The Conservative Reader

Art Smith September 2nd, 2008

Watching Fred Thompson talking about John McCain at the Republican National Convention.

I do wish Fred were running.

But I’m appreciative and encouraged by the kind words from Fred, the well spoken story of McCain’s experience as a POW.  Sharing about the times that McCain has done the right thing.

As much as he’s saying about John and the need to ensure that Obama does not win.

It’s heavy with what I’d expect him to say if he were running himself.

The crowd definitely loves it.

CNN calls it “good red meat”.  I agree!

Tags: Fred Thompson, John McCain, Republican National Convention

• 2008 Presidential Election , Fred Thompson , John McCain
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Art Smith August 26th, 2008

I’m hoping that the fact you have come to this web site means that you care more about government than the average person.  If you care about government, how we do government, and who is doing the work of government on our behalf, then this article is for you.

I’ve alluded to this before, and I want adequately convey, that a knowledgeable, thoughtful electorate will help ensure that the best people represent us, and will be able to hold politicians accountable.

“Knowledgeable” means not just watching the 15 second sound-bites, but watching debates, reading up on candidates’ positions, and looking for independent resources that assess candidates’ records.  It also means seeking to understand the issues, how they impact Americans, what the history and background are on the issue, and how all parties speak to the issue.  Sometimes a position is important both in what is said and what is not said.

“Thoughtful” means taking the time to really think through an issue, and not to take a position simply because a party, candidate, respected person, friend or family says to.  Everyone has their own way to analyze and think through issues, and being thoughtful means taking ownership of the position based on ones’ own guidelines.

For me, researching topics on the Internet, in newspapers, interacting with politicians, listening to people who are deeply involved in the topic, reading historical content regarding the topic (where applicable), and asking my wife and my other family members and friends are all important aspects of becoming “knowledgeable” about a topic.  I try to include sources from both sides of the political spectrum if available, and when thinking about Constitutional questions, I like to refer to any source material that is available such as the Federalist Papers.

My “thoughtful” part goes like this: I try to abstract topics out to a higher level where possible and determine where within my own principals the topic falls.  Then I try to analyze what I’ve learned within the context of the applicable principal(s).  I also try to assess the real impact on people in terms of short term and long term events and policies.

And reaching a conclusion is sometimes the hardest part.  Like many Americans, my heart goes out to the needs of individuals, the lost dreams, lack of satisfaction, desire to reach out to something better.  To those that are struggling because of disasters whether natural or self-inflicted.   Especially to children.

And the challenge is to keep one’s heart and the real needs of others in front of ourselves as we make decisions, but recognize that the conclusion we reach may be hard to swallow.  Either because of the cost (financial or in lives) or because meeting everyone’s needs becomes clearly not the right answer for the Government.  Our temptation is to create programs that take hard decision making, especially if on a case-by-case basis, away and makes the process easy. The answer that feels right isn’t always the answer we know is right.

Life is full of hard decisions.  Life is full of hard times, and hard work.  LIfe is full of realizing that things we think we need are really things we want.  Sometimes, what seems like suffering is really just inconvenience.

That’s my approach, and I don’t expect it to be yours.

I really want to encourage people to think for themselves, and not to simply let the current talking head manipulate their choices.  Check into the candidates running for President, US Senate, US House, State Legislators, Governor, City Council, and even Dog Catcher.  Find places on the Internet where people are talking about the issues.  If you don’t know where to start, shoot me an email and I’ll do what I can to help.

Talk to people you know about the issues.  And reach your own conclusions.  And decide how best to vote based on your conclusions.  Your opinion matters, and your vote matters.  Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise.

And, feel free to use The Conservative Reader as a place for discussing these issues.  I’d be very interested in knowing how you make these kind of decisions.  Leave a comment on this post.

So, are we all paying attention?  I hope so.

