Another Bad Week For King Barack I

American Black Vulture Coragyps atratus, one of the species covered under the treaty. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Well, last week was pretty interesting, wasn’t it? What with Benghazi, the IRS and DOJ v AP, it was not a stellar week for the administration, when the MSM starts talking about Watergate, a Democratic president might want to think rather carefully about the road forward.

Or maybe it’s too late for that, already. Now that the big three are out there, people are starting to talk about other problems, and we all know that “Bad Good things come in threes” or is it “The third time’s the charm”.

Here’s the next three scandals coming up via Marita Noon

[...]

EPA Favors Friendlies

We see favoritism in the EPAs treatment of friendly groups vs. a “concerted campaign to make life more difficult for those deemed unfriendly.” A few days ago, the Washington Examiner reported on the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s (CEI) review of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to see how equally the agency applies its fee waiver policy. The results are shocking.

Chris Horner, Senior Fellow at CEI, told me: “The IRS and EPA revelations are near-identical uses of the state to enable allies and disadvantage opponents. Granting or denying tax-exempt status can make or break a group. The same is true with FOIA fee waivers being tossed like Mardi Gras beads at greens, and denied to opponents of a bigger regulatory state. Fees for FOIA document productions can run into the six-figures.” [...]

Wind farms get a pass

We see the same “startling disparity in treatment” in the way the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act is applied. Under both acts, the death of a single bird—without a permit—is illegal. On May 14, the AP reported on an investigation that showed that nearly 600,000 birds are killed each year by wind farms, including an average of about one golden eagle a month in Converse County, WY—which the AP calls: “one of the deadliest places in the country of its kind.” California’s Altamont Pass wind farms “kill more than 60 per year”—making it the “industry’s deadliest location.”

Yet, “so far, the companies operating industrial-sized turbines here and elsewhere that are killing eagles and other protected birds have yet to be fined or prosecuted—even though every death is a criminal violation. The Obama administration has charged oil companies for drowning birds in their waste pits, and power companies for electrocuting birds on power lines. But the administration has never fined or prosecuted a wind-energy company, even those that flout the law repeatedly.” [...]

Propping up green energy

We see similar favoritism across the bigger energy spectrum. Despite President Obama’s frequent touting of increased domestic oil and gas production, “federal government policies are suppressing development,” says Kathleen Sgamma, Vice-President of Government and Public Affairs for the Western Energy Alliance (WEA). “Unfortunately, the federal government is standing in the way of increasing production of valuable energy resources that could spur further job creation, economic growth, and energy security.” To support her comments, the WEA press release offers the following numbers: “From FY2008 to FY2011 the Bureau of Land Management offered 81% less acreage, which has resulted in a 44% drop in leasing revenue, down from $356 million to $201 million. Nationwide, royalty and leasing revenue have declined 12% from $4.2 billion to $3.7 billion.” Meanwhile production and revenue on private lands increased.

Additionally, despite numerous reports regarding the positive economic impacts and environmental safety of the Keystone pipeline it has been continuously delayed—now for more than 1700 days. On Thursday, the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee passed a bill that, according to theWSJ, “effectively pushes through approval of the 875-mile pipeline by eliminating the need for Mr. Obama to issue a special permit for it.” Transportation committee chair Rep. Bill Shuster said: “After more than four years of bureaucratic delays, this bill will finally allow construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. This project has been studied more than any other project of its kind.”

While federal policies are suppressing traditional energy that is effective, efficient and economical, they are propping up projects that have been repeatedly found to be failures—but that benefit Democratic donors.

Read more on each of these at No Better for Obama Next Week, Either – Marita Noon – Townhall Finance Conservative Columnists and Financial Commentary.

As you can imagine, these scandals are not the big headline makers like messing with the AP. I would argue though, in a country that has the worst employment situation in the last 40+ years, they are at least as important.

The skewing of information publicly has obvious impact on the decision-making process, especially for the public-there’s no reason we should have to commission our own research when it’s already be done. But getting it out of the government costing more in fees than the research is worth is just stupid, especially when the cronies can get it for free.

It’s always amazing how the environmental lobby shuts up when one of its pet projects impacts another, isn’t it? Either the eagles are endangered or they’re not. If the are, the windmills owners and operators need to be prosecuted, like anybody else would be. Or they’re not, in which case they need to be removed from the endangered species act. When these stories come up, it always amazes me how twisted these laws have become since they were proposed by hunters (yes, they were) to make sure there would always be game. And further the energy generated by windmills is of very marginal utility anyway, it can’t be used (almost ever) for base power because the wind is just too undependable.

