Matt Collins
08-24-2010, 08:55 PM
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: How’s that supporting the lesser of two evils thing working for you?
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2010 15:48:45 -0700
From: Kirk Shelley <dnk@training4liberty.org>
Reply-To: dnk@training4liberty.org
How's that supporting the lesser of two evils thing working for you?
http://paracom.paramountcommunication.com/cimages/8dbac5d3199a7199c9b1055e59e9e768/facl_banner1.gif
Dear Liberty Activist,
Last month we had our GOP Primary election in Oklahoma.
I was disappointed (but not surprised) that the anti-establishment tea party supported candidate for Governor, Sen. Randy Brogdon lost to Rep. Mary Fallin.
Many principled conservatives vowed they would not support Mary Fallin in November because of her votes for the Bush Bailouts.
A week following the Primary, Sen. Randy Brogdon decided to endorse Mary Fallin. Now, many of the Tea Party groups are trying to decide whether to follow his lead or stay neutral.
This is what I received from an Oklahoma leader of a group of cultural conservatives who had supported Brogden in the primary – this is from his weekly email:
“To be consistent and avoid hypocrisy, I now must support Mary for the general election.
I know it is hard to invest time and resources supporting Randy and being completely convinced that Randy was the man for the time, the more conservative and the more passionate and courageous for the task and then be asked to lay that down and now support Mary.
The question is, are we going to be citizens ruled by our emotions or are we going to evaluate this from a position of reason and strong probabilities that Mary will be much more friendly toward conservatism than Jari Askins? Case in point, just what are Jari’s positions regarding Oklahoma’s opt out of Obamacare that we will be voting on in November1?
Mary is very supportive of that state question. Please consider these thoughts, many of the problems we face today are because Americans make decisions out of emotions rather than facts, reason and rational judgment.
I hope we will subject our emotion in this case to what is the logical choice and that is Mary.”
A couple of notes here:
1) The author did not say Fallin was a conservative. According to the author, she was not. She often voted with liberals as a State Legislator and Congresswoman.
2) The author asks his supporters to lay aside principle in order to be logical.
3) And at the risk of sounding snotty, the author begins by saying he wants to avoid being a hypocrite. I think you sound very hypocritical when you blast someone in the Primary but you ignore their faults in the General election.
My point is NOT that we should rush out and support Fallin’s opponent.
The point is that you don’t ask good people to lay aside principles and walk lock step behind the GOP’s nominee because “there is a strong possibility” that she would be “friendlier” to conservatives than a moderate/conservative Democrat.
(As an aside -- I think in this case I actually believe that the Democrat would be more likely to sign gun freedom legislation and stop Dangerous ID than Fallin).
Providentially, the author of this ezine looked back at his group’s track record in the previous weeks email:
And a final note, this is an issue that the voters will decide, not the next Governor. So much for reason and logic. Of all the endorsed candidates we lost 11 races, won 7 and still have 3 in run-off races.
In my many years of activism I have been involved in many grassroots campaigns against the Republican establishment candidates. Some of those campaigns include Mike Fair, Jerry Pierce and Jerry Brown in races for Governor.
Others have included Tim Green, and James Dunn* (Dunn was a general election but many establishment Republicans didn’t support him) for Attorney General. Usually
the establishment candidate gets 60 percent or more of the vote.
What we have here is a failure to learn from history.
After every primary, he runs back and tows the GOP line and backs the establishment candidates. For 19 years this group has been meeting and working. What has been the result?
• Are we more free? NO
• Is government shrinking? NO
• Is the establishment scared of movement conservatives? NO
• Do they respect us? NO
If I was the author’s political “enemy” I would be very happy to lose 40% of the GOP primary vote and 40% of the Republican Party Convention and 40% of everything else we want as long as he’ll be part of team GOP come November.
My question to the author and to the activists who supported Brogden during the primary: Do you believe what you said in the Primary? Does the “Bailout Candidate” deserve our support?
My question to you is: “Are you going to join the ranks of the “principled” conservatives who try to make a good showing in the primary but then kiss and make up with the slime ball politicians who stole our liberty?”
Would the establishment care that much about “Team GOP” if our guy won a primary?
No they don’t.
Note above*, that James Dunn did win the GOP Primary for Attorney General. But he was too conservative for the GOP establishment, so they turned their backs on him (and none of them ever worried about being a hypocrite).
What lesson is the author of this ezine teaching the political class.
To me it is: “You can attack my candidates, malign my ideas, steal my property and freedom ... but I’ll still be there with you in November.”
No wonder the political class doesn’t fear and respect him.
You can learn from the past, or be doomed to repeat it -- Your choice.
But the verdict is in. The strategy of political appeasement in my opinion has been weighed and measured and found wanting.
Never ask good people to support bad candidates of either party. I wouldn’t ask Campaign For Liberty members to support Askins, but I also wouldn’t ask them to support Mary either.
Because when push comes to shove, she voted to take billions of our hard earned money to bail out the fiscally irresponsible billionaires.
She took pennies from the poor to give to rich.
She doesn’t deserve a single pixel of support from any of us.
Sincerely,
Kirk Shelley
Foundation For Applied Conservative Leadership (http://paracom.paramountcommunication.com/ct/4549147:6795615250:m:1:196453956:EF72778578A4AD58B 72E9E5F653B71FE)
1. Note: This is a weak referendum on opting out of ObamaCare, but does not compel the state to stand up for the citizens. But further note that the author is attacking Askins before he even knows her position on the issue. And a final note, this is an issue that the voters will decide, not the next Governor. So much for reason and logic.
