Did Mitt Romney Lose because He is a Mormon?

My first instinct, when I heard that over three million (now I hear four) of the Republican base didn’t turn out in the last Presidential election, was that it was because Mitt Romney was a Mormon. No one in the media claimed outright that it was the cause but some alluded to it. Now after the fact I am hearing from others, when the topic of politics arises, that they hold the same impression as myself.

Was Mitt Romney’s faith the only reason they didn’t vote for him or anyone? Or did other reasons combine with the bigotries of many in this country to bring about this failing result? If this four million had come out to vote for Mitt Romney would the outcome have changed?

We would still be contesting the election results even now if the entire republican base had come out. Fights would be going on in the courts and our country would be locked in a state of confusion.

So are we a nation of bigots, haters and racists? Surely if we were a nation of racists we would not have elected Barack Hussein Obama in the first place. It has been clear debates over policy that have been the issues with all of us who have opposed the President, not his race. The fact that he and his family go out freely, travel the country and world vacationing, politicking, fundraising and playing golf suggests that there are and never have been any real threats to the President.

Though many have concluded that bigotry cost Mitt Romney the election, would it have if he ran on a truly conservative platform? Would he have won if the republicans themselves did not spend far too long fighting over the nomination, attacking each other and expending large amounts of resources in the primary process?

President Obama is a highly flawed candidate, especially considering the economy, so how did he win? There was Fast and Furious and Benghazi to top the list of numerous acts of incompetence if not outright anti-Americanism. But the democrats picked a single candidate and stuck with him and fought for him with near unshakable loyalty. Why? How?

The United States, the leading Christian nation in the world, has been a source of hope, freedom and blessing the world through. So why is this nation so battered and beleaguered by its enemies? Why have we not been able to put an end to a communist ideology that has failed many times over yet is poised to take this nation to its destructive ends? Why do we appear powerless to bring an end to Islamo- fascism? Why are we incapable of offer leadership to a world that is seeking democracy, seeking the freedoms and prosperity found here in the United States?

It is because our enemies, and I am including the communist leadership of our democratic party, all have a clear world view. They have a clear teaching on how this world should be, how we should all be living together in ‘this world’. Generally Christianity puts all their hope in the next world. There is no Kingdom of Heaven here in this world in the Christian doctrine. This is contrary to the leading thought of Judaism in the days of Jesus, He was a Jew you know, but somehow this ‘no hope in this world’ view, God will come with judgment and fire to “ha ha!” destroy all you who don’t believe as I do (rather than simply evil doers as Judaism teaches), won over the predominantly gentile believers of four-hundred years ago who first brought together a singular cohesive doctrine for the Christian faith. And the “ha ha!” aspect of the worldview destroyed any previous visions of a Christian Kingdom on this earth as wars of religion ravaged the world.

What we must realize as a nation is that the true conservative cause is a solid and well founded Christian worldview. Our founding fathers themselves initially would not even pray together, yet they eventually came together in prayer to open every gathering. They were driven by the leading thinkers of the age, an age of reason and enlightenment, to put together a government that was effective and representative of the people. They were inspired by God to realize all rights came from Him and to understand the inherent evils of any and all overbearing governments. And they existed in an environment that screamed to be fruitful, have dominion and fill the earth. With a vast wilderness spread out before them they were eager to get to work to build their ideals substantially on this earth, in this world. To carve out those shining cities on a hill upon that clean slate of the New World. It was an age of faith, of individual responsibility and drive, and trust in one’s fellow man.

This nation and the ideals upon which it was founded are still the greatest hope for this world. The founding spirit of this nation has the power to bring all peoples and faiths together and lead this world into a yet to be seen world of freedom and prosperity for all. If Mitt Romney had embraced these conservative ideals bigotry would not have been an issue and he would have pulled many so called Reagan democrats to his side.

Ultimately to embrace these conservative ideals, to reignite the founding spirit of this nation we need only to turn back to God and His true ways.

The High Road

Is it time to give up on the high road? You would be hard pressed to find anyone who has taken that road as high as Mitt Romney. Yet the citizens of this nation rejected his values and record of accomplishment in business and private life; qualities that fit all too well the needs of this nation at this time.

The question I ponder is, has politics become some kind creative practice of Stockholm Syndrome? The left rose among the drugs and sexually revolution of the sixties, when masses of young people rejected all that their government and elders represented. It was a time when they said, “Who cares about the rest of the world, let it fall to communism and the mass murder that follows it. Why should we put ourselves out for anyone else?” This was the mantra though none would admit to it.