I don’t have much to add to this, “Unfortunately, the federal government is standing in the way of increasing production of valuable energy resources that could spur further job creation, economic growth, and energy security.” except that the last time I gassed up, I paid $4.09 a gallon, and America only works well with cheap energy.

Still another bad week coming for Obama’s anti-American agenda

 

Related articles

• Benghazi, IRS, The AP And Now… the EPA?! One Scandal Follows Another In Exposing Obama’s Culture Of Discrimination (personalliberty.com)
• Uh oh: Obama’s EPA mistreated conservative groups, too? (theblaze.com)
• Wind farms gets pass on eagle deaths (fuelfix.com)
• Corrupt: Obama’s EPA Waived Fee Requests For Friendly Groups, Denied Conservative Groups (thedaleygator.wordpress.com)
• Environmentalists are killing the US economy (ConservativeActionAlerts.com)
• Begala: I Love To Mock Tea Party’s Fear of BIG GOVERNMENT, But This Time They’re Right (townhall.com)

 

IRS and Corruption

Seal of the United States Internal Revenue Service. The design is the same as the Treasury seal with an IRS inscription. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So we are all shocked that the IRS targeted conservative/Tea Party groups to slow down their tax exempt status, huh? Why on earth would you be surprised? FDR did it, Kennedy did it, Johnson and Nixon did it, probably the rest did as well. The only difference is that they perhaps were a bit more discreet.

You cannot have a tax system that runs 70, 000 + pages without playing favorites. That’s why you have a tax code of 70,000+ pages. First Congress sells special breaks and then the executive sells special breaks for whatever reason.

Oh, you thought the IRS was this objective group in an ivory tower that read objective books and never showed favoritism? Good luck with that. OK, I will say that they have been very obvious the last few years, like nobody could challenge them any more. Seems to be a lot of hubris going around in the Obama administration, I don’t really understand why, but there is. I guess they think they are going to be able to rewrite history.

Note that it could not really be anything other than corrupt by the way, if you’re trying to enforce that mass of regulations you, are going to default to the solutions you know, even if there are other options. It’s not really corruption, a lot of times, in my mind, as much as it’s laziness, and we are all subject to that.

But you know, Congress could solve this tomorrow, if they had the will. It’s called the flat tax. And in its simplest implementation, you replace all 70,000+ pages with one that says. “All income earned in any manner by any natural person in the United States, and it’s possessions shall be taxed at the rate of 10%”.

That’s it. Make a buck-send them a dime; make a million dollars- send them $100,000. And you know what? You’d have very few compliance problems because everybody can understand it, and therefore there are no excuses.

You did catch the rest, right, no deductions for anything, none, nada, zilch. Nothing is exempt, and nothing except natural persons pay taxes. And therein is the downside, and why it’s so hard to get Washington to listen. How many people, inside the beltway, make their living directly or indirectly off the income tax code? I’d bet on more than half a million, many of them lawyers, and many of them politically connected. They’d have to find honest work. But it’s the only fair system, particularly since absolutely everyone in the country has skin in the game, not at a rate that hurts them but enough to notice.

And to make sure they do, repeal withholding, and the employer contribution, make them write the check, then they’ll notice what the government boondoggles are costing them.

And as a by-product-I’ll guarantee that the economic activity will pick up as fewer people are worrying about the tax code, and more are trying to make a living.

And just to make you rest easy, you realize that Obamacare is approximately the same size as the tax code now (and still growing), and will be administered by those same fine folks at the IRS.

What could possibly go wrong?

Related articles

• Jared Bernstein: Why Should Any of These Groups Have Tax-Exempt Status? (huffingtonpost.com)
• Culture of Corruption: IRS officials in DC were involved in IRS targeting (riehlworldview.com)
• IRS Scandal: What Does the US Congress Expect? (thedailybell.com)

Performance Reviews & other Bulls**t

Official warning: This article contains the words that Americans that do real work use. If the F word and variants of the S word offend you, you are excused to go back to whatever padded cell you escaped from. Everybody else: Enjoy

Now that the requisite human resource warning is out of the way, let’s talk a bit about the real world. Does anybody in the whole wide world believe that the nonsense paperwork we do for human resources, OSHA, DOT, FERC, FEMA and the rest of the alphabet soup ever get read? Yeah, exactly. It’s there so that if something goes wrong the blame can be shoved down the ladder to someone who’s not important. The fact that he’s probably the only one who knows how to do the job is irrelevant.

