Campaigning Against the Consultants

There is a strong and valid argument to be made against our political consulting class – and at CPAC, a lot was said against them.  From NRO’s The Corner:

Here at CPAC, it’s evident that in the aftermath of the devastating November election conservatives are turning not on the losing candidates — Mitt Romney, for one, was warmly received –  but on the people who ran their campaigns. With an eye to 2014 elections, some conservatives and tea partiers are pushing a new solution: Down with the consultants.

In an interview with NRO, Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, blasted the professional political class, decrying “any consultant who thinks that they can come into a state and say, ‘this is who you need to have as your representative and we’re going to make sure that person is elected.’”

“That is the antithesis of what we’ve been talking about in this whole entire movement,” she said. “We want limited government. That means we don’t want Washington, D.C., making laws that limit how we live our lives, and we sure don’t want people from Washington, D.C. — consultants — telling us who is going to represent us.”

The rage reached its height during a panel on Thursday entitled “Should We Shoot All the Consultants Now?” During the discussion, Democratic pollster Pat Caddell ranted against campaign consultants, saying, “they’re in the business in the lining of their pockets and preserving their power.”…

Which is very true, but not the whole story.  Professional campaign consultants can have a very important role to play – how to jump through the legal hoops; how to fund raise; how to get the message out through traditional and new media.  But the problem is that consultants have taken over what the campaigns say and where they say it.  They are telling the candidates to not spend time or money in some areas because they are strongly Democrats; they are telling the candidates to stay away from this or that issue because it will result in negative press.  What they don’t understand is that the reason some areas are strongly Democrat is partially because the GOP hasn’t done any campaigning in there.  What they don’t understand is that the sort of statements which might cause an MSM firestorm to erupt are precisely the sort of things which fire up the base and convince a doubting electorate that, just maybe, this candidate isn’t a tool of the Ruling Class.

My view is that last year Romney should have headed for Pennsylvania in the flush aftermath of the first debate – Obama and the Democrats were rocked on their heels and a sudden splurge in that State (as well as other blue States which elect GOP governors/senators) would have thrown them in to panic – and people in a panic make gigantic mistakes.  When gasoline prices in Los Angeles hit $5 a gallon, Romney should have done a campaign rally in front of a Los Angeles gas station.  These actions would not necessarily be with a mind towards winning California or Pennsylvania – but of firing up the base (including the base in States where we won’t win – because that generates donations and volunteers who can work in other States); of going in to their backyard and planting our flag; of showing the nation that we’re in it to win the whole ball of wax.  I ask:  if Romney had done such things, would he have gotten fewer votes?  I doubt it.  Still might have lost – but it would have been closer…and certainly a more fun, energizing and even if lost successful campaign…because we would have sown seeds in areas where the GOP has been absent for decades.

As I said in the immediate aftermath of our loss, we have to start getting in to the blue areas – and professional campaign consultants simply will not allow that.  And so the consultants have to be shoved aside and kept to what they are good at:  fund raising, hoop jumping, etc.  The campaign, itself, has to be the product of the candidate and his more ardent supporters.  Let’s face some facts here, boys and girls:  as long as we resign California and New York to the Democrats, we’re always going to have a hard time winning the White House.  And do pay attention – Democrats have started to work on turning Texas blue.  Say it can’t be done?  Just watch them – and even if it doesn’t work, its going to force us to spend time and effort locking down part of our electoral base.  We simply must do it to them, as well.
As we head towards 2014 and 2016, all rule books must be thrown out.  Everything must be on the table – no corner of the Great Republic must be signed off to the Democrats.  Don’t play it safe – in fact, play it as dangerous as possible.  Tens of millions of people didn’t vote in 2012…lets go get them, and bury liberalism forever.

