Most Americans view the Constitution with reverence and believe that it is one of the best documents ever written.  The Constitution is not long or is it very in depth in what it says.   It is the foundation of what our government was derived, and points out what the Government can and cannot do.  The phrase “Shall not” occurs more than any other phrase and for good reason.   The Founding Fathers created a document that puts constraints on the government and gave more power to the citizens of the United States than any other form of government before.

But slowly the Federal Government has been chipping away at the Constitution  and gaining more and more power for itself.  This goes for both or the political parties we have now.  Both Democrats and Republicans have lost their way and government has gained more and more power for itself.   They both have looked to the Federal Government to be the nanny of the country.   This is what we call Big Government.  FDR and the New Deal all the way to George W Bush and his No Child Left Behind.

The Federal Government has gotten too big and too intrusive in every day life.   From telling us what kind of foods we can eat , to what kind of light bulbs we can use.   This is not the way our Government was formed.   The Federal Government’s main job was to ensure we have the ability to “Pursue Life , Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness” and to protect us from enemies.  Not to tell us how much salt, soda, snacks, or what kind of light bulb we can use.

President Obama is not the first to trample all over the Constitution, but he has gone farther down the road to tyranny than a majority of earlier Presidents.  The latest travesty to come from the Obama White House is his HHS Mandate that is part of his obese Obamacare Bill.   While many organizations and even states get to opt out of this monstrosity, the Catholic Church and many of its institutions are not.  In the HHS Mandate, the employees must buy insurance that has policies that go against the teachings of the Catholic Church.   The insurance plans must have contraceptive coverage and also the day after pills.   The day after pills are for all intensive purposes abortion.  Both contraceptives and abortions go against the Church Teachings.

But this goes even further than just the Catholic Church and the Obamacare Bill.  Obama comes from a long history of radicals that think the Constitution is out of date and also not to be looked at with reverence.  They think the Constitution is antiquated and makes it too hard for the Government to do what it wants.   Amendments take too long, the Executive Branch cannot do what it wants, and there are those that think they can legislate from the bench.

This is not a Partisan attack by any means.  There are those on both sides of the aisle that have crossed over the line.  The Tea Party was not formed just because Obama won the election.  He was just the last straw.   Big Government and the intrusiveness of a all powerful Federal Government has waken people up.  We have slowly drifted to this point over the past 100 years or so, and it will not be stopped and reversed in  1 or 2, or even 4 or 5 elections.

But we must never give up hope and relax.  We must elect people into local , state and Federal Government that will bring us back to a more limited government.  We must stay involved in politics and never give up to those that want to take away what the Founding Fathers so eloquently wrote many years ago.   They made the Constitution flexible enough to change if it needs to be, but hard to change just because of the whim of a President.

And we must remember we are not a pure Democracy, we are a Democratic Republic.  Pure Democracy is mob rules and will trample the minority.  And I know many of my friends want to have term limits for CONgress critters.  We  must remember that we already have that, and that is called elections.

“Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?”

“A Republic, if you can keep it.”

~~Benjamin Franklin

 

cross posted at Stix Blog

I am assuming all of you know there is a little thing we call the Presidential elections this year.   I know it is kind of tough to actually get any news on it, but it is going to happen later this year.

The Republican Primary has been a 3 ringed circus this year.    With the Whack a Mole, Flavor of the Week and all the rest of the non sense, we forget to see that there is a bigger picture out there.   There is also contest for the House and the Senate.  I think that these contests are in some ways more important than the Presidential elections.    The legislative branch of the Government are the ones that make laws and have the purse strings.   We need to stop the outrageous spending and long arm of the Government meddling with everything we do to and go on a diet.  Its needs to be weened from the addiction to control every aspect of our lives. Yes , the President has a lot to say about how much of a overbearing parent the Government is to our everyday lives.  But the CONgress is the ones that legislate that agenda.

We are on the ledge and about ready to drive this country over the cliff.  And it seems that most in CONgress are accelerating us faster over the cliff.   But we can change the direction and slam on the brakes.  We can take back the Senate and get a larger majority in the House.   We must not look over these races, and just look at the top ticket this year.

