The New Republicans and Scott Walker

Many took note that in the Republican Convention the old guard, outside of Mitt Romney, were kept from the podium. The young, the vibrant, not always completely conservative but loaded with common sense and an ear to the people, those were the republicans put on display at the convention.

Still, with odd rules changes and a healthy uncertainty over whether Mitt Romney is more inside the beltway than conservative, many of us are holding our breaths over what will really change under a Romney administration.

What can bring us solace is that we have a slew of very good and upright people leading the charge and that makes all the difference in the world. We heard many wonderful testimonies of the Romney family. We heard their care and attentions to the needs of those they find in their lives; their compassion and empathy. No matter what you think of Mitt Romney’s politics he will do all he can to bring this nation back as a world economic power, bringing back jobs and opportunity, the American Dream to all of us, because he really does care. I can believe in his goodness, that he desires our prosperity as much or more than his own.

Paul Ryan is also a man of exceptional character from all I’ve heard and seen.

We heard from many at the convention who’s parents had sacrificed deeply so they could achieve the American Dream, far beyond what their parents could have achieved in their time. The opportunities they created for their children is what America is all about. They are stories of good people leading good lives and this will truly be the salvation of this nation.

Along this vein of promoting good and virtuous people as a core requirement for those in government, if you want good government and the freedoms it protects rather than bestows, and being from Wisconsin let me tell you my experience with and views of Scott Walker.

I first personally came across Scott Walker at public meetings in the late 90’s after a flash flood struck our neighborhood and the neighborhood was fighting for its existence. A “Friends” group, “Friends of the Menomonee River” in this case, had plans for naturalizing the entire valley in which we lived. With flood mitigation plans standing front and center before local governments after two years of June deluges striking Milwaukee our neighborhood was threatened with extinction. Eventually a flood wall and pumping station was designed to not only protect us from a 500 year flood, but also putting us in a category where we no longer needed to buy flood insurance. It came with a vastly improved neighborhood park and a river walk.

Scott Walker was a State Assemblyman then, not for our district but for other neighborhoods in the same watershed facing the same issues. He became far more involved in the flood mitigation process than any other elected official. He listened with sincerity at all the after hours meetings he attended and he was at most.

With the “Friends of the Menomonee River” putting forth artist’s renditions of our neighborhood as beautiful wooded meadow reserved for fisherman and the worthy who appreciate nature rather than those whose homes were actually standing their; homes filled with home owners who cared for the neighborhood, paid their taxes and in many cases raised their families there, even growing up in the neighborhood themselves. In this environment I decided to give Scott Walker a book I had read for an honors class I had recently taken. The book was titled “Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature” by William Cronon. It expanded the debate on the environment into the realm of culture and history. That is, how different cultures viewed nature and man’s relation to it and how man’s views had changed throughout history.

After one of the public meetings on flood mitigation plans for our watershed I approached Scott Walker and gave him the book. I told him how I thought it was very enlightening on the various views of the environment versus the narrow view the “Friends” group was putting forward. ...The gratitude and humility Scott walker showed as he earnestly took the book into his hands, you would think I was giving him a gold watch. I was immensely impressed and moved and it is one of the reason I believe this man would some day make a remarkable President.

Later, after scandal swept Milwaukee County government, Scott Walker ran for County Executive. For ten years he offered balanced budgets and tax cuts. He was ridiculed and criticized for every step he took. Much of the cuts he made were overridden by the County Board to the detriment of the taxpayer. He always remained calm and respectful to all his adversaries through his entire term of office.

Scott Walker kept this same calm and respectful attitude through one of the most cruel and ridiculous political assaults in the history of this nation when public sector unions attacked him for his budget. He was required by the state constitution to balance the budget, though the former governor had based the past budget(s) on taxes to be collected in future years, had taken money from the gas tax collections meant for roads and illegally raided funds from a doctor’s malpractice escrow account that Scott Walker then had to reimburse.

Yet Scott Walker put forth a balanced budget under almost impossible odds. He offset cuts with savings that allowed school districts to demand a greater percentage of contribution to health and pension plans by their teachers. He allowed districts to shop among other health insurance providers rather than being required to buy from an insurance company run by the teacher’s union. The savings he created were actually greater than the cuts.

For this he faced not only accusation and smears, but threats to him and his family. Still he remained calm and respectful to all.

