utah

Another media/establishment instant darling. This guy bears watching… but not voting for. Yesterday, we watched as former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman attempted to take on the mantle of Ronald Reagan, announcing his candidacy from the same place… in front of the Statue of Liberty, where Reagan announced his 1980 presidential run. Ronaldus Magnus this guy is not. Not even close.

His speech was bland and milquetoast. It was accommodationist blather, full of cup-half-empty assertions of how this country has lost its greatness. He then went on to remind us of our manners, and how he at least would maintain the high ground throughout this campaign. He loves and respects our president, just as he knows Barack Hussein Obama just loves this li’l old country to death, doncha know?

Okay, Governor or not, RINO platitudes or not… this man is no Conservative. The Lame Stream statist press is holding him up as their darling. It’s the same routine all over again.

Republican history has shown us repeatedly that we win when we stick to Conservative principles, and we lose when we stray into the area of ‘moderate’ Republicans. Beware the chosen of the party establishment. These bozos are working as hard against Conservatism and the Constitution as they are the opposition… maybe harder.

Harsh, you say? I think not nearly harsh enough. These so-called party kingmakers are in for a heads-up confrontation with the Constitutional Conservatives. Remember the magic formula… 60+20+20. The Conservative movement is comprised of 60% Republicans, 20% Independents… and surprise, surprise, 20% Democrat. It’s a huge, very powerful coalition.

We need leadership that is not afraid to attack Barack Obama on a personal as well as a policy level. Black, white or ‘other’, he’s only a man… and not a very clever one at that.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2011

We’re not talking about some monarchic ascension here, we’re talking about Bennett, the first of the DeMarxist casualties for 2010. It is the harbinger of things to come. The landscape for Democrats isn’t looking all that promising, and Bob Bennett is just the first to fall to the ire of Conservative Republicans and Independents who feel that he turned his back on the Conservatives.

Bob Bennett

He cannot, regardless of what he says, claim that he was not warned. Citizens and Patriots, by the hundreds of thousands, have repeatedly told him, and others like him, to stand up for freedom and conservative principles. I recall writing such warnings in this column numerous times.

Bob Bennett betrayed his constituents and his party by voting for the Wall Street bailout. His favorite hobby was pork hunting, something which did not endear him to Utah’s strong conservative electorate. Bob Bennett didn’t even make it to the primaries and was voted out of office by the Utah State GOP. Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, are you listening? Oh, and don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of company… from both sides of the aisle.

The severity of the recession and the socialist assault on our economy and our country has forged a new breed of young, aggressive conservative activists on virtually every level of American politics. It’s a wonderful thing to see. Likewise, the number of solid, level-headed conservative kids that are managing to come out of those poison factories that we call our public school systems. Conservative student groups are growing in strength and making inroads on our college and university campuses.

Super high fives to those students up in Napa, California who fought back and ultimately won the right to wear their American flag ‘T’ shirts. It took nerve to show up with those shirts on when the atmosphere at school was so racially charged. It took courage to stand up in the face of the administration.

People everywhere in this country are making their voices heard. The left can no longer control the message and the dialogue of the American political tapestry. We no longer allow the left’s outrageous claims to go unanswered and the speed of the internet ensures that the reporting is usually done in minutes. We are in the huge groundswell that is the new conservative revolution. It’s up to every single one of us to see it succeed. There aren’t any other options.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

This is a bold idea from Utah Republicans.

We propose a modest experiment. As Utah state leaders, we are greatly concerned about the unprecedented expansion of the federal government over many years, and the enormous debt levels being left to our children and grandchildren. We believe the federal government is attempting to do far more than it has the capacity to execute well. [...]

We'd like to relieve some of their burden. We don't believe that 535 members of Congress and the president can educate our children, provide health care, pave our roads and protect our environment as well as the nation's 8,000 state legislators and tens of thousands of local officials.

So please, let us help. Let's select a few programs -- say, education, transportation and Medicaid -- that are managed mostly by Utah's government, but with significant federal dollars and a plethora of onerous federal interventions and regulations.

Let Utah take over these programs entirely. But let us keep in our state the portion of federal taxes Utah residents pay for these programs. The amount would not be difficult to determine. Rather than send this money through the federal bureaucracy, we would retain it and would take full responsibility for education, transportation and Medicaid -- minus all federal oversight and regulation. [...] [T]oday the federal government operates like an old-fashioned mainframe computer, pushing one-size-fits-all mandates out to the states. We believe there is value in intelligent decentralization.

This would be a great agenda for the Tea Party activists.  It combines limited federal government with increased State, local and personal responsibility.  For that matter, it should be a great experiment for the empiricists and policy wonks - both left and right - who want better data on which systems work and which do not.

Let's hope some Republicans will have the courage of their convictions to put political capital behind this idea.  This would be a good agenda item for Tea Party activists to demand of Republicans.