To Be Right!

What’s the best case scenario for the November elections?  I mean, really?  Well, the way I see it, we’ll have one of two outcomes: either a democrat controlled congress with a socialist president, or a democrat controlled congress with a liberal presdent.  The real problem, other than the obvious, is that with version II (dem congress and liberal) the President has an “R” next to his name.  So what do we do?

GO LOCAL.

The only way that the conservative movement can stay afloat is by going local.  More than staying afloat, we could actually make some significant progress.  We need to infiltrate every aspect of community living…

School Boards
City Councils
Sheriff Offices
City/County Attorney
State Legislators
Heck, even HOA Boards

By focusing our efforts on acquiring positions of influence at the core of our communities, we have the power to bring about real change.  Most of the country is conservative, even if they don’t actually know what it means to be so.  All we need is an outlet to reach the people - that outlet is found at the local and state levels.

Think about it - where do the leftists get into our lives?  Where we live!  From restrictions on Christmas Tree lights to county ordinances prohibiting cutting a tree down on your own property, we can bring the movement to our communities and combat those who would strip away the conservative fabric that is American life.

Let’s go local.  The first step should be to engage your friends and neighbors.  Start talking.  Set up a meeting.  Get organized.  Find time to donate a skill or some time to a worthy local conservative cause. 

My action plan begins today.  Stay tuned for posts on how it’s going…

The bi-weekly ritual of making sure nobody mistakes me for a damn hippie took place today.  Most times, Tin the barber just makes small talk about the weather, and usually asks me how my boy is doing, since we both have young sons.  Today was more philosophical than usual.

The first bit of wisdom Tin put forth was regarding the housing market.  You see, he is getting ready to refi to get off of his interest-only mortgage product.  He said, “I have to keep going, I’m not going to sell my house and move.  I have to keep trying.”  He continued, “In my country there is a saying, ‘ride the tiger,’ and this is what I am doing.  If you jump off the tiger, he will eat you!”  This was made all the more profound (and entertaining, dare I say) because he explained this in his thick Vietnamese accent.  What a great metaphore for so many of life’s intricacies.

After Tin went on for a bit about his early life along the Dong Nai river, the conversation went to politics.  Quite out of the blue he gave another piece of wisdom and again, cited his home country as the origin.  He said, “I don’t know how to say this right in English, but where I’m from there is a saying that describes John Edwards - that he hold an umbrella against the sun, no matter the time of day.” 

Well put, Tin.

Well, I guess the lesson from today is that wisdom comes in all forms, and most of life’s lessons have already been taught.  It’s just a matter of realizing you learned.

Most of the politcians and pundits we see are riding the tiger in a big way.  Once they take a position, they stick with it no matter how absurd it seems or how much evidence to the contrary may be presented.  Trillions of dollars spent on “helping the homeless” and on global warming come to mind.

And what politician doesn’t carry a parasol these days.  R’s and D’s alike.  They all twist and turn all day, trying to stay in the shade no matter where the sun is.

Energy policy is front of mind for many Americans.  The problem that we face is that the government is preventing us from getting cheap gas.  Here are a couple things everyone should know:

1) The market sets the price for oil.  No one person does.
2) The market price is set by supply and demand.
3) The US government (R’s and D’s) has systematically prevented needed oil research, discovery, extraction and refinement through prohibitive legislation and regulation.

So, I have developed a simple plan to solve our oil problems for the foreseeable future - here it is in easy to understand steps:

1) Declare that Alaska, North Dakota and the Gulf of Mexico as “Oil Free Zones.”
2) Oil Free Zones would be exempted from any government regulation.
3) Huge tax incentives would be created for Oil companies to extract and refine using green techniques.

So, all we have to do is turn Alaska, North Dakota and the Gulf into oil fields.  problem solved.

As a fortunate by-product, many of our problems in the middle east would evaporate along with the high gas prices.  If we have no national interest in that geography because of our dependance on their oil, we can sit back and watch the maniacs blow each other up, one suicide bomber at a time.  Dare I say, it’d be kind of fun.

