I don’t believe that “just passing something” of a healthcare bill will be a positive. The downward spiral in Obama’s poll numbers & the amazing rise in grassroots activism demonstrated by the TEA Parties & the 9-12 rallies is not about a single issue - it’s about the cornucopia of statist-left proposals coming from the Congressional Democrats & Obama White House. Try as the left will to deceive, it’s not activism created from whole cloth by some shadowy right-wing community organizer - it’s real, & as grassroots as can be.

Douthat calls the Contract with America “a model of center-right incrementalism.” He’s right on that, however I believe he diminishes the power it had & what it really was. It was crafted on conservative Republican principles & values, & held true to these. The US is still a center-right country, & the majority of votes want leaders who lead from the center-right conservative Republican platform. We want leaders who are not afraid to call a repeated, thoroughly debunked untruth a lie. We want also solutions which will work, & these solutions will come from conservative Republican ideals & principles.

Mr. Douthat’s writing appears to champion “compromise,” which is now seen as Republicans acquiescing to what the Democrats want to do - just maybe not “as bad.” This is certainly not what the active base of the Party wants, nor those “regular” people, the extraordinary ordinary citizens who have come out in the tens of thousands around the country want. We want the harmful proposals stopped & good, working solutions implemented. The tepidness in Mr. Douthat’s approach would only serve to ensconce the Republican party as a mostly ineffective minority - now what we want & need.

Maybe Wilson could have chosen different words, but give me a break! Wilson spoke for many of us who want to tell Obama that we are on to his lies on health care & other matters. For our so-called “leaders,” how about showing some courage & calling out the lies from Obama, the Democrats, & his sycophants in the press & elsewhere? YOU guys give weak rebuttal when WE, your constituents, are insulted & demeaned. You bash guys like Wilson & Palin when they tell the truth with much more vigor than you rebut the lies coming from Obama & company.

Think about this for a moment, “leaders;” if Obama were not lying, then Rep. Wilson would not have called him on it. It’s past time for so-called Republican “leaders” to grow some guts.

I am one of the multitude who opposes government-controlled health-care. This email address was set up to alert your staff to “disinformation” regarding the health-care proposals being debated in congress and across our wonderful country. I have not read every one of the 1,000 pages or so in the bill; I have, however read many of them & find the plain language of numerous provisions extremely troubling.

I also find it particularly troubling that proponents of this legislation are unable to answer specific questions regarding specific provisions in this bill. The answers given can be summed up in paraphrase as “the bill doesn’t say what it plainly says.”

Another troubling aspect of the debate is the behavior of many on your staff, belittling those who disagree with and question this legislation. As an accomplished community organizer, I’m sure that you could truly see the spontaneous organizational efforts by regular folks like me. It is reprehensible that we are accused of being paid to do this as shills for whatever the target of the moment is, especially when it is painfully evident that the supporters of this are being given purchased, pre-printed signs and many wear their organization’s shirts as uniforms.

It is especially reprehensible and reckless that a growing number of the minority supporting this legislation have taken the “punch them” comment to heart, and are now physically assaulting those constituents who show up to protest and oppose this legislation. As you may know, an African-American gentleman was hospitalized after a brutal gang assault in St. Louis. As our first African-American president, I trust you are troubled by this man being singled out for attack because of the color of his skin, as well as the chilling idea of citizens like this gentleman and, possibly myself, being physically assaulted because we exercise our God-Given natural freedoms recognized by the 1st amendment to our constitution. I implore you to renounce these physical assaults and remind supporters of this legislation that violence perpetrated against opponents in the arena of ideas will only serve to weaken the ideas they support.

There have also been many who express concern about the existence of this email program. I trust your intentions are to simply gain information; however, many of us who have studied history see parallels between this and programs of neighbors and family members reporting others to the government because these others didn’t “think right.” Many of us remember the “Enemies list” of former president Nixon, and fear this could be someday misused as a high tech version of the same.

