RedStateEclectic

Where's Our Representation?

Over at The Daily Bell, a paragraph hit home:

So here is our theory. We think that those most invested in the economic status quo need a new face. The current right/left paradigm (which is really two versions of a state paradigm) isn't working. Anger is building. A real dialogue led by anti-statists is expanding. The left is well-represented but there is no "right" - or not one that is satisfactory to those who lead America behind the scenes. Thus there is an urgent need to repackage the political conversation so that a left/right dialogue may continue on fairer terms.

The debate within our illustrious two-party system seems to now be about how best to control the socialist reigns of power - not whether such power should exist. Hence, we continue our struggles to remake the republican party into a vehicle for the changes we desire.

The author of the piece above seems to think that Sarah Palin is resigning her governorship to do just that. While Governor Palin was instrumental in getting me my wonderful RSE mug, I don't recall being all that enamored with her performance as McCain's veep choice. In fact, she seemed to take on the role of neocon too easily when approached for the job.

The "green shoots" that I hope to see are political rather than economical in nature. I long for the day when a Rand Paul or a Justin Amash gains the traction they so much deserve for their grounded message and incredible insight concerning what our republic should be about: the rule of law.

Sarah Palin has the name recognition but is she really small government? She may be playing to the status quo/big government sect which would mean that she is more of a menace to our cause rather than a boost. At some point, the aging Dr. Paul (may he live to be a hundred) will have to pass the baton. Does it stay in the family (sure seems like it could)? Or does it go elsewhere?

Rotten Tea, Part 3

Herein lies my main concern: Can there be a reconciliation between small-government libertarians/republicans and status quo/big-government republicans? It doesn't seem possible. There may be areas where agreement can be reached but, ideologically, the two groups are not the same and the small-government types will be far less inclined to go-along-to-get-along based on the track record established during the republicans' previous reign of power (power which they grew and consolidated).

This puts the democrats in a good position and also makes the point that the status quo/big-government republicans will have to move further left to garner votes so that their side can rule again. There may not be enough small-government types in existence to stem the majority.

But, like Angela and Laura wrote, we must try and the best way to do this is to show up.

Rotten Tea?

I recall Eric Parks' reaction to the Tea Parties on Tax Day in April that they had an overwhelmingly 'Republican' feel in South Carolina to them and was pleased that ours in Grand Rapids did not leave me with that impression. Our Tea Party (despite being sponsored by the Kent County GOP) basically went after all the politicians and only one showed up to speak to the crowd. There was a decidedly anti-tax, anti-establishment feel to the festivities probably due in some part to the active work of Campaign for Liberty members who helped put things together.

At the Tea Party Saturday (July 4) some Grandville residents wanted to circulate a petition to remove the city from the bus taxing authority (essentially a 1.12 mil tax cut). This would probably lead to a reduction of bus service and save the city's residents millions of dollars over the next 5 years. The petitioners first hit the Grandville parade route where they found lots of people interested in signing the petition to put the matter on the ballot. However, surprisingly (to us anyway), they hit a wall at the Tea Party. They struggled to get anyone to support lower tax measures. What was presumed to be a great place to find support turned out to be extremely difficult if not occasionally argumentative.

It's not as if the bus tax is a popular one in Grandville. It has been routinely beaten handily in the last few election cycles. In May it lost 70%-30%! One would think that people at the Tea Party would be strong no voters for a wasteful bus service like we have in Grand Rapids. I'm somewhat at a loss.

Now, I was not at the party so I cannot offer much in way of analysis of the overall sentiment. The organizers of this event have struck me (although I haven't had the chance to meet them) as people truly committed to smaller government. Perhaps it was just a strange sampling error, I'm not sure. Either way, it appears that two things are dominant with the Tea Parties. 1) In general, people are most upset that 'their guys' are not running the show and if Obama and the Dems were not in control things would be better. 2) Government is still the solution to most problems.

There is more work to do with education. One mind at a time.

What Might the Founders Make of It?

