbors. Talk about what this administration is doing.”
He said that Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana is called the Obama and Democrat record the “new red menace.”
“It’s not the Soviet Union anymore. It’s the debt,” Smith said. He then asked those in the Elks banquet room who were 20 or younger to stand. He said that the “red menace” was leaving their generation with unbelievable burdon in the debt.
Smith, who was attending his third GOP Lincoln Day event in the state for the weekend, told the audience that they now had what Ronald Reagan called a “rendezvous with destiny.”
“We have a rendezvous with destiny. Our kids and grandkids will depend on what we do this election. Don’t wake up the Wednesday after the election and say ‘oh boy, I wish I had talked to this person or made this phone call’. You are the boots on the ground; you will make the difference.”
He closed with a quick saying: “’If it is to be, it is up to me.’ It is up to each of us to do our part between now and November.”
The Stoddard County Lincoln Day banquet was held Saturday at the Elks Lodge in Dexter with more than 300 attending.
Photo Above: Lloyd F. Smith, executive director of the Missouri Republican Party, was in Dexter for the Stoddard County Lincoln Dan Banquet. Smith encouraged those in attendance to study, know the facts, and do all they can to help the GOP cause this November. (ShowMe Times photo by Annabeth Miller)
