Saturday, August 22, 2009

Tea Kettles singing, Town Halls are perking.

In a telephone Town hall Thursday I heard Sens. DeMint and Bachmann hint that they expected the Democrats to use Reconciliation to avoid a Republican filibuster in the Senate in order to be able to pass the Health Care Bill with a 51 vote majority. Arch Conservative Bauer said Republicans should shut down the Senate if that is the case.

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http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/52773
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For some background, this is a link to the history of the # of members of each House of Representatives by Party from the beginning of our country. This is an interesting link to look at.

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http://clerk.house.gov/art_history/house_history/partyDiv.html
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If you notice the house has a breakdown of 178 Republican and 257 Democrat. That is a 79 vote margin. The Republicans would have to gain 40 seats to regain control.

Dave Eberhart writing for Newsmax wrote the following article, claiming that for Republicans now to gain 20 seats in the US House of Representatives is was but is not out of the question. Note, the view is from an article by Charlie Cook, editor and publisher of The Cook Political Report.

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http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/charlie_cook_democrats_/2009/08/21/250796.html?s=al&promo_code=85E2-1
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The reason for this gain in Eberhart’s article according to Cook is as follows.

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“All of this is happening against a backdrop of an economy that appears to be rebounding and a resurgent stock market underscores how much the President’s and his party’s legislative agenda have contributed to these poor poll numbers,” Cook concluded.
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In other words the President and his party’s agenda has not been well received and as the Administration is running up against opposition from some of their own and most Republicans, the voters have started to make their opposition known as well.

I think it important to note that there has been an increasingly organized resistance to the new bigger government policies of this administration and that has been playing an increased roll in the poll numbers. Before there was plenty of angst but nowhere to direct it; now there is starting to be.

The new places are easy to join, they are people friendly. People can walk in with a homemade sign and join one of the hundreds of Health Care protests, Town Halls, or Congressional office impromptu meet and greets locally popping up all over. Activist training is being put forward and moved ahead. All this is usually free. They are going after the people knowing that the money will soon follow; a “Build It and They Will Come” business model. It’s working.

The Republican party and their heirarchy need to pick up on that model.

The continued unprecedented rise in the intrusiveness of the Federal Government into the live of free people is taking its toll on the trust people have for Big Government. People don’t see it as getting better only bigger.

The Newsmax article alludes to the idea that the public thinks the Democrats are out of control. By throwing one giant mindboggling program at the public after another without a break to even read or come up with a reasoned debate among reasonable people; this administration is proving to the public that they are indeed out of control.

Also and the point I’m making is that, by this continuous barrage they have given time for the genesis of a new type of grassroots opposition to form.

This has started with different groups on the right banding together to try to take advantage of the angst out there; and what were scattered small groups are reveling in their new found popularity and through that popularity they seem to be trying to live up to what they preach.

It is my opinion that for now 20 is a good number; but if the Republican Party can seriously and honestly get behind this thing then 20 will be on the low side. If a leader, or group of leaders of the party emerges that speaks to the heart of those out there trying to correct an overblown government like a Reagan did then 40 is within our grasp.

By God this time the people will know to keep the pressure on those newly elected to keep their word and the majority.

This may be a dream, but as I look back at the first link above, I see that bigger changes have happened. People like Eric Cantor and Haley Barbour see it happening, I know John Boehner does. Remember that the upcoming Governor elections in New Jersey and Virginia if won by the Republicans will help point the way to a new Republican Revolution.

With all that said, I also see ahead a lot of work needed to not only stop the Health Care Bill but to replace it with something that the people find agreeable. We need then to tackle the Cap and Trade fiasco and not only beat it but find something that works. Those things must satisfy the angst out there without raising taxes, or making government bigger or passing new regulations.

We need not give out more and more of our wealth to buy votes. The only thing the government needs to give out and the people take back is freedom.

Tea Kettles singing, Town Halls are perking and Revolution is brewing.

Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative

Monday, August 17, 2009

Private Option put back in Canadian Health Care Debate

Private Option put back in Canadian Health Care Debate

Lifted this off of Drudge. It is an article by about Canada’s “public option” universal tax payer funded health care system and how it is imploding.

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http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jbjzPEY0Y3bvRD335rGu_Z3KXoQw
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The article explains how the Canadian system as is any Ponzi scheme is not sustainable. The fact is as the article says the Canadian tax supported “Free” health care system is going broke. Which if left unchanged will lead to even higher taxes and even more rationing and above all longer wait lines.

Perhaps the headline should of read {Canada Considering “Private Option” to help rescue it’s “Public Option” health care system}.

