Tread Upon: What’s Next for the Tea Party?
It’s this or stop.
On the night of the election, once it became clear which course the nation chose, I received an email from a fellow activist with the subject line “1776-2012,” a pronouncement of death for the idea that was America. While many may dismiss such proclamations as sour grapes, reflection confirms more truth than hyperbole.
Consider: If the quintessential American idea is the one articulated in our Declaration of Independence, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” then the developments of the past four years culminating in the re-election of the most radical executive in the nation’s history is its eulogy.
The passage of Obamacare demonstrated that the Democratic Party was willing to abandon all pretense of representative government in order to secure power over individual lives. The upholding of that law by the Supreme Court demonstrated that the Constitution is effectively meaningless. Tragic as those developments were, this — the electoral affirmation of President Barack Obama — is a crowning catastrophe. It signals more than political or legal corruption. It indicates a cultural sea change whereby the People have rejected the Declaration. To survive and one day thrive, it is critical that the Tea Party accept this reality.
Instead, there is denial. PJM’s Rick Moran tells us not to worry, pointing to exit polling data as evidence that this latest election is just another ebb in the normal flow of national politics. That data suggest that 53% of Americans believe government has become too activist. Never mind that these are the same voters who just doubled down on the status quo. Some local coordinators attending Tea Party Patriots’ first post-election conference call imagined a conservative plurality which could make a third party viable. Never mind that the most successful third party in the country secured less than 1% of the popular vote. Others renewed their prescription to take over the Republican Party. Never mind that Tea Party-favored candidates were systematically rejected by primary voters in states from coast to coast, or that the Republican National Convention took an intentional step away from grassroots organization to ensure future conventions are neat little coronations for the presumptive nominee.
All this grasps at straws. The central presumption underpinning Tea Party resistance in the Obama era has been that a rabid majority of “We the People” is chomping at the bit to “take our country back.” While there have been remarkable local successes, noteworthy down-ticket primary victories, and frequent rattlings of the establishment cage, the movement’s ability to reshape the political landscape has been blunted by a grim reality. This government, essentially unchanged after November 6th, is of and by the People even as it treads upon the Individual.
In the aftermath of the election, we wonder what we could have done better. However, seeking to improve upon failed means will only perpetuate defeat. The Tea Party needs to fundamentally reevaluate its cultural posture and its methods of activism. The popular comforting belief that there exists a silent, center-right majority eager to be led to political victory must be abandoned. We must somberly accept that a century of patient, persistent, planned cultural corruption by self-styled progressives has rotted out from within what no external enemy could breach.
That does not mean that we give up the fight. It does mean we must change our rules of engagement to fit the facts on the ground. In war, you would not enter battle assuming that conditions in the field were somehow better than your intelligence suggests. Yet that is what many of us did throughout the 2012 election season. Never mind the polls, we’re winning! Perhaps no group was more emblematic of this mindset than the diehard supporters of Ron Paul, who proceeded so convinced of their inevitable victory that successive defeats were regarded as sure evidence of fraud.
We have to get real, and the reality is bleak. It prescribes a task far more difficult than crafting “the right message” or finding “the right candidate.” We have to fundamentally transform minds. We have to counter the culture. We have to construct and coordinate a wide-ranging movement as pervasive and unrelenting as the Progressive insurgency of the previous century. Above all, we must subordinate our disparate brands under a banner of common cause.
Reviving a conscience of liberty will require us to embrace means and methods which are outside our comfort zone. PJTV contributor Bill Whittle builds the case for one such method in a recent video blog. What he calls the “Common Sense Resistance” is a shift in engagement from party politics to “parallel structures,” free market alternatives to established institutions. For those familiar with Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, Whittle is suggesting a proto-form of going Galt. Instead of withdrawing from the statist mainstream, we simply ignore it. We pay our taxes and abide by the law while creating a parallel system of institutions funded by voluntary contribution.
Recall that public education was birthed from an intention to foster a virtuous society. Even though the coercive means of public education have doomed it to blundering failure, that intention was worthwhile. There is true value in educating children.
What would happen if we allowed the price of public education to reflect that true value? Imagine how different our system might be if its funding were not guaranteed, if you could legally choose whether or not to pay your school taxes. The ability of administrators and teachers to earn their pay would be tied to the satisfaction of their patrons. Without the corrupting force of coercion, satisfaction would result from the delivery of true value. Whittle explains how a parallel structure for public education might work:
For $9.99 a month, if you had 10 million American [subscribers], you’d have $1.2 billion that would not be spent in Washington. It would be spent on teaching aides. It would be spent on hiring teachers at $300,000 to $400,000 a year teaching through the internet with standardized tests, with rigorous standards, with no social indoctrination whatsoever. You’d be getting Greek and Latin on your computer, and your kids would be the bomb.
… [P]rivate enterprises that are voluntarily funded out of free will for a desired project that you can get out of anytime have to be accountable to the people who are paying the money.
Duh, right? That’s why over 4,000,000 children are enrolled in private schools each year, because parents recognize the true value those institutions provide. That’s also why advocates of education reform have proposed publicly funded school vouchers so that parents can send their children to the school of their choice. But Whittle’s vision is not of a public voucher which would necessitate political victories that allude us. He’s talking about bypassing government to create a parallel structure of public education subject to market discipline. Whittle continues:
The only way it works is if you are willing to pay extra, because you cannot get in the way of the government. The government doesn’t mind if you ignore them, as long as they get their money, and as long as they get to do what they get to do.…
Your tax money, you just have to write it off, folks.… They’re going to take half, and you’re going to have to live on the other half, and you’re going to have to get the things you want on the other half. But you can! Because all of this stuff I’m talking about is less than your cable bill.
Whittle has used the same business model in an attempt to revolutionize the film industry. Declaration Entertainment raises funds by recruiting “citizen producers” to contribute a minimum of $9.99 per month to help make the kind of movies they want to see. The company’s debut feature is due soon, a modern western called The Arroyo set along Arizona’s violent southern border with Mexico.
While the ultimate success of Whittle’s vision is yet to be seen, the fundamental idea that citizens must create their own alternatives to corrupt mainstream institutions is quintessentially American. Rather than wallow and lament over the Left’s domination of the culture, we create a counterculture.
Another means to that end is aggressive infiltration of the non-profit sector. For decades, the Left has dominated this portion of the economy and written their own ticket to political victory. Running so-called charities under the benefit of tax-exemption, leftist non-profits funnel money to a myriad of community organizing efforts which effectively serve as a non-stop political campaign for Democratic candidates and radical public policy.
You may recall Glenn Beck’s rants against the Tides Foundation. Discover the Networks describes their remarkable role:
Established in 1976 by California-based activist Drummond Pike, the Tides Foundation was set up as a public charity that receives money from donors and then funnels it to the recipients of their choice. Because many of these recipient groups are quite radical, the donors often prefer not to have their names publicly linked with the donees. By letting the Tides Foundation, in effect, “launder” the money for them and pass it along to the intended beneficiaries, donors can avoid leaving a “paper trail.” Such contributions are called “donor-advised,” or donor-directed, funds.
Through this legal loophole, nonprofit entities can also create for-profit organizations and then funnel money to them through Tides — thereby circumventing the laws that bar nonprofits from directly funding their own for-profit enterprises.
…
While the Foundation’s activities focus on fundraising and grant-making, the Center — in its role as fiscal sponsor — offers newly created organizations the shelter of Tides’ own charitable tax-exempt status, as well as the benefits of Tides’ health and liability insurance coverage.
We can’t beat this. Instead, we must clone it.
Conservatives are way behind the curve when it comes to coordinating this kind of extra-political activity. In The Blueprint: How the Democrats Won Colorado (and Why Republicans Everywhere Should Care), authors Adam Schrager and Rob Witwer chronicle how a coalition of leftist donors systematically steamrolled over an entrenched Republican establishment to seize control of the legislature and the governor’s mansion. Spoiler alert: they didn’t form a third party or worry much about taking over the Democratic Party. Instead, they made the state parties irrelevant, going directly after the culture to undermine Republican incumbents and craft a favorable government by default.
Consider the insidiousness of this approach. The Left crafts labyrinthine rules governing campaign finance and political speech, only to leverage loopholes they designed to secure their political ends. And the Right just takes it. We concede to a fight with one hand tied behind our back.
No more. We have to flood the non-profit sector with groups of our own, funded by patriots committed to cycle after cycle of persistent rabid battle within the culture.
Another lesson the Right must learn from The Blueprint is the value of broad united coalition. The spark which ignited the Democratic coup in Colorado was an attempt by Republicans to resist gay marriage. Deep-pocketed homosexuals united in common cause with groups devoted to other priorities. They set aside their differences in recognition of the political reality that none of them could advance their positions without turning over the state government.
By comparison, the Right seems incapable of this kind of coalition, with pet issues cannibalizing each other and ideological cliques rebuking the impure. Whether you’re a Ron Paul libertarian, a social conservative, or an Ayn Rand objectivist, get over it and learn to play well with others.
On that note, let us agree that while the Obama era resistance has been branded as the Tea Party, the brand itself is not important. The Left has worn out many brands – communist, progressive, socialist, communitarian, even fascist before the term fell decisively out of favor. They pick a new name and march on toward the same old goal. So must we be willing to rebrand, regroup, and reengage. There may not be a Tea Party as such some years from now, and that’s okay so long as the movement proceeds in new form.
All of the above will require something counter-intuitive and inherently difficult for individualists. That is an embrace of the corporate. We must reconcile our proper regard for individual rights with the necessity of teamwork. The Left successfully mischaracterizes the Right as a gruff bunch of insensitive loners who feel no obligation to community. The message is so pervasive that we sometimes buy into it ourselves, but it is not true.
The fundamental difference between the Left and the Right along a properly drawn spectrum is not that they meet obligations and we don’t, but that we choose our obligations while they impose theirs. We should not hesitate to come together, to rely on each other, and to work in tandem without sacrificing our Jeffersonian independence. It is our ability to choose which makes us free, even when our choice is to rally around one another. There is no pride lost in collaboration, in trading value for value, in doing through cooperation that which none could accomplish alone. We must revive within us that spirit which moved our forefathers to “mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” For if we finally cannot, than America is truly dead.
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Related post-election reflections at PJ Lifestyle:
This is my half-formed plan. I trust Sarah Palin. Her performance as Governor in Alaska was remarkable and inspiring. Her capture of the Governorship against the corrupt oil industry and corrupt politics of her own party was well nigh impossible. Her record in 2010, and 2012, was the best I’ve ever seen or heard of in terms of endorsements. So I will watch and follow there.
I agree with the plan to create alternate structures. As a Christian it will be easier for me than for some who have no community that meets face to face. But we must understand that the mainstream educational, religious and media institutions must be recaptured or we relegate ourselves to permanent minority status in a tyrannical system, with all the horror that this entails.
But you have to start somewhere. So you build parallel structures that WORK BETTER and that more people like. Once your parallel structure is in place, you challenge the status quo, convert people one at a time to see that your way is a BETTER way. Eventually you have a majority.
Problem underlies what you wrote here- the Left has made their ideas the DEFAULT. Note also that you focus on the idea of “convert”. Disagree- what is needed is to teach conservatism from the beginning so that it becomes the default and there is no need to “convert” anyone.
