Republican candidate for Congress in the Panhandle in 2010 and author of “The Reluctant Republican: My Fight for the Moderate Majority” (University Press of Florida), Barbara Olschner will be speaking to the Panhandle Tiger Bay Club in Pensacola on Friday, March 21. Doors open at 11:30 am and a buffet-style lunch will be available for attendees. The event is open to the public and Olschner will speak at 12 pm. There is a $35 guest registration fee.
Barbara Olschner believes in her party’s founding principles: lower taxes, less regulation, limited government, and individual accountability. But she also believes in governing through compromise, in respectfully listening to opponents’ viewpoints, and in the possibility that a Republican can be fiscally but not socially conservative. In hindsight, it isn’t surprising that when she ran for Congress at the height of the Tea Party’s influence she was branded an elitist and a RINO (Republican in Name Only)–and finished dead last.
In The Reluctant Republican, Olschner recounts her realization that current Republican leadership demands strict adherence to its ideology. She refuses to accept the current dogma but also refuses to abandon her conservatism. Her fight for civility and her refusal to kowtow to the lowest common denominator motivate her to continue searching for the moderate majority – in the Sunshine State as well as in America as a whole.
The Panhandle Tiger Bay Club is a diverse, non-partisan group of men and women who are interested in public policy issues and politics. The club brings in speakers who address topical issues and present ideas that are intended to provoke curiosity and provide insight, as well as generate debate and community discussion. They are located at New World Landing, 600 South Palafox Street in Pensacola, FL 32502.