FreedomWorks

Last week, blogging from Tampa, I outlined the clear themes that emerged for the Romney campaign. This week, viewing from home, it has already become clear after the first day of the Democrat National Convention which themes they will promote to reelect Barack Obama. Suffice it to say that this will, indeed, be a clear choice in November. The themes that emerged from the Republican National Convention were executive leadership, immigrants coming to America to find success, entrepreneurship, how free markets are better than entitlements and government dependence for minorities and women, and a leadership and problem solving style that is results oriented. Of course, the Democrat National Convention has a different view of the value of government dependence: Transcript: We are committed to all people. We do believe you can use government in a good way. Government is the only thing we all belong to. We're [in] different churches, different clubs, but we're all together as a part of our city or our county or our state. And our nation. (By the way, it's pretty flippin' creepy, right at the beginning, that they have a bunch of people riding bikes, looking like Obama in that one unfortunate pic from Martha's Vinyard, riding in unison in a circle ... but I digress.) The negative reaction to this video has been coming fast and furious from all corners of the blogsophere, and with good reason. As of mid day Wednesday, the video has been seen almost 145,000 times, with under 200 likes and over 3000 dislikes. The comments on the youtube post are overwhelmingly negative. To his credit, Mitt Romney almost immediately tweeted: The DNC could not have made it more clear where they stand. Indeed, I've blogged previously about the nakedly marxist nature of Obama's utterances, and they now appear to be doubling down on the populist, collectivist, shared sacrifice, spread the wealth around, at some point you've made enough money message. So, from a pragmatic economic standpoint, you have a choice between someone who believes in the power of the individual to succeed on his or her own, regardless of race, and someone who believes that the state is all powerful and is more important than the individual. If you're a small business owner, which approach sounds more likely to promote your success? Of course, other fun themes emerged from the DNC's first day as well: Blast from the past: Dukakis to attack Romney’s gubernatorial record at DNC As if that weren't a sufficient reminders of the failures of the past, they also trotted out Jimmy Carter and Ted Kennedy:   Sometimes, they make it too easy for us. After the all star lineup from Tampa last week, one wonders how Conservatives ever lose elections in this country.

Perfect. Republicans faced Hurricane Isaac during their national convention. Democrats face a Hurricane of Debt during their convention. The national debt is expected to top $16 trillion dollars this week. Obama added over $6 trillion to the nation's debt in less than four years. When he took office it was $9.986 trillion. This could be awkward.  

In this third and final episode, Rep. Tom McClintock talks about the upcoming 2012 elections and warns that if Republicans win, they must still prove themselves worthy of governing.  He also talks about the importance of keeping informed about your lawmakers' votes, and of letting them know how you feel about their record, good or bad.  He points out that our access to information makes us better equipped than ever before to know what's really going on in Washington and to hold our government accountable. Tea Time Interviewee:  Tom McClintock

Allen West dropped by the Blogger Hangout at the RNC Convention on August 30, and was very gracious with his time. On his legislative agenda for 2013, he discussed tax reform and regulatory reform as a means to unleash small business success. He took a quick little shot at Harry Reid too, challenging him to pass the job creating legislation that has been blocked from a full vote at the Senate. I asked him about Sen. McCain's Convention remarks about the current state of the Middle East. He came out in strong defense of Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israel's right as a sovereign nation to take action to protect itself from Iran, and he made a point of stating that America needs to take a supportive role in relation to its allies in the region. He paints a bleak picture of what's going on in the region due to a lack of American leadership. Finally, he states that the reason that the momentum is on the side of the GOP is because we are talking about principles, stating that when Republicans stand on Conservative values and talk about the Constitution, we win.

