Where Have all the “Pretty People” Gone?

Where Have all the “Pretty People” Gone? They all opposed war every one….

The war is on, then it is off. We go one direction and then another. There is a “red line” and then the red line disappears or someone else drew it. I have not thought about it today, much…… What I have thought about are the “missing voices”. The fervent celebrity “peace-niks” who pounced, parodied and preached their “kumbaya”, evoking newer versions of peace protests songs and happy as they pronounced that they found their liberal “Prince of Peace”.

They were sarcastic, this group, piously sure of their own righteousness; moralistically appearing on one talk show after another showing their disdain for what they termed “Bush’s Wars”. Extolling in their superior ways as to how “ignorant” he was, how hapless, Bush was their version of the “anti-christ”. They “high-jacked” award’s shows with their high handed monologues. They showed up at “peace marches” forgetting their usual “war paint” and even allowing the gray roots of their expensive hair cuts to emphasize their weary disdain for conservatives, Republicans and everyone or everything on the “right”. They even referred to the right as “Nazis” , “Teabaggers” and other vile names —— unchecked by the sympathetic media.

Soon, they had their “Black Prince” and they were at peace within themselves……..But now, facing the guns and bombs of a possible war……we hear crickets from them. Silence…… So….whatever happened to:

“I think war is based in greed and there are huge karmic retributions that will follow. I think war is never the answer to solving any problems. The best way to solve problems is to not have enemies.”
— Sheryl Crow

>She might be too busy working on the CMA awards, war will be on her mind again if there is another Republican president.

“Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after their own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.” 
—- Susan Sarandon

>She was “unavailable for comment.” —– She could not even get in the biblical form.

“Thank you so much for the courage to stand up to this mean-spirited and vengeful administration.”

—–Jane Fonda

>Busy also, no comment and more interested in her VERY ,VERY small appearance in Oprah’s latest film. In fact this lady had sage advice for young people, “women should rather choose the porn films their husbands watch instead of worry about them “. She should know.

And finally,

She made very crude jokes about Bush’s surname while talking about his war policies and discussing her frequent habit of being unable to control her urination without some sort of help. And when she was fired as a spokeswoman for Slim Fast, she cried censorship.
——Whoopie Goldberg….

She still hasn’t mocked Obama in any way…

So….. what gives? No big concerts by “The Boss”, no melodramatic speeches by Barbara Streisand….. nothing.

Well, catching up with  Ed Asner who spoke with the Hollywood Reporter, he said “celebrities are scared of being labeled “anti-black” by opposing the war.  Now it is racist to disagree with the Black Man in the White House……. I suppose the so-called “progressives” have made no “progress” at all — especially in their thinking…. about race that is…

And as for President Barack Obama , as he considers a military response against Syria, he won’t have to put up with those pesky old protest marches and pointed vocal protestations from the Hollywood set. Especially if they want to be on the next White House invitation list….

Jason Shields, 1967-2013 – Rest in Peace, Friend

What is good for thee, ain’t right for me!

Good Sunday Morning!

News Flash! These people have NO moral compass…..DON’T LISTEN TO THEM…..

In a era of the “Forward” movement which seeks to reject and denigrate anything traditional, we are finding that people increasingly looking to the media to dictate their “new” actions and the “coolest” way to do everything …. whether it is what they wear, how they speak, who they vote for, who they scorn, where and how they live, and how they educate their children. I ran across an article in the Slate blog — yes I do read that and possibly everything that I can get my eyes on — right and left. Hey, if you only pay attention to the right hand, the left will leave you with a “cold slap in the face”.

So, I go back to this article…. it is entitled “If You Send Your Kid to Private School, You Are a Bad Person” By Allison Benedikt. In this “tongue in cheek” essay she says “I am not an education policy wonk: I’m just judgmental. But it seems to me that if every single parent sent every single child to public school, public schools would improve. This would not happen immediately. It could take generations. Your children and grandchildren might get mediocre educations in the meantime, but it will be worth it, for the eventual common good. “ Hmmm…. how many times are we going to hear this “common good” story.

So I did some research to find out about this curious creature, it seems that she is married to John Cook who also writes for national Progressive publications like The Nation, Salon, The Republic. He too, feels that sending your kids to private school is inherently bad. He feels that private schools should be “banned” and turned into a “nationalized” system, and all of the resulting new (minimum $47 billion) resources be used to “shore up” the public schools.

