Ron McNeil Energizes Boca Raton Crowd!
Balmy, comfortable weather welcomed our usual patriotic crowd – along with some new faces – in Boca Raton on Tuesday night, April 3rd at Boca Greens Country Club. Many in the crowd who had not heard US Senate Candidate Ron McNeil speak before were clearly in for a pleasant surprise. McNeil’s home stomping grounds are up in the panhandle; so many people in our area do not know him well. That changed quickly on this great evening! Ron McNeil is a great American success story—the absolute perfect example of how good ol’ American ingenuity and “hutzpah” found in finding a need, then filling it, which is what actually creates jobs and wealth… NOT government programs!
Once again, the food selection at Boca Greens was terrific, including fresh fish, sausage and peppers, and lasagna. One lucky patriot, who purchased several raffle tickets, won THREE of the six dinner coupons that were up for grabs! He will be eating well in Boca for the next several days!
Boca Chapter Coordinator Alex Berry began the proceedings at 7:00pm with the Pledge of Allegiance. He stated what the PBCTP is, and what it stands for, as usual, followed by introducing our Founder, Pam Wohlschlegel. Pam made general announcements, but spoke mostly about our upcoming Tax Day Tea Party Rally in Wellington on April 15th, at the Wellington Amphitheatre. In addition to promoting the event, she also asked for volunteers to help us with the expected crowds. Brand new flyers were printed up and brought to the meeting just in time, and we also have new Palm Beach County Tea Party lapel pins. Pam then introduced Barbara Samuells, who is active in the 912 Super Seniors group, and has appeared on Glenn Beck’s program on more than one occasion. Her “live participation” illustration of how we have been sold a sack of goods with ObamaCare was a definite highlight of the evening.
As in March, we had a great turnout from local candidates- Mike Lameyer (FL Senate District 25), Joe Talley (County Sheriff), James Ryan O’Hara (FL House of Representatives), and Anne Trujillo (US House of Representatives) and Melanie Peterson (FL House of Representatives) were among the evenings’ attendees, all of whom got a moment to introduce themselves, and what they stood for, before the main speaker was introduced.
Alex then introduced Rhonda Harrell, Ron McNeil’s Deputy Campaign Manager. She provided a little bit of background for McNeil, and introduced him to the podium. Standing 6’5” in his dark suit, McNeil’s stage presence is energetic and imposing. Rather than stand behind the podium, McNeil paced in front of it, addressing the crowd and making eye contact in a personal, folksy, heartfelt, way that was winsome, and it truly resonated with our crowd. How refreshing it was to hear someone who was unconcerned with “editing” their statements, or having a canned campaign speech! He had a small sign made up of what the problems are that we face, along with his proposed solutions from which he drew for his material in his speech. The fact that his motivation is NOT a career in politics, but, rather, a sincere desire to SAVE this country from the liberal poison that has been infecting our nation so badly was also very well received.
McNeil’s stance on virtually all the issues was quite consistent with the worldview of our Founding Fathers—that stance and worldview that we always ought to be suspicious of Big Government, and that the government needs to “get OUT of the business of being ‘in business’”… In other words, the government should absolutely NOT be involved in any area that the private sector can handle on its own.
Despite McNeil’s appealing and authentic “Good Ole Boy” bravado, he is also perfectly in line with the classic conservative (not to mention Constitutional) position on Foreign Policy—Of course, he still wants to ardently support Israel and other key allies, but is sick of the modern “rules of engagement” in warfare, and is weary of the fact that we are paying to have troops all over the world where we have no conflicts—putting the cost burden on the shoulders of American taxpayers. Worse still, we borrow money from other countries to be the world’s “policeman”. Our Founding Fathers were totally against this idea, a phenomenon that has been bred into our conservative mindset since 1941. For the 200 years prior to 1941 (the vast majority of our country’s history), the classic conservative position was to only go into war when we absolutely NEED to, get in and WIN the war, and bring the troops home. McNeil struck no one as being anything other than very strong on national defense, but he has more of a common sense, constitutional viewpoint on Foreign Policy than most.
His compelling speech made for a boisterous Question & Answer period, which McNeil deftly handled with his usual grace and aplomb. McNeil and his Deputy Campaign Manager were the last people to leave—staying to accommodate every question, comment, or conversation request from the crowd. The outrage from the seemingly uniform attack on our Constitution, liberties, and way of life is what motivates a self-made man like McNeil to enter the race, and we are the better for it. Like many of us in the Tea Party, we don’t “want” to volunteer and make our voices heard, we feel like we “have” to. Like they say, “It takes a Carter to bring us a Reagan!” I think that effectively sums up the political scenario for McNeil, who is an authentic “heir-apparent” to the Reagan mantle. Anyway, the straight talk and genuine demeanor of this man truly energized our crowd. It really was refreshing to see someone with the swagger and “cojones” to back up what he says.
We look forward to more great meetings in 2012 for our Boca Chapter—please INVITE YOUR FRIENDS to our next event, which will be on May 1st, 2012!!! Our speaker will be Blaise Ingoglia, the new Vice Chairman for the Republican Party of Florida, and the creator of the very popular YouTube video series, “Government Gone Wild!”
Remember—we always have our Boca Chapter Dinner/Speaker event on the FIRST TUESDAY of every month, so mark your calendars! We now have FIVE months to make a difference for the next election, so please get involved if you aren’t yet, and STAY involved if you already are!
Pictures from Alex:
CLICK HERE to see all the photos at once.
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