Tags: Candidates, Decide, discuss, Election, Federalist Papers, Government, Knowledgeable, Listen, Paying Attention, Principals, Principles, Research, Resources, Sound-bites, Talking Head, The Conservative Reader, Thinking, Thoughtful

• 2008 Congressional Election , 2008 Local Elections , 2008 Presidential Election , Constitution , Fred Thompson , Political Philosophy
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Art Smith July 3rd, 2008

Fred is speaking at the NRTL Convention right now (Thursday, 10:00 AM Eastern). You can see it here at TownHall.com. (Update 12:40 PM Eastern: Looks like they have a line of speakers before Fred hits the key note.  Below is the recorded version… The introduction for Fred starts at 37:30)

Tags: Fred Thompson, National Right To Life, TownHall.com

• Fred Thompson
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Art Smith June 27th, 2008

I was subjected to scenes of Barack and Hillary playing nice with each other on stage at a rally in Unity, New Hampshire.  It was a bit over the top.

I don’t know what the real content (if any) of their speeches consisted of, and the newscasts simply showed snippets of each of them saying cute and insipidly stupid things about each other (Obama: “She Rocks!  She Rocks!  That’s what I’m talking about”).

At the same time, CBS covered Clinton supporters at the rally who are dead set against voting for Obama, and writing in Clinton.  Like that’s gonna work.

It’s intriguing that so many people are proclaiming they will not vote for one of the major candidates this fall.  I’ve be watching some bloggers and talk show hosts who are taking the idealistic path of saying “No way will I ever vote for McCain!”.  I can totally understand the need to think through and work out one’s priorities and convictions.  And of course, this kind of thoughtful discourse is a tad better than those who want to vote for Obama because they like his looks or mannerisms.  But the more I hear people say they are rejecting McCain because he doesn’t represent their perfect set of values, the more I wonder whether these people a) understand politics (especially our brand of two-party politics), and b) know of someone other than themselves that would fit the bill.

Granted, if there was a real chance that Fred Thompson could run on the third party ticket and win the election (and I mean a real chance), I’d get in line for that.  But the fact is that, especially with the incredible splintering we are experiencing in each party right now, there is practically zero chance that a third party candidate would win… there would be too many and such candidates would simply take votes out of the pool of votes that would normally go to one of the core parties.

The biggest confusion I think many suffer from is the belief that the Presidency really matters so much in terms of having the perfect person (with regard to policy) that someone like McCain would actually represent a negative impact on our country’s success.  Someone like McCain is not going to create dramatic domestic change on his own.  He is unlikely to create chaos, or dramatically oppose Congress in areas such as the Economy, Energy, Health Care.  His presence may influence to some degree a Democratically controlled Congress in a way that would be slightly more favorable to Conservatives, though without being a dramatic voice for Conservatives.

McCain’s presence in the White House will, however, certainly provide strong support for a more conservative Congress, whether created in this cycle or in two years.  Regardless of his statements regarding domestic drilling, for instance, it is extremely unlikely that he would veto a domestic drilling bill, especially if the People make it clear that they want it.

An Obama administration would be devastating.  A Democratic Congress would be empowered to move for more and more sweeping change, including socialized Medicine, higher taxes, growing restraints on freedom, including new reviews of gun control once some Supreme Court appointments are made.  It’s interesting that even when we’ve been in a position to have the court review Roe v Wade, the court has avoided bringing any cases up on abortion rights.  But once the court is solidly activist and liberal, watch out… hide your guns, your faith and your thoughts.

Obama and a Republican Congress would be somewhat more controlled.  And yet, Supreme Court appointments and foreign relations are still big risk areas.  And dismantling our defense infrastructure, especially our nuclear arsenal, and jumping ship on our allies (backing out of Iraq, of example) appear to be the centerpieces of Obama’s campaign.  We might as well all start learning Farsi and Russian now to stay ahead of the game.

Bottom line is, everyone needs to vote their conscience.  But one’s conscience should go beyond your personal values compared to the candidates, and rather, look at our personal values compared to the events and circumstances that may occur as a result of our voting.  Obviously, we can’t predict everything, but I’m not going to avoid voting for a candidate that’s been divorced simply because I think divorce is bad.  Now, if the candidate promotes a vision of an America where murder is acceptable, where shipping the lowest 10% of income earners to Australia is the model for increasing America’s wealth, where legalizing unmonitored sales of cocaine is the ideal solution for solving our drug problems, that candidate will be vehemently opposed by me.  As a Christian, I hear many who share my faith placing expectations on the candidate to share the convictions of their faith.  While we (as followers of Christ) have a responsibility to speak out the truth, placing this kind of expectation on our leaders is not only impractical, it is inconsistent with our celebration of the Founders, many of whom were Deists… I would still vote for George Washington, even if he doesn’t believe God is actively involved in the affairs of the world.