You get a vision of how bizarre these far left “wish lists” can become? I “wish” that it were just as simple as saying this is the “musing” of a couple of kooks who managed to find each other among the 345 million people in the United States BUT, this idea was originally proffered by billionaire and Obama BFF Warren Buffet who once told school reformer Michelle Rhee that the easiest way to fix schools was to “make private schools illegal and assign every child to a public school by random lottery.”

So pricicesly WHAT is this couples beef? Well….White and asian students enroll in private schools at twice the rate of black and hispanic ones. In fact, in some of the larger and more troubled school districts, you will not see very many or ANY white or asian students. White people are 60% more likely to send their children to private school, any private school — than the national norm. AND the PRIVAE school does not have to be a prestigious school. And then there is the question of “Home Schooling” which rankles a great deal of liberal hearts…. The authors Benedikt and Cook aregue that private school take away from “fairness” and “equality”.

So at the end of the day, is this just a case of “What is good for thee but not good for me!”? I mean, afterall, remember Matt Damon stood with HIS “Mom the public school teacher” , who despite his vocal criticism of education reform efforts and statements about his staunch public school support, sends his own darling to private school. Or Michelle and Barack Obama sending their children —- (always by the way}, to private schools while desiring to cut vouchers so that poor children might achieve the same “equality” and “fairness”?

And also , the clincher here is that Benedikt and Cook have literally milked their 401K’s to send THEIR children to private school.

I will leave this discussion with a quote by A.W. Tozer: “Among the gifts of the Spirit scarcely one is of greater practical usefulness than the gift of discernment. This gift should be highly valued and frankly sought as being almost indispensable in these critical times. This gift will enable us to distinguish the chaff from the wheat and to divide the manifestations of the flesh from the operations of the Spirit.”

Or as my Grandmother used to say “Use the knowledge that God gave you”.

The Journey from Left to Right….

Good Saturday Morning!

The Journey from Left to Right….

When Allen and I go out to parties, galas, and the like, people speak to him about conservative thinking. That is a given. He is deeply patriotic, deeply involved with the history of the country and very knowledgeable.

But….. after they speak with him, the conversation invariably turns to me. And…. it starts like this….”WHEN DID you BECOME conservative….” A girlfriend of mine who I have known since I was a child told me “its written all over your face…. people can tell..” OK, should I change my lipstick? (smile)

I was the quintessential student, loved school, fell in love with the university life — both in Europe and the US. It was intellectually stimulating and exciting. I truly understand when my daughter gives us 4 hours here and there during the school year. She is me — albeit with the “Conservative Chick” tee-shirt.

The University meant that I could be myself. The lover of documentaries, exhibitions and plays. I remember when Allen and I got married, the officer’s wives club had their meeting to welcome me. That was like fitting a round peg (me) into a square hole (them). You see, one faces a big penalty for non-conformance in such groups. I knew how to sew well because my grandmother owned a business which involved making high quality dresses for the top US stores so she taught me. BUT the officer’s wives were into “crafts” so I tried it. Let me tell you that cross stitch is not only boring, it is tedious. very….. One of the other Ph.D. students came from Utah where she told me that her mother was a whiz at embroidery and cross stitch. Her mother sent an 89 percent completed a piece and I finished the trim in front of my peers in the OWC. I still have the piece. It says “Officers’ Wives — the toughest job in the military”. It had all of the flourishes, my friend’s mother is a genious and I was accepted at least for a short while.

At that time — late 80’s to the 90’s the left pretty much solidified their dominance in University thought and hires. They replaced all of the stuffy professors in suits with conservative ways with “cool professors” who sat on the lawns, smoked weed and had many neurotic ticks. But they were creative and exciting. They also did not have preconceived notions about women, minorities, gays and so forth. Believe me, I was told by one “conservative” professor that “women can not write nor do arithmetic — much less BLACK women.” He was able to grade any paper I wrote, no matter how long, in a matter of 3 – 5 minutes. He gave me a “B” and wrote a note that he was being “generous”. Another, was the chair of one of the large departments, he was known to hire only attractive girls with his department budget, I felt “happy” that I was one of the chosen. Then, I came down with the flu, showed up to work looking pretty run down for a week and he jokingly said —- “If you don’t get your act together and stop dragging in here, I going to replace you.” And so on and so forth ….The “Stinkin’ Thinkin'” crew had to GO.

