A longer time ago than I care to admit, here in Colorado Springs, a man would actually ‘get up on his soapbox’ downtown at the concrete amphitheater in Acacia Park on a weekend morning. He was careful to say what he meant, as he only had one shot. As the words were projected into the cold mountain air, the only record was if they caught heart and mind of a gathered listener. It was a real marketplace of ideas, some crazy, some brilliant, all had to be sorted through with what my Dad inelegantly called ‘The Crap-Detector’ or the ‘TCD’. It was a time when you could visually compare what a man said to how he dressed and carried himself and his history in the 30,000 people community. TCD either multiplied or neutered his words.

Skip forward now some 40 years. The once per month mimeographed  newsletters are gone and virtual places, like RedState, have killed off that marketplace of ideas. Today, only the homeless and crazy occupy that space downtown. And You, dear reader, have lost the way to measure what I say against the life that I live. The words themselves have gained an authority, just because they catch someone’s attention. That attention is measured each time you click on a link from this crazy internet of ours. Google’s sole value, brought to the market, was measuring if our attention was ‘good’ or ‘bad’. A Billion dollar company was born. The value of what others think is immortalized every time we do a search. The ability to measure those words against the life one lives is washed from the system.

People being people, a method to game the system soon followed. There are people today who make a living first, building a web site and then virtually building a bot that ‘clicks’ on the link for that web site uncountable times per day. Effectively lying to the counters at Google, moving a virtually place that has no real people visiting, to the top of the list, the top of what others think. To the uninitiated it looks like people really ‘agree’ with a, manufactured in every way, site and then supposed people clickers.

My dad’s old fashioned ‘TCD’ is screaming in the background, but no one can hear it, it has been washed from the system. Eventually, Google becomes a little embarrassed by foreign bot sites and starts to subtract bot results from their listings. So the ‘TCD’ is now captured, sanitized and editorialized. The method to determine a bot click vs a real person is proprietary, billion dollar company, ‘value’. Forgive me for suspecting a gatekeeper function. It seems the definition of a bot, and therefor whether it will be added or subtracted; changes based on whether, the behind the curtain Wizard, Google agrees or not.

Bring to this ‘new’ world a man who lives out his convictions and speaks from his heart and life experience. He’s a man that would have received grand multipliers at the amphitheater because his walk through this life is a living testimony. His words are not preaching as others do, he walks the talk. Passes ‘TCD’ test with flying colors. There is another man who is offended by this walking-talking life. This second man hides his life, would literally be booed down at the amphitheater, but he knows how to send in the bots. So a new word is created by the bots. It uses this walking-talking mans name, the name of his parents, and children and attaches a vile reprehensible meaning to his family. In the old world people would stand up against this kind of evil attack and drive it and it’s originator from their community. In this new world there are only ghosts and phantoms, there is nothing to push back against.

So, the incestuous MSMedia types S-A-N-T-O-R-U-M into their Google search engine, and back come the results, in code, with only 16,000 ‘likes’: ‘This is a man that stand against us, and our consumption of the American Soul and Spirit. If people see the man that went home to help his sick, disabled, daughter; from national responsibilities, they will start to believe him. Destroy him in any way you can. Reflect back the hatred we have for him and his living-walking life. Tag him with, extremest, hater, poser, religious simpleton, neophite… 100,000 bots will do the work.

The sad part of this tale is I now hear my conservative brothers and sisters repeating the words of the bots. Will you honor the memory of the amphitheater and TCD and the value of a life well lived? Don’t take the media’s word for anything about Rick. Go watch the video, read the document, find out what really happened. Then tell three of your friends what you found. I’ve found a man that walks out his faith with a humbleness that is inspiring. I supported him when the pols said he was uninspired, single digits, also ran; because of who he is. Tears come with a smile when he talks about Bella and the rest of his family.  The MSMedia had a hard time vilifying a man that loves his family so much. I’m inspired when he talks of restoring jobs to America that NAFTA has stolen. Because of his life, I believe he can do the heavy lifting required to balance the budget.

Rick has stood against the attack of the people behind the bots for his entire career. They don’t like anyone to stand against them and will continue to unfairly attack any one that does. Will you let the vote of 100,000 bots steal your real vote? I see the Google definition of santorum in code as well. I see a man standing for the America that could be, that should be, that city on a hill. Rick has already done that with his life. I believe him when he says he can help us build that lighted city with our country. I stand against the bots and what they mean, will you?