There are also local and state elections.   We must not look over these races either.   Remember all Politics is local.   The closer to where you live, the more impact the GOV has on your lives.   State House and Senate races, local city council and so on.

Here are some examples.  I have 3 friends running for various offices.

First is my friend Andrew Ian Dodge.  (Full disclosure, I am helping his campaign).   He is running for the Senate seat in Maine.   He is in the primary against Olympia Snowe ( one of the most Liberal Republicans in the Senate).

Next is my friend Steve Foley, running for the 47 District House seat in California.  (I help him run the Minority Report Network)

And finally is my friend Lennie Jarratt running for the State Senate in IL 31st Disctrict.  (He is my all around tech guy if I need to know anything about hosting or coding for blogs)

They are all my friends and they all know about what all of us are gong through.   They are everyday people that stepped up to the plate and want to change the direction this country is going.

Why am I saying all this?

With all the craziness I have seen go on in the GOP Primaries, I think some people have lost track of what the big picture is. It is not about 1 person, it is about the  Government as a whole.  All the way down to the local dog catcher.   We are going to need to get people into the House , Senate, State Legislatures and into local governments.  Are we going to change everything in 1 election?   No.  It will take a long time to change the direction this country is going.

Enter the 2012 GOP Convention Blogger Supersite. I am setting up this site to gather and share resources the attending bloggers might need. I urge you to visit the site and add it to your links, feed readers, etc. I would really appreciate it if you will visit the first post and add your comments and hit all the share buttons.

As I said over there, the first order of business is compiling a list of Tampa-Orlando area bloggers. Let me know if you fit that description. Soon, we’ll be looking for information about those coming to the convention.

Friends, 2012 will be a blur and August will be here before we know it. Help me spread the word today. Thanks!

Cross posted from bRight & Early

2012 is going to be a busy year. It is also going to be an important year for the conservative cause. Hopefully that will mean a busy year for Reclaim Conservatism.

It starts getting serious tomorrow in Iowa. In addition to Iowa we have primary votes in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida over the next four weeks. The field will likely shrink some and the leaders will change. Who and How are still to be answered.

While we wait on those answers, let me repeat my call for more writers for this site and The Bullpen. I can’t get into more now as work calls, but there are a host of issues to address in the days and weeks ahead.

Can I ask just one more thing? Would you please connect with Reclaim Conservatism? You can find us on Twitter, link to an article you like, or just comment. We’d love to hear from you. Have a great 2012!

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Where We Are

Prior to this post, the last contribution was in June of this year. That’s my fault. I have allowed Reclaim Conservatism to sit, unused, for far to long.

Currently three authors are able to contribute here — Me, GM Roper, and Stix. All of us have other projects and blogs where we contribute. Speaking only for myself, I don’t want to use that as an excuse. I believe that creating this site was a good idea. It still is, it just needs some direction.

Where We Are Going

At least, Where I’d like to see us go. Over the next few paragraphs I’d like to describe my vision for this site as we head into 2012. I’ll be reaching out to the other contributors for their thoughts later this morning.

1. More Co-bloggers — I would very much like to see more conservatives contribute here. Let me outline my thinking.
   • Co-bloggers/Active contributors. I’d like to see the number of regular writers increase to 6-10. That would help make this site very content rich.
   • The Bullpen — I know there are some who might like to contribute, but only on a occasional basis. Over the next few days I will be setting up a separate sub-blog that I am tentatively calling “The Bullpen”. This will be for (nearly) anyone who is interested in writing about the conservative cause. Outstanding posts will be promoted to the main site.
   • Guest Bloggers — I would also like to throw the doors open to writers, pundits, and others wanting to promote conservatism.
2. The Reclaim Report — Another neglected facet of this project is a newsletter called the Reclaim Report. That needs some attention as well.
3. Action — Writing is nice, it can even be fun, but action is what is really needed. What form that will take is something that will have to be discussed.

More Later

Knowing that this site doesn’t get a lot of views yet, I’m going to publish this even though I have more I’d like to add. If you do happen upon this post, feel free to add your comments. If you would like to be a part of Reclaim Conservatism, please send an email to lakelandjim at gmail dot com.