So the campus left ushered in a younger crew. They were interesting, Bush, the older seemed so OLD next to Mr. Cool, the governor of Arkansas — Bill Clinton. He came out of nowhere, suave and “different”. So unlike the Republicans who seemed to line up the “same old, same old” from the same families with the same message — “money and taxes”. Campus politics made them seem mean-spirited. It did not help much that the “Young Republicans” table was staffed by really clean, I mean really clean people with expensive clothes. And they were ALL white. All “main-line” frats/sorority members (or they seemed to be) and they were NOT in any way shape or form approaching anyone NOT in their “tribe”. When I became a professor after earning my Ph.D. for some reason I became a favorite professor for many of them on the right side. Aside from the outward appearance, many of them were quite intelligent, interesting and confused as to why the tide had changed. One interesting little trait that they had in common was that many of them were VERY close to their families. Their parents and relatives would reserve the local hotels far in advance to be with their beloved progeny for games, galas, open houses, presentations etc…

The left side got everyone else. Sure there were some in the middle but no-one noticed them. The message, YOU MUST choose a side…. The Democrat Club sold those sweaters from South America, used blue jeans, hemp junk, and perfume oils. The Black Frats and sororities sometimes did a step show, the Hispanic frats/sororities had a leaflet that always had a heading such as “puertorriqueño” or “boricua”. Many colors, shapes and sizes. Everyone “fit in” and the air of excitement and rakishness abounded. The editor of Essence magazine spoke in the same auditorium that Phyllis Schlafly spoke in a few weeks before, one session was crowded and the other session half empty and resounding with audible boos. I don’t have to tell you which was which. I remember that Phelps groups showed up to protest with their vile posters, everyone quietly associated that group with Republicans — even when they were denounced by the Republicans. The message here —- Republicans represent the past, Democrats represent the future.

The revolution started over 25 years ago. It did not start with Obama.

Then something changed. The universities became packed with one side of thinking. Only this time, it was on the left. Grades suffer if you don’t check for the political leanings and proclivities of the professor and tailor your thoughts and presentations accordingly. My brother joked that he took a Women’s Studies class — he is very handsome and he found out that the professor (He called her “Professor Beard” — a play on her name because she had some whiskers) warned the girls that he might try to “flirt” with them. Since she did not swing in the male direction, her warning had an unintended consequence — they were attracted to him like a moth to a flame. He received a “C” in this class. Every quiz was a 95 – 100, the final essay earned a 35%. Shazam!, one decade difference, the same trick but different sides.

Contradictions immediately became clear. Free thinking was no longer important, you became “intolerant” when you go against the liberal agenda. And the consequences were far more punishing. These are rules to the “liberal game” — when Bill Clinton bangs a girl who was the same age that my daughter is now —- he is “cool” and she was blessed with his “statesmanship”. However, an in-artful statement about women from a Republican male constitutes “the War on Women”. The examples can go on. This is the new “Stinkin’ Thinkin”.

So, as one becomes enlightened, one will develop and evolve.
I realized that my values, beliefs and sentiments as well as my economic knowledge does not lie on the side of the Democrats. It was cool at one time because the image was cool — I existed on scholarships and financial aid. I had “nuttin to lose”. We now have to get down to “brass tacks”. This liberal thinking has evolved also — into a living breathing totalitarian monster. One in which the Constitution is under attack from our “Constitutional Lawyer in Chief”. You see you must know what is “in it” before you can “destroy it.” — He and his minions know the Constitution…. And you can only do that covertly through mandates, the IRS, “fairness” and “safety” and emotion. You have to get older women who are representatives ready to throw YOUR kids into a war in order to proclaim loyalty and solidarity to their “dear leader”. You gotta keep parents infantile with guilt trying to change their boys into girls and girls into boys. You gotta get the younger generation so doped up by making drugs legal that their brains are too worn out to think clearly — 20 years after they wake up from the first “high”. You gotta keep the people in chains of sexuality so they can think of nothing else. And finally you must take their guns. Take their morality, beliefs , and finally their defense.

That is modern liberalism and a lot of it is masquerading as “Republicans” and “bipartisanship” — guess what it ain’t “bipartisan” if you surrender all. You are just defeated. Old men (of any age) don’t fight wars because they are tooooo…..old and the faces that constantly speak look like “Father Time”. Have you ever heard of a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”?

I have lost nothing by evolving into a conservative and neither will you. I have heard people say — I have lost friends. No you have not. They were not your friends to begin with if you have to lay down your principles for them to “like” you.

