The American Principles Project has launched their "Big Family" project, described as "NRA for the family." Townhall spoke with Terry Schilling, the president of APP about this latest project.
Schilling was particularly forthcoming about the need for this latest venture. "Every group has a special action committee," he told Townhall. "But the family doesn't." Now that there is going to be such involvement from the American family, "it's going to save America," Schilling said.
With objectives such as "Organize," "Educate," "Engage," and "Vote," the project will train families on how to be involved and be that special interest group. There will be a focus on parenting, families, protecting kids, and on education. When asked who the targeted audience for inviting members to join, Schilling offered it's "any parent or family advocate who is upset with what’s happening to our kids and their innocence and to education."
There are going to be steps to recruit members and grow the base, so that members can "dip their toes into politics."
Schilling stressed grassroots involvement throughout the discussion with Townhall. "We need that army, that grassroots army of familes and parents who can take to the streets, the school boards, the presidency to make the family the number one interest group, the most specific interest group in the country," he shared.
The motivation, Schilling explained, stems from concerns felt by former Governor Pat McCrory (R-NC), when he was in office and facing backlash over a law he signed in his state which required individuals to use the bathroom corresponding with their biological sex. "Pat McCrory felt let down and betrayed by the religious right," Schilling said, also noting that the governor "kept waiting" but that "there were no campaign ads on TV."
Particularly memorable is a conversation then-governor McCrory had with Chad Griffin, who was at the time the president of the Human Rights Campaign. Griffin made it clear to McCrory that he was going to work to get him defeated in his re-election campaign. In 2016, McCrory was ultimately defeated by Democrat Roy Cooper, with Cooper winning with 49 to 48.8 percent. Gov. Cooper was re-elected in 2020.
"We don't have anyone like that," Schilling said, when it comes to someone like Griffin and his group who can approach a governor like that. "We've stumbled a lot but we've also grown a lot," Schilling shared about their efforts since 2016.
Schilling has decided that the "Big Family" will fill those shoes, then. When it comes to those politicians who are "hurting and killing our families and destroying our kids' innocence," Schilling declared "you're going to get unelected, you're going to serve as an example." As Schilling also put it, "they've collected our scalps, we're going to collect theirs."
While there are many sorts of people and groups involved in the family movement, there's a lack of "political muscle," Schilling mentioned. The idea is to have a sort of "political action committee for families holding politicians accountable for hurting families and helping out the good guys."
The personal involvement and motivation for Schilling, however, goes back even further. He described feeling "really overwhelmed" when running the congressional campaign for his father, Bobby Schilling (R-IL), who served in Congress from 2011-2013. "But what I found as I went through that process is that it so much easier," Schilling shared, which is what he wants families to be able to take away.
"I want American families to have that same experience I had," which "is that it’s so much easier to get into politics than it seems." He offered that if "a bunch of radical left-wingers figured it out" with politics, "parents and families" should be able to as well, with Schilling describing them as "super smart people" and pointing out how "we've driven this country."
There is an acknowledgment that not only is politics difficult to get involved with if you don't know where to start, but the negative connotation to do with politics, which is why it needs more positive involvement from families. "Politics is dirty because families aren't involved," Schilling offered.
Schilling stressed that the new lobbying, special interest group is not merely for Christian families, but for those of all or no faiths. "We're not doing the religious right thing," he shared. Instead, he wants to "have the broadest movement possible," because "family transcends religion, transcends everything."
A particular hope and excitement Schilling has for the project is that it may have "the generational effect," as kids see their parents and families involved.
Another takeaway when it comes to the need for such a project is also about generations, and how we are different from our parent's generations, but how we must also protect future generations. "If we don't stop these people from indoctrinating our kids," Schilling stressed, with left-wing efforts such as critical race theory and the 1619 project, as well as transgender ideology, "we're going to have a really bad country with really bad values, and not just in a few decades," with the urgency being more immediate than that. This is why, Schilling, offered, "we have to move now and why we can't wait any longer."
Schilling hopes that parents and families can tap into the same motivation the other side has. "We can do it because these are our kids," speaking to the importance of children and families. "Everything we do as parents is motivated by our kids and the best thing for them," which is what Schilling says this new project is trying to tap into.
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