I know that JD Alexander is my Florida State Senator, and Ben Albritton is my representative. I voted for both and they’ve been doing a good job. But I have to admit that I know far less about them, and what they’re doing, than I do about those in the federal government.

But it gets even worse.

I live in a very small town — 1.4 square miles and less than 2500 people. I have to admit I only knew the name of the Mayor (J.R. Sullivan), but I couldn’t pick him or any of the city commissioners out of a lineup.

What point am I trying to make? Maybe none. Maybe just a reminder to myself that the small local stage is as important as the big national one. There is also the question of where can I (or anyone else) have greater direct influence? At Freedom Connector they have a group called the Unified Patriots Precinct Committeeman Strategy which lists this as their mission:

Do you want to become a more informed voter? Want to learn how to GOTV? Want to motivate Republicans-In-Name-Only to start following the Constitution? Want better conservative Republican Party candidates with a chance to win the primary and general elections? Become active in the Republican Party. Take command of your neighborhood and get out the vote. Become a Republican Party precinct committeeman. Precinct committeemen elect the leadership within the Party and vote to endorse the Republicans in the primaries. The more conservatives in the precinct committeemen ranks, the more conservative the leadership and the primary winners will be.

And that’s only one way. At the very least, become informed about local issues, officials, and whatever is going on where you live. Get involved. Find like-minded people near you. Get Local.

Cross-posted from bRight & Early

Why so rushed sir, you had no problem ordering the attacks while in Brazil, you had no problem spending time playing soccer with kids or being awed at South American crafts, poverty, adoring crowds, why rush home?

You really are a disgrace sir.

Xposted at GM’s Place

The quote above is often attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville but was used as an unsourced attribution to Alexander Fraser Tytler in “This is the Hard Core of Freedom” by Elmer T. Peterson in The Daily Oklahoman. Whatever the source, the initial portion of the thought certainly appears to be correct. Let me condense the first part down to it’s essence — A democracy can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. I’ve seen it misquoted this way before, but the inaccuracy of the quote doesn’t make an inaccurate observation. We can see example after example in today’s headlines, policy discussions, and political campaigning.

Wisconsin is getting most of the attention, but a nearly identical story is playing out in Ohio, Indiana, and many other states as they are reaching the point (in many cases, already beyond the point) where Peter is willing to let Peter rob him anymore. And it’s not just the public sector unions, an inherently bad idea that continues to get worse, it’s also ideas like “High Speed Rail” (you have to use irony quotes around the title of something that so ill describes what it is). The rail arguments make this clear as they focus on the government money that can be “had” while ignoring the necessity and long term costs. Some of the arguments I’ve heard are so focused on the money Uncle Sam wants to “give away” that they ignore the costs and the other realities of the program.

In many ways the Federal Government has turned into the largest money laundering scheme in the world. Money is taken from the states and confiscated from the citizens, passed through the “super-efficient” Washington bureaucracy, and finally part of what remains is sent back to the states firmly tethered with many strings attached. Among the many things I don’t get is how anyone can think this is a good system for getting anything done. I’m not a politician, and I don’t think I’ve ever stayed at a Holiday Inn Express, but I’m smart enough to know what remains after you pass all of our money through the federal gastro-intestinal tract.

Of course money is only part of it. Yes, we are Taxed Enough Already as the TEA Party makes clear, but we also need a little a little SUGAR for our TEA. What is SUGAR? I’m glad you asked. It stands for Stop Unnecessary Government And Regulation. OK, I had to work to get the A in there, but it’s true, we don’t suffer from too little government or too little regulation. We have plenty of both. I’m fond of this quote from Ronald Reagan — “Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves”. That quote is closely related to this one, “Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it“.

If things are finally moving in our (conservatives) direction it is because there are still enough “John Galts” to point out the issues. More than pointing out, we have to act. Act by voting, supporting candidates that will but the brakes on too much government, running for office if that is what you should do, and generally being informed and involved in containing government to it’s limited role. We must do this. We are too close to the tipping point to stop.

Cross posted from bRight & Early