Wichita has some of the best Republicans in America

When it comes to being Republican, Wichita takes a back seat to no one, at least according to one national organization.

Wichita’s Republican Pachyderm Club on Friday celebrated winning four top awards at the National Federation of Pachyderm Clubs’ 50th Anniversary convention last weekend in Springfield, Mo.

The Wichita club won awards for “Most Outstanding Club in the Nation,” “Most Outstanding Club President” and “Highest Percentage of Club Growth” for 2015 and 2016.

The Wichita Pachyderm Club holds weekly lunch meetings on Fridays at the Petroleum Club.

Its mission is political education and providing support for Republican candidates and policies.

Friday’s meeting featured Tim Witsman, a former Wichita State University lecturer and former head of the Wichita Independent Business Association and the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce.

Witsman spoke on the importance of trade in world history and how trade, in his view, is unfairly blamed for the loss of millions of American jobs.

“About 80 percent of the loss of jobs in the U.S. is from technology,” he said. “There is about 20 percent that’s trade and other things, but what are you going to do about that?”

Citing the closure of a broom factory in North Carolina, Witsman said it’s simply impossible for the U.S. to maintain those kinds of low-wage, low-skill jobs that can be done with even cheaper labor overseas.

“The real human dilemma is how do you deal with people who are displaced by those kinds of changes?” he said.

He said retraining workers is a partial solution, “but it also doesn’t solve everything because what people forget is, you’re in a place where a whole type of industry has closed down.”

“I can train you in something else, but are there any jobs in that in your town? No. You’re probably going to have to move, and people don’t want to do that. So it’s a lot more complicated issue than people would let on.”

This story was originally published June 23, 2017 at 3:15 PM with the headline "Wichita has some of the best Republicans in America."