“If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man’s relation to man.
This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self- government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.

“You and I are told increasingly that we have to choose between a left or right, but I would like to suggest that there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down — up to man’s age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order — or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism.

“[Socialism] doesn’t require expropriation or confiscation of private property or business to impose socialism on a people. What does it mean whether you hold the deed or the title to your business or property if the government holds the power of life and death over that business or property? Such machinery already exists. The government can find some charge to bring against any concern it chooses to prosecute. Every businessman has his own tale of harassment. Somewhere a perversion has taken place.

Our natural, inalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation of government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment.

“You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on Earth, or we will sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.”

This year, we also have a rendezvous with destiny. To preserve “the last best hope of man on Earth,” now is a time for choosing John McCain and Sarah Palin.

See www.Republicanbasics.com for more information about the heritage of the Republican Party.

Though he had long opposed Jefferson’s policies, Alexander Hamilton knew him to be “a patriot and an honorable man.” “If there be a man in this world I ought to hate it is Jefferson,” he wrote, “but the public good must be paramount to every personal consideration.” Hamilton knew that the presidency should not be entrusted to Aaron Burr. Senator Burr was the master manipulator who had created Tammany Hall, the original Democrat political machine.

With a barrage of letters to congressmen and other political leaders, Hamilton won the election for Jefferson:

“Burr loves nothing but himself; thinks of nothing but his personal aggrandizement; and will be content with nothing short of permanent power in his own hands.”

“No mortal can tell what his political principles are. If he has any theory, ‘tis that of simple despotism.”

“There is no circumstance which has occurred in the course of our political affairs that has given me so much pain as the idea that Mr. Burr may be elevated to the presidency.”

Jefferson or Burr? the former without all doubt. The latter, in my judgment, has no principle, public or private; could be bound by no agreement; will listen to no monitor but his ambition, and for this purpose will use the worst part of the community as a ladder to climb to permanent power, and an instrument to crush the better part. He is bankrupt beyond redemption”
“While making [a promise], he will laugh in his sleeve at the credulity of those with whom he makes it. And, the first moment it suits his views to break it, he will do so.”

“His public principles have no other spring or aim than his own aggrandizement. If he can, he will certainly disturb our institutions, to secure to himself permanent power.”

“This man has no principle, public nor private. As a politician, his sole spring of action is an inordinate ambition.”

“[Burr] has no principle, public nor private. As a politician, his sole spring of action is an inordinate ambition… As to his talents, great management and cunning are the predominant features; he is yet to give proofs of those solid abilities which characterize the statesman. Daring and energy must be allowed him; but these qualities, under the direction of the worst passions, are certainly strong objections, not recommendations. He is of a temper to undertake the most hazardous enterprises, because he is sanguine enough to think nothing impracticable; and of an ambition that will be content with nothing less than permanent power in his own hands. The maintenance of the existing institutions will not suit him; because under them his power will be too narrow and too precarious. Yet the innovations he may attempt will not offer the substitute of a system durable and safe, calculated to give lasting prosperity, and to unite liberty with strength. It will be the system of the day, sufficient to serve his own turn, and not looking beyond himself. To execute this plan, as the good men of the country cannot be relied upon, the worst will be used. Let it not be imagined that the difficulties of execution will deter, or a calculation of interest restrain. The truth is, that under forms of government like ours, too much is practicable to men who will, without scruple, avail themselves of the bad passions of human nature. To a man of this description, possessing the requisite talents, the acquisition of permanent power is not a chimera. I know that Mr. Burr does not view it as such, and I am sure there are no means too atrocious to be employed by him. In debt, vastly beyond his means of payment, with all the habits of excessive expense, he cannot be satisfied with the regular emoluments of any office of our government. Corrupt expedients will be to him a necessary resource. Will any prudent man offer such a President to the temptations of foreign gold? No engagement that can be made with him can be depended upon; while making it, he will laugh in his sleeve at the credulity of Disgrace abroad, ruin at home, are the probable fruits of his elevation.”

“As to Burr, there is nothing in his favor. His private character is not defended by his most partial friends. He is bankrupt beyond redemption, except by the plunder of his country. His ambition will not be content with those objects which virtuous men of either party will allot to it, and his situation and his habits will oblige him to have recourse to corrupt expedients, from which he will be restrained by no moral scruple. To accomplish his ends, he must lean upon unprincipled men, and will continue to adhere to the myrmidons who have hitherto seconded him. To these he will, no doubt, add able rogues of the federal party, but he will employ the rogues of all parties to overrule the good men of all parties, and to prosecute projects which wise men of every description will disapprove. His ambition will not be content with those objects which virtuous men of either party will allot to it, and his situation and his habits will oblige him to have recourse to corrupt expedients, from which he will be restrained by no moral scruple.”
“As long as the federal party pursue their high ground of integrity and principle, I shall not despair of the public weal; but if they quit it and descend to be willing instruments of the elevation of the most unfit and most dangerous man of the community to the highest station in the government, I shall no longer see any anchor for the hopes of good men. I shall at once anticipate all the evils that a daring and unprincipled ambition, wielding the lever of Jacobinism, can bring upon an infatuated country. ‘Tis not to the chapter of accidents that we ought to trust the government, peace, and happiness of our country.”

