For the sake of transparency, I wanted to let my readers know that I’m now volunteering with the Todd Tiahrt for Senate campaign as the Labette County coordinator and as part of the broader Southeast Kansas Power Team, headed by my good friend Michelle Hucke. I also wanted to say up front that I am receiving no financial or other compensation for this volunteer position or for any Tiahrt articles, images, or other items on my blog, Facebook, or Twitter.
But while we’re on the subject, I want to tell you why I support Todd.
I hope it’s become apparent to my longtime readers and Twitter followers that I’m not about furthering any one person’s agenda just because their rhetoric sweeps me off my feet. For me, it’s all about the conservative movement and how we, as citizens, can bring our government back inside the bounds we’ve set for it.
Every once in a great while, there comes about a candidate that truly has the ability and backbone to work for this same grand goal. In this Senate primary, that man is Todd Tiahrt.
As I hope you have seen, I don’t back candidates lightly. If you recall, it took me weeks to decide whether or not I would help the (pre-Palin) McCain campaign by doing anything besides voting for it. It wasn’t until after Palin was named VP nominee that I even campaigned for it instead of simply against Obama.
Once you meet Todd and his family, you instantly understand. Instead of the usual political garbage, you get authenticity and a feeling that you’re speaking with someone who’s actually listening, not just doing the head-bob that politicians are so good at. Fifteen seconds later, and after his surprisingly firm handshake, you realize he’s just like you; you come to understand that he could just as easily be your children’s football coach or the man who owns the local real estate agency. That’s because that’s who Todd is: a genuine, caring, and intelligent man who is one of us. Instead of D.C. changing Todd, Todd has changed D.C.
For me to support, endorse, and actually work for a candidate, I have to truly and wholeheartedly believe in them and what they stand for. #RealDeal is not just a Twitter slogan. I hope my support solidifies that idea for you, because it’s completely true.
Todd Tiahrt is that man, and he’s the real deal, Kansas.
Just so you know, this is one of those blog posts that is going to make some people upset. There, you’ve been warned.
All I ask is that you hear me out. Rip me up in the comments section, flame me on Twitter, but read what I have to say.
I don’t want the Republicans to take back control of the House and the Senate.
Even after two years out of power, they’re still on parole in my book. They’re simply not ready.
Have they had some good moments? Of course. But history is like weather cycles; they’re both doomed to repeat themselves over and over again.
Haven’t we all had enough of this flip-flopping between the parties? They commit atrocities while in office, we vote them out, and then they try to win back our trust by screaming, “But, look! They’re doing it, too!”
We had Republican majorities from 1994 until 2006, and what did we get? Some good legislation at the beginning, at least before the acquiescence of the Contract with America, but by the end, we were dealing with our beloved GOP milking the cash cow for all it was worth and growing government to sizes never before seen, with Medicare Part D, amnesty proposals, and the largest federal intrusion into education ever.
What makes everyone think this time will be different? Has two years truly been enough for them to learn their lesson? They’re not necessarily quick studies. They lost control in 2006, yet we got progressive John McCain as the nominee in 2008. Huh?
Before this gets bandied about, I am not a proponent of a third party. I never have been.
I am a true-blue (er, red?) registered Republican, and yes, Mr. Steele, I get your letters, too. I still think, as I did in 2008, that the Republican Party is our best hope to act as a catalyst for bringing traditional American values of family, frugality, and faith back to Washington, and for giving our States the standing they deserve.
We’ve seen how the Republican Party acts when its in the minority, and, you know what? I like it better. It’s the free market at work: they’re fighting for a majority and, therefore, they’re performing better. They’re willing to take those risks (see: healthcare, energy) in order to do right by those who elected them.
Let’s not open wide the door to the Capitol to anyone who is not a true defender of liberty.
Truthfully, I hope “we” gain forty-five seats in the House, and four or five in the Senate bringing us to the point where we make the Democrats nervous.