We must continue to have effective dialog on issues, candidates, etc.  Throughout this campaign period, we continue to have opportunities to influence the debate and sway party officials, candidates, and voters… we should not abandon that opportunity (and for some us, a responsibility).

The support here at The Conservative Reader will, barring some major issue, be for the Republican candidate for President.  More importantly, we want to ensure there is appropriate focus and dialog on Congressional seats, both House and Senate, because the core of where our country is going will be reflected in those chambers more powerfully than in the house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  Building a grassroots groundswell to take back the legislative arm of government should be Priority 1.

That said, this is a place for discussion.  Voice your opinion here.  We want to learn from each other.  Everything described here is worthless if we don’t engage with each other and our representatives.  Not engaging is what leads to the the wanton abuses we’ve seen in both parties, and if we allow them to continue, shame on us.

Tags: 2008 Congressional Race, 2008 Presidential Election, Barack Obama, Deists, Faith, Fred Thompson, George Washington, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, US Congress

• 2008 Congressional Election , 2008 Presidential Election , Barack Obama , Democratic Party , Fred Thompson , Hillary Clinton , John McCain , Republican Party , Third Party Candidates , Two-Party System , US Congress , voting
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Art Smith May 15th, 2008

Thursday morning’s Wall Street Journal featured an opinion piece from Karl Rove titled “The GOP Must Stand for Something“.  The piece is well focused on the most critical battleground we face this year: Congressional seats.

In the midst of watching the melee within the Democratic Party, the scant attacks by the MSM against McCain, and the vain attempts by Ron Paul and others to disrupt the Presidential Election process, largely unfocused are we yet on the 35 Senate seats (23 currently held by Republicans) and the length and width of the House of Representatives whom we will be voting for this November.

My angst over the lack of attention to the branch of government that actually makes law in this country grows each day.  We need to ensure this branch breathes truth, integrity (sadly lacking in both parties), and clearly understands the need for long-term thinking.  Those that try to create the quick fixes are not worth paying attention to.  Those that are thinking about how to build sustainable programs and infrastructure, how to provide for the needs of our citizens in a way that leads them to self-sufficiency, those who have learned to lead (doing what’s right) while listening to their constituents, to do what’s best for the country and not their re-electability, to help Americans be prosperous without burdening them with worthless taxes, they we need to promote to election.

But it’s not, as Rove says, going to be easy.  We cannot assume there are any GOP districts are “safe” seats, and we cannot use the worn political weapons to coerce the electorate into taking our side.  We need to stand for something, we need to provide a real vision for America that accurately reflects what we believe we can do together.  The problem is, we don’t have one, at least we don’t have one we call agree on.

I’d say we need McCain to provide leadership in this, but I don’t have confidence that he can build a coalition of vision.  I hope I’m wrong.  Someone like Karl could.

There is so much as Republicans that we are struggling with because we’ve been co-opted on some key issues (such as abortion, taxes, health care, education) and these have happened, I think, because we’ve failed to even educate our next generation of Republicans in basic conservative principles and how best to apply them.

We need desperately to be able to communicate what we believe in as conservatives, not what specific answers we have to any given problem, but what are the tenets that we base the kind of answers we derive.  Fred Thompson (I see he has a new gig) had what I thought was an extremely effective approach to this in his “First Principles”, which took an abstract (somewhat timeless) view of  the topics that should concern us all, expressed a position on those topics and a general thought process to how best to work on that topic.  Quite frankly, I think these should have been made the Mission Statement for the Republican Party.