If you know any history at all, you would realize that, in the Soviet Union, creating “parallel structures” to live and do business outside the official bureaucracy got the would-be entrepreneur sent to the Gulag, along with his family, friends, and acquaintances. The USA has already embraced Soviet Communism and the screws are being turned tighter and tighter as we watch.
If you want freedom, you would be better off starting over somewhere else.
As a mental exercise, I’ve been playing in my head with the scene from the movie “From Dusk Til Dawn” where Salma Hayek has George Clooney on the floor.
Her last words are, “Welcome to Slavery”.
Considering it’s about vampires that suck the life out of the living – who happen to be truckers and bikers, ya know, the freedom loving and hard working types of society…
How even ripping the heart out of one doesn’t work until you stab it with a pencil – I’m sure there is a parable buried in there somewhere about government and paperwork….
And Hayek’s entire speech is pretty spot on as to how the democrats and federal bureaucracy view the common man….the parallels are a bit TOO easy for comfort….
“From Dusk Til Dawn”… Salma Hayek… slavery
heh heh. That’s about what I had in mind in “Blade”. They’re in the tunnels and she asks him whether he’s parasite or prey, and I have him say, “No… I’m… something else.”
We’re neither parasite nor preay, neither slaves nor masters.
We live and die free.
That’s what we need, to get back to our American Revolution roots… and stick with them.
The heck with the “this Tea Party” and the “that Tea Party” and the “Tea Party thisotherbeast”.
Get rid of the phony-baloney “organizing” and organizations, and spokes-clones, for that matter.
We’re perfectly capable of speaking for ourselves, thankyouverymuch.
Stick with the loosey-goosey, informal letter writing and picketing and speech-making and protesting.
Touch base.
When you hear of a good candidate, pass the word.
When you hear of a bad one, pass the word.
When you hear the corrupt congress-critters are up to no good*, spread the word.
* like this
http://www.infoworld.com/t/federal-regulations/house-set-vote-again-stem-visas-207821
OK, we like Sarah Palin. We mostly like Michele Bachmann. We kind of like Paul Ryan and
Ron Paul and Rand Paul and and Thomas Sowell and Walter E. Williams and
Herman Caine, and we kind of like his 9-9-9 proposal,
and we kind of like Boartz’s “Fair Tax” proposal.
We’re a little wary about Marco Rubio.
We’re extremely uneasy with Mittens Romney.
Some of us think the federal government budget should have been balanced in FY2012 by cutting spending.
Others are more timid; they want to kind of slooooowwwly ease toward a balanced federal government budget.
So be it.
Now, let’s choose friends and support them, and
keep an eye out for enemies like Obummer, Nasty Pelosi, Barney Frank, Maxine Waters,
Hairy Reed… and thwart their every move.
Stomp on every one of their attempts to further violate the US constitution.
Stop the roll-out of ObummerDoesn’tCare.
Block agenda 21.
Hit them like a ton of bricks. Make them think they’re trying to swim through nearly frozen molasses.
Taxed Enough Already. Go beyond that and TEA Party = Conservative Party and it loses.
Not true. Get their voices out of your head. The social conservatives and the much smaller libertarian groups get along just fine face to face. Sure there is intense disagreement. That’s reality, and we are all grown-ups, and politics ain’t beanball, whatever that means. There is also cooperation, and I saw a lot of it.
Though I will say this: it is the libertarians who need to learn to get along more than most. The conservatives showed up and played nice with the Republicans and are making gains in several places. Many libertarians ran off to a third – party pipe dream, and if they had not, we might have squeaked by in Florida.
Coalition works. Purity doesn’t. You don’t have a voice if you don’t have a seat at the table. Let’s get back to work.
I will add one thing: we must take over the bureacracies. This means that in states and localities where we control government, we must establish political tests for who gets hired and promoted in civil service. Yes, this violates civil service law, but guess what? The Left has been ignoring those laws for a century. They regard the govenrment as a spoils system when they are in power. We need to do the same. Our governors need to appoint agency heads who understand that their primary responsibility is to push our values through the organization, all the way down, by whatever means are available. Draw an absolute bright line between the way they govern and the way we govern, and do not let any government employee hide behind the “above my pay grade” excuse.
Well, getting into the bureaucracy will be the hardest part. As an older, white male, I stand practically no chance of ever getting a government job. I’ve scored 100% on tests and never received any calls for interviews.
The fact of the matter is that we must abolish civil service. All government jobs must be spoils for the winning side, as it used to be. No more once a Republican gains the White House will a petty bureaucrat delay or refuse to implement directives. All policy makers and those tasked with enforcement must be beholden to the elected official for the continuance of their position. Only hourly workers like clerks and janitorial staff and the like should keep their jobs when the elections are over. Kill the unelected, obstructionist bureaucrat, then things might change. Until then, even if good men and women get into office, the domestic enemy will subvert them at every opportunity….
We need to find the right people. My husband could theoretically do it. He’d likely have to spring for a DNA test to authenticate himself because he was adopted, but he is 1/8 Native American. He’s the perfect sort to apply for a Gubmint job (well expect for his history of making political commentary which will likely work against him unless he gets the right Governor to appoint him).
Scott – simple solution for you – learn a bit of spanish and start labelling yourself as Hispanic.
Disagree- the machine always wins as it tends to capture all who come within its grasp. The goal cannot be a “kinder, gentler bueauracracy”. It would be like sending a Cop undercover and expecting him to convert the mafia into a community service organization. We’ve seen efforts to reform the service come and go and in the end, it always wins. Cuts are always temporary and once the party in gov’t changes (or even the party leader) the feasting resumes.
Thats an excellent analogy! We are screwed since busting the ‘mob’ that is currently in power is never going to make a dent. Sure – we’ll hear of a corrupt official here or there going to jail – the mob has to keep up the appearance of propriety. But they have control over much of the court system – and they’ll do whatever it takes to make sure it isn’t them that is ‘served’ up to justice.
Look for Obama to begin gathering power to him in greater speed and in more egregious ways than before. Look for the Republicans to offer up token resistance. Holder has withstood being charged with contempt of congress – his ‘big deal’ attitude over that charge has the R’s in a conundrum – they have no clear course of action. Nobody has come to lock Holder up – has he been served with papers?
Unless we can get back to being a nation of constitutionally based laws the ‘mob’ – as you so succinctly put it – are going to continue to forcefully find new inroads to corrupting this nation. Ignoring the Constitution (whats that?) seems to give them their greatest pleasure. You have to wonder why…
I agree with Cousin Dave. Right now conservatives play by Queensberry rules while progressives are using gutter rules – anything and everything goes. The most telling point from recent elections is the emphasis on “likely voters” vs “registered voters” under the hope that conservatives have a better chance if part of the electorate doesn’t bother to vote. This past election shows what happens when registered voters do bother to vote – conservatives are a minority and lose.
Conservatives need to “breed” or “create” conservatives and it will require the most blatant and unapologetic promotion of conservative values possible. To start with, every State with a Republican Government should begin the school year in Sept 2013 with a radically overhauled curriculum at all levels that promotes conservative and traditional values and beliefs. It’s time to go back to what created a center-right country in the first place and that was a patriotic and honest school system not undermined by PC and “A People’s History of the US”. I remember the outrage last year(?) when the Texas school board was developing new textbooks that didn’t include liberal propaganda. “It was an outrage” that liberal lies were not being included. A lot more liberals need to be outraged regularly, thoroughly and often.
The important point that needs to be remembered was brought up by Walter – in order to take back the country, conservatives are going to have to work at it and work together. Bury the small differences until you have a conservative juggernaut at all levels of government, then you can argue about the small stuff.
Exactly, and if they don’t like it, we can point out to them that there are plenty of states that have curricula they might like more. If they move, they take their votes with them.
No, the education system is an ideal candidate for the “parallel systems” to take root. The subjects and the emphasis you speak of can be done OUTSIDE the state schools. Stop taking your kids to football and dance classes. Start taking them to evening classes on US History and the Consitition. Add a course on critical thinking specifically using leftist thought as examples to deconstruct and refute. Examine the state curriculum, find the BS and use that in the course as examples. Why don’t the young know any better than to adopt leftism? BECAUSE THEIR FOLKS ABDICATED the need to teach the necessary skills and info.
Stop abdicating.
I SAID IT BEFORE — WE WILL BE IN THE STREETS. LATEST REASON- OR SO IT APPEARS IS THE COMPLETE ABJECT STUPIDITY OF THE HOSTESS BAKERS UNION, THEY JUST KILLED THEIR JOBS. TRUMKA AND COMPANY ARE ALL DUMB ASSES, REALLY DUMB ASSES.
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Hostess-to-close-lay-off-145-in-Oakland-4045280.php
HEY YOU GOOFBALLS CAN NOW BAKE OBAMA COOKIES, FULL OF HOT AIR!
“We must somberly accept that a century of patient, persistent, planned cultural corruption by self-styled progressives has rotted out from within what no external enemy could breach…We have to fundamentally transform minds. We have to counter the culture. We have to construct and coordinate a wide-ranging movement as pervasive and unrelenting as the Progressive insurgency of the previous century.”
This may be good advice, but somehow I’m not convinced we have so much time.
I agree, Currency collapse is less than a generation away .
What’s next? Collapse. Same as before the election, no matter who won. (It will be a little more quicker under Obama.)
Then what? That’s the thing about apocalypse, there’s an aftermath. What’s the plan for that? The blunt cynicism of the “here comes the collapse” observation is not particularly useful. Even after “collapse” (whatever that is), we will need to keep on living and pursuing liberty. Some future analogue of the Tea Party may be crucial to a new individualist revolution. Or, you can cynically proceed into the unknown with no plan for survival. Your choice.
Total collapse looks like Somalia, Mali or Zimbabwe, not Mad Max or The Road. Intermediate collapse looks like Detroit or Egypt or Venezuela. Read between the lines. The government of Barack the First can print money to cover whatever they need and they will. The rest of the world won’t accept that money and as we produce less and less we will spiral into the abyss of Africa-style life. People still eat there, people still work there, but there is no future there for anyone but the oligarchs. You survive there by staying out of the governments way. It’s where we’re headed and no Tea Party plan can change that. Your plan should be for yourself. Share your plan with like-minded others if you wish. We will never recapture the American Federal government. (Simple proof: On what day will the recipients of government largess, “the 47%” so to speak, demand the government give them less? QED.) This American carcass is dead. It has started to stink. Prepare yourself. The future is clear.
As bleak as your assessment is I have to agree. The chain of events leading to your scenario IMO has already reached the tipping point. How long until we are a third rate nation? Maybe never – maybe in 20-30 years – maybe in 5. Tough to tell. As long as the Fed keeps printing money and Obama keeps spending it like it grew in an orchard – well – sooner than later. The only thing propping us up at the moment is that for lack of anywhere else to put money people and countries are still buying US Treasuries. This fact alone should tell you how bad off the rest of the world is financially.
