Volume I, Issue VI
Unrepresented America
The 2008 election was close. Almost half of the voters did not support the President and he aknowledged as much in his acceptance speech: "And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn - I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too." The President promised a 'new transparency' and the opportunity for citizens to examine pending legislation before it was voted on.
That was before 'Cap and Trade' and 'Healthcare' became 'too important' to allow time for people to read them. Legislation that would require a bill to be posted on the internet 72 hours before it was voted on was struck down. Hundreds of thousands marched on the Capitol but were largely ignored. A media that had obsessed over Michael Jackson's passing yawned as unrepresented America descended on Washington.
During his campaign President Obama showed his true thoughts toward the 'other' America: "You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. … And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
A Virginia Senator said: "One of the things you are going to see is a coalition that is just about completely taken over the Republican Party in this state and if they have their way it’s going to take over state government. It is made up of the Christian Coalition, but not just them. It is made up of the right-to-lifers, but not just them. It’s made up of the NRA, but not just them. It is made up of the home-schoolers, but not just them. It’s made up of a whole coalition of people that have all sorts of differing views that I think most of us in this room would find threatening to what it means to be an American."
So again I ask: What does it mean to be an American to these people?
Unrepresented America.
The Left and The Right Have Different Visions for America [click to read]. The left holds a veto-proof majority now. Half of us are effectively powerless. The map above is the 'purple' map the left prefers to the blue/red county breakdown. The Blue is removed. What you see is a visual representation of the unrepresented half of our citizens. They are present in places like Upstate New York and even our major metropolitan areas.
During the August recess, many citzens asked for town hall meetings with Senators and Representatives. These were largely ignored. Richmond Tea Party's request was honored [sort of] with a meeting in Fredericksburg! That's 100 miles North of Richmond! Clearly representative government is in crisis.
Time to Impose Term Limits
The time has come for term limits. I do not mean legislation defining how long someone may serve but rather a strong show of voters in the next election cycle who remember that they were shut out of the important debates of 2009. We need to be asking the hard questions as candidates step up in the primaries.
We need to be listening for 'Great Communicators.' Ronald Reagan was successful because he articulated the vision of unrepresented America. By doing so he secured a victory with a mandate.
Reagan's victory, county by county.
The media may trumpet the 'news' that the era of Reagan is over but history would seem to tell us otherwise as the 'Solid South' dissolved and Conservative/Moderate Democrats stepped over to his Conservative message. We need to bring up candidates who are able to present a strong vision for America today. They are out there.
We need to reach those parents in Washington DC who have seen their 'Opportunity Scholarships' defunded because those in power owe favors to the teachers' union. We need to reach those people in our great cities who are learning from men like Larry Elder that a hand-up is far better than a handout. We need to reach those people who have traditionally looked to government to look to their G-d given talents and inventiveness.
We need to clearly portray the value of American Exeptionalism, the stability that a strong national defense creates and the history is there for us to do so.
We need to develop energy independence, allowing the markets to bring new innovation to how we live and work. We cannot arbtrarily limit ourselves to some 'green' agenda. We will not destroy the world by our commerce. We will allow far more environmental devistation by letting dangerous men hold nuclear weapons.
Unrepresented America marches on the Capitol 09/12/09.
We Need Men Like This:
Thanks to Lynn and Alex for providing this:
"... nothing makes this Marine madder than someone calling American troops occupiers rather than liberators." -- Sen. Zell Miller, 1 Sept 2004, Republican National Convention, NYC
Sen. Zell Miller (D-GA) said those words during his inspirational remarks at the 2004 Republican Convention when he endorsed President George W. Bush for a second term. Here is the YouTube version [click to watch] Below is the trsnscript. He was a Marine veteran who was furious that the Democrat Party was not supporting our troops:
"Today at the same time young Americans are dying in the sands of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan, our nation is being torn apart and made weaker because of the Democrat's manic obsession to bring down our Commander-in-Chief. What has happened to the Party I've spent my life working in? I can remember when Democrats believed it was the duty of America to fight for freedom over tyranny."