They attacked ridiculed and maligned all who disagreed much like candidates in political races do, at least those who win. And now society appears to be identifying with its abusers as near any type of sexual perversion is acceptable and it is now legal to use marijuana in Colorado and Washington. Talk about a brain drain…

The values of this nation are under assault, they have been for decades. Why have we been unable to stem the tide of this tsunami of self serving, self indulgent tendencies the public has embraced under the ruse of a government that cares? Why is the public so blind to the fast approaching, now unavoidable fiscal crisis crashing down upon this nation?

Now is the time one would usually blame the media but let me take on the Stockholm Syndrome theme I have alluded to. There are countless stories of misconduct and outright criminal activity at the hands of the democrats. Republicans are surely prosecuted, at least in the court of public opinion when they commit such indiscretions. Yet the democrats, like an abusive captor who faces no consequences for their crimes and comes to be adored by their victims, benefit greatly when they are not held to account by our system of justice or ethics. Our black populations are unable to grasp the concept that while a small minority of democrats voting for the civil rights act allowed it to pass, the vast majority of democrats voted against it. We can look at despicable characters such as Teddy Kennedy, a man that left a young lady to die and enjoyed waitress sandwiches, a man that has been literally beatified in politics, as another example of the abused coming to identify with, to adore their abuser.

Here in Milwaukee we have a democrat mayor Tom Barrett who is fitting a heavy fiscal yolk on the people with a ludicrous streetcar that will cost tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars. The construction will shut down downtown for years, driving away the few remaining businesses. The required moving and protection of utilities will raise utility rates for all those in South-East Wisconsin, even though the streetcar loop will serve only downtown and no one will ride it. They have a small streetcar bus that runs the route, has for years, that may get close to full on one or two runs at lunch hour. Of course that was Twenty-five cents. People can and will walk rather than pay the two dollars planned cost. The project will also obstruct traffic and eliminate vast amounts of parking for the downtown.

No one can stop this project, much like the Obama agenda. Tom Barrett just smiles and looks down his nose at anyone who dare suggest it is unnecessary, irresponsible and immoral. These are issues the media should be raising but they don not. (OK we can blame the media… in part) Tom Barrett appears well respected by many in the community but should he be? He has nothing in the way of real accomplishment and is known for not working too hard. He has a wife who has committed crimes that a state legislator was convicted for and imprisoned. She used her public resources when she worked for Milwaukee Public Schools for campaign purposes. There are several well documented cases in South-Eastern Wisconsin of the same crime committed by democrats and not one has been brought up on charges. This is how evil becomes larger than life, outright adored, and takes hold of a society. They hold themselves above the law they hold others too and an unthinking public responds in awe.

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing” Edmund Burke.

All societies of note rose out of strong social structures. The traditional family was the foundation. The rule of law and ethics, the exaltation of thought allowed them to grow and prosper over others. The central practice of the law since ancient times has been that ‘Justice is blind.’ When we allow some to become greater than the law, when all are not treated equally we are destined for tyranny and destruction.

Not holding the democrats responsible for their indiscretions, such as voter fraud or campaign law violations among other crimes, not holding them responsible for their moral failings is not taking the high road. Allowing them to make dishonest claims and denials of known indiscretions is not taking the high road. It is ignoring one’s responsibility to the greater society. We have empowered members of government to address these issues. It is important that they do their duty. The Constitution, our laws, and ethical standards for high office exist for a reason. They are integral to the fabric of civilization itself.

Fast and Furious,… Benghazi,… campaign fundraising crimes,… acting in violation of the constraints of our Constitution,… acting against the best interests of this nation,… It is the duty of our elected officials to uphold the Constitution and laws of this land, not to exalt, or to give even the slightest of credence to the actions of those who would abuse their position and power bringing suffering and tyranny down upon the people.

You Didn’t Build That!

Some time back I sent a local talk show host an e-mail in reference to the topic of freedom and jobs. I commented on how laws and regulations hinder one from simply going out to make a buck hawking goods out  in the streets. (I hope I haven’t lost all younger readers with my dated vocabulary, and dated lifestyle) If it can be outside the law to simply go out and try to sell some goods, wares or objects of personal amusement out among your own community from store to store or residence to residence you can imagine how obtuse and obstructive regulations can be if you are considering more complex and far reaching ventures.

So I wrote something along these lines “It is not like I can just pick up an ax and a long gun and trek out into the wilds to cut a life out for myself from the wilderness.”

Of course according to Obama, whatever I would build, carve out with my own hands, shedding blood sweat and tears in the process, out there in the wilderness, I would not have built that. Without that ax and long gun, most likely eventually a horse and plow among other tools and wares, I could not have built what I built. I needed those tools which through some perverse logic was provided by the government and the environment of advancement it supposedly provides.