“Mr. Burr is one of the most unprincipled men in the United States, to determine us to decline being responsible for the precarious issues of his calculations of interest. You cannot, in my opinion, render a greater service to your country than by exerting your influence to counteract the impolitic and impure idea of raising Mr. Burr to the chief magistracy.”

“For heaven’s sake, exert yourself to the utmost to save our country from so great a calamity. Let us not be responsible for the evils, which in all probability will follow.”

Here — Aaron Burr — is the permalink for the article on the Grand Old Partisan blog.

Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the country, showing office-holders, candidates and activists how they would benefit tremendously from appreciating the heritage of our Grand Old Party. Back to Basics for the Republican Party is his acclaimed history of the GOP from the Republican point of view. See www.RepublicanBasics.com for more information.

While working for Fidel Castro, Che Guevara had ordered the execution of nearly two thousand anti-communists. He boasted that he had shot dozens of prisoners with his favorite pistol.

[At left, a Democrat judge in Ohio displays a picture of Che Guevara alongside a picture of his other hero, Barack Obama.]

Here is the permalink to the blog article, with the photos:

http://grandoldpartisan.typepad.com/blog/2008/10/the-death-of-che-guavara.html

Obama’s Civilian National Security Force:
• What sort of people would be in this paramilitary force?
• What sort of weapons would they have?
• Who would command them?
• Would they be subordinate to the U.S. military?
• Would they be subordinate to the police?
• What would be the purpose of this paramilitary force?
• What would it do?

And, what are Obama’s “national security objectives?”

Michelle Obama lifts back the curtain hiding Barack’s plans for a new order:

“Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation. That you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.”

Yikes!

Here is a permalink to this article, with photos, on the Grand Old Partisan blog.

Here is the video of Obama’s speech on YouTube.

See www.RepublicanBasics.com for more information.

See the Grand Old Partisan blog for photos.

Among the preliminary speakers were Senator Fred Thompson, Rep. Tom Davis and Rep. Frank Wolf. Other Virginia luminaries in attendance, with whom I spoke, included former Governor Jim Gilmore, Attorney General Bob McDonnell and former Attorney General Jerry Kilgore.

Sarah Palin showed her steely determination to bring to Washington the pro-growth, common-sense policies which have made her the most popular governor in the nation. Then, it was the turn of the next President of the United States. The tens of thousands of people who came to see John McCain roared with approval for his agenda to put Country First.

As they left the event, Virginia Republicans carried home countless yard signs and bumper stickers and posters.

In a word, the McCain/Palin rally was SENSATIONAL !!!

Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the country, showing office-holders, candidates and activists how they would benefit tremendously from appreciating the heritage of our Grand Old Party. Back to Basics for the Republican Party is his acclaimed history of the GOP from the Republican point of view. Each day, his Grand Old Partisan blog — http://grandoldpartisan.typepad.com — celebrates 154 years of Republican heroes and heroics. See www.RepublicanBasics.com for more information.

I had the honor of meeting Governor Palin when I keynoted the 2006 Alaska Republican Convention. She is just as impressive in person as she was onstage yesterday.

President John McCain and Vice President Sarah Palin

Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the country, showing office-holders, candidates and activists how they would benefit tremendously from appreciating the heritage of our Grand Old Party. Back to Basics for the Republican Party is his acclaimed history of the GOP from the Republican point of view. Each day, his Grand Old Partisan blog — http://grandoldpartisan.typepad.com — celebrates 154 years of Republican heroes and heroics. See www.RepublicanBasics.com for more information.

Andrew Johnson – Andrew Jackson Johnson, to be precise – was the only southern Senator not to go with the Confederacy. For being strong on national security, this hardline Democrat was nominated by the Republicans to be Abraham Lincoln’s 1864 running mate. He was drunk at his swearing in as vice president, and it was downhill from there. A month later, the murder of the Great Emancipator made Andrew Johnson president.

Andrew Johnson shared none of Abraham Lincoln’s compassion for African-Americans. Referring to Frederick Douglass, whom Lincoln had called “one of the most meritorious men in America,” Johnson said: “I know that damned Douglass.” “White men alone must manage the South,” he declared. In a message to Congress, President Johnson said blacks have less “capacity for government than any other race of people. Whenever they have been left to their own devices they have shown a constant tendency to lapse into barbarism.” This from a man whose political party was overseeing the mutilation and murder of countless black people in the South!

On this day in 1866, President Johnson began his “Swing around the Circle,” a trip through the Midwest to win popular support for his policy favoring neo-Confederate, Democrat control of the postwar South.

In one speech lasting an hour, the pompous and crude Andrew Johnson referred to himself more than two hundred times. In another, he went so far as to imply that the murder of Abraham Lincoln had been part of God’s plan to make him president. At a third event, he said that the Republicans’ House majority leader deserved to be hanged. After Johnson compared himself to Jesus, his remaining speeches were drowned out by hecklers. State government officials refused to be seen with him.