The problems, as I see them, with our current health-care system are of cost. These revolve around a disconnect between the patient and provider as well as the patient and the real costs of health-care. These disconnects are caused by the current level of bureaucracy in the health-care field. There is not a problem with the quality of health-care being provided - even those without insurance receive health-care. History teaches us that inserting layers of government bureaucracy in-between the patient and provider will only exacerbate the current disconnects and cause a lowering of quality of health-care provided.

Mr. President, I am not your personal enemy. Those of us disagreeing with the health-care legislation being proposed are not your enemies. We may oppose this legislation and other proposals; we are, however, on the same team - Team USA.

Thank you for your consideration of my commentary,

Robin K. Ray
………………..
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615-XXX-XXXX

BTW: Let me assuage any questions about my email…

Yes, it was written solely by me. This is how I write regarding political policy issues. No, I’m not being paid to write this. I’m just a fairly regular guy.

We are the ones to take this message, this information, to the rest of the country. Get this information to everyone you know as soon as possible:

The Government Run Health Care flowchart. This is the impetus for the Democra’ts censorship, & it is a powerful tool. Show your friends the maze of nightmares that GRHC bureaucracy would be.

5 Key freedoms each one of us would lose under GRHC.

Because he’s been a useful tool, Michael J. Fox would likely be exempt - however, regular folks with his condition wouldn’t be.

Facebook. Twitter. MySpace. Your email list. Your local paper’s forum. Other sites & message boards. It’s up to us to get this information & the message of the horror that would be GRHC out much wider & more saturated than could be done by Republicans in congress. Let’s do it!

Crossposted at RebuildtheParty

This cause me to ponder. Was Biden just telling the group that things would be tough or was he signaling a plan? Could the Democrats have a strategy to rehabilitate themselves before the 2010 elections? What did they learn from the 1994 electoral drubbing that may stave off a repeat in 2010? Are they just trying to get as much in before they’re out, or do they have a plan to stay in power? If they have a plan, what is it & wh

Rush is much like Thomas Paine. Neither were accepted by the “establishment” of his time. Paine’s words rallied a new nation to not give up the fight for independence. Rush’s words are rallying conservative Republicans all around the country to not give up in the fight to keep our freedoms & our way of life from being stolen by a rampaging federal government.

Like Paine, Rush has received many scurrilous, personal attacks. Arguing the facts & substance fail for the opposition, so they revert to ridicule & personal jibes.

Those of us who are conservative Republicans, who value our conservative ideals, must not let the left use Alinsky’s tactics without fierce opposition. I am gratefully proud to be a listener & reader of Rush’s words, & I challenge all who read this to not be afraid to say so!

It’s time to act - using Redstate’s & Human Event’s great CAPWIZ feature, please find your representatives (whether they be Republican, Democrat, or happy clown) & politely, professionally, let them know that Bank nationalization is a complete non-starter. Get this to your friends, family, enemies, whomever. Feel free, as our country is still free, to contact other senators & representatives who may have more influence. Our representatives & senators need to hear loudly & clearly from us on this.

Strong National Defense
Fiscal Responsibility
Limited Government
Conservative Social Values

Standing alone, these are winning issues. Together, they are almost invincible. We have the watershed victories of 1980 & 1994 as evidence of what happens when Republicans run as total conservatives, expousing all conservative principles in bold, unafraid colors. We also have the negative watershed elections of 2006 & 2008 which show that Republicans lose when the party does not hold fast to all planks in the conservative Republican platform. Far too many of our elected leaders abandoned fiscal responsibility - they spent money & acted exactly as the Democrats they replaced. They grew government outside of what was needed for national security. Because of that they lost control of congress & the White House.

IMHO, absolutely nothing in the conservative Republican platform needs to be watered down. This country is not Puritanical, however it’s not left of center by any stretch. Economic & national security issues must be in the forefront, especially given they are the major concerns of the day. Conservative social values undergird everything else. We cannot legislate morality, however we can stand for what is right. Voters usually like those who stand for what is right.