I hear it all the time from friends and family – ‘If only people would wake up and see whats happening – they’d change the tide of events’. I think the tipping point was hit in 2008 and not 2012. Once someone of devious ways (Obama fits that description) gets into power they can subvert the US to any means they wish. Used to be I’d have tacked on ‘any means they wish within reason’ but it seems reason has gone out the proverbial window. Having the MSM on your side doesn’t hurt either. No bad press.
You, we can wait for an apocalyptic collapse. One can’t plan for that or for after that. Chaos doesn’t bend to plans. Or if upon acceptance that a collapse is in the cards if we wait for it, the proactive stance is a war to corral it.
Ink, paper, posts, bits, bytes, electrons, elections, politicians and parties; if they could, would have already won the struggle.
The Revolutionary War was waged, fought and financed by around 8% of the populace; 1:12. They did not wait, nor could they have ever gotten a majority behind them.
We write tributes to history and shy away from its lessons.
The 1:12 figure from the Revolutionary war is the wrong figure to model. The correct figure is the 1:100? 1:500? 1:50? of the hard left which has bought the US to this pass. How many people are actually behind the success of the left?
1:12 is a lever, but the left has been using a far more powerful lever to get what they have.
When a British officer asked if the Americans dug in on Bunker Hill would actually fight, a friend of one of the “rebels” answered, “As to his men, I cannot answer for them;” replied Willard, “but Colonel Prescott will fight you to the gates of hell.”
Prescott was killed in the attack. The rebellion teetered on its last legs several times in the next 8 years — (Trenton 1776) “Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated” — and the end result was the greatest gift to mankind in history.
Yes, those are the men I want to EARN the privilege of walking with.
Thank you!
For some, the knowledge of a prolonged assault by the “left” for a century is not a surprise. The methods and resources by which it has been done have not been common knowledge . The need for reponse is critical. We must unite in purpose. The first need is to agree on a stated purpose. Then the enormous task of educating the group in the how-to of achieving the purpose. Unless every one is informed about how the “progressive” coalition achieved the takeover, it will remain the majority and dominant. Education should begin with defining words used by those who have espoused “liberal, “leftist”, “social justice”,”traditional American values”,and “reframing” social change. In order to learn those definitions, the lives and work of the individuals who provided them must be introduced. It is only in this way that a unity will be established among those of us who are ready to confront the “opponents” of constitutional government which has as its basis justice and liberty. Even those words have been distorted in the minds of so many who voted on Nov. 6.
There are many who have contributed to the ideology of progressivism. For a simple beginning, “don’t think of an elephant”, by George Lakoff, would quickly reveal the underlying theme and method spread by means of “community organizers” for the past 8 years. It actually had been instituted years before under various labels. Learning to respond to progressives with unity in one goal and one theme may take years but the latest “coup” did not occur overnight either. Are we willing to strive to preserve our nation, to prevent its decline and failure?
I’ve been preaching about “parallel institutions” for years: we need our own YouTubes and Twitters, free from the default liberalism and censorship that make those and other tools hostile to conservatives.
However, I don’t know about the whole “pay our taxes and obey the laws” stuff.
How’s about a tax strike? If we continue to feed the beast, what’s the point?
And the Left got what they wanted by breaking all kinds of laws, starting in the 1960s.
We HAVE our own YouTubes. PopModal, for example. Many became known when YouTube took down LATMA’s (Caroline Glick) “We Con the World”, Israeli satire of the first flotilla.
But how is preachingto the choir going to get us more people?
The point with the foundations is that conservative foundations were taken over by Leftists.
Never even heard of PopModal until you mentioned it. How does the functionality compare to Youtube? Who owns it? Why would you consider it conservative? (just not deleting a video with a conservative message is a pretty low bar and not sufficient)
Hey Kathy, recall the obsession that used to be up here with “The underground economy”? You don’t hear as much about it nowadays, but that offers a path for the US right to take- do business, just do it off the books- go Galt from the tax rolls.
Typically the underground economy takes place when there’s a monetary benefit to doing so (e.g. avoid taxes). Perhaps a good start would be to make it a principle- go underground even when there is no financial incentive.
Medical care is an excellent candidate for the underground economy. (basic care, diagnosis, etc, not surgery, obviously)
BC
What you are saying is very important and may be already happening to some extent. I work for a major health corporation. After Obamacare was passed in 2010 premiums went up, deductibles went through the roof and generally out-of-pocket costs were higher for all employees across the board. Those little pesky perks like not being turned down for pre-existing conditions and keeping adult children on policies until 26 made rates go up.
So now we get an email with an attachment. There’s about ten pages of physicians, family practices and specialists who have signed on to this ‘co-op’ type benefit. In exchange for our business and for the luxury of private insurance(they’ll do anything to avoid getting paid peanuts by Medicaid/Medicare)they will charge a low co-payment(15.00 for office visits – period and deductible does not apply).
This is how we beat back socialism/communism/government takeover of the marketplace
For example–in education we offer alternatives-many many conservatives I know are out of work teachers–start setting up groups that offer a real education-not community service and social justice marxism–underground education
Small businesses can band together — have meetings like the Tea Party
I don’t see any other way–
BTW: more proof that elections are b.s….
yesterday, the semi-conservative Mayor of Toronto — yes, far left, multi-culti, metrosexual Toronto — who was elected by what passes for a landslide two years ago, was kicked out of office by one judge, one famous far left lawyer and his far left client for…
Using the wrong stationery.
http://www.fivefeetoffury.com/2012/11/26/ezra-levants-must-see-take-on-the-disgraceful-rob-ford-decision-video/
It’s all a con, folks.
“Not showing up to riot is a failed conservative policy.”
Kate McMillan
http://www.SmallDeadAnimals.com
You know who hated the Tea Party most of all? The Republican leadership.
And that’s why TEA Party activists are winning big numbers among Democrats, right?
Try again.
Doesn’t mean he’s wrong, Micha. hate might be a strong word, but at the very least “resent the hell out of” would be accurate.
Contemplating alternative social structures brings up the somewhat ironic fact that the original Boston Tea Party and the gathering and organizing of pro-Revolution officers was largely done in private meetings in Masonic lodges. Set aside all the goofy conspiracy theories and recognize that the organizational form of Masonic lodges and other “secret societies” are really what is needed right now. The most active Tea Party group in the Twin Cities is out in Carver County. Bless their hearts, they meet weekly, have speakers, movies, and search for candidates, but they’re just not up to the level of organization that my local Republican Party can still muster. Nor are they able to conduct their business in private, without the prying eyes of people in the audience who don’t have their best interests at heart, and may be waiting to capture someone on a phone camera saying something inflammatory. We very much need the intermediate social institutions that have withered since the growth of the modern state. The old fraternal organizations are an excellent platform for doing so.
It does help to know what we are dealing with. Please also be aware that the accreditation bodies are targeting private schools to adhere to Vygotskyian socio-cultural theory instead of the transmission of knowledge. And the voucher legislation I have seen as in Louisiana opens that door wider. Until you understand that accreditation is the John Dewey social poison delivery system paid for with our tax dollars, we will continue to destroy actual Choice in the name of Choice.
http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/when-deep-learning-and-systems-thinking-radicalizes-the-student-factual-reality-ceases-to-matter/ explains precisely what the Education Vision is going forward in order to “equalize education for all students.” It is now very dangerous NOT to be familiar with the seminal blueprints.
And the use of foundations, in this case Hewlett, to push education policies that then flow indirectly but quite noticeably along an existing pathway to the parent business is increasingly common. I just read yesterday of HP’s participation in a May conference to create a different kind of Capitalism. One that isn’t. State Directed Cooperative Cronyism around Green Energy is NOT a different Kind of Capitalism. Much easier to obtain the sought social, economic, and political transformation if the foundations are pushing grants to take down Axemaker Minds and make the visual dominant instead of the intellectual.
Credentials without Genuine Knowledge are increasingly common on the Left. To combat that and build a coalition and create an ability to thrive we need Knowledge of what is going on and what the likely consequences will be. There has never been a more important time to be well-read, especially in history.
Hey Robin, agree completely with your last few lines. When I went to University, I chose economics because I was interested in the way the world works and why some are rich and others aren’t. What I got was an education which was systematically isolated from the real world and any historical context or examination. (Well, asides from the New Deal. That seemed to keep getting mentioned in glowing terms.) I never understood at the time why there was so much focus on theoretical mathematical models which didn’t relate back to the world-unless you assumed that everything else was held constant. I never understood why there was no discussion of “when people did this, this is what happened”. (Except the New Deal) I just didn’t understand. I learned everything useful in the first two years (about a third of my total courses in those years) and the rest was garbage. A few years after graduation I picked up Thomas Sowell’s “Basic Economics” and found what I had wanted in an economics ed degree. Real world examination of issues, clear logic, etc. I came to the conclusion that the university teaches as it does because examining economics in the real world does not support the conclusions they wish economics to reach.
If a conservative wants to study econ, he should go to George Mason U.
So, if I understand this correctly, we are losing because we are facing people who believe that the end justifies the means, and we need to be equally dishonest.
Okay, maybe we do.
P.S. As a social conservative, I will “work with others” as long as it does not include dropping my issues. Frankly, I would rather vote for a pro-life Communist than a pro-death Free Marketer. I’m suspect the libertarians have the same problem.
Luckily for you, communism is a death cult, so you shouldn’t have to worry about that. You cannot have a communist state without destroying the family and family values: that’s sort of the point.
The libertarians, however, and going to have to take a long, hard look at that 1% vote of theirs and decide whether they want to play ball.
If you value your ideas, you want them to live on, right? Politics isn ‘t religion, and it isn’t philosophy: it is a strategy. People might need to stop taking their vote so seriously in order to take their ideas seriously enough to fight for them. This is counterintuitive, but it is also reality.
Reality always wins. We say that a lot about the economy. We should look at elections the same way.
I think the biggest problem the libertarians have is that they continually look at social conservatives and social mores and see us slamming the door in the face of unrestrained hedonism. Now, I don’t know how many libertarians actually want a society of unrestrained hedonism, but they all seem to argue for it on general principle. I am not for disallowing them their vices on their own time in their own private places, but I am against unrestrained, if it feels good do it hedonism.
For on thing, I think that men who cannot govern themselves against their own natural urges when they must to maintain a standard of social decency and behavior in public will not be able to govern themselves in other, more important matters where I need to be able to absolutely trust them because those hedonistic urges will get in the way. And a society that cannot govern itself is a society that cannot be free. This is why the Founders recognized the importance of a moral society.
Libertarians should find unrestrained hedonism to be oppressive and thus wrong if done in a public square where the general public would be greatly offended by it. Libertarian ≠ libertine.
I do see a lot of similarities between leftism/Communism and the cults I’ve looked into. I think it might be helpful to treat leftists like cultists and expect them to behave like cultists.
Absolutely spot on!
Then you are Obama – he’ll listen to all new ideas (but won’t budge an inch from what he wants).
Some very good and thoughtful ideas. My main concern now is that 58 million people who voted against this commie in chief are going to give up and let the left rule over us. That cements their agenda forever and is just plain wrong thinking.