After all, he might embarrass you at the country club. The fact that he and the millions of others like him are what keeps this country going is unimportant. Or so you think. Because I’ve got a clue for you, the people who do stuff are getting very fed up with your nonsense, not to mention that we’re getting older, and your touchy-feely education system that doesn’t bother educating kids to do anything but rut like animals ain’t going to produce another generation that even understands lefty-loosey: righty-tighty.

But, you know, another twenty or so years of your politically correct society (not to mention your health care nonsystem) will have killed enough of the productive members of society off that you can live in the world you’ve created. Don’t forget your matches, cause I don’t think you’re smart enough to use flint and steel, and when the electricity doesn’t work anymore, it get a bit chilly in winter.

“Bullshit” Is One Word, “Performance Review” Two 
by Larry McCoy

I had just arrived in the newsroom for my shift as a copy editor when a manager came over to my desk and declared, “We need to discuss your goals.” I was 66 years old – past retirement age, damn near old enough to be his father – and he wants to discuss my “goals.”

“Go away,” I told him. Preparing to take over the main desk was always an extremely hectic part of the day. I was “reading in,” as journalists call it, looking at all the stories that had been edited that day by the main desk. It was impossible to read every story from start to finish, so you skimmed some, skipped some and made sure you thoroughly read the big ones you knew would be changing once you took over the desk.

Floyd, the name we’ll give the manager, wasn’t attuned to the idea of a right time and place to do things. Like a squirrel digging for nuts, Floyd kept at it. “We have to discuss your goals sometime. It’s part of your Performance Review.”

“Well, we’re not doing it now. Go away!”

Floyd was both dense and tone deaf. He wouldn’t go away. If only Floyd were as dogged in fleshing out a good story. The Performance Review had to be done, he said. I wasn’t going to budge either. It was a crock – something dreamed up by the morons in Human Resources who had nothing to do and, worst of all, absolutely no experience in newsrooms. They all ought to be fired, I said, several times in several ways. This back and forth continued, with the volume of each exchange rising, until the magic words came out.

“Go f–k yourself,” I said.

Do continue reading Performance Review, if you are smarter than a box of Special K you’ll enjoy it a lot. If you don’t, well,

“Who is John Galt”

Friends and Allies

I can’t speak for you but, I had gotten the memo that said that Jess is an Americanophile, obviously it is part of the reason I asked her to write here. Another part of that is that I’m an Anglophile. In truth if you saw our correspondence as we plan our posts you would be hard put to tell which of us is which.

Jess talked of our outpouring of men and treasure over the last half-century in defense of freedom in Europe, and she is, of course, correct. We have unbalanced our economy in favor of the military to do so. But we were raised after all to do our duty, and if we had not done so, we would have broken faith with our fathers and grandfathers who defeated Hitler and Tojo.

And there is something else. We have guaranteed freedom for Europe since 1945 but, especially in the case of the United Kingdom, in a sense it was nothing more than repayment of a debt owed.

You see back when James Monroe was President, and Napoleon was on St Helena, where he could cause no more trouble, thanks to the Royal Navy, we had a bit of a problem. Most of the countries of South America had looked at us, and liked the idea of independence, and during the Napoleonic Wars they had managed to throw of their masters, mostly Spain. But now Europe was at peace and there was a reactionary wind blowing.

Louis XVI was King of France, Francis I was Emperor of Austria, Friedrich Wilhelm III was King of Prussia,  Alexander I was Tsar of Russia, and  Ferdinand VII was King of Spain, the leader of this bunch of reactionaries (strangely the only one with any classical liberal credibility at all was Tsar Alexander)was Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, Chancellor of Austria. One of their stated goals was the restoration of Spain’s (and Portugal’s) colonies in the new world, using troops from any or all of these countries, especially Spain, France, and Austria.

These guys all thought that the mercantilist policies which had cost Great Britain the first empire were the way to go. But as Britain had figured out, trade was far more profitable. So profitable, in fact, that it was British gold and bravery that had defeated Napoleon. In any case most of the trade with Central and South America was conducted by British firms (likely followed by Americans). So they weren’t about to give it up but, they didn’t exactly want to be so crass as to say so.