Until we can take a unified approach, can make a coherent presentation of what we are about, what we stand for, we are lost.  And frankly, if we cannot make an intelligent case (without the 30-second sound-bites) for Republicans or Conservatism, we don’t deserve to lead.  Yes, I know we need to have some approaches to marketing, but we have to have solid core content that can be explained to voters without them wondering if we’ve put Alan Keyes back into play.

I strongly suspect there is a good chance John McCain will be our next President.  I’m more concerned about the kind of Congress he (that is, we) will be stuck with the next 2 years.

Hat Tip on Fred’s new gig: Bitsblog.

Tags: BitsBlog, Conservative, Conservativism, First Principles, Fred Thompson, Karl Rove, Principles, Republicans, The Conservative Reader, The GOP Must Stand for Something, US Congress, Wall Street Journal

• 2008 Congressional Election , Conservatism , Fred Thompson , John McCain , Karl Rove , Republican Party , US Congress
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Art Smith May 12th, 2008

We’ve kept it pretty loose here at TCR with regard to the continued havoc being wrought by Hillary Clinton against her party. Every day, the lack of her stepping down extends further and further the demise of Democrats and Obama’s chance to manipulate his way into high office.

Amazingly enough, however, the party faithful are undeterred and completely convinced that their nominee is the right person for this job. It is odd to see serious grownup people behave at a level of maturity that doesn’t seem to align with how those people deal with everything else in their lives.

I wish I were talking only about Democrats.

I would contend that Barack Obama and John McCain are not the best representatives of their parties.

Democrats have been on a romantic tour for months now thanks to the hope that “history” will be made (and already has been within their party, but they still look for the big emotional hit) as either the first woman or first African American President of the United States may be elected in 2008. Watching the throngs of supporters and their comments has convinced me that most, if asked why they support their candidate, would gush as they proclaim “I’ve been waiting for years and had hoped to see a [choice of non-white or female] become President, and finally it’s becoming a reality!” What is truly amazing is that for years we have (on both sides of the aisle) promoted a mindset that skin color and gender do not make one better than someone else, and yet today the party that traditionally panders to both demographics is saying it matters.

Hillary actually seems to better represent her party than Obama, but she has gotten so far off message that one cannot hear the tax and spend policies coming through the roar of what’s wrong with Obama and what’s wrong with the Democratic Party because she’s being left out in the cold.

I have no problem with a woman or any minority as President. I could make a list of people who fit that description that I would vigorously support if they ran for office. But that fact would not compel me to vote for them. Having the right policies and positions (truly, more important is the principles that they use for decision making) drives me to a candidate. Unfortunately, Obama’s supporters (and to a large part, Clinton’s as well) really don’t study the issues and seek to understand their candidates.

This generation of voters doesn’t have the attention span to own a real position. And again, I speak not just about Democrats.

Today’s news brought a story of a second-hand conversation that sounds like McCain’s camp is raising a trial balloon to see how Mike Huckabee’s name sits with voters as a running mate. Not well it seems. I’m not a fan of Huckabee, but having him on the ticket would allow us to get the FairTax pushed back into the national debate. But it won’t happen. Not this year. Romney would an even worse choice, I think. My dream is still Fred Thompson. Not likely either, but a possibility. I’d support Mitch McConnell, but I’d rather have him in the Senate right now. Along with any other Republican Senator or Congressmen, despite the less than stellar positions some have taken in recent months.

But the reaction of people to the Huckabee idea (the trial balloon is lead-filled) has been almost as distasteful as the initial shock about McCain being the Republican candidate. Far too many within the party are promoting a “stay home, let Obama win, watch the country fall apart for 4 years, and clean up the mess in 2012″. There are multiple problems with that idea, not the least of which is this: if we sit back and let things fall apart, we’ll have a nation that is not convinced there is a problem 4 years from now because the message from the Right is consistently “we don’t care enough to fight for what we believe in, this is okay with us and we’ll just try again later”. This is not a game. An unopposed Obama Presidency is not okay.