A Couple Months Too Late, But People are Waking Up…

From Pew via Hot Air:

As Barack Obama begins his second term in office, trust in the federal government remains mired near a historic low, while frustration with government remains high. And for the first time, a majority of the public says that the federal government threatens their personal rights and freedoms.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Jan. 9-13 among 1,502 adults, finds that 53% think that the federal government threatens their own personal rights and freedoms while 43% disagree…

Perhaps it took the way Obama has become increasingly arrogant since re-election to get people to understand what is going on?  I don’t know of a re-elected President who went with more of a “my way or the highway” attitude upon being re-elected.  The general run of things is at least some sort of attempt to bridge the partisan divide and extend some sort of olive branch to the defeated…all we’ve got from Obama is demands that GOPers cave in, and, also, accept blame for everything that is going wrong.  Not exactly the way to appeal to us…

For the longer term, this poll encourages me greatly in thinking that our future battles should be fought out over personal liberty – even if it means we have to engage in tactical retreats on some issues.  If our strategy is to restore America then key must be re-energizing the spirit of ’76…that one-time ardent American desire to just live free or die.  It is the basis for reducing the size of government, creating a genuinely free economic market and, of course, allow us in our localities to run our own affairs without let or hindrance from the federal government.  This is not necessarily the time to emphasize what we are against but, instead, to emphasize our commitment to personal liberty…after all, if we believe that freedom is best and that our ideas are true (and I answer “yes” to both) then we must believe that if given a genuinely free and fair debate – impossible under current, tyrannical conditions – people will come over to our side.  That is, people will come to understand that freedom really is the freedom to choose to do the right thing – and that, in the end, wins for us all down the line.

But, meanwhile, we’ve got a government more and more out of control – remember, we have a Raisin Administrative Committee – and ever more determined to curtail our rights.  Unless all of us who believe in freedom unite – and that includes uniting with people who have widely divergent views – then we’re doomed.

Fear Not, Americans: The Raisin Administrative Committee is on the Job!

Thank goodness for Big Government!

Long-time California raisin farmers Marvin and Laura Horne have been forced to experience firsthand the costs that America’s regulatory state imposes on entrepreneurs, especially innovative members of the agriculture industry.

No longer do farmers enjoy the ancient right to sell their produce and enjoy the fruits of their labor.  Indeed, Horne v. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture exemplifies the extent to which all property and business owners are made to suffer a needless, Rube Goldberg-style litigation process to vindicate their constitutional rights.

In this case, the USDA imposed on the Hornes a “marketing order” demanding that they turn over 47% of their crop without compensation.  The order—a much-criticized New Deal relic—forces raisin “handlers” to reserve a certain percentage of their crop “for the account” of the government-backed Raisin Administrative Committee, enabling the government to control the supply and price of raisins on the market.  The RAC then either sells the raisins or simply gives them away to noncompetitive markets—such as federal agencies, charities, and foreign governments—with the proceeds going toward the RAC’s administration costs…

I mean, my goodness, that was a close shave!  Imagine if we lived in a world where raisin growers could grow as many raisins as they wish and sell it for whatever price they want!  Utter chaos would certainly ensue.  There would be an unregulated market out there – and such things have been known to put an eye out when in the hands of irresponsible people – you know, citizens.  But we’re safe from all that – there are plenty of wonderful government regulators in the Raisin Administrative Committee on the job to protect us from ourselves.  And better than that, some of the Horne’s fellow raisin growers – clearly from altruistic reasons; couldn’t possibly be out of a desire to limit competition – are entirely on the government’s side here…protecting us from having to make our own choices!  After all, we know that there are only two valid choices a human being – unsupervised by government – can make:  to have an abortion and to have sex.

All kidding aside, this is what Big Government is all about – and the fact that some of the Horne’s (allegedly) private sector competitors are on the government’s side illustrates what I mean about a Big Government/Big Corporation alliance to suppress the people.  The United States is simply awash in bodies like the RAC and various administrative authorities – essentially unsupervised by anyone; do you want to bet that Obama and the entirety of Congress are completely ignorant of this case? – ruling over people who are doing nothing other than what people do.  In this case, a couple raisin growers are just growing raisins – a wanted and needed crop and if they can grow more and better than other people, then they deserve to prosper…but Uncle Sam (and their competitors) say, “no”…you can’t do better than others.  If you do, then you must surrender what your hard work has produced so that we can make things all fair and square with those who aren’t as successful as you.