On August 4, John Fund appeared as the keynote speaker at the annual Gathering of the Eagles in Turner, Oregon. This annual gathering, put on by former Oregon gubernatorial candidate Ames Curtwright, is one of the largest conservative rallies on the West Coast. This year, over 700 attendees were in the audience to hear Mr. Fund talk about his new book, Who's Counting? How Fraudsters And Bureaucrats Put Your Vote At Risk. Mr. Fund was gracious enough to allow me a quick interview after his speech. His three minutes with me were enough to terrify me – I can’t imagine what shenanigans he documents in his new book. Q: Intro; Mr. Fund, thank you for being here in Oregon, which is ground zero for the sort of experimentation in voter fraud. Tell us a little bit about the new book. A: Well, voter fraud is a serious issue in America, and so is the competence of our election officials. Sometimes you have such sloppy election systems that you can’t tell where incompetence ends and fraud begins. For those people who don’t think there’s voter fraud or it doesn’t make a difference, I point to the 2008 Senate election in Minnesota, where Al Franken was declared the victor by 312 votes, and his election succeeding led to the passage of Obamacare. He was the 60th vote on Obama’s Health Control Law … Q: Not health CARE, health CONTROL … A: Health CONTROL. But we now know that over 1200 felons voted illegally in that election, and all the evidence we have is that they voted overwhelmingly for Obama. So over 177 have already been convicted of voting illegally in that election, and dozens more cases to be decided, so we could get to a point where we have more people voting illegally in that election than was the margin of victory. So I think that voter fraud is a very serious problem. Barack Obama of course was ACORN’s lawyer, ACORN the notorious voter fraudsters. Obama’s Justice Department seems uninterested in pursuing voter fraud. We could see a Florida style [2000 Bush v Gore] meltdown where we have an election that is held up in the air for moths afterward. That’s a real problem. Voter fraud is a serious issue. We can stop it. We can limit it. Have to have observers at the polls. Voter fraud is a lot like shoplifting. You pay some attention to it and you reduce the instances of it. That’s what my book is trying to do. Q: And the polling looks like it’s pretty close this year, so it looks like the Presidential election could come down to it. A: The incentive to commit voter fraud is greater than ever in a close election. Q: I know you’ve done quite a bit of work here in the state of Oregon, and you’ve included some examples in your new book. What are some of your favorite examples from Oregon that you’ve included in your book? A: The thing that you hear is, if you have all of these portable drop boxes that you’re putting the ballots into, and there’s no chain of custody – temporary workers pick them up and return them to the central polling locations – then nobody knows exactly what happened or is being done with them. I think that’s a great invitation to mischief. Q: I know of one observer in particular who was following a car returning the ballots, and this car actually lost [the observer] by speeding through a school zone and through a yellow light over rail road tracks. A: (Shaking his head) We can only have a democracy if the people have confidence in the integrity of the honesty of the election. The people don’t have that today. Here is the video of his full keynote address, where he goes into further detail: Note that in this address, starting around the 9-minute mark, Mr. Fund makes a strong case that voter fraud hurts inner city minorities the most. Every time they want to vote for someone who will fix their plight of being trapped in inner city failing schools, they have their vote stolen out from under them. Far from being suppressive, voter id is supported by 2/3 of African American and Hispanic voters. The left’s theme of voter s

In this second of three episodes, Rep. Tom McClintock talks about how out-of-control bureaucracies have historically taken down civilizations, and how a responsible citizenry can reverse the growth of government before it collapses under its own weight.  He also discusses how the new GOP leadership in Congress has made progress in increasing transparency, but also how it has failed to make any real progress in cutting spending to sustainable levels. Tea Time Interviewee:  Tom McClintock