Where are those conservative, America-loving Democrats at this time when the American citizens are fighting for their very rights against a dictatorial Democrat-controlled Washington, DC?
Where are the Democrats who agree with Democratic President John F. Kennedy: "Ask not what your country can do for you ... ask what you can do for your country."Zell Miller's speech is a keeper to be heard over and over and over.
Since I last stood -- Thank you very much.Since I last stood in this spot, a whole new generation of the Miller family has been born: Four great grandchildren. Along with all the other members of our close-knit family -- they are my and Shirley's most precious possessions. And I know that's how you feel about your family also. Like you, I think of their future, the promises and the perils they will face. Like you, I believe that the next four years will determine what kind of world they will grow up in. And like you, I ask which leader is it today that has the vision, the willpower, and, yes, the backbone to best protect my family?
The clear answer to that question has placed me in this hall with you tonight. For my family is more important than my Party. There is but one man to whom I am willing to entrust their future and that man's name is George W. Bush.
In the summer of 1940, I was an eight-year-old boy living in a remote little Appalachian valley. Our country was not yet at war, but even we children knew that there were some crazy men across the ocean who would kill us if they could. President Roosevelt, in a speech that summer, told America "all private plans, all private lives, have been in a sense repealed by an overriding public danger."
In 1940 Wendell Wilkie was the Republican nominee. And there is no better example of someone repealing their "private plans" than this good man. He gave Roosevelt the critical support he needed for a peacetime draft, an unpopular idea at the time. And he made it clear that he would rather lose the election than make national security a partisan campaign issue. Shortly before Wilkie died he told a friend, that if he could write his own epitaph and had to choose between "Here lies a President" or "Here lies one who contributed to saving freedom," he would prefer the latter.
Where are such statesmen today? Where is the bi-partisanship in this country when we need it most? Today at the same time young Americans are dying in the sands of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan, our nation is being torn apart and made weaker because of the Democrat's manic obsession to bring down our Commander-in-Chief. What has happened to the Party I've spent my life working in? I can remember when Democrats believed it was the duty of America to fight for freedom over tyranny. It was Democratic President Harry Truman who pushed the Red Army out of Iran, who came to the aid of Greece when Communists threatened to overthrow it, who stared down the Soviet blockade of West Berlin by flying in supplies and saving the city.
Time after time in our history, in the face of great danger, Democrats and Republicans worked together to ensure that freedom would not falter. But not today. Motivated more by partisan politics than by national security, today's Democratic leaders see America as an occupier, not a liberator.
And nothing makes this Marine madder than someone calling American troops occupiers rather than liberators. Tell that to the one-half of Europe that was freed because Franklin Roosevelt led an army of liberators, not occupiers. Tell that to the lower half of the Korean Peninsula that is free because Dwight Eisenhower commanded an army of liberators, not occupiers. Tell that to the half a billion men, women and children who are free today from Poland to Siberia, because Ronald Reagan rebuilt a military of liberators, not occupiers.
Never in the history of the world has any soldier sacrificed more for the freedom and liberty of total strangers than the American soldier. And, our soldiers don't just give freedom abroad, they preserve it for us here at home. For it has been said so truthfully that it is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the agitator, who has given us the freedom to protest. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, serves beneath the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag who gives that protester the freedom he abuses to burn that flag. No one should dare to even think about being the Commander in Chief of this country if he doesn't believe with all his heart that our soldiers are liberators abroad and defenders of freedom at home.
But don't waste your breath telling that to the leaders of my Party today. In their warped way of thinking America is the problem, not the solution. They don't believe there's any real danger in the world except that which America brings upon itself through our clumsy and misguided foreign policy. It is not their patriotism -- it is their judgment that has been so sorely lacking. They claimed Carter's pacifism would lead to peace -- they were wrong. They claimed Reagan's defense buildup would lead to war -- they were wrong. And no pair has been more wrong, more loudly, more often than the two Senators from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy and John Kerry. Together, Kennedy/Kerry have opposed the very weapons systems that won the Cold War and that are now winning the war on terror.