This is the battle we need to fight – the fight for a free market, opportunity society.  This is how we can build a 60% majority – by fighting for the real rights of the American people.

UPDATE:  Details on the RAC:

The Raisin Administrative Committee is comprised of 35 members representing producers; 10 members representing handlers of varying sizes; 1 member representing the Raisin Bargaining Association (RBA); and 1 public member. Members serve 2-year terms of office that begin on May 1. Producer and handler members are nominated at meetings and by mail ballots.

Meetings and mail ballots?  Oh, that sounds like it can’t possibly become an old-boys network which works to protect those most juiced in with government.

There is a list of government agencies, but it doesn’t even begin to cover it all; the RAC is not listed…it is part of the FDA and Lord only knows how many similar bodies are covered by the FDA and all other Departments of government.  Someone needs to get us a genuine list of all agencies – and a one paragraph description of what they do.

 

What OWS Got Wrong…and What We Have to Get Right

 

I don’t often say that a video is “must see”, but this one is.  It lays out what is wrong with our financial and government system.  Our task is to educate the American people about the fact that what has happened is that Big Government and Big Corporation have got together and screw everything up.  The OWS people were shouting about the banks…and demanding that government fix it!  Government carefully and diligently assisted the bankers in ruining the economy.

Free markets are the silver bullet to fix what ails us – politically and economically.  We must have a revolution so that we can ensure that anyone who wants to participate in either market can do so without let or hindrance from a corporate or government bureaucrat.  If we want to occupy something, then we should be occupying the Federal Reserve and the Department of the Treasury – that would set us on a path back to rationality.

Term Limits Back in the Public Square

It came and then it faded away – mostly because a court decision absurdly ruled that the States cannot limit their federal office holders terms.  But the American people do seem to want it – according to Gallup, 75% of Americans want term limits on members of Congress.  This is broadly supported by Democrats, Republicans and Independents and all age groups are in favor.  Gallup didn’t break it down by ethnicity, but I doubt the measurements would come out much different if they had.

Term limits are, in my view, a vital aspect of ensuring that government is responsive to the will of the people.  To arguments that we need experienced legislators I answer:  like the ones we have now?  To arguments that staff will take control if legislators are rapidly overturned I answer:  why in heck do we even have large staffs for each legislator?  They are supposed to be writing the laws (and these days we know they don’t even read them before they vote on them…seems like the staffs are already in control in our non-term limited legislature).  Three terms for House members, two terms for Senators, that is my ideal.  If I thought I could get it in there, I’d also forbid sitting office holders from seeking a different office until at least two years after they left office.  We’re not supposed to have a professional, political class but, instead, have citizen legislators who serve for a time and then go back home to live under the laws they wrote (no elected official should have a pension, nor should they have their health care provided by government…they are there to serve, darn it!).

There is a mood to change things for real in America – and whomever taps in to it first and best will win everything.

 

Is it Time for a Left/Right Alliance?

The other day Legal Insurrection had a post about a meeting – pleasant and mutually enriching – between TEA Party and MoveOn activists.  Today, Pajamas Media had an announcement from the Hacktivist group, Anonymous:

…“Obama has been working hard to try and ban semi-automatic weapons and shotguns while at the same time increasing the weapons and firepower that police and government agencies have. Within minutes of the Connecticut shooting, politicians were on the state run media saying it was time to get rid of the guns and they will be talking about it for weeks to come,” Anonymous wrote on its blog. “The Obama administration and his government funded media have been promoting this idea for months. Every time there is a shooting performed by a crazy person the media talks about it non-stop for weeks or months. But when there is an illegal or unlawful shooting by police that does not fit Obama’s agenda the story is barely mentioned.”