Right now the media once again is abetting this man and the libs by painting us as obstructionists and unwilling to pay our fair share. The fact is that the rich pay more than their fair share and if you implement ALL of Obamas wish list on the tax increases you net $80 billion a year in new revenue. We do not have a lack of tax problem. We spend nearly $10 billion a day that is approachig 3.65 trillion (yes) a year while only bringing in sligtly more than $2 Trillion in revenue. In a recession we will see our deficit continue to rise to $1.6 trillion. So how does Obama handle this spending problem of $3.6 trillion by increasing taxes $80 billion. (pissing in the wind is what I call it). Now that the math lesson is over why will not the republicans plant their feet firmly on the ground and shout from the rooftops NO NEW TAXES and CUT SPENDING NOW! This is the truth. Where the hell is the PLAN to address spending. Hint there is NO plan except to watch the republicans commit mass suicide. How about this plan for our side “By doing nothing all things will be done.” Yes I mean just lay out our arguments in the WSJ and Fox News and then just say nothing. Period until we see THE PLAN from the great one. This will take discipline since we have alot of dopes in the party who want to look like they are serious while doiing nothing effective. Now that Obama has won surely Reid will give us a budget and Obama will give us HIS GRAND PLAN. Until that happens lets let the bus race towards the non serious fiscal cliff because guess what? There is not fiscal crisis in the fiscal cliff. Yes tax rates go up but that is what the Republicans are already doing and yes spending in defense goes down while spending every where else goes up. At this point who cares. Just say no and make these creeps take responsibility for governing for once in their sorry ass lives. Repbulicans have lost the election. Lets not lose our souls too. Our objective right now is to survive to fight another day while grasping “teachable moments” like the present fiscal cliff to show the public the real problem and the real solution. That is the truth of it. Lets not lose the truth too. It is the only thing on our side right now.
Tune in, turn on, drop out.
Conservatives have to disown the media spoke-asses like limbaugh who present an image of conservatives who are full of hate. Conservatives have to communicate policy in a way that doesn’t insult people who disagree with them – if they want to convert people to change their minds.
Poverty exists only because of government policy that perpetuates it. This is the policy favored by the democrat party. If everyone was rich and paid taxes they would vote to lower taxes, this would interfere with democrat plans for bigger government and greater control over society. This is why democrats prefer policies that perpetuate poverty – because they can get votes at the same time they pursue their agenda for bigger government – by implementing programs that provide benefits to people, they get votes and require more taxes to pay for those programs. As taxes go up, the economy slows down and more people depend on the government for benefits.
Conservatives favor policies that lead to economic growth. When the economy is growing, companies expand and hire workers. As growth continues labor becomes in short supply and wages, benefits and working conditions improve. This reduces poverty but democrats hate this because it also reduces dependence on the government.
No matter what, honey, if someone is effective at demonstrating the hypocrisy, lies, and failures of the Left then he’ll be called “full of hate” by the Left and its fellow-travellers. Why do you swallow the Left’s lies about Limbaugh? What other lies from them have you swallowed?
Any chance you’re an administrator at Fordham?
Disagree. It does not matter what a rightie actually says, believes, implements or apologizes for. The left and the MSM will charge that a rightie is hate filled and a stealth fascist. The lie is too effective for them, to ever give up. It also puts the rightie in the unanswerable and impossible position of attempting to disprove a negative. See Stephen Harper here in Canada. The man has moderated to a ridiculous extent and could be termed a RINO in US political terms- the msm and left continue to demonize him. (I’m pretty dammed sure if asked he would not be saying anything nice about Rush)
Crack a thesaurus please and look carefully under the entry to “disagree.” I don’t think you’ll find the word “hate” listed anywhere under synonyms.
Proposing the impossible is not a solution. Anyone who sincerely believes a world without poverty is possible fancies himself wiser than Jesus Christ, who said otherwise.
In our dismay let’s not forget Thatcher’s dictum that the facts of life are conservative. A fiscal crisis or currency crisis or both is coming, which will put an end to the ability to fund the welfare state.
The country will then make a decision either to return to Reagonomics and growth, or to fight over the diminishing spoils like reservoir dogs.
I don’t know which way we’ll turn, but a tea party program should be guided by this likely near-future. We should be educating people in economics.
‘A tea party program should be guided by this likely near-future.’
The governments of the solvent states have already made their plans.
The tea party program needs to offer them better policy options for
private sector business and job creation, particularly in High-Tech
manufacturing. Generating new wealth is the sine qua non of survival,
without which nothing else can succeed in a successor state.
Agree times 1000. The parallel educational system must be based on this fact.
Mitt Romney was singularly unfit to capitalize on public opposition to Obamacare and he never created a narrative about how Obama was leading to the abyss and he would lead us back. He was too much like Obama to effectively oppose Obama.
The Republican Party couldn’t do better than Romney in 2012, but they couldn’t have done mch worse either. With the line up they were fielding in the primaries, they may as well have sat out this election.
2016 will be better.
There will always be a place for the Tea Party in American politics. Most people consider the Tea Party to be on the far right, with the Libertarians while there are other parties on the left, which all know well. The bad news is that the mass electorate rarely take many of these parties seriously. But if you look closely many of these parties eventually make their mark on “big party” platforms on many issues. And there is the reality that people still think they need to be taxed and things need to paid for, like social security, hence, they hesitate to support some of these parties wholeheartedly. Despite the last couple elections, I would advise the the Tea Party, do not give up !!
The Tea Party has to get organized and focused on winning local elections and local party seats. The rest will follow from that. Failing to do this, nothing will work.
We are doing that in my area, are you?
Here in South Texas we got US Senator Ted Cruz and State Senator Dr. Donna Campbell elected; ousting two establishment RINOs in the process. We also managed to keep Ken Mercer on the State Board of Education. Unfortunately, we tried and failed to oust the establishment RINO Joe Straus, but are now working overtime to ensure he is not reselected Speaker of the Texas House next session.
It took the Left 100 years to win the culture war, AND they had control of the schools and the media for much of that time.
Who thinks this country has the 100 years required to build a similar counter culture? Who thinks we have 25, on our current course?
Show of hands?
Here’s what the TEA Party does: Buy extra food, ammo, ibuprofen and aspirin, and hold on to your butts. When the wheels come off this sucker, it’ll happen “like a thief in the night”, look at how quickly the USSR, or Zimbabwe, fell apart.
Europe went from economic power house to economic paperweight in just a year or so, from a “normal” existence for most of its citizens to open rioting in the streets.
Like any other invasive species population’s growth curve, the number of takers in this country is about to begin to grow faster than the ability of the economy to handle it, if we’re not already there. Inevitably, the number of takers will pass the economic carrying capacity of the nation, and the resulting population plunge in the numbers of people getting government assistance will happen because the economy has collapsed beyond the point of being able to provide for anyone.
When locusts eat themselves out of food, they aren’t the only critters that get hungry, y’all. Get ready.
It has been 25 years since the left saw the implosion of their Communist projects in the USSR and Eastern Europe. What do you think that did to them at the time in terms of their hopes of success? Here we are 25 years later and they are on the edge of their penultimate victories. Take hope from that- if they could do it, so can the right.
It took them 100 years to get here- true. However they had to swim against nature to do it- all the time promoting and founding systems that FAIL. Always. Repeatedly. How fast could a counter movement succeed by pushing solutions and models that actually work?
It is problematic to compare the US with any of the former communist countries because our citizens are really well armed and theirs were and are not. A would-be dictator in the US has a good chance of colliding with some high-speed opposition.
How about the military dictum of concentration of force? We need to focus A target, a single (though quite all-encompassing) target, the one that is the ‘Iron Dome’ of the left.
How do we do that? Simple. Spend as many $100′s of millions as is necessary to send one huge message and hammer it home – YOU ARE BEING LIED TO, AND HAVE BEEN FOR DECADES!!!!
Lied to in your schools, in your colleges, in your news media, in your movies. Look around…. are you, are we, happy? Are we succeeding? You were TOLD we should be, are we? Or have you been LIED to all this time?
One minor example – “Bush lied, people died”. Now, suppose, just crazy suppose, an intelligent Republican Party had secured a few million dollars, created a full page ad quoting every single Democratic politician (too long to list here, pretty much every single one who mattered) who spoke of Saddam’s obvious involvement with WMD’s throughout the 90′s, actual or striving for. Now, imagine that ad run every Sunday in just three newspapers, the New York Times, the LA Times, the Chicago Sun-Times (or Trib). Run it every Sunday for a year. And when people are so sick of seeing it they want to throw up, then is the time to….. run it fifty more times! Just that one ad.
Gee, ya THINK that might have changed a few things in 2008? That one simple tactic? Because the bigger message of that ad for the reader is that the “Bush lied, people died” brigades ARE LYING TO YOU!!!!
This IS the cultural battlefield that so many are saying we either re-claim or give up liberty forever. One route or the other. The Left convinced the young et al that a heroic narrative of America was a lie. It shouldn’t be hard to return the favor, because they were lying at the time, and they still are.
And what would you do when they simply refused to run the ad?
Run it wherever it can be run, but one can start there. I mean, “Oh no, they refused, I guess we can forget the whole idea…..” , c’mon, please.
You get the picture. Start with them, but do whatever it takes. I find it frankly obscene that this was NOT done…. but then again, par for the course all too often, it seems.
You’re suggesting that a bumper sticker slogan can be beaten by a full-page newspaper ad? Among people who think in sound bites and bumper sticker slogans?
I’m not persuaded.
There’s a reason Twitter’s target market consider the 140-character limit a feature. It fits their concept-forming capacity, plus has room left over for their epithets.
After the technosphere crashes, only the Amish will survive.
No, the Amish have land and livestock and primitive farm tools, all the things that will be needed in a post-civilization. They’ll be attacked by the survivalists/anarchists and their stuff will be taken by force.
Not A newspaper ad, about hundred of them, hammered week after week after week after week after week after week after week after week after week after week after week after week after week after week after week after week….
Get the point? The GOP doesn’t, and here we are.
Why does the left win?
Because they NEVER stop. Never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never, NEV-er, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER stop. Never. That’s why they win, and will always win, until we start acting the same way.
What about an Oversight Committee of wise, patriotic men with the power to *force* the lying media to tell the truth, and to close them down if they won’t?
That’s kind of unrealistic, don’t you think?
Do you mean it’s not feasible, or that it’s not right?
Feasible. It just looks to me as if we don’t have much political power, so the “force” part is tough, especially since not many congressbeings other than Issa have a God-given pair, and he’s a little busy already.
umm….what about the First Amendment? Scrap it temporarily, or permanently, or what?
I’m Catholic; the First Amendment doesn’t apply to me. Good luck!
Tommygunn above describes the 10-1 shortfall in spending more than additional taxes. If the period used to describe the impact of spending/taxation were limited to 18 months or two years maximum, the message would be very clear. The politicians need to explain everything in terms of 10 years is grotesquely wrong
Greg:
So right. The 10 year narrative was invented by congressmen to back end load all the stuff they should be doing in the here and now. The dems will set us up by agreeing to all the spending cuts in year 10 while getting all the tax incrases now. Duh! Both parties are abusing us with this 10 year budget bull shit. What individual manages his finances on a 10 year model. It is pure crap and these jerks need to be called out on it.
Now is the time to focus on state politics and solidify the conservative advantage in Red states so that we can reestablish federalism. The GOP controls more states than do the statists. With states reasserting their 10th Amendment powers we can put the federal government back inside its enumerated powers box.