And, after many like mind individuals as myself gathered, forming a community out there in the wilderness, and some capitalist decided to take a risk and build a railroad in hopes of profit through bringing us needed goods we would buy and transport the excess goods we were producing to markets where they are in demand, that railroad baron did not build that either. It was the government that inspired, promoted and allowed such advancement not the profits that could be gained by promoting sound trade; according to Obama.

How our concepts of hard work, industry and liberty itself have changed over time. We can attribute that change to the loss of true and easily accessible wilderness or frontier. The expression of freedom takes different forms. A free refined productive and diverse society allows pursuits in areas such as the arts and recreation that are not directly linked to survival or the direct advancement of society. It also allows mankind to investigate the mysteries of the universe and literally reach for the stars. What hasn’t changed over time however is overbearing government as the greatest threat to freedom that has ever existed, something our forefathers clearly understood.

By Obama’s standard, everything we may accomplish we didn’t really accomplish because we were dependent upon something provided by others; or rather ultimately what Obama describes as government. That implies that since the first man that split a rock and found he could use the sharp edge he created to cut and pierce that no one has genuinely built anything.

And here is the crux of the matter. This is what begs the question that divides the right from the left; or rather right from wrong. Where did the rock come from? The free world built upon Judeo-Christian ideals most completely encompassed in this nation of the United States acknowledges where that rock came from. Religion honors the origins of creation as benevolent, all powerful and good (the left’s image of government) leading man, if only he would listen, to embody and advance the highest of God’s ideals as our responsibility. We accomplish this through our free will. Our free will, freedom, allows us to build upon what exists and expand it to greater heights, sharing with God in the wonders of His creation and exalting Him in the process. So we praise and offer gratitude to God for the wonders of His gifts embodied in the creation and in like manner build upon what God has given us; to “have dominion over the creation”. We engage in the world as God desires in ever growing joy and prosperity not only for ourselves but for the greater society and for those yet to come. The cycle goes on and on where “we each did build that” as an individual unique expression of God’s creation; God’s child.

In the Obama world seeking a socialist utopia, the origins of all fore-mentioned materials and ideals came about by chance, happenstance, from an accident; the common label for an unwanted pregnancy. God and religion is the opiate of the people; for the unenlightened. The government oversees all material, biological or otherwise, as the highest evolution of all that exists. There is nothing higher than government. There is no higher source of power, knowledge or determiner of right and wrong.

This is what tomorrow’s election is about.

Grafton, Wisconsin

My wife and I had just exited the expressway and had turned into Grafton, Wisconsin.

“Wow,” my wife exclaimed “this is a nice city!”

Yes, exclaimed is the proper descriptive and punctuation.

I always feel good driving into Grafton. I had a remodeling acquaintance on a project there last year. The man I was helping had a bright smile on his face as he told me he had a job in Grafton I would be helping him with.

I had been to Grafton often in the past and a few other times in more contemporary times. I found visits to this formerly small village, now a sparkling island of business and commerce, a bright spot in my day. Grafton always looks clean and orderly. It looks prosperous. You just feel …bright and good to be there.

On this one particular afternoon we were heading to a funeral. The man was a near life long friend of my father and our family. He served in the Navy and worked as an accountant, a businessman most his life. He was an outdoorsman, a hunter, and a good family man.

He and his family supported a Vietnamese family, what we of middle age years know as boat people, after the fall of the South. His family hosted many foreign exchange students. He participated in a hunting youth camp. He was a good man. A family man who was never without the support of his wife. When they talked about one they talked about the other.

He was the kind of man that fit the qualifications for leadership in the Church as described in the Bible. The Priest at the local Catholic Church testified how at the annual Church budget meetings he would always raise his hand and grill the Church on any item or allocation that he didn’t understand. He was a man who demanded everything be on the up and up. A man with the character, personality and moral fortitude that few if any could or would want to contest in his demands for excellence.

And if such a man would be qualified as a leader of the church why do we far to often not demand such standards from our political leaders? In fact this man was a member of nearly every committee on the Grafton Village board in his 37 years of service. He was absolutely committed to his community.

When we talk about the United States as that shining city on a hill, we need to understand how that came to be. We must understand that a shining city is built by such men as my father’s close friend. A man who understood that how something is done, whether anyone is looking or not, is far more important than what is done. That good works are built upon and inherent with the goodness and integrity, the moral fortitude of those committed to the goal; a goal envisioned through one’s faith. These are the kind of men who build our shining cities.

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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