David Boaz writes:

Both President Obama and Sen. John McCain cited the Founders in their weekly radio addresses today, as they made the case for government actions that would have appalled those Founders. Obama invoked “the indomitable spirit of the first American citizens who made [independence] day possible” in arguing for a federal takeover of education, energy, and health care.

He might have trouble explaining how his policies reflect the spirit of the men who left us such words as these:

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must be happy.

Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread.

A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.

Meanwhile, McCain called for the American government to more vigorously support the protesters in Iran. What would the Founders say to him?

The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible….Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest.

Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.

[America] has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when conflict has been for principles to which she clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart. …Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.

Maybe each week there should be three national radio broadcasts: one from the incumbent president, one from the other big-government party, and one reflecting the views of the Founders.

The source.

Help Is On The Way

Adam Kokesh has a Money Bomb going on today in his run for the House.

A Trust That Will Lead to Our Undoing as a Great Nation

...is a phrase, I borrow from Walter E. Williams' article Why a Bill of Rights?

Following up on The Ninths and Tenth Amendment, and The Battle of Our Lifetime, and Bootleggers and Baptists, and also The Idea of Rights,  you might want to consider this article, and the below clip:

Paul Shall Rise Again

Doug Wead—whose writing I’ve really come to appreciate, and whose views I’ve come to appreciate even more—has a great post up on the future of the Republican Party.  A piece that just about sums it up:

What made the Mark Sanford loss so regrettable to many in the press was the fact that he was emerging as a bit of a populist figure.  He had been able to articulate some of the views and the ideas of the one man whom Meet the Press and Time Magazine and the rest of the establishment so studiously ignore.  And Sanford had been able to pick up the mantle without all the odious, dangerous extra baggage that makes the people at the television networks recoil in horror.  Like actually auditing the Federal Reserve.

The fact is that Mark Sanford was never really a true clone to that man, who like Lord Voldemort, cannot be named.  The man who would shake Wall Street and Capitol Hill to their foundations.  I am speaking, of course, of Congressman Ron Paul of Texas

No, he is not dead, much as Meet the Press and Time would have you believe.  Tim Russert is dead. Michael Jackson is dead.  Farrah Fawcett is dead.  And now even, Billy May is dead.

Ron Paul lives.

And as long as Ron Paul lives, the heart of the Republican Party beats strong and an alternative to the new Socialist Republic of America still exists.

LLE

Republicans Up To Their Old Tricks

The GOP machine rumbles on in its big government ways.

Seems the hypocritical conservatives are at it again in Kentucky.  On Friday night [6/19/09] many of those tea party attending conservatives will be forking over the big bucks for Trey Grayson, who will likely be Rand Paul’s main opponent in the Republican senate primary.  When Rand came to this area to speak, not one local member of the Republican county committee showed up.  Yet when Grayson (a former Democratic delegate for Bill Clinton) shows up, these supposed champions of small government line up to meet him.

Yup. They're moving  left.

"Saving Freedom"

That's the title of a new book by Senator Jim DeMint. I didn't know he had written a book (I bet Laura did - she's much more wired in than I). HE certainly didn't tell me at our last meeting. That is, I didn't know about the book until I was stopped at a light on Whiskey Road and opposite me was this garishly decked out charter bus with the title of the book plastered all over it along with patriotic symbols - not to mention DeMint's giant head.

The complete title is Saving Freedom: We Can Stop America's Slide into Socialism. Using the handy-dandy internet to investigate, I found this over at U.S. News & World Report (they have a picture of the bus if interested):

South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, armed with his new book, Saving Freedom, and a Toby Keith-like song, is hitting the nation on a bus wrapped in patriotic colors to pitch his claim that the administration and congressional Democrats are pushing the nation into socialism.

"We've got to stop the slide to socialism," he tells Whispers. "Freedom is dissolving. We don't even teach what it is anymore."

Presidential candidate, perhaps? Well, he slam-dunked McCain. He can't be all bad.

The Voice of Sanity and Consistency