I have heard it said of Scott Walker that he does not compromise his conservative ideals. This is true in many respects. However I have noticed something slightly different. The left has attacked all of Scott Walkers proposals, and we know through experience that their accusations are grossly exaggerated. But every accusation is built off a grain of truth. From what I have gleaned from the news and interviews is that our governor finds these grains of truth and responds to them and them alone.

Many know that ending the pension system and going to personal 401K plans would bring further savings, yet it is not a popular idea among the public sector unions and studies have shown that the state can function fiscally responsibly with continuing the pension system, so Scott Walker has not proposed a change. This again is an example of the respect he has for all people no matter their views or their offenses against him.

I truly believe Scott Walker would make a great president. He is one of several outstanding governors who are working for the change we need. I would hope we would have even more outstanding governors in sixteen years when, after Romney/Ryan win the election, there will be an opening for a new candidate. Though each of our favorite and accomplished governors may never receive the opportunity to be president we need many such strong, capable conservative governors to bring about the change this nation needs. Governors who can restore state’s rights and support economic prosperity for this nation, which is always good for the entire world.

we can restore the American dream. We can bring this nation back to its founding principles. It is, will be possible if we continue to elect good and upright people.

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2016; Obama’s America

I heard that “2016; Obama’s America” would be leaving the theaters soon (though it seems now to still be out) and I asked my wife if she wanted to see it as I never have or will go to a movie alone.

“I really want to Know more about Obama!” she exclaimed in her not so slight Japanese accent. So we were off to the movies.

The audience was mostly seniors (so much for medi-scare) and by the way they were talking things up before the movie I got the impression they don’t go to movies much. There were about forty people there on a Tuesday Republican Convention night.

It is a movie that will upset leftist only if they fear the revealing of the truth or they don’t think they are really leftists. But the theme of an anti-colonialist Obama as the best fit for why and what he is doing is compelling but distracts from the larger danger. Obama is not a movement of one.

How did the tea party come about? Well, that silent majority and others happened to share common views on life and the world; common values. They are those who are old enough to have received a proper education in their day or went to private schools. That is, there was no organized or coordinate agenda to create this group of like minded individuals. When the dangers facing this nation became clear to all the tea party formed organically, naturally out of the grass roots.

And so it is with the left. The coordination by a foreign power in the coalescing of this Marxist/communist/socialist movement would be hard to prove. But the origins of the propagation of this ideology, that from its earliest days has been considered a threat to this nation, can be shown to originate from the Soviet Union in their designs to overthrow this country.

If you do an Internet search on “Joe McCarthy was right” you will find many sources that, with the release of Soviet files after the Soviet Union’s implosion, document that …Joe McCarthy was right. The problem was Joe McCarthy was a drunk who used a dull hatchet where a sharp carving knife was required to cut out the true threat.

We don’t arrest people or use the government to destroy people’s lives simply for what they believe, or at least that is what we would like to believe. We bring the power of the nation down upon those who seek to destroy it in specific and determined plans, and actions; illegal activities.

So when “2016; Obama’s America” isolates Obama from the larger picture we should not lose sight of the reality that the leftist that run the democrat party have there origins in what has been traditionally considered Un-American and even treasonous. And they are not simply practicing a political ideology, they have been breaking the laws of this land to subvert the Constitution and the rights of the people of this nation. (OK ….they are just practicing a political ideology)

From the campaign credit card fund raising fraud of 2008, Fast and Furious, the subversion of Constitutional processes through executive order, even asking those sworn to uphold the law not to uphold the law, and the list goes on and on, one can claim we are suffering under a tyranny; a ruling class that sees themselves above the law. If Obama were a republican he would have been impeached in his first six months.

And what of equal justice? Many cry over a double standard but what are we really talking about. Here in Wisconsin we have several well documented cases of democrats using public/government office space and resources to support various political campaigns. This is illegal activity and a republican Wisconsin legislator went to prison for similar activities far less obvious or damning. yet the democrats do not even warrant an investigation for their activities. Our now famous governor Scott Walker is implicated in a John Doe investigation (called John Doe because it is to be done in secret) that has gone on and on, and spread to issues far beyond the original scope of the original investigation. We know all this because it is all secret so as not to unjustly tarnish the reputation of those involved.

All this did not come about because an anti-colonialist, if you accept the well documented premise of the movie, suddenly gained the Presidency. We cannot lose sight of the larger picture, the dangers we face and what it will take to restore this nation.

The movie is well worth seeing especially if you sincerely want to know more about Obama and his designs to destroy this nation, specifically through the national debt. Just remember it is not just Obama who wants to see this nation destroyed. He is just one of several heads.