OSAGE COUNTY — The annual Osage County Republican Central Committee’s Lincoln Day Banquet featured several speakers from the head table. However, one central theme tied all the speeches together. Each featured GOP luminary sounded one alarm: shrinking American liberties.

Sen. Bill Eigel of St. Charles, in his fourth term in Missouri’s upper house, delivered the keynote address. A veteran Air Force Captain, he is now a governor candidate for the 2024 GOP nomination. He joins Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe and Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft on an already crowded slate.

Eigel is an enthusiastic speaker who doesn’t stumble or search for words. He challenged Republicans to take leadership on the issue of election integrity. He used some powerful words to challenge Missouri’s membership in the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). In recent years, tough questions have surfaced about ERIC’s rumored leftist roots. Many see a failure to protect voter registration rolls from fraud. Take, for instance, 12 of the largest counties in ERIC member states. Why have all removed fewer than 15 voters from their voter registration rolls? The sample covers the last four years. Did that few people die or move out of a county of millions in that time? ERIC also collects electronic data on every registered voter in every participating state. “Does anybody believe this is a good idea,” he asked rhetorically.

Missouri Rep. Bill Hardwick of Waynesville addressed the issue of Chinese purchases of Missouri farmland. “Whatever you depend on in life can control you,” he warned. “That’s what China is using against us.”

His point was that food is an unavoidable and universal commodity of dependence. Further, it’s a critical lynchpin in the state’s economy. Hardwick noted that agriculture could be weaponized against Missourians if controlled by an enemy power, calling for the proscription of any foreign country purchasing farms in Missouri.

U.S. Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer of Miller County, Osage County’s voice in Washington, D.C., addressed the problem of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing, especially by fiduciary organizations hired by government pension programs. He mentioned other threats to national sovereignty but particularly challenged investing strategies designed to fund anti-American activity. Those often fail to maximize investments by American workers, nor do they care. He also cited government interest in digital currency, something already mastered in China.

China’s military, COVID and other biological threats, and theft of intellectual property filled out his list of threats. American investment in, and therefore funding of, the Chinese economy bothers him. “We have a situation where we’re not defending the country [against Chinese communism] anywhere,” he said.

Missouri Sen. Ben Brown of Washington, representing Osage County, spoke about his crusade to head off the government’s power grab during difficulties like the COVID pandemic.

“This is a fight we have to have on several fronts,” he said. “I want to make sure, in a public health crisis, our liberties are never stepped on again. It really is a different world we’re living in today.”

Before running for his current office, Brown was a restaurant owner. He engaged in several high-profile legal battles to save his business. Local restrictions almost did it in. He then parlayed those experiences into a successful 2022 campaign. He’s involved in several items of legislation advocating for civil liberty in the face of state overreach in health emergencies.

Osage County Public Administrator Paul Stratman announced he would not seek reelection. He was last reelected in 2020 and is serving his sixth term. He also announced his candidacy for Missouri State Representative in 2024. A closer look at Stratman appears elsewhere in this week’s paper.

Osage County Sheriff Mike Bonham reiterated his call to support a campaign to amend the Missouri State Constitution to define the sheriff’s position as a constitutional, rather than a statutory, position. The reasoning cites a major fact. Sheriffs are the only law enforcement officials in Missouri who stand for election. It follows they would be more directly accountable to the constitution and voting constituents. Now, they answer to state or federal government officials, who can act on laws of variable quality with personal interpretation. Their consistency of action can be equally suspect. Bonham also touted Osage County’s standing in Missouri during his administration. “We’ve moved from 22nd to sixth safest in the state,” he said, citing Missouri State Highway Patrol statistics.

Osage County Eastern District Commissioner John Trenshaw thanked the gathering for their support in his 2020 election to office. He’s still serving his first term. “We have a pretty good team up there,” he concluded,  referring to the whole commission and the county’s other administrators.

Committee Chairman Mark Lieneke closed the evening by reminding the crowd, “Good times bring weak people, weak people bring bad times; bad times bring strong people, and strong people bring good times. That’s the cycle. You know where we are at this point.”