CONSISTENCY, NOT HYPOCRISY

"Honest discussions - even and perhaps especially on topics about which we disagree - can help us resist hypocrisy and arrogance. They can also help us live up to the basic ideals, such as liberty and justice for all, on which our country was founded."   -David E. Price

"The world is full of fools and faint hearts; and yet everyone has courage enough to bear the misfortunes, and wisdom enough to manage the affairs, of his neighbor."  -Benjamin Franklin


I can hardly be labeled "Liberal" in my steadfast defense of the clearly Constitutional Right to Life, the First Amendment Right to Free Speech and Peaceful Assembly, the Second Amendment Right to Bear Arms, Tenth Amendment States' Rights, etc.  But, as Dr. Seuss writes in Oh, the Places You'll Go!, "[w]ith your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street."
 
The base of any political party may generally accept with little question the perspective placed upon any event in a particular era. But the Independent Voter--that individual who will cast that marginal majority vote that catapults one candidate over another in a particular local, state, or federal election--will not soon forget the shifting opinions from one year to the next, from one administration to the next, from one decade to the next.
 
Is it right in one era to caricature and curse one American President, and to condemn those who do likewise to an American President of the opposite party in another era? Why don't we all rise above it regardless of the President's party and move on to SUBSTANTIVE bi-partisan conservative Constitutional SOLUTIONS.


When one group engages in mass demonstration and speeches condemning government abuse and decrying the usurpation of power (immigration reform; healthcare; deficits & taxation), this self-proclaimed mob is called patriotic, a Tea Party; when another group engages in mass demonstration and speeches condemning government inaction (immigration reform; healthcare; deficits & taxation) and decrying their lack of opportunity, this second group is labeled unpatriotic, unAmerican. 
 
When the federal government, through legislation or enabling regulation, sets standards, protocols and reporting requirements for private sector entities (i.e. oil companies), that federal government action is labeled as interfering with the free markets or overstepping states' rights to regulate the business climate of its own state. When the federal government complies with regulations that direct the private entity (i.e. oil companies) to pay for and remedy its own fatal environmental disaster, that same federal government is accused of not doing enough to engage itself directly in the private entity's affairs.
 
Can that same state government Chief Executive who publicly rejected federal stimulus dollars destined for infrastructure improvement projects and working class financial stability justify now requesting that federal dollars and manpower be directed to correct a private corporation's infrastructure failure that imperils Gulf Coast working class financial stability?
 
In this 24/7/365 media circus that our elected officials operate in, one can understand the political pressure that they are under to communicate decisions that appear to effectively address the concerns of the moment, the crisis, or the era. But, I caution incumbents of both parties that this is a year where Independent Voter memories are long, discernment is deep, and inconsistency is fatal career-wise.
 

TODAY'S QUESTION: Will a thorough review of your public record (votes, statements, positions, alliances, contributors, appearances) reveal solution-oriented consistency...or will it betray self-interested hypocrisy to the inquisitive Independent Voter.

LEADERSHIP TRUMPS LONGEVITY

"In the history of mankind many republics have risen, have flourished for a lesser or greater time, and then have fallen because their citizens lost the power of governing themselves and thereby of governing their state; and in no way has this loss of power been so often and so clearly shown as in the tendency to turn the government into a government primarily for the benefit of one class, a ruling class, instead of a government for the benefit of the people as a whole."  -Theodore Roosevelt

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”  -Frederick Douglass


Nothing cries out for Change and Leadership like the defeat of incumbents. Lame ducks all: Utah Senator Bob Bennett, Florida Governor Charlie Crist, and West Virginia Congressman Alan Mollohan. Their bipartisan outbound migration will be joined by many more local, state, and national figures between now and January 2011.

As I've noted to my clients for some time, the collective electoral will of the Independent American voter prizes Principles over party affiliation, favors Faith and Family Values over favoritism, and loves Life for All more than lazy government-sanctioned preferences. The Constitution is a non-partisan living document drafted and ratified by a diverse body of farmers, business leaders, and lawyers --statesman all-- who early recognized the tendency for one ruling class to displace less powerful interests of the common citizen. The Constitution remains safeguarded by their descendants --you and I--- today and every day.

Our nation and its citizens have always fared best when elected officials embraced the will of those who elected them and honored the sacred entrustment placed upon them to carry out the limited role of government in town/city halls, state houses, and the nation's capital. This is NOT a Political Party's nation, but it IS the People's nation! The individual who blindly calls all of one Party saints and all of the opposing Party sinners lazily casts aside the insight to discern the individual Leader's strengths and weaknesses. History is replete with principled, Faithful, family-committed, prolife leaders of all Party affiliations, so we must not devolve into petty soundbite statements purporting to label all one way and all the other way.

2010 has already begun to demonstrate that Americans love America and its Freedom, love their God, love their Families and Life, love their Neighbors, and value Economic Opportunity MORE than they are willing to defer to the failed leadership of the past. The forced migration of incumbency has begun.