Concluding, we must communicate respectfully, politely, but also firmly with our elected leaders the critical need to reclaim fiscal responsibility & limited government conservatism without watering down or fading the colors of any other part of the conservative Republican platform. We win as a party of all bold colors.

Crossposted at Rebuild the Party & Whitehorsemusings.

We on the right were very successful when the amnesty bill came up. We need to have processes in place to counter this. We have Redstate, The Next Right, I recently came across Rebuild the Party, as well as numerous blogs. Redstate’s alerts are great, & something that I think should be promoted to others who may not regularly visit.

Do we have too many entities trying to do the same thing? Or is it better to have a larger number of entities working toward more or less the same goal?

We need, imho, to be able to counter the activism of the left - & especially have the tools in place if the Obama administration & Democrat congress begin making Biden’s predicted “unpopular decisions.” Please reply with your thoughts.

I seem to remember for the longest time Powell not mentioning his own party affiliation. I guess all humans are human. Many of the far-left posters on here have called him an “uncle tom” for years & years. He’s been called an uncle tom for much longer than this site’s been around. Perhaps he doesn’t want the left to call him uncle tom anymore?

What weaves these two thoughts together is the long-standing desire from the ivy-league contry club Republicans to be “liked” by their Democrat colleagues. When these guys went to the country club, they were going to play golf & have lunch with the Democrat leaders of the house & senate. They didn’t want to “rock the boat” too much & lose those invitations to lunch or golf, or the parties.

Sarah Palin is representative of the new blood in the Republican party - more so the conservative movement. She is not ivy league. She has worked & got her hands dirty. She does not live in the beltway or NY. She is gracious & extremely well spoken, very intelligent & charming. She also strong enough in her own self to have a great sense of self-deprecating humor. She is also not afraid to call leftists & statists for their crap & to call it crap. She is friendly, but being their buddy & getting party invitations is not the top of her priority list - it’s actually quite low. What is at the top of her priority list is getting positive things accomplished for the constituents. Calling her “inexperienced” continues to fall flat as Palin’s experience is at least as worthy as Obama’s to be VP - not to mention Palin has actually accomplished something in an executive capacity.

If Powell doesn’t like that, it’s his choice. I’m sad for him, trying to explain his endorsement of Obama by claiming both style & substance, however giving no evidence of substance.

I wonder if he can try to explain away Bill Ayers to the faces of the families of those murdered by the WU? Ayers declared & waged war on the US, & I am not aware of any declaration of peace. I thought soldiers stood against those who declared war on one’s own country???

I do not belittle Powell’s great service to this country. I do call into question his reasoning behind endorsing Obama. Being in the Republican party I have some insight into the intra-party struggles between the old country-club mentality content with being a minority & the conservative wing which wants to make the country more favorable to acension by the “common man.”

What really struck me was Powell’s words on Bill Ayers. I know few veterans “outside the political sphere” either Republican, Democrat, or independent who do not become incensed at the terrorism perpetrated by the Weather Underground. To minimize this, as Powell has done, does not match the character he’s shown in public service. I have defended Colin Powell & his successor, Condi Rice, for years against nasty attacks on him from the left. If one googles “colin powell uncle tom,” one receives about 63800 hits. Many of those who have attacked him for nearly 2 decades now heap praise for this single action.

Powell now joins Lincoln Chafee & Chuck Haegel as Republicans supporting Obama. No one on the left or Democrat has had a problem raking Joe Liberman over the coals for years - there’s no reason to not delve into this decision, which is very out of character to those of us who have defended Colin Powell all these years.

Barak Obama’s exchange with the plumber exposes him as the Prince John wannabe of this election. Taking from those of us who work & create the jobs which make this country work & giving it to his minions in big government & those who support centralized control & corruption (ACORN).