The Romney campaign and Republican party leaders have pulled off an audacious coup that could greatly reduce the influence of grassroots conservatives and libertarians within the party in 2016 and beyond.  Yesterday, the Republican National Committee in Tampa adopted some rules changes that shift power from the state parties and the grassroots to the RNC and the GOP presidential nominee. Former Governor John Sununu of New Hampshire touted the new rules as providing “a strong governing framework” for the party over the next four years. But in fact the new rules should be very troubling and disappointing to conservative grassroots activists, because they move the national Republican Party away from being a party that is decentralized and bottom-up toward becoming one that is centralized and top-down. The Romney rules effectively disenfranchise grassroots delegates, and will thus tend to weaken and splinter the party over time. They specifically represent a blow to the Tea Party and the Ron Paul insurgency -- movements that have sprung up precisely because Washington insiders (of both parties) have abandoned the traditional bedrock principles of the Republican party, namely, economic freedom, fiscal common sense, and smaller, constitutionally limited government. Indeed, these vibrant new movements (which have attracted many young people, politically active citizens, and non-Republicans) represent what could fairly be characterized as "the Republican wing of the Republican party." They want a real voice in the Grand Old Party. They've played by the rules. But the power brokers have now changed the rules, in order to shut them out. This unexpected hostility forces grassroots conservatives to reconsider their future within the GOP.  Party sage and long-time RNC member (and conservative activist) Morton Blackwell led a last-minute effort to stop the changes -- an effort FreedomWorks strongly supported, together with such prominent conservatives as Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, and Phyllis Schlafly. RNC for Life jumped into the fray, concerned to protect the grassroots' ability to have a voice in writing the Republican platrform. Meanwhile, in the blogosphere, Michelle Malkin, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, and others helped sound the alarm.  But alas, the Romney camp and RNC insiders won the day, successfully imposing their will with the help of their control of the gavels, superior knowledge of the process, and perhaps some dirty tricks. The conservative “rebels” won the moral victory, however, taking their fight to the Rules Committee and the full Convention floor and arguably winning the voice vote there to stop the rules, only to be gaveled down by Speaker John Boehner [view video from 1:08 minutes].  Yesterday’s fight offers a sobering glimpse of what life will be like for conservatives in a Romney Administration. It proves once again that sometimes we have to beat the Republicans before we can beat the Democrats. In Terms of Substance Last Friday, August 24th, longtime GOP lawyer and Romney advisor Ben Ginsberg surprised Rules Committee members by proposing some rules changes that, on reflection, are almost certainly intended to consolidate control of the party in Washington and head off a conservative challenge to President Romney in 2016.  The proposed changes would do two main things:1. Amend existing Rule 12 to hand members of the Republican National Committee, for the first time, the power to change the party's rules on the fly between national conventions. (National conventions only take place during presidential election years.) The RNC may not amend Rule 12, however; that privilege remains reserved to a national convention. Three-fourths of RNC members must approve a proposed rules change for it to take effect. Comment: This is unprecedented. It would give RNC members a new power to circumvent rules adopted by a national convention. And it actually bars the RNC from d

Shane Wright contributed this breaking news on the GOP rules change fiasco... Victory or Farce? After much backlash from grassroots groups the RNC has agreed to compromise in an effort to avoid a floor fight over the proposed rule allowing candidates to select their own delegates and silence opposition. The language of the compromise states that delegates must vote for the candidate to which they are bound. There is no real opposition to this aspect of the compromise as it is against the law in most states to vote for a candidate whom you are not bound to, the state laws do differ so this rule seeks to reinforce them. The issue that some delegates continue to have with the compromise is that proposed rule 12 would allow the RNC to rewrite the operating rules and guidelines of the GOP between conventions, without the influence of delegates, so long as they had a three-fourths majority. According to www.preservetheparty.com , a website started this week by delegates to help raise awareness on this issue, proposed rule 12 reads: “The Republican National Committee may, by three-fourths (3/4) vote of its entire membership, amend Rule Nos. 1-11 and 13-25. Any such amendment shall be considered by the Republican National Committee only if it was passed by a majority vote of the Standing Committee on Rules after having been submitted in writing at least ten (10) days in advance of its consideration by the Republican National Committee and shall take effect thirty (30) days after adoption. No such amendment shall be adopted after September 30, 2014. The language of rule 12 makes the compromise on Rule 16, which would essentially allow a candidate to hire and fire delegates as they see fit, a farce, the RNC can simply go back and rewrite the rules once the convention is over. I spoke with Jeremy Blosser, a Texas delegate, who is furious over the compromise because it does not address proposed rule 12. “Some are answering that Rule 12 has checks and balances, but far too much is being made of these. There's no "emergency changes only" requirement, and it's clear from the debate offered in the committee that the intention is to not restrict it to emergency changes but to allow consideration of substantive and controversial changes that the candidates prevent being discussed during the convention media cycle. There's no ratification requirement such as requiring a number of State Executive Committees to ratify, or the next national convention to ratify. There's no attempt to preserve the strength of the individual states.” If this rule stands it will operate as a contingency plan for the RNC, should Grassroots organizations gain more influence than RNC leadership is comfortable with. This must be stopped. The vote is happening today.  Please call your state's Rules Committee delegates here and voice your opposition to the "compromise" on Rule 15, as well as to the changes to Rule 12, and support the full Minority Reports on the Rules. Shane Wright is a FreedomWorks blogger and marketing strategist for Resist 44. Follow him at ShaneWright22

In this series of Tea Time, Max Pappas interviews Congressman Tom McClintock of California.  The Congressman talks about his inspiration for getting into politics, and how he has fought against the big-government policies of both parties for his entire career.  He also talks about the broader conflict of visions that transcends political parties, between those who seek to control others and those who seek to be left to govern themselves. Tea Time Interviewee:  Tom McClintock

Education reform has often been ignored by the political establishment and the media elite, with little focus being placed on the failures of the American education system.   Despite the neglect, an underground school choice movement that unites both Right and Left has been gaining ground over the past 20 years, scoring an increasing number of victories for education reform in many states over the past two years.  As the movement continues to gain valuable momentum, school choice advocates are beginning to gain attention from Hollywood of all places.  Coming off the success of the documentary film “Waiting for Superman” in 2010, Hollywood looks to make another big splash this time with the major motion picture “Don’t Back Down”, starring Hollywood A-lister Maggie Gyllenhall.  According to IMDB.com the movies story line is as follows:   “Two determined mothers­, one a teacher, look to transform their children's failing inner city school. Facing a powerful and entrenched bureaucracy, they risk everything to make a difference in the education and future of their children.”  The movie, based on actual events mirrors the real life story of so many thousands of parents with children in failing schools.  The film is a nightmare scenario for the education establishment because it shows that the popular culture is beginning to side more with parents and students, rather than the bureaucracy and unions. Bringing school choice to the big screen is a risky move for Hollywood, where anything believed to be conservative in nature is often times met with scorn and harsh remarks from the liberal base in Tinsel Town.  This movie is sure to create a fire-storm and add to the already heated debate waging between the education “cartel” and the school choice movement.  Regardless, the movie is needed today more than ever. For years the school choice movement has been ignored, despite its success and bi-partisan nature.  The school choice movement should take pride in driving this fight to a national scale.  When movements can find a place in the cultural space, success is sure to follow.  The school choice movement would be foolish to ignore the power of this film and should embrace this with open arms. So mark your calendars for September 28th and plan to take your friends to your local theater to see what surely will be a great film and a momentous occasion for the school choice movement.      For more information on the movie “Won’t Back Down” Visit http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1870529/

While it's true that national campaigns, especially the presidential, have to focus on broader themes and stay on message, there remains a laundry list of specifics that down-ticket candidates and new media types could and should be relentlessly hammering away at. Most notable among the topics are the Fast and Furious scandal, the failure of Solyndra and other stimulus backed "green" initiatives and the cronyism involved in implementing the Affordable Care Act in the form of waivers to Big Labor and other strong Obama supporters. Perhaps the most insidious case of cronyism occured as part of the auto industry bailout at the Delphi automotive parts manufacturing company. Twenty thousand non-union workers had their pension plans terminated while those of Delphi's union employees were preserved. The Obama administration insists that the decision was an independent one made by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. The PBGC is yet another one of the many independent-in-theory organizations that is chartered to make decisions about the private sector yet remains a part of the bureaucratic federal behemoth. There is evidence, however, that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was pulling the strings that made the PBGC dance. That evidence, along with the overwhelming egregiousness of termination of the pensions, has led to a bipartisan (Isn't that what we all want?!?) inquiry into exactly what went on during the decision making process for Delphi workers. The president and his surrogates are fond of trotting out isolated, heartstring-tugging, examples of the purported successes of the stimulus and the auto industry bailout, despite the fact that neither program has had many of them. (And yes, dear liberal readers, I know that the auto bailout began under George W. Bush. I wasn't a fan of it then, either.) This administration and its surrogates are forever peddling the notion that they are the only ones who truly care about the futures of seniors and soon to be retirees, which makes its very casual and real disruption of twenty thousand lives (more, actually, when the family members affected are factored in) at just one company all the more hypocritical and cruel. It is true that many pension plans in America are being altered to fit economic realities. Had the PBGC made across-the-board cuts at Delphi this would be just another sad story about this recession. The preservation of the union pensions at the expense of non-union employees makes it a prime example of exactly which Americans the Obama administration is fighting for and which are expendable. An organization called Let Freedom Ring is producing some videos featuring Delphi employees whose futures were endangered by the Obama administration's casual application of politics over principle. The video below is the group's latest ad and will hopefully help push this story into further prominence in the national discussion of the real issues to be considered before November.