Why not just go for the whole thing? I won’t be upset, obviously, if they win majorities, but if they don’t, I’m fine with that, too. We need at least another two years out in the cold, so to speak, to really find who we are as a party. The whole point of the Tea Party movement has been to take over the Republican Party from the inside out (or, for some of you, vice versa). Have we done that yet? Eh, it’s debatable. We’ve had some good progress, with people like Sen. DeMint actively seeking out real conservative candidates, but, as evidenced by bizarre acts like Meghan McCain speaking at CPAC, we’re definitely not out of the woods yet.
So will I be campaigning for Republican candidates this fall? Of course. Will I continue to protest against all politicians who dare step on MY Constitution. Definitely. And will I rejoice if Congressional Republicans prove me wrong and we enjoy a golden age of conservatism and limited government? Yea, I guess I could go for that, too.
[As many of you know, I serve as the Events Coordinator for the Pitt State College Republicans. This post is related to one of our events]
On the way home from our Arkansas Tea Party tour over the Independence Day holiday, Virginia Crossland-Macha began talking with me about her plans to host another large 400+ person event in SE Kansas on the Pittsburg State University Campus. We wanted to help people put to use some of the energy they’d built up over the summer to help defeat the government takeover of healthcare.
In the end, we settled on a theme for the event, based mostly on our location at the backside of the PSU Football Stadium, as “Tailgate Tea Party.” We figured it would be a great way to draw in college students and local citizens who otherwise wouldn’t attend a political event.
We lived up to the “tailgate” moniker, as well, with live music performed by Josh Hucke and the Goin’ Nowhere Band and free hot dogs and bottled water.
We had some direct resistance from the Campus Police Department, resulting in a logistical stand-off that forced our headlining speaker, Bob Basso, to use a trailer graciously provided by Josh Hucke as his dressing room. With some attendees traveling over an hour and speakers flying for several, it was terribly embarrassing to the students, faculty, and alumni of the university who were in attendance. Some participants even vowed to reconsider their donations to the school because of their treatment of our peaceful, educational event. How’s that for serious?
Frankly, our speaker list was terribly impressive, if I may brag on Virginia’s connections for a minute. We had big names in to speak from D.C., California, and, of course, more local places, such as Iola, KS, Topeka, KS, Joplin, MO, and Rogers, AR.
In all, I consider the event to have been a great success. We hosted nearly 400 people from all over the four state area at a liberal university in a strongly Democratic area of the through-and-through red state of Kansas. I continue to believe tea parties are one of the most effective ways to engage the everyday, average right-of- center American where they are right now. Our organization has surely felt this influence, and we are very appreciative of the support we’ve gained.
Last Friday Pitt State CRs President Michelle Hucke and I worked the Iola, KS Recess Rally, where the focus was Turn Everything Around. My good friend, Virginia Crossland-Macha, was the organizer. The event began at 6:00, and we gave out free hot dogs and water to all attendees. In an encouraging display of conservative Kansas values at work, both Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS02) and Rep. Jerry Moran (R-KS01) were in attendance.
Rep. Jenkins, of course, is the soaring rock star of the second district, having beaten a moderate Democrat in 2008 and wielding her CPA certification as a powerful weapon in Congress against bills such as the ARRA of 2008 and deficit spending. Moran is hoping to win “retiring” Sen. Sam Brownback’s Senate seat in 2010.
The over 350 proud patriots in attendance cheered as they listened to speakers like Kris Kobach, candidate for Kansas Secretary of State, Bud Siebel, local businessman, and AFP-stand in Virginia Crossland-Macha rail on Obama’s proposed takeover of healthcare, his successful enslavement of the auto industry, and the reasons Kansas must become a sovereign state.
It was a truly inspiring evening, and proved to me that Kansans are truly ready for action. After the last speaker, over 85% of the crowd stood up and got in line to sign both the sovereignty petition and Americans for Prosperity’s petition to stop Obama’s healthcare express.