But we’re just too lazy and too soft to put up a real fight for what we believe in. Or it really isn’t all that important to us… sure, we don’t mind pushing our position as hard as we can, making personal attacks on people who disagree with us and shouting “I told you so” every time something bad happens. But when the work gets hard, yes that means when we have to work with something less than ideal like John McCain, we just throw up our hands and say it’s okay that all the bad stuff happens. We say we want Obama as President. We want open borders for the Terrorists to walk through. We want taxes to shoot up, the economy to totally tank, add 4 and maybe 8 years to the things that we need to start now just to be where we need to be in 10 years (ANWR), continuing down the road of Socialism, Pacification and decline of civilized society. And 5 brand spanking new Liberal Activist Judges on the Supreme Court. Nice. All because we want to prove we’re right.

Except, no one will care that we were right. Bush will get blamed for the bad economy. Most won’t even notice how badly we’re being fleeced by Congress. And the silent conservatives simply stand by and watch it happen with approval. Like Saul.

Not I.

If we really care about these things, if we want to see others care in 4 years (yes, even if Obama does win, or McCain for that matter), we have to engage, and beyond just the blogosphere. We have to carry the message about what’s right and what’s wrong into the public square (including the blogs) into our local politics, into the National Convention. The Party needs a unified face, not a torn up left and right, but a merging of minds to show that while we may not agree on everything, we can work together to bring America closer to its best. I’ve been very impressed with the party caucuses and conventions I’ve attended so far at the precinct, the county and district levels this year. Our party in Iowa is not perfect and not 100% unified, but we engaged and worked together to reach a reasonable consensus that some did not like (I did not agree completely with all the decisions) but I saw none of the bitterness that I’ve seen elsewhere, and I pray we avoid that. Further, we have significant challenges for Congressional seats and a lack of real effort to keep and reclaim lost seats. We have a solid message, but we’re seem to have lost our voice.

The point is, disengaging when the ideal is not reached, will only allow things to slip further into the opposite direction. Once that’s done, ground is lost that may never be recovered. Staying engaged helps keep the truth and a reasonable message in front of people. We’ll never educate everyone to the point we’d like them to be, but we can get them further and closer to understanding truth. Most importantly closer to making decisions on their own instead of letting others (myself included) make those decisions for them.

My dream is to see the Democrats keep themselves distracted with the infighting long enough that more and more people can see how selfish and emotionally charged they are in making decisions and working out “solutions” (to the point of knee-jerking their way through legislating). For Conservative Republicans to give up is not strategic. It’s giving up and over, perhaps permanently.

Tags: 2008 Presidential Election, 2012 Presidential Election, Barack Obama, Democratic Party, Economy, Educating Voters, Fred Thompson, Giving Up, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Lazy, Mike Huckabee, Republican Party, Saul, The FairTax, US Congress, Working Together

• 2008 Congressional Election , 2008 Presidential Election , Barack Obama , Blogging , Democratic Party , Economy , FairTax , Fred Thompson , Hillary Clinton , John McCain , Mike Huckabee , Political Philosophy , Republican Party , TAXES , US Congress
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Art Smith February 18th, 2008

I make no bones about it: I’m a Conservative and a Republican.  If I ever think think the Party is a lost cause, I could abandon it, but current circumstances don’t put me there.  Not even close.

I read with some appreciation Cal Thomas’ column on this subject last week.  His comments regarding the romanticism of Reagan Conservatism is right on.  More importantly, he hit the key thought that I’d like to shout from the housetops:

Contemporary conservatism has mostly been about saying “no” to the liberal agenda. Suppose conservatives instead begin to circumvent liberals by applying better ideas to achieve ends liberals and conservatives claim to seek?

Don’t get me wrong… there have been some ideas floated around, but the fact is that there really isn’t a consensus among those of us that proclaim to be “conservatives” on the important issues of our day.  The problems we see with the direction that the Left is taking seems to make it difficult to get around a solid message that could sound like anything other than “not what we’re hearing from Clinton/McCain/Obama”.  I did appreciate the fact that Fred Thompson promoted a vision based on a principle based view of issues.  This seems to be consistent with the book that Cal is promoting by David Frum titled “Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again”.

Frum promotes a set of solutions to the current issues we discuss, with a practical view of what Government, Politicians and the President can and cannot really do.

The range of ideas that Cal references from the book include creative approaches to taxation, immigration, terrorism and the Armed Forces, and my personal favorite: China.