Anonymous notes that not only do police shootings barely get any attention, but cases where slaying are committed without guns or where guns are used to save lives also fly under the radar.

“Mr. Obama the 2nd amendment of the US Constitution does not talk about an army, that is covered elsewhere in the constitution. It does talk about a well regulated militia which is made of civilians with their own weapons. The second amendment of the US Constitution does not talk about protecting government or government resources, but it does talk about being necessary for the security of a free state. The second amendment of the US constitution does not say a single word about hunting or sport. But it does say ‘The peoples right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed’.”…

To be sure, be wary!  Gentle as lambs but wise as serpents, as one bit of wisdom commanded.  The left is, in its leadership, made up of junior-league Leninists who crave control because they honestly believe they are smarter than the rest of us and have an innate right to command.  But, still, this is interesting – I haven’t seen any better exposition of the 2nd Amendment from right wing groups since the Newtown Massacre.

Clearly, there is something going on here which doesn’t fit the narrative.  The goal of those who are wrecking our nation is to keep us all divided – as I’ve said before, I say the Lord’s Prayer in the same pew as a black man, but because of the narrative he and I are supposed to mistrust each other and each turn to government to protect us from each other.  There could be a growing separation between the leadership of the left and the rank and file, just as we rank and file GOPers/conservatives/libertarians are increasingly alienated from those who allegedly lead us.  While the left and right will never agree on most things, we might all agree on this, at least:  that individual liberty, at this moment, trumps all and we’d better ensure we’ve got that.  Once we’ve got our liberty secured, we can set about each other for all we’re worth as we determine relative trivialities like tax rates and spending levels.

It is something to weigh in our minds.

 

It Ain’t Over

The left, flush with victory last year, is intent upon destroying us.  Believing that the nation has permanently changed in their direction, the left wants us to shut up and go away.  Neo-Neocon puts it succinctly:

…A goodly portion of the preening triumphalism that has followed in the wake of the 2012 election involves just this kind of hatred: towards white men, the rich, Republicans, Christians, gun owners. There’s a lot of talk about how the demographics have permanently changed in this country, and perhaps that’s correct—and now the tables are being turned, with glee. It’s been a long time since the expression of real racism against black people (as opposed to imaginary and/or astroturf-generated racism) was acceptable in this country. But it’s now completely acceptable against white men, and this is an exceedingly ominous sign.

They do hate us and they do want us to go away – in their best moments, they believe we’re deluded fools who can’t see what’s good for ourselves; in their worst moments they consider us to be actually evil.  In either case, they don’t want us to have a say any longer in how the United States is governed.  To be sure, they continue to want our taxes, our service in the military and our compliance with their dictates…but they don’t want us raising objections.  Certainly no objections based on such tired, worn out notions as the rule of law.

So, that is what they want. What are we to do about it?  Keep fighting, of course.  But, also, change radically in how we fight.  Back during the 2012 campaign I first happened upon the Broke Party – a group of activists in the liberal strong hold of Chicago who were, justly, complaining about the corrupt political structure:  a political structure which made sure that the rich of Chicago stayed rich, the poor stayed poor and everyone kept voting Democrat.  I don’t know much about the people who started up the Broke Party.  Maybe there is an element of kookiness among them – I doubt that such people have read deeply in to the works of James Madison.  But they are oppressed people who are kept in the liberal cage – providing the political power liberals need to eventually crush those of us who are not yet oppressed.  And they want to be free of it.

We likely have more friends than we realize, but we don’t even try to find them.  I know I’ve been on like this since November 7th (and, really, for longer), but it is important.  Do any of us really think that the voters who go 90% Democrat in the blue cities really want to live in crime-infested, worn down, Third World pest holes?  No, they don’t.  You know that.  I know that.  They know that.  But they are sitting in a place where (a) they can hardly hear an alternative voice and (b) we refuse to go.  Its time we started going there.  Find the various “Broke Parties” and see if we can break them lose from the Democrats.  I think we can – maybe not a majority, but even getting 20-25% of them kills the Democrat party in a dozen States (they are really that dependent upon massive support in the urban areas).  If your worry is voter fraud then you should be even more interested in this:  they can get away with it now because no Republicans are around to watch…get some Republicans in there and they won’t be able to stuff quite as many ballot boxes.