The article went out of its way to make sure that the Public stayed in and the Private would be used just to help things run smoother to get the lines down and be a little more people friendly. That alone is a huge admission that Public read Government programs are hugely inefficient and definitely not user friendly. Also it further admits that the politicians will not give up taking credit for “saving your life” once granted without a fight.

In the article too, it mentions that Canada officials of their system had gone to other countries with socialized health care to get info on how to run theirs better. That kind of reminded me of Obama seeking out the financial advice of Michigan’s governor Jennifer Granholm on how to fix the National financial system. With Detroit and Michigan serving as the poster child for failed Liberal policies, I guess Obama wanted his plans to look good by comparison.

Ps. The Headline of Drudge today was a “white flag” symbolizing that the “public option” was taken off the board by the dems in the Health Care Debate.


Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Sea Change

Sea Change in Democrat Soul.

The Democrat party was supposed to be about helping the little guy against “Big” business and anything else big you could think of. Big business, big Pharmaceutical Companies, Big Government, Big Medicine. They have ridden that horse into the ground and have come out fighting for what they had claimed to fight against. Now some “outriders” from the Republican Party are trying to make inroads into their support from the “little people”, us the American People.

I call this group “Outriders” of the Republican Party because these small groups and individuals are the ones on the ground and in the trenches. They are riding ahead and scouting the way and fighting small skirmishes. They are the ones who not only have figured out that the Democrats have forgotten their little people; but have increasingly taken positions which do not favor them and in fact harm them.

For example, they ask what has public ed done for the inner city youth? Why do the Democrats fight so hard against alternatives? It is becoming apparent to more and more “little people”; in this as in all their other positions that the unions of the teachers and workers in the schools are more important than the students. The money flowing from Washington and the state Capitols is the important factor. These fringe GOP leaning groups have started coming up with ways and ideas that the “little people” favor – ways and language that they understand and believe in. These groups are finding ways to commune with America again.

People still believe in themselves and we need to talk to that. If our little children are getting bullied and made fun of for studying and trying to get ahead and being brainwashed with political nonsense from either side, why don’t we have the right to try any other alternative we can come up with?

Ronald Reagan was once characterized elegantly by Miterand the French Premier as told by Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in this way. “Reagan is not so much a Great Communicator (although he is), as someone who is in communion with the American People.”
Mulroney went on to elaborate. “Great Communicator indicates that you are preaching to or at an audience. When you’re in communion with your audience it means you’re presence is so persuasive and your arguments so well marshaled that your audience is part of them.”

That last part reminded me of Margaret Thatcher who said, and I paraphrase, you must first win the argument to win the election.

Perhaps by President Obama being such a “Great Communicator”; Republicans have a chance to get back in “Communion” with the audience – with the American People. Perhaps we can win the argument.

Bloomberg wrote an excellent article about how things really work in Big Government, how they work and are paid for in the Obama administration. The piece was written by Timothy J. Burger.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aV3dLt6wmZH4
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Patronage and favor granting are a part of all administrations; some more so maybe than others. But to use that as an excuse for more and more of it is like saying everybody has an evil streak so evil is all right. We should recognize something for what it is; whether it is evil or patronage and try to limit it and fight it. We need to ever be vigilant.

It may be the necessary grease that makes the government work, but too much grease will soon rot the wagons wheels. Here is a novel approach that all will understand. Start taking some of the load off the wagon of government, and you’ll get less need for grease and less rot.

Reagan learned from the people from his years in the wilderness by going out and talking with them. Over and Over and Over. Luckily his job was doing just that. He immersed himself in trying to connect with them. Not in trying to manipulate them. At his core Reagan had values and principles from the Midwest. Through this on the job training he learned how to listen to his audience and put his beliefs into words all could understand. Again more of a Communion than a Communication. The Republican Party needs to start backing these “Outrider” groups, but more than that they have to start to try to understand them; just as they must the American People.

Will the Republicans win in 2010 and 2012 by trying to be even more Big government or more Big business than the Democrats are now? Is that even possible? Or can we win by becoming what the Democrats claimed to be in the last century; a voice of the people. We need to become a voice for the average person trying to start up a small business for example or a parent trying to get his child out of a failing and hurtful school. We need to really try to help them. We need to listen and honestly work to that end. How need to champion their dreams and not a bureaucratic dream of stricter and costlier rules and regulations that will stop Americans from even trying?

We need to fix the infrastructure to be user friendly.

The Democrats had theirs. We as Republicans now too need a Sea Change of our soul.

No time like the present.

Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative