- I am very happy that Michele Bachman won her House Of Representives seat in Minnesota. She apparently faced some very nasty and unnecessary personal attacks during the campaign, including a benefit concert for her opponent that was headlined as: "F*%$ Michele Bachman." No human being, including a politician, should have to face that kind of degrading abuse in an American election.
- I am also happy for the success of the many conservative women politicians who ran during this election cycle, both those that won and those that lost. They also had to put up with much abuse, totally unrelated to issues and problems facing the country, with the most degrading and debasing being an online Playboy article that talked about what needed to be to them in a carnal way and how to do it. Again, no place for this kind of trash in an American political campaign.
- I continue to have the highest degree of respect for Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania and Kendrick Meek in Florida. Both men stood their ground and principles when pressured by high ranking members of the Democratic national party to step aside for the perceived benefit of the national Democratic Party. They refused to be bullied and continued to represent the people that put them in the election during their states' primaries. While both of them lost their races yesterday, it gives me a little bit of hope that there are some politicians out there who will stand on principle, defend their integrity, and fight to represent their constituents.
- I am very proud of what Florida voters did in the area of eliminating the gerrymandering of state legislative districts and Congressional districts. These constitutional amendments sought to bring sanity and fairness into the voting redistricting processes, processes that had been badly corrupted by incumbent politicians to ensure their perpetual re-election and processes that many election experts felt had helped polarize the country. Both ballot initiatives passed by the 60% threshold required to make them part of the Florida constitution. Hopefully, more states will follow Florida's lead and begin the elimination of gerrymandering across the entire country, basically implementing Step 14 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government."
- I am also proud of Florida for their overwhelming (72% in favor of the ballot initiative, 28% against) support of a non-binding ballot question that urges the United States Federal government to adopt a policy that would require the Washington political class to pass only balanced budgets every year and to accomplish this balanced budget requirement without raising taxes. If this was how we ran the Federal government, we could start to get the onerous Federal national debt burden under control and eventually allow Americans to retain more of their earnings and wealth, increasing their personal freedom. This favorable outcome mimics the recommendation laid in in Step 1 of "Love My Country, Loathe My Government." That step calls for the Federal government to reduce its budget and spending by 10% a year for the next five years, which should bring Federal government revenues in line with Federal expenses.
- I am also happy that Orlando Congressman Alan Grayson was defeated. Over the past two years, the Congressman had been quoted for the many derogatory comments he had made against any American who dared to disagree with Democratic Party positions on some very important issues, especially health care reform. These comments and descriptions of fellow Americans included calling them knuckle dragging Neanderthals, terrorists, and Klan members. He put out an intentionally deceptive campaign advertisement using his opponents words, edited in such a way to convey his opponent's exact opposite position on the issued being discussed. These kinds of tactics and name calling do nothing to help bring the country together and address the pressing issues of the day in a mature, adult manner. Name calling is for kindergarten, mature discussion is for problem solving.
- I am still upset with the billions of dollars that were spent on every facet of this election process, a process that will continue to get more and more out of control unless concrete steps are taken to eliminate the big money contributions we see today. This torrent of money perverts the election process and reduces the freedom of individual Americans to be heard and listened to.
- I am already dreading the next two years, given what politicians and pundits were all saying during this morning's newscasts, namely what does this election and the results mean for the next Presidential election cycle? Can we please take a breath, understand what happened yesterday, and with that understanding start to work on the real problems facing this country? Do we need to already be distracted by the 2012 elections? This kind of talk verifies what I have felt for many years. The American political class sees election victories as the ends, not the means to make changes. The overwhelming priority of our politicians is to get and stay elected, and maybe along the way improve the lives of Americans, as long as it does not interfere with their perpetual election campaigns. How else can you explain the political interest and activity for 2012 already? Given that the President and almost every other Washington politician has basically spent the past six weeks on the election trail while major issues like unemployment, deficit spending, tax cuts, the continually
- I am impressed by how far the Tea Party movement has come in such a short time. Regardless of where you stand politically relative to Tea Party principles, you have to admit that by tapping into the frustration of the voting public throughout the country, they have made a historic impact on the national level. Cracks are finally starting to appear in the previously elite and exclusive American political class. Given what the political class had not achieved in the past forty years, the cracks are a welcome sign that positive change may be on the way.
- One final thought on Harry Reid. I listened to an interview of him on NBC News this morning. His most memorable quote in the interview was something to the effect that we need to stop calling each other names. I find this interesting that when the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid never spoke up, like a leader should have, to call for a halt to the names Republicans and ordinary Americans were being called by various Democrats. Senator Reid himself contributed to the name calling when he publicly stated that Americans physically smell when they visit Washington D.C. as tourists in the summer so he himself is guilty of name calling. Given that the nation has spoken and the Democrats have taken a rather severe election beating, he now comes out to call a halt to name calling? This call for civility would have been a lot more impactful and believable if Senator Reid had spoken up against name calling when it was actually was going on by Democrats like Congressman Grayson prior to the yesterday's election.
Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
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