If we hunker down and just try to hold what we have then we’ll eventually lose it all.  Douglas MacArthur was once asked his formula for defensive war.  His one word answer:  “defeat”.  You can only win if you attack – and if we don’t attack the liberal citadels, we won’t win – certainly not enough to make a clean sweep of liberalism.  We took a heavy defeat last November and we shot ourselves egregiously in the foot on January 1st.  Fine.  Over and done with.  Now is the time to fight.

Just a Note on the Fiscal Cliff

Given the way Obama is getting insulting about the negotiations and, also, given the increasing level of hateful, eliminationist rhetoric from the left, my feeling is that we just dig our heels in and become increasingly unwilling to go along with the Democrat-led charade.  Agree to nothing.   Pass a bill out of the House keeping tax rates just where they are and cutting $1 trillion from FY2013 spending and then refuse to budge.  Also, refuse to raise the debt limit or pass any further continuing resolutions – pass a budget and then refuse to budge.

Does this carry risk?  Yes, it does – the American people might turn on us and toss us out of the House in 2014.  So be it.  I’m not about to be kicked and spat upon and then still be blamed for all the misery that Obama policies are bringing to the United States.  We can show our responsibility and patriotism by passing out of the House reasonable bills which actually address our spending and debt problems – let Obama and his toadies in the Democrat party and the MSM make of it what they will, and let the people decide next election time what they want.

UPDATE:  I was suffering from a really bad bout of stomach flu starting on the night of the 31st and continuing until just a few hours ago…so, I didn’t need Congress to make me sick to my stomach, for once.  Still, the additional nausea was unhelpful.

We really should have just passed a tax cut/spending cut bill and sent it off to the Senate to make of it what they will.  Look what going along with them got us?  Tax hikes, no real spending cuts and our brand so toxic that Chris Christie (who has killed his 2016 chances, entirely) not only throwing Boehner under the bus, but backing up a few times to run over him, again.  We’d have done better by sticking entirely to our guns.

And that is what we must do from now on – heck with Obama and his Democrats.  They are uninterested in what is best for America.  They just want to win.  Ok, so let them win – let them have it all…or, at least, as much as they can get with zero cooperation from us.  Just keep passing common-sense bills (which will be popular, by the way) and allow Reid and Obama to ignore or mutilate or whatever they want.  Can this eventually result in our loss in 2014?  Sure can – but so can nonsense like the “fix” to the fiscal cliff…how many GOP voters just said “heck with them” last night?  If we are to be defeated, then let us be defeated gloriously…and, who knows?, maybe if we fight for what is right, victory will crown our efforts?

When the Law Becomes Tyrannical

Mark Steyn writes up the story of David Gregory illegally waving a 10-round magazine under the nose of the NRA President and, in pointing out the rationale for arresting Gregory, hits a sore point I have these days:

…To Howard Kurtz & Co., it’s “obvious” that Gregory didn’t intend to commit a crime. But, in a land choked with laws, “obviousness” is one of the first casualties — and “obviously” innocent citizens have their “obviously” well-intentioned actions criminalized every minute of the day. Not far away from David Gregory, across the Virginia border, eleven-year-old Skylar Capo made the mistake of rescuing a woodpecker from the jaws of a cat and nursing him back to health for a couple of days. For her pains, a federal Fish & Wildlife gauleiter accompanied by state troopers descended on her house, charged her with illegal transportation of a protected species, issued her a $535 fine, and made her cry. Why is it so “obvious” that David Gregory deserves to be treated more leniently than a sixth grader? Because he’s got a TV show and she hasn’t?…

