Former DC resident and vetted Republican Party staffer, Kathryn Staczek Rudloff submitted this letter to [email protected] earlier this week. We were happy to be a forum for Kathryn’s concerns; and we encourage all others to submit your thoughts/ rants/ funny stories/ love letters/ and snide remarks to us via email. Have something to say? Tell us.

Thanks for reaching out, Kathryn!

Dear GOP Staffers On Capitol Hill –

Photo by Jim Havard submitted to the FamousDC Flickr Pool

Your jobs are so important.  Everyone knows Washington DC runs on the blood, sweat, and confidence of the thousands of young professionals who work around the clock to support a cause they believe in, a country they love, and on Capitol Hill, they support a boss whom represents their ideals.

Except when they don’t.  

Staffers often justify working for a boss that they may disagree with on a few issues, because we want to agree on the big picture.   We think about the ideas of the Party or a movement.  We think about the future of our country and the ideas and philosophies that guide our elected leaders so they can achieve that vision.  We tell ourselves that it isn’t our position to lead the country yet, we are following our bosses lead.  We support and further their effort.

Even when we shouldn’t. 

I call on each of you to weigh the gravity of the times we are in, and recognize this is turning point for our country and our Party.  Your boss might be the one elected, but Obergefell v. Hodges marks the beginning of an era led by the Millennial generation – a generation that is double the size of the generation before it.

We are the generation that has grown up knowing the truth of equality and have faith that is firmly rooted in the Lord’s saving grace.  We are the generation that must lead our country through this time of great change.

If we don’t rise to the occasion now and help lead our Party forward on solid footing on this civil rights issue, then 50 years from now this decision will still be tripping our nation up the same exact way that we still struggle to overcome the racial inequality our Party passively permitted in the wake of Brown v. The Board of Education.

I call on each of you to have a conversation with your boss.  Tell them how you feel about this issue personally, and ask them how they really feel.  Ask them not to pander to the vocal minority who are going to struggle with this change.  Ask them to be bold.  Ask them to lead.

And if they are not willing to, tell them you are.  

Millennial staffers who help shape policy and politics in Washington are perfectly poised to heal our country from the lingering hate of racial and sexual inequalities of the past.  You must force the issues within our Party and Congressional leadership.  Do not compromise.  Do not waiver.  And if they won’t listen to you now, then they risk losing the Millennial vote not just in 2016, but forever.

Kathryn Staczek Rudloff worked in Republican politics from 2002 to 2010.  In 2006 she voluntarily left the beltway in May, fleeing from the lack of leadership of Washington to seek out candidates she could support whole heartedly.  Since 2010 she has been a recovering politico raising two beautiful children in suburban Florida.  You can follow her recovery at EVPHO.com