So anyways, it you take the time to read this, this is the person who writes to you every morning. Hope to see you again!

Dr. Angela Graham West(1) The Republican Coffee Corner with Angela

County Tax Trends – Some Perspective

The public hearings on the county budget are Monday 9/9/13 and 9/23/13 at 6:00 PM.

The most-important video from the AFP Summit General Sessions

Takeaways from breakout sessions at Defending the American Dream Summit

I attended several sessions and found most invaluable, especially when panelists made points that provoked new insights or paradigms.  Listed are brief descriptions of the panels and my ‘takeaways’.   If you attended the same sessions, please add your comments.  If you attended different sessions and would like to have your ‘take-aways’ posted – email us at info@palmbeachcountyteaparty.org  and we’ll post it for you.

Medicaid Expansion:  Breaking the Bank while Cheating the Poor

 “Did you know that 13% of patients on Medicaid are more likely to die than patients without any insurance?  It’s a true and startling fact.  This workshop will focus on the problems and cost associated with expanding this broken program, and show how enterprising doctors are offering better solutions.”

Tarren Bragdon, Foundation for Government Accountability, CEO

• Medicaid should only be for the truly needy
• Largest cause of government spending and borrowing

Avik Roy, Manhattan Institute, Senior Fellow

• Our system is breaking by cost overruns by Medicaid
• Medicaid pays only ¼ of the price that private insurers must pay, so most providers will not take Medicaid patients
• Health outcomes are worse for Medicaid patients than for people who have no insurance and go to emergency rooms.  Government run single-payer outcomes are worse than anything else

Lee S Gross, MD, Epiphany Health, Co-founder 

• Epiphany Health is a concierge plan for the little guy, not insurance.  Those on Medicare cannot go to a concierge plan doctor and are forced to stay with Medicare providers.
• Several Republican governors are opting for the Medicaid Expansion because Hospitals are lobbying like crazy:  Ohio, Michigan, Arizona
• Hospitals love taking Medicaid money and then subsidize the shortfall by charging privately insured patients more to make up the difference!  Hospitals are the ‘enemy’ – not the insurance companies
• Doctors now work to satisfy the hospitals not the patients because 7 years ago 70% of physicians had private practices while now – 70% of physicians are in hospital owned practices!

“….Come find out how activists across America have helped to decrease their state burden an put money back in the pockets of their fellow citizens.”

Dr. Christine P. Ries, Georgia Institute of Technology, Professor of Economics

• The GA Tax Reform Council has made significant progress in rolling back taxes
• Tax Reform The Game was developed by Dr. Ries, and allows for interactive modeling of changes (eg implications of lowering/raising taxes and spending), incorporating dynamic assumptions for economic and job growth based on such changes.  Play with it!

Chris Farr, AFP Foundation, NC Deputy State Director

• Succeeded in bringing down the tax rates, capped the state gas tax and eliminated the estate (death) tax in this purple state!

Joe Henchman, TAX Foundation, Vice President for State Projects

• States that made significant progress in lowering rates in the past year were: Wisconsin, New Mexico, Indiana, Arizona, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, Massachusetts, North Carolina, DC  (see details at their State section)
• For state by state data on surges in income tax revenues go to their article: States see Spring Surge Income Tax Revenues

Waste Watchers: Finding Government Waste & Shedding Light On It

“We’ve all heard the stories about government wasting tax dollars on $12 bagels and parties in Las Vegas….Our seasoned experts will explain what causes this waste, and help you learn how to identify and expose all the pork”

The focus of this session was on state and local levels – however all were referred to a wiki-like site for federal spending (outrages) called Spendopedia! 

Susan Combs, TX Comptroller of Public Accounts

• Schools are 1/3 of the state budget and school construction is the biggest boondoggle/source of waste!
• It takes persistence, creativity and determination to find waste
• “If you can’t defend it, don’t spend it”
• She uses data-mining software to uncover Medicaid fraud
• NO GOVERNMENT WANTS YOU TO KNOW WHAT THEY’RE DOING! – Be ruthless about demanding information

Dan Epstein, Cause of Action, Executive Director

• Grant money from Federal Government to States is typically used (funneled) to groups lobbying for increased taxes!
• Since government doesn’t want to be watched, the FTC looks at all watch-dog groups’ websites.
• In order to get fee-waivers on the Federal level it’s necessary to be a non-profit and categorized as a ‘news media requestor”.  Have to fight for your rights – eg AFL/CIO has ‘news media requestor’ status whereas his organization is suing since rejected for such status.
• He recommends getting published on the Washington Freebeacon!

