“The United States is in no sense founded upon the Christian religion.”

–George Washington.

Back during World War II, the brilliant director Frank Capra created a series of films — Why We Fight — to educate Americans about why they were fighting the war — and the perils that Fascism represented to America.

And maybe in politics, we tend to forget why we fight for the things that matter, being caught up in the heat of the moment.

What really are the things that matter? Home, family, friends and our way of life. And each of us define those things slightly differently. That sort of diversity of opinion is what makes America great.

Unfortunately, there is a small but noisy minority of Americans who want to tell you what to think, how to act and expect you to live within a narrow, rigid framework of their sense of right and wrong. There is no room for debate, discussion or moderation: you agree with them or you are evil.

And while we’ve been seeing this in many political sectors nationally since the early 1980s, we’re now seeing it locally, right here in Chester County. A local organization calling itself Chester County Americans for Christian Traditions In Our Nation (ACTION) has become a force in local Republican politics. You might have seen their handiwork back in May, when their candidates defeated mainstream GOP candidates in primaries both for county-wide races as well as regional school board races.

“They’ve basically taken over,” one frustrated mainstream Republican told me recently, asking that his name not be used for obvious reasons. “The religious right has completely changed who we are as a party — and I’m not sure I even recognize it anymore. That’s why so many people have left the party recently, it’s not the Republican Party they knew and respected.”

No, evidently, it’s not. Chester County ACTION is funding radical, activist candidates and made clear its plan to take over both the Chester County GOP and, by extension, Chester County through the actions of a well-funded tiny minority of activists. That’s not me saying that, this is their game plan, right on their own Web site.

From what I can see, ACTION represents the views of a minority of Republicans in Chester County, let alone the wider citizenry. I wonder, what sort of American tradition is represented by bending to the will of a small minority of extremists?

History teaches us that is the beginning of frightening times for a people, and often the first step of the end “of government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

And these folks want to impose their views on the things we all hold most valuable: Home, family, friends and our way of life.

Home: Chester County ACTION wants to tell us how to live our lives and impose its ideas on all of us.

Family: Candidates supported by ACTION seek to have our public schools teach creationism, despite the fact that no scientific basis exists for such teaching and that it only represents the beliefs of one school of religious thought.

Friends: ACTION and its candidates aggressively oppose issues of basic civil rights, such as gay rights, positions that seek to tear apart the fabric of our community and force people to fit within their narrow framework of “appropriate” behavior.

Our way of life: Some might not take the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution seriously, but I do: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” ACTION seeks to have our government violate  both of those provisions, by insisting on “Christian” traditions be the guiding force of government.

What could be more un-American? We’re a nation of free thinkers, dedicated to the premise of freedom of religion, freedom of expression and freedom of thought. ACTION seeks to curtail those rights and impose its own narrow vision on America and Chester County.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can say no and defend our American way of life, our freedoms and our essential liberties by using the greatest weapon ever invented to fight injustice: the ballot box.

You can send a message on election day — Nov. 3 — that you will not give into a small, extreme minority. That you will not give up your country or your liberty. That you will fight for the rights guaranteed by the blood of our patriot fathers.

This is why we fight.