I was raised to understand and accept your duties.  My parents set the example by voting, and I’ve followed suit.  I’ve always believed that it is the duty of an American citizen to vote.  I’ve also encouraged others to vote.  I didn’t care what your positions were or who you voted for, so long as you did your duty.

In the last year or so, I’ve begun to wonder if that’s the right position.

In the late 80s, I voted against Jesse Helms…simply because young-and-stupid me believed he was “too old”.  Sometime in the 90s, I voted against a NASCAR driver who ran for office in NC simply because he was a NASCAR driver - without any knowledge of his positions.

In 2008, someone I know admitted to me that they voted for a third party presidential candidate because they “didn’t like McCain or Obama”.  I can only assume that person believed that, since they had an obligation to vote, a vote must be cast.  Unable to choose among those likely to win, they voted for the sake of casting a vote.  They voted blindly for someone without knowing a single thing about what that candidate believed or promised, knowing only that it was a “safe” vote because that person could not win.

I remember on more than one occasion, before I became politically active, standing before that voting screen staring at a choice I couldn’t make.  I hadn’t heard this little local office was up for election, or the candidates were non-partisan.  What to do?  Sometimes I picked the incumbent.  Sometimes I just picked names.  But, I ALWAYS voted.  I also voted for the sake of casting a vote…and although I always hated doing it, I felt I had to…it was my duty.

How often is this going on today?

How likely is it that this kind of nonsense got us where we are today?

Is this what we want?  Is it what we want even if they happen to vote GOP?

I’m not slamming GOTV at all…if it asks people to consider a candidate or a party, gives people the knowledge to make an educated choice.  But if all it does is bring uneducated people to the polls…does it help or hurt?

Uneducated & uninformed voters handed Barack Obama the Presidency of the United States.  Uneducated & uninformed voters keep putting incumbents back in office.  Uneducated & uninformed voters put the Handsome Man, the Guy with the Nice Voice and the Charmer into office.

This year, I’m leaning towards a new point of view…based on the opinion that only those who have prepared for an election should vote.  In other words…voting is not a duty for all.  It’s a choice for those willing to do the work.  If you aren’t willing to do the work, you should leave the voting to the rest of us.  I will work to educate and inform and I will support GOTV – but I won’t encourage people to vote unless I know they know what is going on in the political world.  Our future is just too important to leave to the uneducated and uninformed.

NC-13 covers parts of north-central North Carolina (Wake, Person, Caswell, Rockingham, Granville, Guilford, Alamance counties).  NC-13 voted for Bush in 2000 (50%-49%) but voted democrat in 2004 and 2008.  I add the disclaimer that although I live in Rockingham County I am in NC-5, represented by Virginia Foxx.

Before the candidates spoke, the local GOP chair took a moment to state that any of the candidates would be supportable against Brad Miller.  He also briefly noted Reagan’s 11^th commandment (for those who do not know, this is “do not speak ill of a fellow Republican”).  Although not worded as a warning to the candidates, I can only assume that was the intention of the comment.

The first candidate was Bill Randall.  I had heard Mr. Randall’s name previously, as he has active Facebook and Twitter accounts and keeps frequent contact with those who follow him.  He grew up in New Orleans as part of a military family and served 27 years in the Navy.  While mentioning his wife and children, he noted that this is his second marriage and he has an older daughter.  This statement appears to have been made due to a comment by our lead speaker, Tim Johnson (Vice Chair, NCGOP), who stated that marriage should be “one man, one woman, one time“.  I mention this only because it came up later in the meeting.  Mr. Randall appears to be a solid conservative.  As part of his discussion on issues, he stated that before supporting any bill he would consider it against four criteria:  Constitutional, Affordable, Necessary, Ethical.  Only if the bill met all four would he proceed with further review.

The second candidate to speak was Frank Hurley.  He is a former Congressional staffer for Jack Kemp and former Deputy Chief Scientist at NASA.  Mr. Hurley started out with a description of his background and stated that he was right for the job because he had real solutions and ideas.  He brought a display with him that listed some of them – unfortunately I did not get them noted and they are not listed on his website.  However, they seemed to be “one note” ideas – his economy idea was simply to eliminate one particular federal agency.  During his talk he said that we should penalize companies that export jobs.  He then ventured into illegal immigration.  He stated that even if those who are now illegal went home and started the legal route we wouldn’t want them here, because they would change our culture.  “Do we want that?  Hell no!”  He continued down this path but the moderator stepped up and spoke to him.  It was apparent he had lost track of time as he was already over the “7-8minutes” he’d initially said he would speak, and would have gone on for some time if they’d let him.  He did not finish his comments but rather wrapped up quickly and sat down.

The third candidate was Dan Huffman.  Mr. Huffman is a North Carolina businessman.  He has a good slate of issues and appears to be a solid conservative. One item he mentioned that I liked was “one issue at a time in any bill” and writing bills in such a way that they can be read and understood.  However, I was put off late in his comments when he noted that he had six children – “all by the same wife by the way”.  This was clearly a personal swipe at Bill Randall and although there was some laughter at first, it stopped once the room realized what had happened.

