The American Spectator

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You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage-earner by pulling down the wage-payer. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves. -Ronald Reagan

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On this Independence Day, with the national Republican Party at its lowest ebb in decades, Michael Zak reminds us that it was not always this way.

Zak is author of the under-appreciated book Back to Basics for the Republican Party. He says Republicans need to remember the party's proud legacy.

The theme of his book and the speeches he has delivered in 30 states to date is that Republicans would benefit from appreciating the heritage of their Grand Old Party.

"As you know, Democrats control most of the media, but they also write most of the history books, thereby controlling what even Republican activists think they know about our party's glorious heritage," he writes.

Zak notes that when it comes to civil rights, Republicans have consistently been on the right side of history. The GOP has long fought against Democrats who favored slavery, backed Jim Crow laws, and fought tooth-and-nail against the enactment of civil rights legislation.

His book was even cited in a Supreme Court case. Justice Clarence Thomas referenced Zak's work in his dissent in Federal Election Commission v. Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee.

Zak maintains a website for the book, www.republicanbasics.com, and blogs at Grand Old Partisan.