Never before has he seen more political polarization in North Carolina than now, state Lieutenant Gov. Dan Forest told the Buncombe County Republican Party during its annual Lincoln-Reagan Dinner on April 8 at Renaissance Asheville Hotel in downtown Asheville.

The two-hour dinner, with a theme of “Keeping America Great,” featured a number of speeches and drew a crowd of roughly “130-ish,” according to party Chairman Carl Mumpower. Prior to the dinner, a 75-minute VIP reception was held. 

Besides Forest, the other two major speakers were Dr. Mark Creech  of the Christian Action League of North Carolina; and Chad Connelly, former director of Faith Engagement for the Republican National Committee. 

In addition, briefly addressing the crowd by live video from their Washington, D.C. offices were U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows and U.S. Sen. Patrick McHenry.

Forest, who served as the dinner’s keynote speaker, is a Republican who aspires to unseat Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper in the next election.

The lieutenant governor, who has served for six years, spoke for 25 minutes at the dinner.

Forest was introduced by Mumpower, who said, “He’s a man of conviction and character... He’s taking some positions that lots of politicians didn’t have the courage to take.”

The state’s second-in-command, who was greeted with standing ovations before and after his speech, said that while the nation and the state is now well-represented with Republicans, “I think there’s a different call of action... I’ve traveled across North Carolina for the last six years as a lieutenant governor.

“I don’t remember growing up around the dinner table, people saying ‘identity politics,’” or that “‘so and so is a Democrat, or a Catholic....’” 

“(The late president Ronald) Reagan said... ‘Freedom’s never more than a generation away.’ It was a different day in America.

“Why do we have to assume that things have to be worse today?

“One of the reasons might be that we live in a political illusion.

“It’s about the over-politicization of everything today.

“We grew up with Judeo-Christian values. They were taught in our schools. They’re not taught there any more. We now talk about family values as a thing of the past.

“So today we live in a world where everything’s over-politicized. Because politics is their (the liberals’) religion….

“We need to get out of this habit of over-politicization. Then you create a 50-50 environment.

“We think America’s the greatest country in the world. What we do as conservatives is try our best to return to federalism, to the Consitution, to the Declaration of Independence, … we fight to unpoliticize things.

“As the central government gets larger and larger, we get further and further away from freedom.

“Our job as we elect conservative Republicans, is that we make sure they understand…. Otherwise, all we’re going to get is continued leftist lunacy.

“How do we avoid the lunatic left?” Forest asked, rhetorically. “We elect great people.

“We need to make sure that we don’t keep putting political policy bandaids over 

“Do you want to solve the problem of poverty in America?” he asked, tying poverty to crime.

Solving the problem of poverty requires solving the problem of “fatherlessness,” he said. “It’s 80 percent likely those kids (without fathers present in their homes) will grow up in poverty.

“We need to get back to the basics. 

“There aren’t that many big problems in America. We could solve most of the problems by solving the problem of fatherlessness.

“We’re all called to be part of it. It’s no longer enough to say it all ok and we can go home.

“Just like (William) Wilberforce (1759-1833), you’re all called to that challenge. (Wilberforce was a major British opponent of the slave trade — and he championed the importance of religion, morality and education.)

“It’s up to make America being the bright, “shining city on the hill.”

At that point, Forest noted that the aforementioned phrase “comes from the Sermon on the Mount.”

“He was talking about people — you and me. 

“We think of salt as a flavor, but way back ... it was a preservative.

“So we call for salt to be a preservative. Light doesn’t shine in the darkness. It eliminates darkness.

“How do we do it?

“We return to the values that made this country great. What happens then? God blesses the United States of America.

“We’ve become a nation that looks to our central government to solve all of our problems.

“Economically, we (North Carolina) are doing great right now…. We’re No. 3 in the nation. 

“Guess what friends, North Carolina is going to continue to grow. Here’s the challenge — what are we going to do to preserve the culture that we call home.”

After a sustained standing ovation by the BCGOP for Forest’s speech, Mumpower, the BCGOP chief, said, “Again, the Republican Party is the only party that can counter ‘Brand X.’

“What a great slate of speakers....”

Mumpower added that “the first generation of saints were martyrs. The second were educators. The third — and last — will be normal, who can be normal in this world.’”

Mumpower then cited the late Scott Peck, an author whose works included “People of the Lie.” The BCGOP chief said Peck wrote in the aforementioned book 37 years ago “that we’re busy creating a generation of liars who would one day try to steal the heart of the country. He was prophetic.”

Mumpower talso cited Jesus, noting that he said, “If you don’t do it in love, you don’t do it in the name” of God.

“We’re the party of normal, the party of courage, the party of truth,” Mumpower asserted.

“We honor two men (Abraham Lincolnm and Ronald Reagan), who were not perfect, but they reached for courage, truth, love, and left a tremendous footprint on our world. We reaffirm their mission,” Mumpower said.

The event then ended with a prayer.