In this atmosphere, British Foreign Minister George Canning proposed to US Secretary of State John Quincy Adams that the two countries issue a joint statement that European colonization would not be tolerated in the new world, (existing colonies would continue) and the new world would not intervene in the old world.

About this time Tsar Alexander issued an Imperial Ukase forbidding any ship other than Russian from approaching the coast of Oregon and Washington, which was claimed by the United States, Great Britain, and Russia.

President Monroe thought that the idea of separating the old and new worlds was a very good idea, and thought that the British idea of a joint declaration a good one. Secretary of State J.Q. Adams thought the idea fine but objected to the joint declaration, noting that the United States would appear as “a cock-boat in the wake of the British man-of-war”. And he then urged that the United States unilaterally issue such a declaration, knowing perfectly well that the British would grumble but it would be just as effective as the joint declaration. He carried the day, and on 2 December 1823 President Monroe announced the policy in his state of the union message to Congress. In time it would become known as the Monroe Doctrine and is still one of the bedrock foreign policies of the United States and has prevented European meddling in the new world ever since.

But the thing is, as good as the US Navy was in 1823, and it was very good, indeed, its handful of frigates weren’t going to stop any European power, and in truth this state would continue until the quite late in the 19th century. For all that time, the doctrine was enforced, mostly by intimidation, by the premier naval power, Great Britain. That would continue until the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, when the United States Navy became a world-class navy able to accomplish the mission.

And so here in 1823, a bare eight years since the last battle between our countries, at New Orléans, we find the beginnings of the ”Special Relationship” that has had so much effect on the history of the 20th century, and freedom itself. One could make a fair case that British forbearance was one of the main causes of the defeat of the Confederacy, and one should remember that Britain entered the First World War primarily because of the rise of the German Navy, but in 1921, unwillingly, to be sure, but peacefully, ceded naval equality to the United States, knowing that equality could not possibly last.

Nor should we forget that British gold, looking for places to make a profit, was largely the method of financing the industrial revolution in the United States. What we have here is a twofold lesson then. Countries can indeed be friends, at least if they are similar in outlook, and free and unfettered capitalism benefits all parties. Here we have a case study of British gold benefiting immigrants to the United States from all over the world, not to mention those British  investors, and the American owners.

And so because of the free association of the United States and the United Kingdom, looking out for their interests in an enlightened manner, the continents of South and Central America have for best part of 200 years been mostly free from interference from the European powers.

In 1961 John F. Kennedy addressed the Canadian Parliament, I’ve always thought his words applied with equal force to the UK, particularly since we are the two primary maritime powers of the modern world, and oceans have always been highways to us and not barriers. Here is what he said.

Geography has made us neighbors.

History has made us friends.

Economics has made us partners.

And necessity has made us allies.

Those whom nature hath so joined together, let no man put asunder.

What unites us is far greater than what divides us.

Jess raises several other points in her fine article this morning which we will be addressing as time goes on. And that too is part of the reason that I asked her to write here.

Related articles

• 10 surprising birthday facts about President Monroe (constitutioncenter.org)
• Do the right thing – even if it’s unpopular (lincolndailymanagement.com)
• The limits of American power, a historical perspective (oup.com)
• The sheer delight of historical slang… (mmbennetts.wordpress.com)

Women, Guns, and Beer in the Home of the Brave

If you remember, one of everybody’s favorite commercials in the Super Bowl was the reprise of Paul Harvey’s So God Made a Farmer, if you want to see again, it it is here. Former Senator Fred Thompson has made a similar video called So God Made a Patriot, I like it and hope you will too.

Chill out and have a great American Beer

If you remember a few weeks ago we noted that American craft beer is becoming a fad in England of all places, Article here. I didn’t go into how we got there at the time but, Dan Mitchell had something to say about it yesterday, and I thought you’d be interested. It’s pretty amazing what Americans can do when we can manage to get the government out of the way, isn’t it?

I share a lot of economic theory and empirical evidence in favor of lower tax rates. And I’m constantly extolling the virtues of overall economic freedom.

But sometimes it helps to have a real-world example of how a specific industry responds when it is freed from onerous taxation and pointless regulation.

Tom Acitelli explains in the Wall Street Journal how the American beer industry was rejuvenated by deregulation and tax cuts. Here are some excerpts from his column.

