Major Dave puts forth vision for NCGOP in interview with Verne Strickland of USA DOT COM

Verne Strickland USA DOT COM / May 21, 2014

"Don't make waves? It's time we did make some waves, to restore the standards that define us as a civil and decent society."

Major Dave Goetz

VS: Major Dave, in the closing weeks of this campaign to select the Vice Chair of the N.C. Republican Party, what message would you like to get across?

The focus of my campaign has been to stand up for what I believe is the conservative majority of North Carolina. Not just those conservatives who are registered Republicans, but all of those conservatives – 60 + percent that overwhelmingly voted to approve the Marriage Amendment. That told me there are people out there who do vote values over party labels. And that is the conservative base that is the future of the Republican Party in North Carolina. 

Three times in Charlotte last year, we saw the Democrats try to take God out of their platform. Because of that, numerous Democratic officials have left the Democrat Party. They know that is contrary not only to their party, but also contrary to the values on which our nation was founded.

VS: What else is important to you, as an American citizen, a patriot, a Republican, a Christian?

We have to go back to having the conversation amongst ourselves, and also among citizens and our neighbors – but just as important, in our classrooms, at the very earliest age -- of making sure that these younger generations understand the true nature of the birthright they inherited when they were born as a citizen of this country. Being taught that, whether it’s situational ethics, moral relativism: I’m okay, you’re okay, that sort of thing. If you were around in the 60s, you will remember that phrase. Go along to get along, just don’t make waves, Well, you know, it’s time we made some waves, because we have to restore the standards that define us as a civil and decent society. 

VS: You have impressed me with the way that you have swept across the state, literally, and addressed citizens from every walk of life, from every region of North Carolina. What has this taught you, and what have you left with these people?

The first thing was my campaign strategy, when I set out to serve my party, and that’s what this is all about. It’s not about wanting to be vice chair. I’m going to serve my party because I have a certain skill set that I believe will benefit the Republican Party. I didn’t pick those counties with just the highest number of delegate votes and visited them. I actually selected some of the smaller counties in the Eastern as well as the Western regions of the State that have been heavily Democrat for generations. I wanted to see just what we were up against in those locations.

For example – and I’m certainly not picking on them, because I’m proud of them – I went into Edgecombe County and spoke, and met the people who turned out. Only sixteen people attended. And most folks will say, my gosh, that’s terrible. I found sixteen people who haven’t given up. That is the core that we build on. I want to know what has kept those sixteen people from throwing in the towel and not giving up. That is the heart and soul of the American patriotic spirit – the willingness to sacrifice. At Valley Forge, the full measure of war was against those colonial soldiers. They should have lost. All they had left to do was pray. Pray they did, and they won.

Our own Declaration of Independence appeals to God, the supreme ruler of all of usfor the rectitude of our intentions. The Founders had no illusions. We would not survive without God’s blessing. We’ve got to bring that back into the conversation. 

VS: Your campaign slogan is unique – it’s clean-cut, it’s clear, no mistake about what you’re getting across. Tell me what it is and what it means.

My slogan is – One God, one Nation, one Party, one Platform. The future of the Republican Party is not becoming some hybrid with the Libertarian Party. Our values are too different. Yes, there are some things on which we agree. But there are other core values on which we disagree. In the way our military departments differ. You know, we all work toward the same goals in the military, but we each have different capabilities and strategies. We can work together with the Libertarian on those areas on which we agree. But to try to paint us all as part of the same group really destroys our own unique identity as the Republican Party.

People need to have that confidence that this is the value set, this is the platform, this is what we stand for, and if we agree on 80 per cent with another group, we’re going to work with them on that eighty percent. We’ll leave that other twenty percent to the side. But bringing everyone in and trying to keep all of us under that same umbrella it really confusing  the public. 

It’s being fed by the media in Washington because what we see is the liberal socialists running the country, But they put the Democrat label on it, giving the false illusion that everyone else is Republican. But that's over-simplified. It’s Republicans, Independents, and Libertarians. So my focus as vice chair is going to be to restore that clarity of just who we are as just who we are as a party and what we stand for.



BRIEF BIO MAJOR DAVE GOETZ

Candidate for State Vice Chairman at North Carolina Republican Party
Past: US Army Retired and JWK International Corp

Studied Organizational Leadership at US Army Command & General Staff College
Past: N.C. State and North Carolina State University

Lives in Raleigh, North Carolina

Married to JoAnn Goetze

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