Mary Ellen Beatty, Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity, Director of Citizen Outreach  (click on state for your state’s websites)

• Franklin Center is a network of ‘investigative reporters/bloggers’ looking for Waste, Fraud and Abuse at schoolboard, city councils, county commissions.
• It only takes a handful of people to ‘shine the light’ on each of the above
• Review their websites, and write about it!
• Call out elected and government officials by name and link to their name in articles to trigger Google Alerts!
• Tweet @ the officials’ twitter accounts because the tweets are public

 Tips from the Q&A Session at the end of the panel:

• To see examples of FOIA requests search on ‘foia letter generator tool’
• If you get pushback – MAKE A STORY OUT OF IT!  Use the Franklin Center.  Document every details and again – NAME NAMES!
• Don’t be labeled as a NUT!  Be professional and respectful
• Be creative in fighting copying fees (used to hide stuff) – offer to come in and just read the material, use your phone to take pictures of the pages, don’t accept paying per page!

Building Bridges and Creating an Army: The Importance of Relationships 

“So you want to make a difference.  Before you can truly be effective, you need to build a network.  These are fellow activists you can leverage when it comes time to act on your issue”

Jen Stefano, AFP State Director

• Know who and what you are
• Explain policy issues from the Point of View of those to whom you’re speaking
• Go to their meetings (the people you’re trying to reach) – don’t expect people to come to yours
• Do you have the same people coming to your meetings over and over and they don’t ever DO ANYTHING????  Stop!

Daniel Garza, The LIBRE Initiative, Executive Director

• Of the self-identified Hispanic population, 1/3 speak only Spanish, 1/3 are bi-lingual and 1/3 only speak English
• A very large percentage (of the Spanish-speaking) have their tv’s tuned only to Univision and get all of their news/politics/etc from that station

 Evan Feinberg, Generation Opportunity, President

• Aimed at youth
• Jobs and NSA spying big issues

 IT’S AS IMPORTANT TO HAVE THE RIGHT MESSENGER AS IT IS THE RIGHT MESSAGE!

Palm Beach County Tea Party Announces New President

Press Release
September 3, 2013

---

The Palm Beach County Tea Party Board of Directors has elected Mel Grossman as its new President.

Mr. Grossman is a co-founder of the group, founded in 2011 as a spin off of the now defunct South Florida Tea Party, and has served as its Treasurer.

Mr. Grossman moved to Florida in October 2001 after selling his successful small business of 35 years and lives in northern Palm Beach County. He has been involved with the Tea Party efforts since 2010 and has taken an active role in grassroots activities across the county.

In a brief statement, he said:

Mel replaces former President Michael Riordan who resigned last month.

9/11 Remembrance Ceremony

Reasons for Optimism – The “Defending the American Dream” Summit

This past weekend in Orlando, Americans for Prosperity Foundation hosted a conference for grassroots activists from around the nation.

With informative breakout sessions in the mornings to highlight successes on the state and local levels, and “big tent” events in the afternoon with national conservative leaders, there was something for everyone, including ample free time to “network”.

The “malaise” that affected many of us locally after the bitter results of the 2012 Presidential election has been pretty widespread, and organizers from many locations reported falling attendance at many of their events. Hopefully, that is now starting to change. Although we are still licking our wounds, conferences like this one demonstrate that there is still life in the conservative grassroots, we have leaders in the movement that “get it” and have the fortitude to take it to the President – to lead the fight against the train wreck that is Obamacare, the endless debt and deficits, the administration that cares little for the rule of law, the separation of powers, or the role of the states in our constitutional republic.

“It’s amazing what is possible in America“, said Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, when people are free – free to make their own choices, free from the suffocating regulations of intrusive government. He talked about education as the key for the jobs of tomorrow, and the success they have had in his state in shutting down failing schools and greatly expanding the charter school system which has done a lot to improve the lot of minority children. Last week, unfortunately, Obama’s Justice Department has decided to sue Louisiana to roll back these reforms and return students to their failing schools. Judging by his fiery critique of the President and his policies, it is clear he will stand up against our rogue Attorney General and fight to retain the success they achieved.