As recently as 35 years ago, there were fewer than 50 breweries in the whole country… The story of the U.S. ascent to the top tier of world beer began in the late 1970s, when brewing was liberated from government taxation and regulation that had held it back since Prohibition. …The brewing industry had been trying unsuccessfully for years to get Washington to lower excise taxes on beer produced by smaller brewers. …H.R. 3605 cut the federal excise tax on beer to $7 from $9 per barrel on the first 60,000 barrels produced, so long as a brewery produced no more than two million barrels annually.  …The tax cut unleashed a revolution in American brewing. Hundreds of smaller breweries began to open across the country selling what came to be called craft beer.

But the industry wasn’t held back just by taxation.

Some of the stars of American craft beer, such as Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada and Sam Calagione at Dogfish Head, got their start with home brewing—an activity that until the late 1970s was illegal in the U.S.

Continue reading Raise Your Glass and Give a Toast to Celebrate the Real-World Benefits of Lower Taxes and Economic Freedom | International Liberty.

Women, Guns, and the NRA

The Equalizer

We’ve talked several times over the last couple years about how the old Colt Single Action Army got it’s nickname of “The Equalizer” not least because it made that 98 pound schoolmarm equal to any man, and nothing has changed. Well except that a large part of society has decided that our women (and men, for that matter) should be kept defenseless so the thugs of the world can do whatever they want. It’s a message that doesn’t work with me, or hardly anybody else around here, let alone with the women I know. It doesn’t work with the NRA either and they’re making some pretty neat videos.

That part about self-defense is true of course, and vitally important but, something many of us know is that shooting is just plain good challenging fun. Whether your plinking pop cans, or duck hunting or whatever it’s fun, and a challenge to do well.

The NRA and Smith and Wesson have teamed up to produce some videos about women and guns, which I think is smart of S&W. Here’s one of them.

And here’s a link to the rest.

Strong, confident, self-reliant women. What’s not to like love?

And finally

AirModal tells us that GoDaddy‘s CEO likes rock music, specifically he likes this

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -

A band is $10,000 richer thanks to a billionaire in the audience. GoDaddy.com executive chairman and founder Bob Parsons called their version of the Star Spangled Banner the best rendition he’s ever heard.

Madison Rising’s lead singer and navy veteran Dave Bray says Parsons asked for his address after a charity performance in Scottsdale but he just expected to get some GoDaddy swag.

Continue reading GoDaddy’s CEO, Bob Parsons cut a $10,000 check to the Pro American rock band Madison Rising. | AirModal Independent.

And here it is

You know, I like it too.

Related articles

• Madison Rising To Perform In Indianapolis on July 20th (prweb.com)
• What’s On Tap This Weekend: Yuengling Lager – The Gateway Brew! [BEER REVIEW] (coed.com)

 

What Conservatives are For

Official portrait of United States Senator Mike Lee. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Far too often as conservatives, whether we’re that breed that seems so rare anymore, the Conservative Democrat, or the somewhat more common Conservative Republican, or what so many of us have become, just plain conservative, or even a lot of libertarians, we tend to spend entirely too much time talking about what we are against. Sure we are against abortion, but we are for life, we are against statism but we are for community, we are against federal control but we are for subsidiarity.

For every thing we are against, we are for something. if we want to win, we need to talk about what we are for. Nobody is going to support us because we are against Obamacare, but many will if we have a rational plan to simplify and reduce the cost of health care. To a point, right now we have to be against the excesses of government, which are many. But what we are really for is the return to common sense and the Constitution. As I’m writing this Kirsten Powers is on my TV talking about excessive spending, not surprisingly she is painting the Bush administration with the same brush as the Obama administration. The sad part is she’s right, ‘Compassionate Conservatism’ was nothing less than Statism Lite. I tend to put that in the ‘stuff happens’ file and move on. Almost every program we’ve instituted since 1935 or so, whether it did good or not, would have done at least as much good if it had been instituted as a state program in Albany, or Lincoln, or any other state capital, with far less damage to the country.

I live in a town of slightly more than 2000 people in the middle of Nebraska cattle country, the members of the Unicameral have (some of them, anyway, maybe most) have some idea of what my needs and wants are from the government. How many congressmen from the Bronx, or Miami Beach or Nome, Alaska, or Honolulu do you think do. The answer is damn few. Just like an investment banker from New York is going to have trouble understanding what my small, mostly ag based business requires. In both cases they may try (and many do) to understand but, they are from a different world.

And that’s the thing. The United States is just too big, to be governed as a single entity. So is Europe, by the way, that’s why the European union is falling apart.

