Perspective and Principle

*The perspective of an individual is more often shaped by their skewed perceptions, not their objective observation.
*A principle is something that was, is, and always will be true.

Conservatives shouldn’t be giving in to Romney just yet

Given the state of the primary so far… I’m not so convinced that Mitt Romney is the worst of the pack by ideology, rhetoric, or record.

However, based on Principle, I’m supporting Rick Perry, because I trust him to boldly govern by conservative principles. Out of all of the candidates, his record and rhetoric squares the circle better than any other candidate in the field. I still believe this is true, even with his most recent egregious strategy to go after Romney with a populist’s class warfare argument.  Elections are elections. I disagree with the strategy, but I still believe Rick Perry is the best conservative in the pack.The media have done their part to dismiss him in the eyes of voters. The campaign handlers have done their part to fail in their messaging. The candidate has done his part to make mistakes along the way.

I am part of the “Anti-Romney” crowd by default, because I am Pro-Perry.  As such I have to recognize that time is short, and Romney has momentum that can’t be ignored. If I were a weak-minded fearful cuss, I’d likely accept the narrative of Mitt Romney’s inevitability. But I won’t. However, any other conservative out there should be aware, that if consolidation doesn’t happen sooner rather than later, Romney wins. It’s that simple.

The fact is this primary season is different, and nobody has been looking at the process. Primarily because we’re all caught up in the very dangerous game of attempting to bend reality to the narrative. This primary season has gone from weak arguments of electability to even weaker arguments of inevitability. With the first 4 major primaries completed by January 31st 8PM EST, we’re left with the presumed ‘inevitable’ nominee. THIS IS NONSENSE.

• 1,142 Delegates is what is needed to win the G.O.P. nomination before convention.
• The first 4 events leads to a total of 115 delegates (that’s with the penalties of moving primaries up)

• Super Tuesday isn’t so super this year.
• Total delegates available at the end of “Super Tuesday” is 874… Romney will not be getting 100% of all delgates up to this date.
• Super Tuesday also includes states that are less likely to pull a New Hampshire, and back a squish based on “electability” arguments.
• There are some caucus events between Florida and Super Tuesday that will likely not get a lot of media attention regardless of the results, rather I’m predicting that televised debates, and narrative will be the biggest factor in this period.

• There’s only 1 thing that causes a conservative candidate to drop out. Lack of Money.
• Consolidation will happen, because eventually someone is going to foolishly lose their mind and then become untenable to the conservative electorate.
• I’m going to go ahead and predict that South Carolina will not be the hill to die on for Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, or Rick Santorum, or even Jon Hunstman Jr. They’ll each have enough in the war chest to go on to Florida, and likely ride things out to Super Tuesday at least before they are winnowed down to 1-2 conservative alternatives.

A word concerning the Weeping, Wailing, and Gnashing of Teeth

Some conservatives are giving up. Some out of desperation are flailing about with all the negative they can, hoping that Romney will be hurt by populism, or hoping that the other “conservative alternatives” will drop out making this a 2-man and a Loon race. Look folks… consolidation will happen… the question is, when it does… will it have been too late?

I have had enough of the ridiculous bemoaning that has been going on lately. We can NOT allow the media to shape the narrative. Are you so FEARFUL that you’re willing to give in? They want to use YOUR fear, YOUR doubts, YOUR ignorance to drive you to do silly things, such as MAKE LEFTIST ARGUMENTS AGAINST CAPITALISM… Are we that desperate? I think not!

Let’s attempt to view things objectively for a moment.

Should Mitt Romney become the G.O.P. nominee, it will be the DUTY of EVERY FREEDOM LOVING, LIBERTY EMBRACING, CONSERVATIVE OF ANY STRIPE, to not only vote for Mitt Romney, but to DONATE, AND WORK WITH THE FURY OF FIRE FROM THE SKY to get him elected. Why? Because the alternative choice is President Obama for 4 more years.

This country has LOST THE SENSES IT WAS BORN WITH! All it took was 3 years of a hell bent socialist-reformer™ in the office of President of The United States to change the narrative of political battles of “how do we make the country better” to “how do we keep from driving off the cliff”. The arguments went from “socialism vs. capitalism” to “fairness vs. wealth”. Your everyday American can’t make the distinction, because your everyday American most likely isn’t wealthy… so naturally they’re going to assume that they side with “fairness”.

