Welcome to the Citrus Crusader!

By John Labriola -

Just over two months ago, a group of concerned Citrus County citizens, including myself and longtime conservative activist Billy Cayce, launched the Citrus Eagle e-newsletter as a joint project to keep conservative citizens informed about the things they care about.

Since then, the Citrus Eagle has helped shine a spotlight on everything from taxpayer-funded LGBT propaganda displays in our public libraries to the influence of liberal special interests on some of our elected officials. It has also successfully mobilized citizen action on a number of issues.

But editorial policy by committee can be messy if everyone in the room doesn’t agree on every single issue. And in a world where no two people think exactly alike, such perfect consensus is not only difficult to obtain but also probably not desirable, since a world where everyone shared the same opinions would be a very boring one. 

In any case, a single publisher/editor ideally should have full editorial control over all the content he publishes. With that in mind, it soon became obvious to me that it was necessary to start a new publication. This newsletter is the result of that realization. 

Like the Citrus Eagle, the Citrus Crusader will focus on issues of interest and importance to Citrus County conservative citizens, but with an increased emphasis on matters of faith and culture and the intersection of faith and local politics, as well as the importance of keeping God front and center in our civic affairs, just as in our lives. I firmly believe that the only way to halt and reverse our nation’s decline is to get back to the bedrock Christian values that made America great in the first place. But that transformation has to take place at the local level, one community at a time. Citrus County is blessed to be one of the most conservative counties in the state, but it's under siege by insidious forces that are worming their way into our government and community and threatening to destroy it – forces that the Citrus Eagle has helped expose, to the horror of many residents. 

Florida is the ultimate swing state, and its future hangs in the balance. Even a very slight shift toward the left in a conservative county like Citrus could jeopardize the entire state. And if we lose Florida, all hope of reclaiming America is lost as well. That’s why as citizens of Citrus County, we must all do our part to ensure that this county remains a bulwark of conservative Christian values. That’s not easy to do if the majority of our county’s elected leaders don’t share that conviction, as their recent vote on the library issue proves they don’t. So we need to remain active and involved, mobilize our churches, keep up the pressure on the issues we care about, and vote our politicians out if they still refuse to listen. 

Staying informed is the key, and that’s what this publication is all about. It’s about letting you know what's going on so you can take appropriate action, whether it’s showing up to speak at a public meeting, joining an advisory board, or sending an email to your elected representatives. 

So I hope you make the Citrus Crusader part of your weekly "must read" list and share it with friends and family members – because together, with God's help, we can and will make a difference!

Thank you, and God bless Citrus County!