We have so many law these days – local, State and federal – that is almost a certainty that each of us, at one point or another, is in violation of one or more.  Steyn lists more examples of this and points out that when laws become capricious – such as when a little girl can be fined $535 for doing what little girls will always do – then we are no longer living in a nation ruled by law, but a nation ruled by tyranny.  Remember, there’s no way they can actually arrest all of us but the laws are so numerous that we’re all going to violate at least one of them at some point…so whether or not any one of us will be punished for our transgression really rests upon the whim of police and prosecutor.  Tick off a cop and he might haul you in on some bizarre charge; get a prosecutor with a burr up his rear and you might find the full weight of the law directed against you…or, you might not.  All depends.  And since it depends not on what you do but on what the authorities decide, you are living under tyranny.

And another aspect of tyranny is when the well-connected are let off – not just Gregory not being prosecuted for something which would have resulted in a world of trouble for any of us, but in the repeated stories we see in the news of the rich and/or famous getting off because they had the money or the connections.  We are no longer living in a nation where any of us can be certain of how things will come out – work hard, stay out of trouble and play by the rules…and you can still be fined, jailed, place on “no fly” lists…all at the whim of a government official and then its up to you to prove your innocence.

While we are living in the Error of Obama, not much will be able to be done about this, but if we do win back power (hopefully no later than 2016) one of the main aspects of government reform must be the massive repeal of laws and regulations.  Perhaps a commission could be set up to review each law and regulation and determine if it should remain, be repealed or be folded in with other laws or regulations for simplicity.  At bottom, as a citizen, it shouldn’t take me more than one day’s reading to find out everything which is illegal under federal law, and less than a day further reading to know everything that is illegal under State and local law.  If it takes a person longer than that to get through the law code (and I’ll bet no one could get through it these days in less than a period of months), then it is no longer a code of laws, but a license to oppress.

And a lesson to be learned here is to stop demanding that government “do something” each time some sort of crisis or problem develops.  That is the root of this – for about a century now we’ve turned to government to fix things and now we’ve got a government which is tyrannical.  High time when a problem comes up that each of us decides to roll up the sleeves and get a little dirty fixing it, ourselves.

Democrat Party: For and By the Rich

This is the sort of issue we have to put front and center in the American mind – from Reuters:

In the town that launched the War on Poverty 48 years ago, the poor are getting poorer despite the government’s help. And the rich are getting richer because of it.

The top 5 percent of households in Washington, D.C., made more than $500,000 on average last year, while the bottom 20 percent earned less than $9,500 – a ratio of 54 to 1.

That gap is up from 39 to 1 two decades ago. It’s wider than in any of the 50 states and all but two major cities. This at a time when income inequality in the United States as a whole has risen to levels last seen in the years before the Great Depression…

Our liberals are in the process of creating the “two Americas” that they’ve been whining about…an America of a small class of rich (all of whom will be in or highly connected to government) while most of the population wallows in poverty with their lives eked out between small time jobs and government hand outs.  Did the liberals intend this?  No, but it is clear from their actions that they prefer it to a system where someone can get ahead without government permission.

Tie this in with Obama’s bogus “tax the rich” rhetoric – which really means “tax the upper middle class” – and we can show, even to low information voters, that it is the government which is keeping them down…and allowing the rich to get richer as long as they donate to the right political party.  This is where we can turn the “class war” against the left…where we can get people to raise their fist against the Department of Education as much as they raise it against Bank of America.

This is what is happening in Detroit, in Los Angeles, in Chicago, in New York City…every place where liberal Democrats are firmly in power they have done all that liberalism promises…and it has invariably led to the rich getting richer while the poor get poorer (with the only poor people getting rich are those who are willing to sell out for a rake off…think Jesse Jackson).  But, remember, the people in these places don’t know their full plight because, for the most part, the MSM doesn’t tell them (that would upset the Democrat Ruling Class, after all).  So, we need to tell them – by campaigning in the deepest blue areas.

We can do this, people – we can crush the left, if we’ll just try.