If the choice is between a “vulture capitalist” and a “socialist-reformer™”… I’m gonna take the vulture capitalist and be darn glad I had a choice. I’m not defending Romney or Bain here, I’m defending capitalism. There simply is no excuse for any conservative that tries to make Bain the Bane of Romney’s existence. Romney had a successful career at Bain, he did turnarounds, and slash and burns… but as an unapologetic believer in freedom and liberty… let me say this…

There is a whole lot of piss poor analysis going on. Some of it may even be dishonest attacks by ignorance or arrogance. When Romney spent his private sector career building wealth with his ability to make an enterprise prosperous or break it down and sell it off for profit… it really has little to do with job creation or destruction.

Economics is what drives job creation and job destruction. Government and Private sectors are but vehicles in the process. Capital destruction processes are just as necessary to economic systems as termites in a forest of dead wood.

The TRUTH is going after Romney and Bain is a POPULIST ARGUMENT no matter how you dice it. This is the problem with comparing a private sector record with a governance record. Romney’s comparison of Bain to GM is appropriate… the difference is, had the GM bailout been structured by Bain and not the Government. A capital investment firm would have not negotiated for the Unions, they’d have restructured the company without throwing the shareholders with preferred shares under the bus, they would have been subjected to bankruptcy laws, and all precedents in the exchange. Unlike how Obama made the tax payers the creditors, and handed the company over to the Unions, and knew going into the deal, that they were just kicking the can down the road.

The REAL Alternative

That’s just it… Obama’s plan is ‘kick the can down the road’ on any issue that can’t be fixed without inflicting some real pain on people, his plan is to kick the can down the road, and get Republicans to agree to more spending out of necessity to keep things moving. Look I’m not heartless. I’m not rich. I’m not envious. And I’m certainly not persuaded by arguments of false charity, false hope, and false faith. But I have to say it, LIBERTY CAN’T EXIST WITHOUT OPPOSITION. You CAN’T enjoy the merits of opportunity, without the realities of risk, failure, and pain.

THERE IS NO CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO A JOB. So reserve your moral judgements for moral issues. Any Job that exists… exists because someone had the liberty to innovate, create, and pursue their happiness. Government can’t exist without generating revenue from its citizens. I have empathy to those that lose their jobs. However, I don’t blame any capitalist for turning profits in any way they can, while the government does nothing to seriously put a stop to the unethical practices through damn fine policy and legislation. If you want to prevent ALL situations where someone might lose a job… You may as well have joined the socialist team. Giving credence to these narratives of the media is giving credence to their creeds of a socialist nature.

Folks sometimes you have to rely on the fact that the sparrow doesn’t fall without the Father(Matthew 10:29), and when considering the lilies of the field (Luke 12:27) in all their non-spinning and non-toiling, even Solomon was not arrayed like one of these. Populism is not conservatism. Conservatism is based on principles. It’s based on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I’m not defending Bain or any other capital firm for practices that may be unethical when you live in a Joe Biden Recession/Depression. I’m am talking about the fact that WE SHOULDN’T be involved in this narrative AT ALL. IN NO WAY is it appropriate. Joining the stream of the narrative, effectively causes us to lose sight of what is important. It causes us to view things from a very skewed perception. The more skewed our perceptions are, the more our ignorance will blind us to what is really important.

Maybe the ignorance of my youthful idealism is blinding me to the fact that we should somehow be supporting populism, anti-capitalist, and class warfare views… This narrative is exactly the medicine the media wants us to take. It deflates the T.E.A. Party, It presents Obama as a caring, nurturing, bleeding heart for the ‘little guy’ that got laid off, and had to either find another job with his current skillset, or re-tool the skillset, and go after a diffferent job. Well LA-DEE-FRICKIN’ DAH… I’m 31 and have already had to face economic realities of job loss, poor employment opportunities, and having to move from state to state, losing the value of my home to a vacuum created by the housing bubble…I don’t blame capitalists… I blame the government regulation and legislation that led to INTERVENTION of the Free Market. Call me quixotic, but I don’t have time to misdirect my energies on “Government Solutions”… I want a President that will make the best decisions from a conservative view, not from a socialist’s view.

This election is about DOOM DOOM DOOM DOOM DOOM for them… Not us…

*WE NEED TO REMEMBER THAT* Conversely THEIR ONLY WINNING STRATEGY… is to cause the base to become discouraged, demoralized, disaffected, and disengaged. If Obama wins re-election, it will be due to failure to turn out the vote… if the enthusiasm to vote against him is removed… then the incumbency wields the victory.

*IF* Mitt Romney is the Nominee… I’m prepared to fight the good fight for his election. What I’m not prepared to do is give up on nominating the most conservative candidate that we can. We do that by convincing every person we know that is age 55 and above that votes Republican to vote conservative, and not for the tall guy with the nice hair.