The TEA Party needs to focus its enormous energy and influence on the states. It’s obvious we can’t count on Congressional GOP to do what’s right.
Check my blog for much more on how federalism can save our republic.
Primary every R every time. Fight as dirty as the Democrats against the Democrats EVERY TIME. Stop… being the stupid party and start being the ‘Right’ party.
The problem in 2012 was that the people did not yet feel the crush of government spending. That was the fault of the republicans’ constantly caving and allowing Obama to fund massive spending with newly printed money. The left’s strategy was to get Obama re-elected before the bill came due.
Romney, as the guy who got his state health care passed, could not oppose ObamaCare with credibility. He was also the establishment candidate who picked apart more conservative alternatives. I voted for Romney, but others stayed home.
When our taxes go up, food and fuel prices go up, and we see how much we will pay for these new programs, the Tea Party movement will be revived. Kids with $150K student loans and no job will wake up.
Look to the red states for push back. These secession movements will morph into revivals of states rights. The notion that they would refuse to set up health care exchanges will spill over into education. State & local governments pay 92% of K-12 costs but accept expensive mandates that cost far more than the 8% they get in return.
It isn’t over. It’s not close to being over. Every representative and senator who caves will face a primary.
Yes, raising the federal debt limit again and again for King Zero’s benefit was a blunder.
2010 House Republicans, “But we haaave to do it! If we don’t the Democrats will call us heartless plutocratic meanies!”
Well, they did it and the demogogues called ‘em “heartless plutocratic meanies” anyway.
The Stupid Party. Their pols sold their souls and for what? Not for the whole world, not even for Wales, but so losers who’ll never ever vote for ‘em can have free abortions, contraceptive pills, Slutwalks and Obamaphones.
10th amendment, and find a way to stop liberals moving into conservative areas and destroying them.
Offer the left a bone….let each county in the US select their values and vote to live by them (progressive, conservative, libertarian). Only people from that particular “set” get to vote and make policy for that period. Once every 20 years, review and see what changes, if any, need to be made.
Everyone lives with the consequences of their actions. No one is allowed to use taxes from outside their own area to shore up bad policy decisions.
Let nature take its course.
It is too late to change the culture, a process which takes decades. What will change the culture, involuntarily, is the coming debt crisis which everyone seems to know will happen, but choose to believe it won’t.
While the author does offer a positivist approach for going forward (which I applaud), there are so many things wrong with the underlying assumptions and logic of his piece that it’s hard to know where to begin addressing them.
So…I’ll start here: “…Jeffersonian independence.” No, the left doesn’t have a clue about this concept. Not a one. otoh, The right sacrificed ‘Jeffersonian independence’ a long time ago. In fact, I’d say that the right doesn’t really begin to understand this concept. For just one example, of many: End the war on drugs. The right often claims to have a lock on morality, but uses the government to enforce it’s own sense of morality upon others. This limits the freedom and liberties of individuals.
That’s not ‘Jeffersonian individualism.’
Then, we’ll non-profit status for religions, which offers special protection under the law that is not extended to individuals. If one person pays taxes, everyone pays taxes. Period. Otherwise, individualism and personal freedom are negated for favoritism and special consideration under the law. e.g. End the 501(c)3 and other non-profit tax dodges and most of your problems with left-wing activist groups and organizations goes away. …including the Tides Foundation and its associates.
Supporting non-profits is not ‘Jeffersonian individualism.’
End the the present form of moneyed political lobbying. ALl of it, from left wing groups to right-wing ‘non-profits’ to the ‘military industrial complex’ to “J” Street, “K” Street and more. End all of it. Basically, these corporate types of political lobbying subsume the individual to the group. The right is as guilty as the left in negating individual freedom and personal liberty for group benefit in cases and issues like these.
Supporting such groups is not ‘Jeffersonian individualism.’
There is an almost innumerable list of such issues, concepts and assumptions to examine and re-examine in the face of such blanket declarations of support for ‘Jeffersonian individualism.’
‘Jeffersonian individulism’ is just one example of illogic to be found in the above article. The article is littered with such inconsistencies. Otherwise, it’s not bad.
Lobbying groups literally do give us a voice. Example: National Restaurant Association with its efforts to safeguard basic rights. Look them up. There are many other such PACs that do look after the interests of “the little guy,” meaning us voters who don’t have an easy entree at the table before congressional committees (think Sandra Fluke).
Some people think that smoking marijuana makes people so stupid that they become unable to understand that drug legalization is pretty low in importance compared to, say, the collapse of the United States of America as a functioning country.
So, what both of you are saying is that the public good takes precedent over the priate good.
Interesting.
You misspelled “pirate”.
I never claim to be a typist or a grammarian.
The typo should read: ‘private.’
In my case that is not what I am saying at all. Okay, I’ll make it a little easier for you. Take a look at this page. This is but one of many groups out there that are genuinely looking out for people’s freedom of choice.
Warren, I believe in free will. I think you should have as a priority whatever you have as a priority. However, if your priority here, today, is the legalization of marijuana, we be makin’ some judgments about your mental capacity and your moral compass, and whether or not yer bein’ our ally. Arrrrrr.
That’s the problem, dear. You think that it’s quite alright to use government to impose your own sense of morality upon others. (The left does the same thing.)
Read The Constitution from a constructionist pov. See also: enumerated powers, tenth amendment, etc. Where, in The Constitution, is the federal government given such power?
“You think that it’s quite alright to use government to impose your own sense of morality upon others.” I stopped reading after this lie of yours.
The federal laws against drugs are based on interpretations of the Constitution that are so egregiously bad that they could render the rest of the document meaningless. Many RINOs use the word ‘purist’ to describe those of us who believe that the fundamental laws of our Republic (as spelled out in our Constitution) should be strictly followed. The mortal internal dangers to our Republic ALL stem from abusive interpretations of the Constitution. Drug prohibitions are just one of many symptoms of the cancer that afflicts this Republic.
@warren bonesteel
Another Libertarian heard from. We are talking about a complex society here, not the wild west.
Under that argument, you won’t have any trouble with gun control, then.
Under that argument, you promote the needs of the many over the needs of the few. iow, it’s an argument for collectivism, which conservatives claim to oppose.
Which is the problem, you see… You claim to support freedom and liberty, but you really don’t. You actually support authoritarian collectivism, instead of The Constitution.
Well, I’ve been part of the counterculture for years. I fired public ed. and homescooled my own and now they are ALL homeschooling their own. I fired the local newspaper when I realized I was paying them to lie to me – how crazy is that? Now, NONE of mine subscribe to local papers. Turned the TV off when it became clear that ALL programming was propaganda – intelligent people can entertain themselves. Stopped supporting Hollywood when they started telling me how much they hated me – at this point I’m very selective but that could go the way of the TV as well. I spend my time and energy teaching virtue and Godly character to all comers. I have ALWAYS been an active participant wherever I have been planted – I am a conundrum to my leftist acquaintances, except for the ones that have converted.
The only possible difference I may have with some is that I regard the eternal as preeminent. The Here is a blip compared to the There but everything I do Here matters There. That is the base from which I operate – just like George Washington.
Problem- too many Conservatives tend to their knitting and withdraw when pushed.
Solution – Gumption. Get some. Live it. Breathe it. Model it.
problem-too many social conservatives don’t think our belief system is respected, nor our right to live the way we want, nor our voting choices.
Some things social liberals might want to consider:
Christians believe that our immortal souls are more important than money, so the “stfu about your silly skygod! This is about Moneyyyyy!!!11!” tack is offputting and unlikely to get you any allies. And, it’s more important to social liberals to get allies in this life. than it is for Christians because ironically, persecution for our faith is something that has a huge upside when it comes to Eternity (like Flannery O’Connor’s protagonist in “Temple of the Holy Ghost”, for most of us, our best shot at a good spot in Heaven is a quick martyrdom). Christians were used as human torches during Nero’s dinner parties so having to pay the Healthcare jizyah is small potatoes for us. Anyway, most Catholics believe that Our Lady of Fatima promised 95 years ago, that “Russia will spread her errors” but in the end, Mary’s Immaculate Heart will triumph.
Another reason social-liberals need socons more than socons need so-libs is the Roe factor of course. Prolifers have more kids aka future voters. This is of course a very practical way to win out, too: get by on one income so you pay less taxes, have a basketful of kids, and raise them without daycare while pretending to be sad that liberals are killing themselves off “Oh dear, Cher’s daughter has mutilated herself so that she can’t reproduce. Now that branch dies off; how vewy vewy twagic. And all those liberals in Maryland are marrying people of the opposite sex so they can’t have kids either. ohdearohdearohdear…gosh, those are really nice shoes!”
Also, I’m reading up on the history of Communism in the West: it looks like the Communists in the free world wanted to destroy Christian Americanism in order to soften the US for Glorious Communist Revolution (I’m told Cleon Skousen isn’t completely reliable but other sources point to his conclusions). Atheistic hedonism as a religion doesn’t look any more inspiring than atheistic communism. Isn’t it possible that liberals’ ideas on morality are just as screwed up as their ideas on economics?
My suggestion to everyone is that you think realistically about your goals and who you want to be your allies, and why (and why those allies would want to be your ally), and how you think you can get there. You might also look at how the Vatican has been getting rid of its Communist influence and getting back to being Catholic; conservatives of all kinds should consider them an ally just as Reagan did. (You need to know who in Rome is corrupt of course). Maybe someone like Sarah Palin could be a Lech Walesa-type? And of course prepare for economic disaster.
Oops, I meant *”marrying people of the same sex”, of course
So much for secession being a silly idea. This article is a proposal for an internal secession of a kind and I am sure we will be seeing more. We need to realize that offering only political machinations in hopes of a better future is the Left’s game and they recruit the kind of losers who have nothing better to believe in as long as they are thrown true scraps. We need to beat the Left the way the West beat the Soviet Union. Obvious enrichment on the freedom side and crushing poverty on the collectivist side. We need to figure out means to make each other mutually wealthier and the Democrats poorer. We need to be a class of ourselves and for ourselves and start emptying out and using to our advantage the very social programs the Left is erecting. We need to organize not just against the state but to educate ourselves for the best way to actively use it for our own ends. We are the high information voters which means we have an advantage in understanding the bureaucracy and changing it to line our own pockets. Cynical yes but since I believe Hayek is right that socialism inevitably leads to bigger and bigger groups becoming more and more violent in order to be the side that gets rather that the side that forcibly gives I would rather that this play out with the goal of restoring individual freedom rather than the totaliitarian state it usually breeds. If we are wrong and become as corrupt and cynical as they are better that we flourish than they do.
The “secession” thing disturbs me greatly, because the history of the United States is such that to turn one’s back on it in such a manner is a bridge WAY to far for me in general.
But I am all about “nullification” on 10th Amendment grounds. Between ObamaCare and the EPA, it is time for state legislatures, with a signature of the governor, to simply start saying “Under the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, we do not recognize the authority of the Federal Government to do X, Y, and Z, and therefore we will NOT comply. Period.” And “If our voters do not like this, let them vote us out and get new state leaders more to their liking.” I am betting they won’t so vote.