Our own Senator Marco Rubio declared “There is nothing wrong with America – but there is something wrong with this President“. The good news, he said, is that “we still have time to save the American Dream“, by reforming the tax code and eliminating regulations. “We don’t need Common Core”, he said, and he will not vote for any budget that funds Obamacare or to increase the debt ceiling without a balanced budget amendment and specific cuts.

Unfortunately for Senator Rubio, there is still a lot of anger in the movement about his role in passing the “gang of eight” Senate immigration bill. In the hall were members of Flimen with pink shirts that said “Pink Slip Rubio”, and throughout his speech you could hear sporadic calls for “No Amnesty”. Although he avoided this issue in the speech, he did address it in a smaller group that met with him prior to the session. In a hotel suite with about 40 supporters, after answering some questions about Syria, Obamacare and other issues for which he was among friends, someone in the back asked “what about immigration”. A hush fell across the room at this point and he had no choice but to address it with a somewhat lengthy justification that amounted to “the status quo is unacceptable so we have to do something“. To me it sounded like doubling down. Not good.

Then Arthur Brooks, President of American Enterprise Institute, succinctly summed up the Obama message: “Rich people have your stuff and I’m going to get it back for you.” This shouldn’t have worked as envy is not American, but unfortunately all our side had to say to his supporters was “You’re a moocher” – no wonder we lost. The words “fairness” and “compassion” have been kidnapped by the left and we should take them back and own them, because progressive ideology is neither fair nor compassionate. As a humorous and memorable side comment illustrating our difference in values, he recalled a bumper sticker seen in San Francisco – “Your body may be a temple but mine is an amusement park”.

Next up was Governor Rick Scott, gearing up his re-election bid with a positive jobs message. Recalling his 2010 pledge to create “700,000 jobs in 7 years”, he reported us as on-track, with the likelihood of 900,000 jobs created by 2018. Scott is still popular with the Florida grassroots, although his support for Medicaid expansion had a lot of heads scratching. We do still remember that he declined to create a state Obamacare exchange, though. A few hecklers in the audience periodically shouted “No Common Core”, reflecting dissatisfaction with the direction that our education system has taken over the last few years. Scott talked about his activities as a booster of the state’s business climate and his good-natured rivalry with Texas and Governor Rick Perry who was the last major speaker of the day.

A 2012 Presidential candidate until his campaign faltered early in the primary process, he is possibly gearing up for another run in 2016. Well known as a jobs governor, the record of the Texas economy on his watch has been very impressive. As he makes the rounds of the states selling the Texas miracle, he has gained the ire of many blue state governors who do not appreciate his pointing out the shortcomings of their performance or the failings of the Progressive economics.

On another theme, “All roads lead back to the states“, said Perry. One size fits all federal programs (like Obamacare) are anathema to the founding principles of this country. A favorite target of the Obama administration, whose ideology sees the power in the states to be a roadblock to their big government agenda, Texas is now being sued by Eric Holder and the Justice Department as they try to end-run the Supreme Court and re-impose Voting Rights Act restrictions that require federal permission for such things as Voter ID laws.

On the final day of the conference, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, another possible 2016 presidential candidate and clearly the favorite of the gathering gave us reasons for optimism. With the success of Rand Paul’s filibuster on drones, and the failure of gun control initiatives after Sandy Hook, the President was forced to “listen to the people”, he said. On Syria, with Obama now going to Congress for authorization, on immigration, on common core, – the people are making their voices heard and throwing a wrench into the Obama agenda. His job as a Senator, he says, is to restore economic growth as the lack of growth is related to all of our other problems. Tax Reform (“Abolish the IRS“), and regulatory reform (“Repeal Obamacare – every single word“) are the key. He sees Obamacare as the greatest job killer of all time and sees de-funding it in the upcoming budget process as the key. In answer to skeptics that see that tactic as a political liability for Republicans, he says “You lose 100% of the fights you surrender at the outset.” Standing ovations were frequent for this speech.

All in all, the speakers reminded us that conservatism is not “in trouble” as the mainstream media may have you believe, but resurgent and full of fire. With his agenda in tatters, the Obama team sees winning back the House and holding the Senate next year as their only chance to have a legacy of anything but failure. Any thought of compromise or even dealing with a Republican House is not is the President’s wheelhouse. Although 2014 will be a harder slog than 2010 when we took them by surprise, at the end of this conference it was clear that we have depth, we have tools and we have a maturity that comes from adversity and learning from the losses of 2012. Thanks to AFP and organizations like them, the conservative grassroots will have help and structure that will amplify our effectiveness going forward.

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