Following are some Blackberry and iPhone photos taken at the event.
Michelle Hucke and Caleb Hays working the sovereignty booth.
Active and engaged citizens
Secretary of State candidate Kris Kobach speaking at rally
Did you attend, host, or work at a recent recess rally or tea party? Post your experience in the comments!
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has the political world reeling with her surprise resignation of the governorship on Friday from her Wasilla, AK home. Many conservatives, myself included, were in shock and disbelief after hearing the news. I was about to board a plane when I received a frantic text message from my younger sister: “Sarah Palin resigned!!” A quick Google SMS search returned no results, so I texted back, “Are you sure?!” As you may have gathered from my posts, I’m a huge Palin fan, and I was worried such a move would ruin the former VP-nominee’s future political chances.
Later that night and into the next morning, when I’d had a chance to read the transcript of her presser, I began to understand her reasoning. The fact is, no matter what she tried to do for Alaska, she would be unfairly brutalized by the press. Her effectiveness in Alaska ended after her McCain handlers forced her to continue the retched Couric interviews way back in the fall of 2008. She needed a chance to take a step back and regain control of her own public image, to give the American people, and the only way to do that was to cut her losses and leave elected office to travel the lower 48 (edit 1) to fill her rightful role as an independent leader of the conservative movement.
In recent days, Gov. Palin has been dropping hints of working toward a “higher political calling” and talked about how she feels she can do a better job helping the people of Alaska and the nation, along with conservative candidates, outside of the governor’s office.
So don’t lose heart, America! Sarah is just being Sarah and taking risks and wild leaps of faith no one else would dare do. She’s not leaving politics, she’s just following a different path. Will she run for Senate, write her book, or jump on the speaking circuit? Who knows? What I do know is anyone who counts her out is simply afraid of who she is and what she can become.
P.S. Don’t forget about SarahPAC! I’m guessing once Palin’s thrown off the restraints of public office, we’ll see her political action committee spring into even more abundant life.
This Independence Day was spent differently for me than years past. Normally, I join the millions of celebrating Americans spending the day eating delicious grilled food and shooting off the biggest and loudest fireworks possible. This year, however, I got an offer from Virginia Crossland-Macha I couldn’t refuse: an all expenses paid trip to Arkansas over the holiday weekend to help out with a whopping six Tea Parties and other events, trying to round up as many signatures for the Patients Firstpetition against the government takeover of healthcare.
After arriving in Rogers, AR around 2:00 p.m. local time on Friday the third, we hurriedly dropped off our luggage at the very nice a-Loft hotel, scarfed down a burger from Steak ‘n Shake, and hopped on a Panther Navajo five-seater plane, basically a tiny puddle jumper, and headed for Batesville, AR. We dropped off two of our volunteers there, and then Teresa Crossland-Oelke and I headed for Heber Springs, AR, a tiny town of around 7,000 residents. Batesville’s event attracted 200 concerned citizens, a respectable number for their very first event, while Heber Springs impressed us even more. This tiny village in the middle of nowhere, Arkansas, had a Tea Party that involved over 500 people. All in all, that night we collected over 400 signatures from those two events.
The next morning, I ate breakfast with three very interesting people, Rebecca Wales from Smart Girl Politics, Tom Ziglar, son of Zig Ziglar, and Dr. Larry Hunter, of the Social Security Institute. Ms. Wales and Mr. Ziglar spoke at the Fayetteville, AR Tea Party, while Virginia, Dr. Hunter, and I set up our Patients First booth at the Ozark Tea Party in Mountain Home, AR. After Dr. Hunter spoke on healthcare, he and I hopped back into a Crossland Construction truck, and I drove him back to Bentonville, AR so he could catch his flight back to D.C. and hopefully spend the evening of the Fourth with his family.