Listing all the weapon systems that Senator Kerry tried his best to shut down sounds like an auctioneer selling off our national security. But Americans need to know the facts.
The B-1 bomber, that Senator Kerry opposed, dropped 40% of the bombs in the first six months of [Operation] Enduring Freedom.
The B-2 bomber, that Senator Kerry opposed, delivered air strikes against the Taliban in Afghanistan and Hussein's command post in Iraq.
The F-14A Tomcats, that Senator Kerry opposed, shot down Khadifi's Libyan MIGs over the Gulf of Sidra.
The modernized F-14D, that Senator Kerry opposed, delivered missile strikes against Tora Bora.
The Apache helicopter, that Senator Kerry opposed, took out those Republican Guard tanks in Kuwait in the Gulf War.
The F-15 Eagles, that Senator Kerry opposed, flew cover over our Nation's Capital and this very city after 9/11.
I could go on and on and on: Against the Patriot Missile that shot down Saddam Hussein's scud missiles over Israel; against the Aegis air-defense cruiser; against the Strategic Defense Initiative; against the Trident missile -- against, against, against. This is -- This is the man who wants to be the Commander in Chief of our U.S. Armed Forces?! U.S. forces armed with what -- spitballs?!
Twenty years of votes can tell you much more about a man than twenty weeks of campaign rhetoric. Campaign talk tells people who you want them to think you are. How you vote tells people who you really are deep inside. Senator Kerry has made it clear that he would use military force only if approved by the United Nations. Kerry would let Paris decide when America needs defending. I want Bush to decide! John Kerry, who says he doesn't like outsourcing, wants to outsource our national security. That's the most dangerous outsourcing of all. This politician wants to be leader of the free world. Free for how long?
For more than twenty years, on every one of the great issues of freedom and security, John Kerry has been more wrong, more weak, and more wobbly than any other national figure. As a war protestor, Kerry blamed our military. As a Senator, he voted to weaken our military. And nothing shows that more sadly and more clearly than his vote this year to deny protective armor for our troops in harms way, far-away.
George W. Bush understands that we need new strategies to meet new threats. John Kerry wants to re-fight yesterday's war. President Bush believes we have to fight today's war and be ready for tomorrow's challenges. President Bush is committed to providing the kind of forces it takes to root out terrorist -- no matter what spider hole they may hide in or what rock they crawl under. George W. Bush wants to grab terrorists by the throat and not let them go to get a better grip. From John Kerry, they get a "yes-no-maybe" bowl of mush that can only encourage our enemies and confuse our friends.
I first got to know George W. Bush when we served as governors together. I admire this man. I am moved by the respect he shows the First Lady, his unabashed love for his parents and his daughters, and the fact that he is unashamed of his belief that God is not indifferent to America. I can identify with someone who has lived that line in "Amazing Grace," "Was blind, but now I see," and I like the fact that he's the same man on Saturday night that he is on Sunday morning. He is not a slick talker but he is a straight shooter, and where I come from deeds mean a lot more than words. I have knocked on the door of this man's soul and found someone home, a God-fearing man with a good heart and a spine of tempered steel -- the man I trust to protect my most precious possession: my family.
This election will change forever the course of history, and that's not any history. It's our family's history. The only question is how. The answer lies with each of us. And like many generations before us, we've got some hard choosing to do.Right now the world just cannot afford an indecisive America. Fainthearted, self-indulgence will put at risk all we care about in this world. In this hour of danger our President has had the courage to stand up. And this Democrat is proud to stand up with him.
Thank you.
God Bless this country and God Bless George W. Bush.
"It is the duty of every patriot to protect his country from its government." -- Thomas Paine
'An Inconvenient Question' [click to read]. ht/Yankee Phil and SWAC Girl, Darn, those fool polar bears don't know they're 'endagered' Al!
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