Please, Senator McCain & Governor Palin, hammer Obama mercilessly with this. Obama will hammer us mercilessly with his tax ripoff schemes. I don’t want to sound desperate, however I was alive during the horror of the Carter years & was a young, struggling adult during the first Clinton recession in 1994. I survived & the country survived - however the pain was unnecessary; the stunting of our progress was not required.

Obama is a created facade. We can only speculate what is behind the facade. Let’s not find out after Obama’s a marionette president.

We’ve heard this little ditty before. “Lifelong” Republicans & conservatives who have seen the light & are going to vote for the Democrat - Obama, in this redition.

That said, I also believe it’s safe to say that McCain/Palin are behind right now - however, the gap is far from insurmountable. It’s time for action.

We have a right & responsibility to have concern for the direction of our country. We have a right & responsibility to oppose the efforts to elect Obama. We have a right & responsibility to elect John McCain & Sarah Palin. What we must do is put our anger, our passion, into positive action. Contact your local Republican party &/or McCain/Paliin campaign & volunteer for efforts to get our people, those who will vote for McCain/Palin, out to the polls. Stand up to efforts to convince people that it’s over & Obama is inevitable. It is not over, & WE can win if WE will take the action to make it happen. We have seen what happens to the inevitable candidates in this cycle, & it is incumbent on us to make it happen one more time.

Last night, Thursday September 25, we had approximately 55-60 people show up! Cheatham County is a bedroom community to Nashville, split about 52% Democrat primary voters & %48 Republican primary voters - we don’t register under a party in Tennessee. This enthusiasm & excitement is directly related to the bold move by Senator McCain in picking Sarah Palin & his bold moves recently. With his performance in tonight’s debate, I can only pray that Senator McCain continues with the bold moves & demonstrations of true leadership &, shall I say the word, Gravitas?

My wife became pregnant with our son before we were married. That was not a good choice on our part. We were engaged, & then married. We have been blessed with a very healthy, strong, intelligent son. Not everything was a bed of roses, we have had our struggles. I’d say we’ve had more struggling years, money & other things, than “lesser” struggling years. I would not change a thing, however, because I’d not want our son to be any different.

A couple of years ago we found out that his now fiance was pregnant. Of course, we had “the talk” several times - however, they chose to have a baby. Choosing life was our tact, though there were some issues with the parents of the girl. I can understand that, & with time & patience things worked out. We now have a very healthy, intelligent, & strong grandson who just turned 1 year old. Both families (though hers are Democrats) are strong & we are helping them through this time. She is extremely intelligent & a good academic student who finished in the top 20% of her class. My son was not the greatest student, however he has found a calling working with dogs & it looking to further education.

I would offer this is the better situation for the child, & everyone involved. I know people who have had abortions, decisions they regret. We have had tough times & will have struggles in the future, however we will never have to wonder “what if” the child had been born. Our child & grandchild will have the opportunity to achive, fail, & excel.

I understand what the Palin family is experiencing & they are in our prayers. I am heartened that they have made the choice of life, & am sure they understand they’ve made the right choice. Bristol Palin’s child & Sarah’s grandchild will have the opportunity of life. Where there is life, there exists infinite possiblity

The forum included questions from the audience. The differences between Phillip Johnson, who is a rock-ribbed grassroots conservative, and his opponent - who is a very liberal Democrat - are striking.

The forum discussion is broken down into two segments. Part 1 is here; segment 2 is here.

Not only is Phillip right on the issues; notice the professional and personable way he conducts himself. He was first elected in 2002 when the new district was created. He has won re-election twice, both times against well funded opponents. This district, 78, was created by the Democrat leadership in the Tennessee Legislature as a Democrat district. It is about 52% Democrat in primaries. Phillip won the first time thanks to good, “old fashioned” hard work and honesty. He has been re-elected because he does the job of representative with integrity and excellence. Phillip is the kind of person we all want in a Representative, and his grassroots organization is powerful because he is part of the grassroots conservative base. We need more Representatives like Phillip all over the country in our state legislatures and as a “bench” for higher offices.