The Mountain Home Tea Party was incredible. Over 1,500 people showed up, and they just kept coming. Over the course of the entire weekend, we collected nearly two THOUSAND signatures, something that would normally take two months. Three-fourths of those signatures came from Mountain Home. I’m sure you can see why:
The entire football stadium was packed. There was basically no room left, whatsoever. Everywhere I turned, people were clamoring to sign the petition. It was incredibly encouraging, and heartening. Maybe we really do have a chance to stop this beast.
If you haven’t signed the petition yet, please do. All it takes is being a registered voter.
After returning home to Southeast Kansas, I went with my family to the Chetopa, KS Independence Day extravaganza. I really don’t know what else to call it- they have an intensely huge gathering in their city park for several hours in the afternoon and culminate the evening in one of the area’s best fireworks shows. Seriously, guys, kudos.
So maybe I didn’t get to shoot off crazy rockets and scream madly as I ran away from a (very short) lighted fuse, but today, I did something better: I was democracy in action: I worked for the betterment of what is still this greatest nation on earth, the United States of America.
I know some people have had a difficult time celebrating Independence Day this year; they feel our nation is teetering on the brink of collapse and that we’ve lost our way. I have to be honest; I’ve struggled with those feelings, too, but I just keep reminding myself that I’m celebrating the eternal American values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
As many of you know, I serve the Pittsburg State University Campus Republicans as the Events Coordinator. We’re a new chapter in the Kansas Federation of College Republicans; apparently my university has a problem with holding on to any on-campus Republican organizations. By any means, when we formed our group last semester, we jumped head-first into the election cycle without knowing much about organizing a political group, and since then we haven’t looked back. It’s definitely been a learning experience, but we’ve come out on top every time. This semester we reached the point where we can have actual events besides debate and election result-watching parties.
Suffice it to say, the Tax Day Tea Party in Pittsburg, KS was our coming-out party, and what a success it was! We teamed up with Virginia Crossland of Crossland Construction to put on a massive event that hosted around 500 people from the area. That’s an impressive number when you consider there were at least five other Tax Day Tea Parties in the area! We had Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS02) speak, along with my organization’s Vice President, Jason Billberry, a local city commissioner, and a local businessman. Mark Kinsely from 1310 AM KZRG was our Emcee.
I’ve included some of the best photos below, but you can check out the full gallery here.
Protest Signs
Proud American Patriots
CR VP Jason Bilberry Speaking at Tea Party
U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS02) and Me
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Did you host a Tax Day Tea Party today? Let me know in the comments how it went!
Besides the popular CatholicVote video, this is probably the most powerful anti-abortion short film I have watched in recent months. Please share this with your friends. As always, we can only win this fight for the unborn if we stick together and work as one, with God as our leader.
I believe after the economy settles down, even if that means it bottoms out at 3,000 and stays there, President Obama & team will go in full force after every protection we have against abortion. We must stand and fight with a solidarity as never seen before, boldly proclaiming the truth, that abortion is murder and that life is sacred and precious, for the unborn and for the elderly.
I’ll be writing in the coming days about Obama’s fight for FOCA, the Freedom of Choice Act, an anti-life bill that is so important to him, he promised Planned Parenthood he would work to pass it, saying “Well, the first thing I’d do as President is pass the Freedom of Choice Act”, meaning the veryfirst thing he would do to protect “choice” would be to pass that bill. Of course, this was all before the economy blew up in our faces…
[This is an essay I wrote earlier this week. I've republished it here.]
Stereotypes are cop-outs. Each of them is just a way for us to pre-judge someone before we actually become acquainted with them on a personal level.They are tools we use to lock each other into specific, predetermined groups and behavior patterns. We use these mind tricks to exert control over other people, to gain traction in a difficult situation. Instead of facing the challenge of exposing ourselves to another individual, we take the easy way out and brush them aside with the passing thought, I’ve seen their kind before. What if, however, we took the time to give the benefit of the doubt, even to only one person? A few more minutes out of our busy schedules would not be missed. We spend that much time daily dialing the telephone or ordering coffee in the Drive-thru. Why not put those minutes to better use? If we did, we would discover that a person is more than the sum total of his or her parts, labels, and appearance. Appearances are deceiving, for we are each more than our stereotypes or labels alone allow for us to be.