TODAY'S QUESTION: Does your candidacy demonstrate Leadership experience supported by a foundation of Faith, Family, Life, Liberty, and Economic Opportunity that the Independent Voter will reward with that sacred trust of electoral victory?

GREAT COMMUNICATOR...OR YESTERDAY'S GOAT?

"Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people."      -Jim Rohn



The short track skating events in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics provided physical proof of the importance of anticipating a future opportunity before the start of the race. The difference between the gold medal and wiping out along the boards was often the critical timing and quality of the planned inside/outside pass of the unwary opponent.

Building upon our previous installment, we will begin addressing how you may best capitalize upon (4) Issues of anticipated future importance for which you have not previously developed a well-defined position. While we will address the other three topics of issues formation in coming installments, I believe we must first look to communicating the policy item(s) that will provide fuel for your long-term electoral victory and solidify your legacy. Put aside partisan rancor for a moment, and simply recognize prior patterns of success, because YOUR winning message MUST attract and embrace more than just your base to achieve 51% in November. If all YOU can address is YOUR base, join yesterday's goats.

Long before the November 1980 Presidential Election, Ronald Reagan had accurately identified several issues that would eventually boil over in the minds of Americans. Reagan did not hesitate to develop responses and solutions to those issues [among them (a) the malaise of international communism; (b) the hunger for patriotism; (c) the burden of excessive taxation; and (d) the breakdown of the family]. Not only did Ronald Reagan approach these--and other--topics with genuine optimism, compassion and practical solutions, but he faced an opponent ill-prepared to even enter the dialogue, as evidenced in the sharp contrast of televised debates and other public appearances. President Carter yielded the lead of incumbency for a lack of anticipating, preparing for, and developing superior solutions to the issues that would define the 1980s.

Again in 1994 we observed Speaker Newt Gingrich and his colleagues execute upon their accurate assessment, planning, and solutions to speed past the old, tired Congressional pack. As no group is immune to their own stagnation, 2006 & 2008 ushered in yet another era when future concerns [social, economic, demographic, international] were addressed with fresh faces and fresh solutions. This is not a partisan comment. Regardless of which party or philosophy you favor, you cannot escape the statistics noted in our prior installment that made the 111th Congressional majority look like a negative of the 104th Congressional majority.

Party is not the prime determinent. Each of these victorious years required bipartisan appeal to secure ballot box majorities. The pendelum always swings...YOU can be viewed as the People's Leader with a legacy to follow--or Yesterday's News devoid of new ideas and forgotten forever.

TODAY'S QUESTION: What are YOU as a candidate (whether incumbent or challenger) doing TODAY to identify, develop, communicate and execute the solutions to the issues/problems/concerns that will plague YOUR electorate beyond November into the years to come?

LIBERTY: FINISH THE RACE

"Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty."              -Ronald Reagan

"Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith."                -Ronald Reagan

Many in the main-stream media will speak of the 2010 election cycle as the next significant opportunity for power to shift in government. That futuristic frame of reference ignores the more significant opportunity that citizens and elected officials have DAILY to speak up, dialogue, and take constructive action to tackle the pressing issues of our day. Today. Every day.

The state of the American economy may be one of the most pressing issues we face as a nation. Recessions occur cyclically regardless of which political party controls Congress or the Presidency, so I do not wish to devolve into a partisan finger-pointing exercise here. Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke have served Presidents of both parties. Unemployment lines and lost healthcare benefits deny families the fullness of the American dream in Democratic and Republican households alike. Simply, persistent economic struggles in our nation threaten our Liberty.

Economic strife is the volcano that spews forth the oppressive lava of government largesse and regulation. If we are to prevent the overreaching of federal regulation and federal financial entitlement spending, we must restore fiscal discipline to the outflow of our federal tax dollars. We must restrain the federal knee-jerk impulse to raise additional revenue through taxation. We must guard against benignly-titled legislation and programs that further restrict our free markets, free movement, and innovation.

We let our guard down as a nation when we focus too much media attention on the lingering effects of mortgage-backed securities, corporate downsizing, and bank failures. If we allow our elected officials to act on the media hysteria, we end up with new regulations, new controls, and limits on free market freedoms that kill entrepreneurship and innovation. One need only look back as far as the post-Enron media-frenzy to recognize the Sarbanes-Oxley framework that emerged from that event.

Our elected officials in every era--and especially our current era--must put partisanship aside to come together to craft fiscally-responsible, low-regulation solutions that will encourage free market entrepreneurship and innovation; reward research and development of new products and technologies; employ the hardworking men and women who welcome the workplace opportunities that full employment brings. Do not allow the mainstream media to lull our elected officials into building a Big Brother state.

Taxation, regulation, and unrestrained handouts will NOT strengthen our Nation and safeguard our Liberty.

We MUST do everything that can be done to restore our economic vitality in a responsible manner, so that those who come after us can recognize that we finished the race, kept them free, and kept our Faith.

TODAY'S QUESTION: As an elected official who represents ALL the citizens [regardless of party], can you put aside partisanship to build consensus toward restraining aimless taxation and regulation, to instead strengthen free market innovation that leads to increased employment and economic prosperity for America?