This is the third and final episode with Senator Tom Coburn.  As the interview was streamed live, Max Pappas took some questions from FreedomWorks' Facebook page.  Senator Coburn answers questions about federal student loans, how to fix health care, and stopping crony capitalism in the farm industry.  He also talks about what has motivated him to keep fighting against reckless spending, even when he had few allies in Congress.  Finally, he talks about what you can do to to engage and help drive actual change in Washington. Tea Time Interviewee:  Tom Coburn

In this second of three episodes, Senator Coburn talks about his book "The Debt Bomb" and about how dangerous our nation's debt is to our economic future.  He notes that in order to reduce our debt and spending levels, we have to discuss the fundamental role of the federal government so that we can make choices about what to cut before they are made for us. Tea Time Interviewee:  Tom Coburn

In this first of three episodes, Senator Coburn talks about why legislators lose sight of their constituents' problems, and why self-imposing term limits helps him keep focused on his obligations under the Constitution. He also talks about the role of the government under the Constitution, which he discusses in more detail in his new book "The Debt Bomb". Tea Time Interviewee:  Tom Coburn

The despicable class warfare strategy settled on by the Obama campaign is sinking lower and lower, dragging the reputation of the Presidency with it.  Having humorously accused Romney of the universal practice of minimizing the amount he pays in taxes or not paying any at all, of killing jobs and even killing a woman, the widely discredited assault on common sense continues apace. At a campaign rally in Danville, VA on Tuesday, Vice President Joe Biden, unsure where he was, was nonetheless sure who he was addressing, as he slipped his delivery into race-bait mode:   ...[C]lear picture of what they all value. They've said it. Every Republican's voted for it. Look at what they value, and their budget, and what they're proposing. Romney wants to let the, he said in the first 100 days, he's going to let the big banks once again write their own rules. "Unchain" ... Wall Street. They're gon' put y'all back in chains. He said he gon' do nothin' about stopping the practice of outsourcing. The Romney campaign responded, (full video at The Right Scoop) "After weeks of slanderous and baseless accusations leveled against Governor Romney, the Obama campaign has reached a new low. The comments made by the Vice President of the United States are not acceptable in our political discourse and demonstrate yet again that the Obama campaign will say and do anything to win this election," said Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul. "President Obama should tell the American people whether he agrees with Joe Biden’s comments." The Obama campaign embraced Biden's remarks, saying "The bottom line is that we have no problem with those comments." Of course they don't. The Obama campaign is built on class warfare, but more precisely, it's built on the fundamental principle of leftism: that people primarily interact as members of groups. Whether it's women versus men, rich versus poor, gay versus straight, or black versus white, the Obama campaign attempts to divide and conquer. By splitting Americans into groups and pandering individually to the groups, Obama's camp believes it can cobble together enough votes in enough states to win an Electoral College majority and retain the White House. It's a strategy devoid of principle, built purely on partisan bean counting, dressed up in populist rags. And yet, the shallowness and vapidity of the Obama campaign provides Americans with a clear choice. Will we be a country of splinter groups, segregated and hating one another? Or acknowleging our various individual means of pursuing happiness, will we come together as a nation? The question could not have better icons than Obama and Romney. As Monica Crowley says,  When Obama speaks of the "fundamental transformation" of the nation, he means remaking America in the image of his father's socialist dreams. When Ryan speaks of "fundamentally restoring" the nation, he means moving America back to the nation of HIS father, in which individual responsibility, limited government, fiscal sanity, and economic freedom prevailed. Whatever our policy differences with the candidates of the two main parties, it's clear that at a fundamental level we have a choice. The next several weeks will determine whether Americans are willing to accept demogoguery in replace of leadership, or if they are wise enough to accept no substitutes. We will also decide whether to endure the chains of collectivism, or to throw them off for the mutual happiness of individual liberty.