Let just one state do this, I guarantee others would soon follow… and then…? Well, hard to say, really. Obama gonna send the Army in? More likely, cut off federal funding, but a state could then divert federal tax revenue to make up for that, I presume. Then what?
I don’t know, but something tells me that current Democratic leadership may be mendacious, duplicitous, and power-mad as hell, but they would not have the serious balls to try to use force in such a case, and if they did, they may very well lose in they end.
Uncharted territory, yes, but…… well, every single step we take these days is pretty much that, is it not?
I think what you are proposing is more disturbing than secession. If you lose the popular vote (and if you don’t think they won’t find a mini-Obama to rule your state and throw lots of money at the worst part of society and make you pay you aren’t thinking Chicago style politics) then you are dead in the water and a much needed protest goes by the wayside. If you win and you stay out of the Union partially then the bluest of the blue states will legislate you out of existence by simply taxing your goods when they get past your border. Produce 10 widgets they’ll take six and call it even. They will take the goods for themselves and not wait for your money. Again if we are to win, we win by getting richer at their expense. Given a shrinking economy how else could anyone improve their lot anyway?
Hmmm. It’s actually a fascinating mental exercise, and I confess to pretty much winging it (uncharted territory), but here’s back atcha.
Who said anything about “staying out of the Union”? The whole point is NOT to go there. It IS to say, “We don’t recognize the right of, say, the EPA to de facto ban oil refining, etc”, and we will not comply, and then force the ball into others court. Will a California-New York-Massachusetts dominated (Dem) House or Senate then force the issue on said state? If so, that the onus is on THEM, and I say the state in question will NOT be alone. And that forcing will NOT come easy. Taxes against a state can certainly be retaliated against, and again, they would not be alone. And I am not certain how Nancy Pelosi’s Democrat party “finds a mini-Obama” to rule Kansas or Idaho or Texas. If they CAN, not only my scenario not workable, but I think we are then in fact doomed to utter collapse and/or large scale violence anyway, so no harm no foul for trying.
In the end, I think that there is more power out there for simply saying “NO!” than is realized. I don’t think Obama, or any other Americans, truly have the balls really go full jackboot, and I think they know it. It is why Orwell’s vision, brilliant though it was, is not the model for Democrat domination, Huxley’s is. It is not through the jackboot that they are ending our liberty, it is through the narcotic, of political correctness, vapid culture, feel-good politics, and free stuff…. and…. narcotics, I guess. A genuine and steely-eyed “NO” right in their faces might very well leave them flummoxed.
I cannot know, but at this stage, why in hell not try? Do we have MORE to lose than life, liberty, and 225 years of freedom that I am missing?
It is a fun exercise and it is very similar to how the original American Revolution happened as the colonists gradually disassociated themselves from Britain and the notion of being British and it actually turned out very well in the end so it is worth exploring.
The thing is if you are simply saying no to certain aspects of the Federal government you could conceivably say no to more in the future. It is a test of strength and don’t think it will not be seen as such. Just ask Nakoula and Zimmerman about how willing this administration is to find individuals to scapegoat when they need them. You are not officially staying out of the union but to a socialist you are defrauding society in the worst way. They are far more likely to forgive another 9/11 incident than a true tax revolt or revolt against regulation especially since Obamacare (and maybe even before) regulation is no longer guidelines that must be met but actual taxes levied without representation. We are getting into the issue of THEIR money and I believe they will start to show more balls than you are ready to believe they will. They will look for individuals and not states to punish. Better to say that we will either stay and get rich getting our share and if you don’t like it please explain why it is any different than what you do or declare a secession and let them fight a unified government or walk it back. A class of itself and aware of itself.
Why not both?
“Obama gonna send the Army in? More likely, cut off federal funding, but a state could then divert federal tax revenue to make up for that, I presume. ”
Well, Eisenhower did in Little Rock. Worked there.
And, how are the States able to divert Federal tax revenue?
The RNC & Mitt Romney did not tap into the Tea Party at all for 2012; in fact, Speaker Boehner remains resistant, although much of his caucus is Tea Party Republicans. The RNC, House Republicans, Senate Republicans & the Tea Party all need to work together for 2014 & beyond.
I like the idea of “Going Gandhi.” His quote was something like, “The British can’t control India if 350 million Indians simply refuse to cooperate.”
So, what if the 58 million Americans who voted for Romney found a way to not pay their taxes next year. I know the Feds have ways to hoover up money from our accounts, but there might be a way to make it sting for the Feds. Maybe pay taxes quarterly, and then, oops, not pay the last quarter and not file.
Some of us would go to prison, but they can’t put us all in jail.
The Government will select some to make an example of. Are you volunteering?
“That data suggest that 53% of Americans believe government has become too activist. ”
In general, but not for “me. ”
Look at old people that scammed themselves into believing the SSI payments were put aside for them in later life. I got news for you, SCOTUS said SSI is NOT insurance, AND the money has been spent. The other joke folly is that medicare payments cover healthcare usage.
What we have is redistribution of wealth from the unborn to the nearly dead. I bet a huge percentage of the 53% are old people collecting bennies.
BTW, this proves one thing more, the youths (voting for the status quo) are just as dumb as old people.
You make some great points about “dumb” people. Take for example the millions of young folks who flock to buy the latest techie products at ridiculously inflated prices and will be outdated day after tommorow leaving it depreciated almost immediately. Or take the young people who again buy all the highly inflated automobiles which depreciate several thousands of dollars the minute they drive off in it. How about all the young folks who run out and buy the absurd inflated housing that is well above their financial security means for social image status? Seems to me that the overwhelming national personal credit debt crisis is held by the young people. I could continue with a very long list of stupidity the younger people involve themselve in but I think you get the point.
Rather than condemning the “old people” for social security and medicare, maybe you’d be headed in the right direction by condemning the politicians who recklessly managed and destroyed the programs you speak of.
…were elected by those very “old people” who now fret about the looming bankruptcy of those looted and destroyed programs.
That’s right. Go look up the birth dates of the voters who re-elected LBJ in ’64, Nixon in ’68 and ’72 and Carter in ’76. Then check that against those “old people”. They broke it. They own it.
The ‘original’ Tea party initiative; smaller constitutional government, was one that could have been a catalyst for political reform across party lines. However, they chose not to have any centralized movement control and messaging. Instead, they chose to have a highly decentralized organization and messaging. This broughht out every kind of kook accross the nation representing a multitude of silliness and absurdity. Almost immediately the messaging became that of long settled social issues rather than relevant issues of the more immediate critical crisis of economy collapse, high unemployment, national debt and overreaching government.
Once the Tea Party was overtaken by the ressurected evangelical christian right movement, the original Tea Party lost its legitimacy by a large component of the GOP and for certain all of the democrats of the nation. It turned out to be one of the most devisive political movements in modern times. Their 2010 claimed gains will see a huge reversal come 2014 and 2016 election cycles.
The evangelical right movement needs to refocus taking their fight to their failed churches of the past 50 years rather than trying to rise up in government to facilitate their legislating evangelical christian issues their churches haved failed at. Talk about an overreaching and unconstitutional government! Thats exactly what the Tea party evangelical movement is all about.
Mmm, this is the kind of comment I was referring to, up a ways: Zeke’s comment is essentially “I’m not your ally”.
“long settled social issues” lol. Yes, God spoke quite some time ago on social issues.
With all due respect! I am not an ally of the current tea party evangelical movement.
Churches, protected by our constitution, have the Bible as their construct. The federal government on the otherhand, have the constitution as their construct.
All U.S. citizens are bound by and to the U.S. constitution not some particular religious values. People of any religious morality can participate in the federal government but, they cannot manage the government outside of the constitutional restraints.
The Tea party evangelical movement and platforms for government controls is contrary to the U.S. Constitution — period!
In the states where the Tea Party claims 2010 victories, over 1,100 legislative ‘social’ bills have been introduced. All social bills with Christian religious underpinnings.
Where in the U.S. Constitution or any states constitutions does it allow for the governments to legislative any particular religious beliefs upon the people?
The U.S. and our constitution was founded specifically, to grant individual religious freedoms apart from government dictates!
Recently and at a great price, our nation and our military constitutional loyal servicemen and women have been involved in wars with two nations within a region where the governments dictates religious and social values. Listening and watching the Tea party evangelical movement, one has to question whether they’re allies with the enemy or whether they really do stand for our constitutional individual freedoms fo religion apart from government.
I’ll stand for our constitution and leave to the churches to handle their decades of moral failings.
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
That’s John Adams speaking, Zeke, so it would appear it is YOU who are the problem, not the group you disdain.
Barbara, I try hard to respect everyones opinions and the basis from which they may form their opinions. However, in looking at your comment and the probable basis of your opinions I note a major discrepancy.
The constitution was a product of much, sometimes heated debate often times centered around religious issues. That said, the founders had only one central purpose for coming together and forming a new Republic now known as the United States of America — a new nation free from the religious dictates of a government. From all their debates, they made certain they constructed a constitution that protected all individuals collectively from any government dictates of religion and religious issues. That said, they did preserve as all historical societies have, the granting of government to enact certain laws governing certain types of social behaviors — not encaptioned as religious beliefs.
It is not the government who has failed the nations people and their moral beliefs. It is the churches who have failed the people – or maybe the people have failed their churches indoctrinations. Either way, the constitution does not grant to any government the powers to represent and dictate any religious beliefs over the people.
So, people have a choice. They can either represent an allegiance to our constitution and its literal purpose or defy it. There are a good number of nations who dictate religion and religious beliefs and I can only pray that this nation does not become one of those.
Again, the issues of a religious social morality breakdown belongs with the churches and their flocks — not the government.
Zeke, I am a supporter of the US Constitution because I choose to be. I am a member of God’s world because he chose me. The difference is that one can find constitutional legality in the murder of an unborn child, but try as you might you cannot escape gravity no matter how it is legislated. God made the later, man made the former. So don’t push your line too far. First I belong to God without choice. Second the constitution belongs to me only by my choice. If the lefties keep screwing with it I tell you it is worthless. Abortion is murder even if some half wit read it in the constitution. Government mandated health care is nowhere in the constitution unless the reader is functionally illiterate. The Kelo decision is nowhere in the constitution either. You may be on the supreme court Mr. Roberts but you are illiterate. Don’t push that constitution line, Zeke, as it is rapidly becoming a worthless document.
Didn’t happen in this universe. Go back to where you came from, Zeke.
Sorry, Micha. But you’re wrong. In 2009, the Denver Post identified six different Tea Party groups here in Colorado. At least three of them had been co-opted by the religious right. I think that Zeke has a point; the country needs more Constitution and less Bible.
“co-opted” is an interesting word choice. Some people showed up with guns and forced everyone out of the room? Or did those “d@^^# Christian breeders” show up in greater numbers and enthusiasm, than those who think Gramsci’s “ways of weakening Christian American society in order to pave the way for Glorious Revolution” are a good idea?
Jeanette, if you recall the 80s when the “Christian Coalition/Moral Majority” tried to overtake the GOP agendas you would be able to easily identify who they are today. Mostly the same political and church players with a few younger ones today. This time around the church players didn’t want to be as public in front of the cameras as last time because they didn’t want a repeat of being made fools of in public as they were in the 80s.