PS - while we’re designating states…we might as well offer up Nevada to the Jewish people.  That way, they can just leave Isreal to the nutbags and come to live and prosper in the safe confines of a friendly population.  Any guesses what the Palestinians would do with the land they’ve been begging for all these years?  My bet is that they’d do nothing with it.  Any propserity that had been created by the hard-working, industrious jewish population would disappear, and the nutbags would turn the entire area into a 12th century theme park, complete with swords, beheadings, and dirty feet.

In today’s WSJ Peggy Noonan says what I’ve been thinking.  In her sharp witted and insightful way, she lays out the current problem the Republican party faces.  She summarizes…

Mr. Bush has squandered the hard-built paternity of 40 years. But so has the party, and so have its leaders. If they had pushed away for serious reasons, they could have separated the party’s fortunes from the president’s. This would have left a painfully broken party, but they wouldn’t be left with a ruined “brand,” as they all say, speaking the language of marketing. And they speak that language because they are marketers, not thinkers. Not serious about policy. Not serious about ideas. And not serious about leadership, only followership.”

One astute follower of all things political remarked this morning…

In this morning’s WSJ Noonan nails the sad state of the Republican Party and without saying so makes the case for a mew “Conservative Party” and for TERM LIMITS.  But where is the leadership…….??????

Wow. 

The question remains though: Will this be another brief lapse in Republican credibility and power, or does it actually signify the beginning of the end?

Through a pragmatic lens it is hard to see the dissolution of the party, and for it to be replaced by some other.  But I also know that conservatives will latch on to a party that speaks their language if one presents.  And I know that the American public at large is, well, fickle.  As evidenced by our popular culture, from overnight sales of the iPhone to $100M weekend movie sales, we can be collectively wow’d by the right message at the right time.  The time is right, now we just need the right message carried by the right messenger.  If that means re-embracing the Republican party with a new commitment to conservative principles or it means a new party altogether remains to be seen.  One thing is certain, however.  Without credible, articulate leadership, neither will happen.

I think the Republican party is done.  Stick a fork in it.  Not because the people who make up the party are done or that their ideals are no longer valid, but because what’s left of the party leadership has been deaf for the past, oh say 10 years.  In fact, since the Contract with America, we have had zero vision and zero leadership.  I mean, Denny Hastert?  Come on…  A nice guy and honorable too, I am sure, but this is not a leader.  There has been no articulated strategy, no associated plan of action, nothing at all that would suggest to the country that our conservative beliefs and values are what will propel the country forward.

Instead, we get a new massive prescription drug benefit.  We get blatent restrictions on free speech from McCain Feingold.  We get the worst war-time communications effort ever.  We get one “Republican” after another talking about how global warming is going to harm us.  We get nationalized public school monitoring.  We get complete failure to act on illegal aliens. 

We expect these things from the left.  Big government proposals that will inevitably fail, but be funded in perpetuity with ever-growing budgets because that’s what government does - regardlesss of any measurable effect.  If it feels good to pass a law, it must be good.  A mainstay philosophy of the left.  And so it has been adopted by the RNC as well.

What is the result of this adoption?  A mass exodus of support from conservatives. 

Time after time we see Republican leadership with positions that directly contradict how conservatives really think.  So what do we collectively do?  What we do best, we go someplace else.  This speaks volumns about the conservative psyche - when faced with a problem, we take decisive and real action.  In this case, we stopped supporting these so-called Republicans and the RNC and predictably, those with an “R” start losing.

To repair the damage done to the conservative movement, we need one of two things:  A very strong leader to articulate our message of self-reliance, personal fortitude and limited government, or a new party altogether.

I am starting to think that the latter is the best solution, because clearly the exsiting party has become so tainted with moderate, wishy-washy, do-nothings, it may well be the only way.

We can call it simply, the Conservative party.

Let’s create the new party platform…