Subject: How’s that supporting the lesser of two evils thing working for you?
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2010 15:48:45 -0700
From: Kirk Shelley <dnk@training4liberty.org>
Reply-To: dnk@training4liberty.org
How's that supporting the lesser of two evils thing working for you?
http://paracom.paramountcommunication.com/cimages/8dbac5d3199a7199c9b1055e59e9e768/facl_banner1.gif
Dear Liberty Activist,
Last month we had our GOP Primary election in Oklahoma.
I was disappointed (but not surprised) that the anti-establishment tea party supported candidate for Governor, Sen. Randy Brogdon lost to Rep. Mary Fallin.
Many principled conservatives vowed they would not support Mary Fallin in November because of her votes for the Bush Bailouts.
A week following the Primary, Sen. Randy Brogdon decided to endorse Mary Fallin. Now, many of the Tea Party groups are trying to decide whether to follow his lead or stay neutral.
This is what I received from an Oklahoma leader of a group of cultural conservatives who had supported Brogden in the primary – this is from his weekly email:
“To be consistent and avoid hypocrisy, I now must support Mary for the general election.
I know it is hard to invest time and resources supporting Randy and being completely convinced that Randy was the man for the time, the more conservative and the more passionate and courageous for the task and then be asked to lay that down and now support Mary.
The question is, are we going to be citizens ruled by our emotions or are we going to evaluate this from a position of reason and strong probabilities that Mary will be much more friendly toward conservatism than Jari Askins? Case in point, just what are Jari’s positions regarding Oklahoma’s opt out of Obamacare that we will be voting on in November1?
Mary is very supportive of that state question. Please consider these thoughts, many of the problems we face today are because Americans make decisions out of emotions rather than facts, reason and rational judgment.
I hope we will subject our emotion in this case to what is the logical choice and that is Mary.”
A couple of notes here:
1) The author did not say Fallin was a conservative. According to the author, she was not. She often voted with liberals as a State Legislator and Congresswoman.
2) The author asks his supporters to lay aside principle in order to be logical.
3) And at the risk of sounding snotty, the author begins by saying he wants to avoid being a hypocrite. I think you sound very hypocritical when you blast someone in the Primary but you ignore their faults in the General election.
My point is NOT that we should rush out and support Fallin’s opponent.
The point is that you don’t ask good people to lay aside principles and walk lock step behind the GOP’s nominee because “there is a strong possibility” that she would be “friendlier” to conservatives than a moderate/conservative Democrat.
(As an aside -- I think in this case I actually believe that the Democrat would be more likely to sign gun freedom legislation and stop Dangerous ID than Fallin).
Providentially, the author of this ezine looked back at his group’s track record in the previous weeks email:
And a final note, this is an issue that the voters will decide, not the next Governor. So much for reason and logic. Of all the endorsed candidates we lost 11 races, won 7 and still have 3 in run-off races.
In my many years of activism I have been involved in many grassroots campaigns against the Republican establishment candidates. Some of those campaigns include Mike Fair, Jerry Pierce and Jerry Brown in races for Governor.
Others have included Tim Green, and James Dunn* (Dunn was a general election but many establishment Republicans didn’t support him) for Attorney General. Usually
the establishment candidate gets 60 percent or more of the vote.
What we have here is a failure to learn from history.
After every primary, he runs back and tows the GOP line and backs the establishment candidates. For 19 years this group has been meeting and working. What has been the result?
• Are we more free? NO
• Is government shrinking? NO
• Is the establishment scared of movement conservatives? NO
• Do they respect us? NO
If I was the author’s political “enemy” I would be very happy to lose 40% of the GOP primary vote and 40% of the Republican Party Convention and 40% of everything else we want as long as he’ll be part of team GOP come November.
My question to the author and to the activists who supported Brogden during the primary: Do you believe what you said in the Primary? Does the “Bailout Candidate” deserve our support?
My question to you is: “Are you going to join the ranks of the “principled” conservatives who try to make a good showing in the primary but then kiss and make up with the slime ball politicians who stole our liberty?”
Would the establishment care that much about “Team GOP” if our guy won a primary?
No they don’t.
Note above*, that James Dunn did win the GOP Primary for Attorney General. But he was too conservative for the GOP establishment, so they turned their backs on him (and none of them ever worried about being a hypocrite).
What lesson is the author of this ezine teaching the political class.
To me it is: “You can attack my candidates, malign my ideas, steal my property and freedom ... but I’ll still be there with you in November.”
No wonder the political class doesn’t fear and respect him.
You can learn from the past, or be doomed to repeat it -- Your choice.
But the verdict is in. The strategy of political appeasement in my opinion has been weighed and measured and found wanting.
Never ask good people to support bad candidates of either party. I wouldn’t ask Campaign For Liberty members to support Askins, but I also wouldn’t ask them to support Mary either.
Because when push comes to shove, she voted to take billions of our hard earned money to bail out the fiscally irresponsible billionaires.
She took pennies from the poor to give to rich.
She doesn’t deserve a single pixel of support from any of us.
Sincerely,
Kirk Shelley
Foundation For Applied Conservative Leadership (http://paracom.paramountcommunication.com/ct/4549147:6795615250:m:1:196453956:EF72778578A4AD58B 72E9E5F653B71FE)
1. Note: This is a weak referendum on opting out of ObamaCare, but does not compel the state to stand up for the citizens. But further note that the author is attacking Askins before he even knows her position on the issue. And a final note, this is an issue that the voters will decide, not the next Governor. So much for reason and logic.