Cal adds his 2 cents in an area that we’ve been promoting here at The Conservative Reader: micro-lending.  He does not address an interesting point, however, that I will.

Republicans have a keen opportunity on the topic of poverty, and micro-lending has the potential to be a huge win-win if done right.

In his book, “Banker To The Poor”, Mohammad Yunus not only tells the story of how he and his Grameen Bank helped pull thousands out of abject poverty in Bangladesh and other third-world countries over the past few decades, but also addresses the opportunity to leverage this concept in developed countries like the US.  He even made a pitch to Bill Clinton while he was governor of Arkansas.  A pilot project was started there and he was supposedly going to bring it with him to the White House, but never did anything with it.  Yunus tries to explain this away in his book, but I’m convinced that the plan interfered with Bill’s long-term relationships and opportunities too much to make it palatable for him or his “friends”.  Frankly, micro-lending likely does not have real friends in the Liberal scene in Washington because the concept behind it is to help foster self-sufficiency.  The Washington Left cannot tolerate losing control of the poor that way.  As long as the poor are individually dependent on the government, they will be a solid base of support for Democrats.

This is such a great example of where we as Conservatives can find our wheelhouse.  Conservatives are always talking about how the poor need to become self-sufficient.  We occasionally come up with ideas to help with that, but nothing as solid as micro-lending.  Micro-lending can bring a key financial tool (credit) to those that can benefit most and are most likely to repay (because they know this is their only chance).  The models for micro-lending that Yunus has promoted includes consumer training and peer-based accountability.  Some of these ideas (as he has asserted himself) will need to be refined for our culture, but I think we can succeed with this as a national program.

The major point here is that we need to get some clear ideas on how to help our country, as Cal Thomas says “new ideas based on old principles”, and work through the best processes to see those ideas come to fruition.  The only practical forum I see for doing this is the Republican Party.  Even if the party overall is leaning left, we can help to right it.  This includes getting our ideas out to the blog-o-sphere, get them to our party officials on a local level and national level, get them to our representatives at every level of government.  Do what we can to participate in every step of the process.  If we commit to working the whole process, we may may make a bigger impact than we can imagine.

Frum’s book goes on my reading list.  Soon as I’m done, you’ll hear from me.

H/T Des Moines Register.

Tags: Banker To The Poor, Bill Clinton, Conservative, Des Moines Register, Ideas, Left, Liberal, Micro-Lending, Mohammad Yunus, Poverty, Right, The Conservative Reader, White House

• Bill Clinton , Conservatism , Democratic Party , Des Moines Register , Fred Thompson , Mohammad Yunus , Poverty , Republican Party
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Art Smith February 4th, 2008

I promised I would try and take a position on the remaining candidates before things are settled. I’m probably too late, but tomorrow still has possibilities for Romney. The party is definitely looking like it’s leaning to port, and it’s what we have to work with.

Of the remaining candidates, I definitely prefer Mitt Romney over John McCain. It’s very difficult for me to stand up and provide the level of enthusiasm for Mitt that I have for Fred Thompson, for the simple reason that Romney is not what I think of as “conservative”. He’s certainly more conservative than McCain, but he still holds more centrist views in many areas. I’m not trying to ignore Huckabee… oh, wait, yes I am. I just can’t take him seriously… he’s somewhere between Romney and McCain in his non-conservatism, but totally lost in space with the electorate as a whole. He’s never really impressed me, and doesn’t strike me as a real leader.

I’m pretty convinced the that the party’s situation right now will likely lead to a McCain victory tomorrow. Regardless, as I mentioned earlier today, I’m prepared to support the party’s candidate at this point, and have hopes for a more conservative choice for the VP nominee (Thompson is my first pick). I will support and campaign for the party’s candidate, and I will also address the issues. There is also a lot of other work to do now regarding platform and congressional seats… we need good focus on each of these areas.

Let’s see what happens tomorrow. We may be thoroughly surprised, on both sides of the political spectrum.