But some of our people get that, recently Senator Mike Lee of Utah gave a very impressive speech about this to the Heritage Foundation. I’m going to give you a few excerpts

We say we are for lower taxes, or less regulation, or spending restraint. But those are just policies we advocate. They’re not what we’re really for. What we’re really for are the good things those policies will yield to the American people.

What we’re really for is the kind of society those policies would allow the American people to create, together.

Together.

If there is one idea too often missing from our debate today that’s it: together.

In the last few years, we conservatives seem to have abandoned words like “together,” “compassion,” and “community”… as if their only possible meanings were as a secret code for statism.

This is a mistake. Collective action doesn’t only – or even usually - mean government action.

Conservatives cannot surrender the idea of community to the Left, when it is the vitality of our communities upon which our entire philosophy depends.

Nor can we allow one politician’s occasional conflation of “compassion” and “bigger government” to discourage us from emphasizing the moral core of our worldview.

Conservatism is ultimately not about the bills we want to pass, but the nation we want to be.

The key concepts in that part are about community cause he’s right, we’re not talking about going back and being Jim Bridger, we are members of the community, and when it prospers, so do we, and conversely when we prosper, so does our community. The other takeaway is to not confuse the ends with the means, the policies with the results.

Our vision of American freedom is of two separate but mutually reinforcing institutions: a free enterprise economy and a voluntary civil society.

History has shown both of these organic systems to be extremely efficient at delivering goods and services. But these two systems are not good because they work. They work because they are good.

Together, they work for everyone because they impel everyone… to work together. They harness individuals’ self-interest to the common good of the community, and ultimately the nation.

They work because in a free market economy and voluntary civil society, whatever your career or your cause, your success depends on your service. The only way to look out for yourself is to look out for those around you. The only way to get ahead is to help other people do the same.

In fact, I don’t believe it is possible to have (long-term anyway) one without the other, I’m not free if I don’t own my time to use as I wish, work more if I want to make more to buy more stuff, or work less to have more time to do other things. And remember the basis of real free market capitalism is the free and unforced exchange of goods. Maybe I drive an old car because I want a new computer, or I decide to make the old computer last another year because I want a new car, whichever; it’s my choice, and it’s your choice too. You see, everything in the marketplace really competes with everything else. That’s how we built this country, and that’s how we will rebuild it as well, or it won’t be rebuilt.

Whatever money they earn is the wealth they create, value they add to other people’s lives.

No matter who you are or what you’re after, the first question anyone in a free market must ask him or herself is: how can I help? What problems need to be solved? What can I do to improve other people’s lives?

The free market does not allow anyone to take; it impels everyone to give.

The same process works in our voluntary civil society.

Conservatives’ commitment to civil society begins, of course, with the family, and the paramount, indispensable institution of marriage. But it doesn’t end there.

Just as individuals depend on free enterprise to protect them from economic oppression, families depend on mediating institutions to protect them from social isolation.

That is where the social entrepreneurs of our civil society come in.

Just like for-profit businesses, non-profit religious, civic, cultural, and charitable institutions also succeed only to the extent that they serve the needs of the community around them.

Forced to compete for voluntary donations, the most successful mediating institutions in a free civil society are at least as innovative and efficient as profitable companies.

If someone wants to make the world a better place, a free civil society requires that he or she do it well.

Think about that one for a while, and you’ll see that it is so. Do you give to charities that spend most of their money on their employees, or on those who do the most good?

OK, this is getting pretty long and I want you to think long and hard about how we present ourselves, because what we have here is a marketing problem. Yes we need people who can use the new media effectively, but what they present must be a positive message, not just against the statists. In truth, talking about restoring the Constitution moves me like it does many of you but, many of the people we are marketing to have never read it, how are we going to convince them, because we have to convince some fraction of them, or we might as well go home.

Here’s the video of Senator Lee’s speech, and the full transcript is available from his website here. Listen to the speech and study it, he’s got it figured out, how do we present it.

Hattip to Capitalism and community | RedState.

If we build our communities, our states and our nation will pretty much take care of themselves

Related articles

• What Conservatives Are For (nationalreview.com)
• Libertarians and Conservatives: Allies, Not Enemies (dailypaul.com)
• Sen. Mike Lee: What should conservatives be for? (washingtonpost.com)
• Senator Mike Lee on Conservatism and Community (rushlimbaugh.com)