I could list most of them for you but then I’m rather certain you know most of them by now. One can do a search for evangelical political agendas to get a better picture of how they think the government could and should be used for their religious and social causes. Then consider the fact that the ‘majority’ of americans including those who claim to be religious do not align with them politically. Rightly or wrongly, they and much of their flock have a horrible image and credibility problem and lack any political strategy skills.
Ironically, it has been many churches and their leadership throughout more modern times that have been the behind the scenes driving force to americas socialist transformation. So as usual throught all history, it is churches and their doctrines at war with each other and trying to leverage governments for their dominate power and control. Our constitution however, was designed by religious men to protect our nation from such government uses and abuses.
Yes, yes, yes, I read all your other rants against Christians, too. You didn’t answer my question, though. There wasn’t a Tea Party then, and likely the same thing happened then, too. And the infiltration of Catholicism and other Christian denominations by Communists in the 1930s is well documented (with ordinations in the 1940s and then coming to positions of power in the 1960s, it isn’t surprising that “Operation Outstretched Hand” recruits advocated communist practices like they were supposed to)
And what is it, exactly, that causes you to think that the moral dismantling of American society as advocated by Gramsci (before his deathbed reversion to Catholicism of course) is a good idea, but that the fiscal dismantling of American economics as advocated by other Communists, isn’t?
Another anti-Christian bigot being “reasonable.”
Talk of people going off and starting some parallel structure of social organization as an alternative to the established government and society ignores the fact that doing so relies upon the cooperation of all involved.
Not going to happen.
Government is able to maintain and perpetuate itself through a monopoly on the use of force. Government is force. It doesn’t matter what kind of government you’re talking about. All governments are founded upon the concentration of power and force. The only thing that makes a Republic different from a Monarchy or a dictatorship is in deciding which individuals are given the authority to exercise that force, for what duration, and under what circumstances.
Government has the ability through its monopoly on force to guarantee cooperation, or at least limit non-cooperation. Stop paying your taxes and people who don’t even know you will come to your house or place of business and make your life hell. Violate the dictates of the state as expressed in legal statutes and other people, this time armed, will come abduct you and put you in a cage. They’ll do this almost without even having to be told because the are an organ of the state.
Without this kind of coercive authority, and perceived legitimacy, any imagined parallel power structure will fail the very first moment there is any sort of disagreement about how things should be done. This is why coalitions fall apart the moment that the overriding concern that has brought them together ceases to matter.
This is why collective action problems are so intractable and why government is almost always the only entity capable of addressing them.
The notion of going off and starting a new country is a nice fantasy, but it isn’t going to happen. The notion of doing so within the midst of the country that currently exists here and now is really not going to happen.
That being said, the notion of taking the tactics and strategies of the Marxists and using them is a good one. The left has spent decades working to destroy our nation and our culture from within while we stood around and scratched our heads, wondering what the hell was going on. Good people are often stymied and confused by the actions of the persistently evil. Unable to grasp how or why anyone would do what the left has worked so hard to accomplish, we’re literally stumped on how to respond because we can’t quite believe what is happening. This needs to stop and stop now. The left is evil. That is its nature and that is why everything it touches turns to rot. If they are trying to do something, you can rest assured that the outcome will be the opposite of what they promise, and that this opposite outcome is in fact deliberate. The useful idiots that the left employs as foot soldiers are sincere in their belief in the left’s cover-story pretended goals, but then that is why they are useful idiots.
The biggest problem that we face however is that of PR. Our own public identity is not one that we choose, but that is chosen for us by the enemy. So many ordinary Americans have been convinced through repetition of slanders against us that we are racists (and many other things as well). Most interesting of all, this is in spite of the fact that the term racist has almost ceased to have any actual meaning. It has been so misused and overwrought as an accusation that it is little more than an ad hominem that the left trots out when they can’t muster a valid argument. Its actual meaning, animus towards or discrimination against someone on the basis of their racial background, almost doesn’t exist anymore. But the emotional pungency of that term remains in the hearts of those who hear us accused of it, and so we’re given a bad rap, convicted of being unsavory sorts on the basis of a baseless accusation alone.
We contribute to this by playing along. Leftists accuse us of racism and we immediately hop and step to their tune, proclaiming that we are not and dragging forth intellectual arguments to prove our case, failing to see that the left’s accusation is not founded upon logic or reason in the first place.
What we should be doing is ridiculing the left. Making fun of them. Satirizing their accusations so as to unmask their absurdity. Instead of becoming angry and indignant, laugh at their absurdity. Make the very accusation an indictment of THEM.
My county is mountain rural, conservative, and has one of the highest concentrations of TEA Party in the Republican structure that I know of, with about 1/3 of the County Central Committee and precinct chairs being TEA Party. We have two TEA Party groups in the county, not hostile to each other, just with slightly different emphasis’ and base areas.
I will note that the economic collapse is already starting in my county. I personally know of 5 small businesses that have shut down, or are in the process of shutting down, due to the coming increased taxes and the costs of Obamacare, in my town since November 6. One of which, closed its doors and started pulling out fixtures on November 7.
Last night, I made a presentation to one of the groups and will attempt to make the same presentation to the County Republican Central Committee meeting tonight. Our county went heavily Republican, and our County Chair has publicly credited the GOTV efforts of the TEA Party. But our state went for Obama and we gave the both houses of the Legislature to the Leftists.
I spent time during early voting through the aftermath of the election looking for election fraud. I opened the presentation with this from National Review Online:
http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/333167/407000-votes-four-states-away-presidency#
The margins that determined the presidency were well within the margin of fraud. And there is more than a little evidence of fraud. I ran down the 100% one-sided “calibration errors” in voting machines in every swing state including our own, the statistically impossible results in key areas that gave outcomes that would make Stalin blush, the physical seizures of polling places and forcible removal of all Republican election judges with no consequences, the voter turnout and registration impossibilities that affected the election [in our state, 17 counties have more registered voters than people of voting age according to the 2010 census. The normal registration percentage is within one standard deviation above the median (50-68%)], and closed with the case of St. Lucie County in Florida, where the voter turnout AVERAGED 148% of the registered voters in every precinct [lowest precinct turnout of 113%, highest of 159-160%]. That last being Allen West’s Congressional District. This was a case where even a semi-accurate recount would have given us his Congressional seat. Why didn’t the Republican Party jump in screaming like a ruptured eagle?
It turns out that I had found the answer to that the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I commend to your attention this link:
http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/2012/11/15/why-the-gop-will-not-do-anything-about-vote-fraud/
and the link contained within [trying not to overload this post with links and anger the spam filter gods] to a case decided by the US Third Circuit Court of Appeals, Case No. 09-4615; Democratic National Committee -v- Republican National Committee.
Short form: In 1981 the New Jersey Republican party tried to create a challenge list of fake voters by mailing sample ballots to people on the polling list, and the ones returned as undeliverable were to be challenged. In addition, the Republicans had people at the polls wearing armbands saying “National Ballot Security Task Force”. The Democrats sued, claiming Voter Rights Act violations because some of the people receiving the ballots and some of the people coming to the polling places were protected class minorities. The suit was against the entire Republican Party, nationwide, at all levels.
The Republican National Committee signed a nationwide consent decree agreeing among other things; NOT to do anything in reference to Ballot Security or Vote Fraud without advance permission from the judge.
In several cases after the consent decree was signed, there were Republican attempts to catch vote fraud, and they were brought by the Democrats back before the court. The latest order was entered on December 10, 2010. It reinforced the original consent order, extended it until at least December 1, 2017, and defined the forbidden “Ballot Security” as:
We are left with massive vote fraud [keep in mind that the stuff I found was literally the tip of the iceberg and that the media covers up Democrat fraud reflexively], and a Republican Party that can not and will not oppose it. The existing margin of fraud is arguably beyond the ability of being countered by electoral means. You do not need “beyond the shadow of a doubt” proof to question the legitimacy of an election and the government installed. “Reasonable doubt” is enough to question the validity of an electoral process.
The TEA Party functionally allied with the Republicans during the election, as while Romney was far from a Constitutional Conservative, Obama was and is an enemy of the Constitution. The question I raised is if further involvement and connection with a Republican Party that has changed its rules to limit grassroots participation in the nominating process and has accepted a level of fraud that means no hope of winning, is in the interest of the TEA Party; or should we go our separate ways? I noted that once a group wins an election by fraud, they dare not allow an honest election ever again.
The group consensus was that the county clerk was going to get a lot of visits and registration changes soon. And that preparations for the hard times to come, politically and economically, take priority. No concrete plans for a restoration of the Republic can be made, as you have to survive the short term to plan for the long term.
Sorry about the length of this post, but the subject seems to be on point.
Subotai Bahadur
From your description, I am not in your state, but I am more than willing to join a different party. Unfortunately, the only other one around right now is the Libertinarianism Party.
I’m sure he’s talking about VA.
I note that a consent decree by the RNC would not be binding on a private party or another legitimate party- even if it only existed to challenge the legitimacy of the election. What it would take to be a “party” probably varies by state.
Why did the progressive win so dramatically this time? Many on this thread say because they have been working on it for 100 years. But this assumes that they have been well organized and well focused for 100 years. How likely is that? What if they have won only because their favorite trajectory is from freedom to serfdom, which appeals to the worst impulses of the human nature? If that’s the case, we might as well say that they won because the law of gravity was on their side!
If this is true, why should we imagine our predicament as the consequence of a clever conspiracy of the progressives having heroically managed to follow the easy path? If we want to be practical, so we may become effective, why not work earnestly and diligently on putting high aspirations and the wisdom of the ages back into the culture? If we ever succeed, it might be because we will have managed to restore the cultivation of virtue, ambition and personal freedom into the educational institutions, the only possible fountain of wealth and prosperity! Go tea Party! Don’t fall in the trappings of conspiracy theories, cynicism and fatalistic thinking! What if education becomes an on-line industry open to grass root efforts, because we bothered to work on it? Great possibilities do not have to perish just because the cultural decline reaches some particularly alarming threshold.
“Wolverines!” was the battle-cry of the rebels in Red Dawn, derived from the mascot of their school.
Since so many TEA-Partiers fly the Gadsden Flag, are we “Rattlesnakes”?
Mr. Hudson,
That “Protest and politics failed.” is obviously true. But “Time to revive the culture.” is far more difficult than engaging in protest and politics. Americans no longer share a common background. Does an immigrant enter this country because he or she holds the political beliefs prevalent here? No, not always. That person comes to us with his own worldview, often favoring socialism. And our native-born young have become indoctrinated in the same beliefs by their course through our school systems.
The Left had been operating their front groups a century before the Tides Foundation was created. Consider this: 90+ percent of journalists, university instructors, public school teachers, all of whom act as our information gatekeepers, are communist sympathizers/fellow travelers. Would this have occurred without a plan and funds to carry it out? The Tides Foundation is just one small node in their money network. Most of the older foundations have been subverted to their cause. Interestingly, many of those were created by men who were referred to as captains of industry during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Who, besides the Koch brothers, will fund the opposition?