Oh, and Ron Paul really needs to go home. TNR’s James Kirchick provides great follow-up on what we know about this guy, or what many would rather not know. The only problem is, he’s raised so much money and needs to do something with it… I really suspect he’ll run as an independent. Won’t that be nice.

Tags: Conservative Reader, Fred Thompson, John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Presidential Election, Republican Party, Ron Paul, Super Tuesday

• 2008 Presidential Election , Fred Thompson , John McCain , Mike Huckabee , Mitt Romney , Republican Party , Super Tuesday , US Politics
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Art Smith January 23rd, 2008

I’ve already read a number of strong and thought provoking comments around various blogs as people have anticipated (prior to yesterday’s announcement) and reacted to Fred’s departure from the race. There is significant support for Fred’s message, disappointment (and some outrage) over his announcement, and frustration that the remaining lot of Republican candidates leave much to be desired. What is a conservative voter to do?

Some have suggested other candidates. Those that would be happy to have anyone other than Hillary or Obama in office lean heavily toward one of the front runners, who I think are in the position they are in because of one of three things:

1. Their elect-ability (I despise this reason)
2. Their message appeals to many who are toward the middle or left side of the party
3. Nothin. I just hate lists of 2, and had to have a list of three to feel like a list was valid here.

Some have suggested not voting. I do not oppose this option assuming one thing… you still go to the polls in November. I don’t know if I can say it enough, but voting is an incredible right and opportunity that should be never taken for granted. I know a lot of people treat it carelessly, or with disdain, or dishonor it by casting an uninformed ballot, but if we treat it as something so lacking in value that we avoid it, we are making the wrong statement. Cast a blank ballot and let yourself be counted before you make your voice go unheard.

Some have suggested voting for the Democrat. Or another party. I suspect that a conservative or extremist third-party candidate will make a strong showing this year, even if it’s Ron Paul. In any case, I don’t see any value in these options with one possible exception… if Fred Thompson or someone that held his values setup a third-party run, I think I could support that. I don’t see Fred doing that as I think he is too strong a supporter of the party. There could be some interesting possibilities.  As I always say, you should vote for who you think best reflects your values.

I don’t have a candidate I can support for President at this point. If the election were today, I’d probably either write-in a candidate or skip that part of the ballot.

As big a deal as we make about the election of the next President (and it is a fairly big deal), and as disappointed as I may be about Fred’s decision, I am quite anxious to see how our mix of Representative and Senatorial candidates come out. Tom Harkin is up for reelection in Iowa (I would love to see a strong conservative candidate run against him… if only Fred lived in Iowa). 1/3 of the Senate and all of the House are up for elections… there is a consensus that the makeup of the new Congress will lean to the left, but we have a an opportunity still to see a shift in the right direction. The President provides leadership, represents us to the world, sets foreign policy, oversees the military and appoints various officials. Congress passes the laws and spends our money. I think it’s reasonable to start focusing our sights on Congress and see how we can help influence their work for the next couple of years. We desperately need to stop the crazy spending frenzy that is putting us further in debt, eating away at out income and creating a larger burden for future generations. We need a tax policy that is fair, makes sense, and helps us hold Congress more accountable. We need laws that protect our rights, our freedoms, and helps build up our country and people. We need a strong military and internal defense. We need sensible immigration policy. We need tools to allow for reasonable enforcement of all of our laws. We need a stable economy. We need a smaller government.

In the next week, look for a statement on what we need from a President and Congress.  It will be here in place of the “Why Fred?” page (which will still be available on the site, don’t worry).

Tags: Congress, Conservative Reader, Democrat, Fred Thompson, House, President, Presidential Election, Republican, Rights, Ron Paul, Senate, Tax, Tom Harkin

• 2008 Presidential Election , Democratic Party , Economy , Fred Thompson , Immigration , Iowa Politics , Military , Political Philosophy , Rights , Ron Paul , TAXES , Tax Relief , US Congress , US Politics
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Art Smith January 22nd, 2008

Just got word from KCCI TV (via email, not posted on the web site yet) that Fred has decided to drop out of the race.  More to come later today, I’m sure.

Disappointing, to say the least.

• 2008 Presidential Election , Fred Thompson , US Politics
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