In the midterm elections that November, so disgusted were most Americans by this buffoon in the White House that Republicans won two-thirds majorities in both houses of Congress. Congressional Republicans endured Andrew Johnson in the White House for nearly two more years before impeaching him.

In 1874, Tennessee Democrats re-elected Andrew Johnson to the U.S. Senate, making him one of four American presidents to hold federal office after leaving the presidency. Can you name the other three?

Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the country, showing office-holders, candidates and activists how they would benefit tremendously from appreciating the heritage of our Grand Old Party. *Back to Basics for the Republican Party *is his acclaimed history of the GOP from the Republican point of view. Each day, his Grand Old Partisan blog — http://grandoldpartisan.typepad.com — celebrates 154 years of Republican heroes and heroics. See www.RepublicanBasics.com for more information.

That year, the Democratic Party was sharply divided between an establishment faction led by President Grover Cleveland and those who wanted even more government control over the economy. This leftist faction also advocated “free silver.” What was that all about, anyway? The free (as in, unlimited) coinage of silver would have combined increasing the money supply, to help farmers deep in debt, with boosting demand for silver, to assist miners in the Rocky Mountain region.

Even further to the left on the political spectrum was the Populist Party, a bastion of the free silver movement. The Populists were socialists, calling for government ownership of the railroads, telephones and telegraphs. Some of their leading agitators would have found themselves comfortable on today’s lunatic fringe.

Had they positioned themselves between the Republicans and the Populists, Democrats likely would have won the White House. Fortunately for the GOP, Democrats handed their presidential nomination to a man who shifted his party to the left by embracing the Populist Party’s agenda.

Barack Obama’s keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention was not the first time a newcomer’s oratory catapulted him to prominence.

A 36-year old former two-term U.S. Representative from Nebraska stood up at the 1896 Democratic National Convention and delivered an eloquent speech in favor of the free coinage of silver. Thundering against the rich and powerful on behalf of the common people, William Jennings Bryan concluded with a flourish still remembered today: “You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”

The convention erupted in cheers for their new messiah. Shoving aside the front-runner, Rep. Richard Bland, delegates nominated Bryan on the fifth ballot.

A cross of gold? Such magnificent, if absurd, rhetoric was necessary to obscure the fact that the free silver position did not make much sense. A lack of silver coins was not the reason for bad times down on the farm, or in mining towns, or among factory workers. The Democrats’ claim that it was the reason discredited the rest of their economic agenda and handed the policy initiative to the Republicans for the next sixteen years. Along with free silver, the Democrats adopted the bulk of the Populist Party platform. At their subsequent convention, the Populists had little choice but to nominate Bryan as well, in effect merging their party into the Democratic Party.

Like Obama, Bryan spoke in a mellifluous baritone and could hold an audience spell-bound. To be sure, there were differences between the two men. Bryan did not associate with a rogue’s gallery of characters such as Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn and Tony Rezko. He later commanded a regiment during the Spanish-American War, and his fundamentalist religious convictions were a constant throughout his life.

The magnetic Democrat nominee was the first presidential candidate to travel around the country extensively. Bryan’s campaign was also the first by a major party to make an overt appeal to class consciousness. He speechified non-stop.

The Republican presidential nominee was 53-year old William McKinley, a former seven-term U.S. Representative and two-term Governor of Ohio. He had risen to the rank of major in the regiment commanded by Rutherford Hayes during the Civil War.

Rather than try to match the oratory, McKinley responded with his front porch campaign. With few exceptions, he remained at home looking presidential, speaking to Republican delegations from across the country who came to see him. Accompanying him at many appearances were the officials he said would figure prominently in his administration.

The Republicans campaigned for common-sense, pro-growth economic policies. Free silver, McKinley said, was nonsense that would cause inflation while decreasing trade with foreign nations that used the gold standard. Another theme was the contrast between the poor, backward South controlled by the Democrats and the prosperous North, where the Republicans were largely in charge. Republicans asserted that only they were in favor of industrialization and progress. They also condemned Democrats for their oppression of African-Americans.

Early on, Bryan looked like a winner, but his campaign faded in the fall. Rhetoric that had once seemed inspirational came off as pompous and bombastic. Worse, many voters wondered if Bryan really knew what he was talking about. While McKinley presented himself as a seasoned team leader, Bryan proved himself to be a naive, one-man show.

Those supporters of Senator Hillary Clinton who do not vote for Barack Obama would be following the example of many Democrats in 1896. President Cleveland, for example, refused to campaign for Bryan and voted for an independent Democrat candidate instead.

William Jennings Bryan carried the Solid South and other Democrat strongholds, but McKinley won over Middle America and so won the presidency. Republicans retained majorities in both houses of Congress.

Sure and steady won the race for the Republican.

BTW, Karl Rove’s hero, Mark Hanna, was McKinley’s campaign manager.

This article is adapted from Back to Basics for the Republican Party, a history of the GOP from the Republican point of view. It is also posted at the Grand Old Partisan blog, which celebrates 154 years of Republican heroes and heroics. See www.republicanbasics.com for more information.