One necessary first step in order for conservatives to make some headway in the propaganda war waged by the left, is to end the perception that we intend to outlaw abortion. Sure, the crown jewel of the Democrat party is disgusting and immoral, but applying the same logic to what we so often say about firearms: If abortions are outlawed, only outlaws will have abortions (in back alleys, of course). Evangelicals won’t be happy, but will not switch their vote to the party that celebrates abortion.
The next election should be about power. Follow the money. Money flows to power just as sure as water flows downhill. If we want to bring prosperity back to the people and back to the middle class, we must return power to the people. There are three main types of power. Power of desirable ability, power of persuasion, and power of authority. Until we make the narrative about what limited government really means we have no story. Until a republican ask the question what is the total amount spent at the dept of education divided by the total number of students in the US. Our problem is mis-allocated resources. Any Joe can understand this it is not rocket science, but we have two political parties neither of which is interested in limiting power in Washington. Ross Perot ran on a 3rd party ticket and garnered 19% of the popular vote. I think the right outsider could mount a formidable campaign.
If real progress (sorry about using that word, but I am using it in its proper meaning) is to be made in reviving the waning American spirit, the enemy is postmodernism, the evil that has foisted upon this world the hideousness that is political correctness and the (I believe) poorly understood area of “critical theory” that has seriously undermined, well, pretty near every institution in the once-free world. An example: Critical Race Theory, the crackpotted and horrendously racist notion that that Professor Bell dude who was The Won’s mentor at Harvard (remember the video?) dreamed up.
In other words, we have got to begin our own “long march through the institutions” to borrow a phrase from Antonio Gramsci, the evil Communist genius who developed the intellectual underpinnings of much of the mess the world currently faces, and about whom “Alan Caruba writing for CNSNews says about Gramsci,
“… a dedicated communist, wrote a book setting out a strategy for taking over strong Western democracies by infiltrating their churches and educational system, as well as a nation’s media. Communism could be imposed by turning churches into ideologically-driven political clubs. Educational systems had to be dumbed down and offer a politically correct curriculum. Mass media had to discredit traditional institutions such as marriage and commonly shared moral values.” I would say he was quite successful
I do not think anyone will suggest our battle will be an easy one, but I believe it will not take as long as the commies’ enterprise took because our side has logic, value and ethics behind it, things that the left had to first destroy before they could succeed in their nefarious game. I believe, in fact, I have to believe that the natural state of rational man (that is, the man of the Age of Enlightenment, the age which spawned the American Experiment) is one where value, logic and ethics are supreme. [If I didn't hold fast to that belief I do not think I could carry on.]
To wrap this up, the answer is really very simple in concept: we must instill in the younger generations the skill of critical thinking. This is the one skill — the only skill — that will protect the kids from the horrors birthed of postmodernism, and what is likely the only way to return to a world of values.
“‘Mass media had to discredit traditional institutions such as marriage and commonly shared moral values.’ I would say he was quite successful”
That’s where I think we can start: social liberal/fiscal conservatives are essentially arguing that Communist-inspired dismantling of traditional morality is good, but the Communist-inspired dismantling of fiscal conservatism is bad. I’d like to see a reasonable defense of why Christian Americans are wrong in thinking that both are a bad idea. (“Reasonable defense” means from our POV, so the usual “I hate you stupid socons, I wish you’d stfu and vote the way I want you to vote, you stupid worthless sluts are nothing without me”/”abusive boyfriend” argument doesn’t work, as it turns out.)
Jeannette: that’s because Liberal Capitalism, Socialism/Communism, and Fascism all of them end up developing a world without God. Our GOP politicians had 12 years under Regan/H.W. Bush, and 8 years of G.W. Bush and yet at the federal level abortion laws remain unchanged. Just an example that it is all OK with them. The two-party system is good but the GOP/DP system is a ruse, a “good cop, bad cop” act to keep people happy with false options.
Critical thinking is good but the problem is not Postmodernism. Post modernism does not really exist. What we call Postmodernism is in reality the apotheosis of Modernism. Roughly the last 500 years of Western Civilization have been invested in a systematic rebellion against authority. Before Modernism we had the Aristocracy on one side and the Church on the other with the People submitting to both of them: one in the temporal realm and the other in the spiritual realm. Pressure resulting from (1)the advance of Islam from the East, (2) the progressive disorganization of the Church that started with the German Reformation, and (3) the growing influence of a commercial class organized as corporate entities lead gradually to more and more radical forms of rebellion. While this process took place over the centuries philosophical thought deteriorated. Eventually even Reason was attacked and finally about 1968 all authority was questioned, and transgression became a virtue to be celebrated. In my humble opinion the American Revolution is NOT like the French Revolution. The first is an anomaly while the second is a natural consequence of the forces unleashed by the Modern Age. It is true that many of the Founding Fathers read Rousseau, Montesquieu, etc. but it seems to me self-evident that they did not borrow ALL of the ideas of the Illuminists. It rather seems that they picked some that they judged useful and dismissed more than they actually adopted. There lies the fundamental difference that makes me think that the American Revolution was an exceptional anomaly: “A Nation under God,” and “In God We Trust” are definitely NOT in tune with the ideas of the Illuminists.
Taking a bird’s eye view of the last 500 years of history one can easily distinguish a gradual deterioration of the natural social structure of the world that peaks about 1914 (with the end of the Old European Order and the fall of the Empire in China.) Between 1914 and 1968 there is a sort of rearrangement where the different factions of triumphant Liberalism dispute about how to distribute the spoils of the assault on the Old Order. The political fight between Liberal Capitalism and Liberal Progressivism is only one aspect of that melee. The Liberals were barely getting organized when their grandchildren orchestrated the 1968 Revolt. Since Popes and Kings were by then reduced to mere figureheads without real power… the 1968 rebels simply attacked AUTHORITY as a concept. Gramsci (who–like Lavoisier–repented shortly before his death and died a Catholic) proposed a course of action that was even more radicalized by the following generations. Gramsci proposes the takeover of the post-war order by the Left. He did not propose the destruction of all order and authority. In that sense the current aims of the Left are post-Gramscian: the subjugation of the moral order to the State and the eventual suppression of all dissent that will lead to the destruction of Religion and Political Discourse by the imposition of a narrative of reality in which the State is at the same time the Church and the only Political Party with one single ideology imposed as the only valid “truth”. The latest and greatest version of that concoction is what the American People apparently voted for in the last elections. Leviathan is King and Pope. God save us all.
I meant to say “Voltaire” and not “Lavoisier”. These things come with an aging brain. Sorry.
Excellent piece. Where do I sign up?
A small step towards pushing back would be, during the next round of primaries, not to choose stupid and/or crazy people as the Republican candidates. Ignorant or nutty primary candidates who were chosen to represent the Republican Party lost us four senate seats in 2010 and 2012. Of course the MSM made sure the whole country knew about these people, which certainly cost us votes elsewhere too.
If you think having a baby after having been raped is God’s will, then please think that it’s His will that you keep your idiotic views to yourself. If you are so pig-ignorant as to think that after a “legitimate [dear God!] rape,” a “woman’s body has a way of shutting that thing down,” please confine your absurd views to yourself. Unless, of course, you are a plant from the Democrats.
And no more former witches, please.
-Jeannette- Two things in response to your latter comment to me.
The religious right/christian coalition should direct their movements towards the churches and not the government.
Like many in the movement, they seemingly have little regards for the constitution and its intent towards religion being in the power and control of the federal government or any states governments.
I live in the deep south. The community I live in (40,000+) has a church on nearly every corner and many inbetween. People here flock to their church 6 nights a week and twice on sundays. There are two nudy bars and a few restaurants who serve booze. The community is almost evenly divided GOP and democrats with a slight edge to the GOP because of a major military base. The community has a low morality base of about -10 on scale. High crime, high poverty, high uemployment, high teen and unwed births and the worst labor pool one can imagine. Local jail is above capacity as are the areas prisons. The only church in the county not represented in the criminal courts, jails and prisons is the single Mormon church.
All of these issues run rampant in most of the south just as it does in communities across america. Yet it is within most of these kinds of demographics that the Tea Party foundations and movement rises up from to demand a dominating presence of all that is righteous for america and its government.
I guess I just have a real problem with hyprocisy.
What I am is a “Crappy Catholic”, not a hypocrite. My inability to be a very good Christian doesn’t make the ideal wrong.
A mature Christian has moved from “that ‘God’ fellow wants me to go along with all these lame random rules” to recognizing that God loves each one of us beyond our ability to fathom, so He has given us an “owner’s manual”.
When people honestly meditate on each of God’s suggestions (He gave us free will so of course no one is forced to obey), they realize that mistreating our bodies, minds and souls does damage to ourselves and those we love.
Using self-control in our daily lives makes us better people. If everyone tried his best to withstand his temptations, our society would be a much better place. I don’t know if you’re old enough to remember, but when most people lived Christian lives, life went a lot more smoothly. Do you remember when people used to stop for cars broken down along the highway? When my sister bought her house, they old owners didn’t even have a key to give her (very small town, but still). The problems like racism caused strife because that isn’t Christian, no matter how many Christians attempted to justify it. We don’t need expensive government programs if people live out the Beatitudes!
It looks like some of the evangelical denominations haven’t moved any further than “Because God said so and you’ll burn in hell if you don’t obey” but Catholicism has gotten better in my lifetime, of explaining why She considers liberal social behavior to be sinful.
Enjoyed reading that response. I do have a slightly better than average point of reference in american life than most on here. I was born 11/27/1934.
Quoting 47. Chris in Toronto:
“…we must instill in the younger generations the skill of critical thinking.”
How many of us are willing to undertake home schooling of our young, or else find a second job to pay for their tuition? Perhaps a third alternative would be cooperative education, whereby good friends share in task of teaching their collective broods.
My own family has no cable TV service. Instead, we bought a small device to connect between our 48 inch flat screen and a broadband internet service. The box provides a convenient interface with remote control, for navigating to internet sites like Netflix and Hulu, and other thought-stimulating media as well. Someday, entrepreneurs will flood the home with low-cost educational resources. Very soon, I believe. Combining such material with e-book readers (accessing many thousands of free public-domain works, including all the classics) may provide a basis of learning for the whole family.
“data suggest that 53% of Americans believe government has become too activist” Yeah, and then 2010 came and what happened? State legislatures across the country passed bills mandating vaginal probes of women regardless of doctor’s wishes. Too activist? Look in the mirror Tea Partiers.
A point I try to make continusously! Talk about hypocrisy! The only difference between their political ideology for government are their issues.
My husband has a book about the tribal culture of the Middle East. (The title escapes me, I am at work.)According to the author, the idea of nomadic tribes arose out of the frustration of oppressed groups of people. Their societies from ancient times have been ruled a very long succession of often cruel, greedy dictators (emperors, sultans,kings,and so on) who habitually came in and took people’s land and possessions at random, often by violence and murder, or just laid very heavy taxes on them. So people became nomads to put themselves out of reach of the government. Hey,if you can’t find me, you can’t take 90% of my earnings as taxes and starve me and my family. Perhaps those of us conservatives who can could do the same: reduce our possessions to what we can bring along, and move frequently,and earn money with odd jobs or selling what we can make for others to buy. The Feds can’t oppress you or tax you at 70% if they don’t know where or how to get hold of you.