There is one other candidate who was not present – Bernie Reeves.  I was unable to find any website for him online so I can’t report on his positions.

My personal thought on hearing these three candidates is that Bill Randall is in the best position to challenge Brad Miller.  He spoke confidently and has a good command of issues.  He is connected with the technology he will need to get his name & issues out there.  I like Dan Huffman but didn’t get the same sense that he was a good fit for the general election, and of course his personal swipe at a fellow Republican seemed quite out of order.  If he wins the primary though he is definitely someone I could support.  Frank Hurley appears to be the outsider in the room and I don’t think he will do well in the primary, much less the general.

This may be an excellent opportunity for a GOP pickup in the House.

I hope to continue reporting on this race and other North Carolina items as I hear about them in local GOP meetings…and to do a better job of getting the details next time!

http://hagan.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=273

She will tour HealthServe Community Health Center in Greensboro, NC (1002 South Eugene Street) on Wednesday, August 12.  She will hold a “media availability” at 12:30pm at the front entrance.  I guess that’s a news conference….

I can’t make it on this short notice, but perhaps others in North Carolina can!!

I do not write diary entries here often, for the reasons stated above. However, I feel very strongly about what is coming next week, and I wanted to get my feelings out there.

One thing many people do not realize, or choose to ignore, is that politicians in general elections campaign from the CENTER. Nearly all politicians do it, regardless of party – the ones who don’t are very obvious. So, when you hear McCain or Obama make campaign speeches and promises, you have to assume that in the Oval Office, their true actions will be to the right (Republican) or left (Democrat) of what you read or hear.

How far to the right or left? To determine that, you have to look at non-campaign actions.

Read on, if you like:

John McCain? They call him a “maverick” for a reason. It’s hard to say how far to the right he’d sit as President. One thing you can say for sure though is that he WILL sit to the right. You can see that through his years of Congressional service as well as his choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate. He may have bounced to the other side of the aisle sometimes, but he doesn’t stay there.

Barack Obama? He’s documented as the Senator with the most liberal voting record. His running mate Joe Biden is 4th on that list. His political record is only a few years long and a great deal of that time was spent campaigning, so we need more. That’s easy. Ayers, Wright, Dohrn, Khalidi, Rezko.

95% of Americans will get a tax cut, hm? Did you know that the 2001 Bush tax cuts are scheduled to expire soon? Did you know that Obama doesn’t consider the expiration of the tax cuts, which could raise taxes on a family making $50K by somewhere in the ONE THOUSAND DOLLAR range per year, as a tax increase? It’s “just a rollback of a tax cut”. What’s the difference between rolling back a tax cut and increasing taxes?

Did you know about all of Obama’s tax ideas??

In 2001, my family wasn’t making much money. My husband was in college and not working. I was only 5 years into a job I started at entry level. We were living off a small salary and college loans. The tax cut at the time probably helped us a bit, but not enough to really notice.

In 2008, I’m now 13 years into that same job, a senior member of the team who has had a number of promotions and salary increases. My husband has a steady job. We have two children. We’ve benefitted GREATLY from the lower tax rates George Bush and the Republican Congress set for us. Rolling back the tax cuts would increase our tax burden by quite a bit. In addition, as Obama and Biden slowly lower the income level at which they will raise taxes EVEN HIGHER, I worry that their aim is actually at MY family’s income. I’m a solid Conservative and my vote is set, but if I weren’t, the news on Obama’s plans for taxes alone would probably have me voting McCain.

I haven’t even touched on the TRILLION PLUS dollars of new proposals Obama has made that would surely increase our taxes even more. Universal Health Care would increase our taxes again.

I realize that Obama is charismatic. He chants the mantra of Hope and Change. But guess what? Clinton chanted this mantra too, and also preached tax cuts for the middle class. Then, just months into his administration, he came whining to us that he just hadn’t known how bad things were, and he was SO sorry but he’d have to raise taxes after all. Who says our charismatic friend Barack doesn’t have the same plans? It would be so easy to blame George W. Bush…the democrats have been setting that plate for eight long years.

What will we get with Obama? Tax and spend, tax and spend, continued blaming of Bush for every issue, our enemies dancing in the streets. What will we get with McCain? Solid positions on defense, and a man we can work with on the economy and other issues. A future, led by Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal, Fred Thompson and others who are just now finding their national political conservative voices.

To those who want to make history: It happens regardless of whether you pick Republican or Democrat. We already have the first African-American nominee of a major political party. If McCain wins we have the first woman Vice President. All that said, are we really to the point where it’s more important that the nation’s highest offices are filled based on race or gender rather than qualifications and what they will do when they HAVE those jobs?

Please think about this. Our future is at stake.

(Note: Some of these thoughts are posted at my friend’s blog, Jo’s Cafe)

Tony Snow