As an eighteen-year-old sophomore at a small state university, my life is full of interesting topics and paradoxes, puzzles and quirks. My life is based on suggestion, on stereotype, on societal expectations, but my habits are geared against the grain. I do what is thought impossible and am seen for whom I am not. People expect me to be a certain way, but I surprise them by being even better.I believe in forging my own path and setting my own agenda, but rebellion is not what I seek: I fight apathy, and work to make my positive mark on the world. It is what this time of my life is supposed to be about. As a college student I have some of the biggest and hardest-to-shake stereotypes placed upon me, that I believe in an “anything goes” world, or that I fought to see Barack Obama elected.But after busting through these grandiose façades, I drop the biggest bombshell of all: I am a young conservative.I believe in personal responsibility, limited government, and the rule of law. I work for lower taxes and less government intervention and involvement. I want to live my life the way I see fit, by taking responsibility for the consequences, and not by following a ten-step plan developed by a bureaucrat. I believe in making money, in capitalism, in success for the individual, and in freedom for us all. Of course, being politically conservative and educationally an undergraduate leads to some interesting encounters. Many of my peers do not understand why I believe what I do, and many older adults approach me in disbelief as well. It seems most think youth should be a time of frivolity and a more carefree lifestyle; I do not necessarily disagree, but I look to my future as well. I am not a boring old codger while still a teenager, but I dream of one day being a successful, financially secure professional, and that dream cannot be fulfilled by following the plans and ideas of the other side of the political spectrum.
If liberalism on campus is such an accepted belief and lifestyle, why I am so different? Why does my belief system differ from the supposed norm? To fully investigate this issue, it is necessary to investigate my past, my experiences, and my goals for the future. Understanding one’s lifestyle choices is not an easy task. My political affinities come from several different places. To begin, since both of my parents are Republicans and very conservative, it would be easy to discount my ideals as something handed down and accepted without challenge. It is true that as far back as I can remember knowing what a political party was, I have identified myself with the GOP. However, neither of my parents has ever forced their political belief system on me. They’ve presented their views, but always left my choices in the matter up to me. Saying that my party affiliation and governmental philosophy stem solely from my mother and father is a vast misstatement. Perhaps my parents led me in the right direction, but it was by my own free will I came to believe we should as strictly as possible follow the plans laid out for us by the Founding Fathers in our nation’s seminal documents. How did I arrive at this conclusion? Even as young as I am, I have had enough life experiences to realize how important it is to keep and follow those democratic ideals. Right now, as a young adult, I am watching as the grand era of prosperity of my early teenage years dries up and our nation sinks into a deep recession. The most treacherous example is of the recent government bailouts. Instead of allowing companies who made bad business decisions and granted sub-prime mortgages to go bankrupt and restructure themselves, our government is using billions upon billions of our money and money borrowed from unfriendly foreign lands to artificially prolong the lives of those failed ventures. To me, that idea is unfair and, at the least, not in line with the spirit of our Constitution. Why are we who made good decisions being forced to help those who did not? I believe in helping others in need, but it must be my choice, not the government’s. Life experiences such as these catalyze my beliefs. They make me look toward the future and realize that as this spending continues, my dreams become a little farther off, a little less attainable. If success is punished and failure is rewarded, why will any company try to succeed? Where is the motivation to hire the best and brightest talent and sell the best products if the federal government is only going to tax their profits into losses and save them if they fail? How will I, or my children, for that matter, ever ascend to the peak of our abilities?
That hope for the future and worry that my dreams will not come to pass is what most strongly motivates me. America is a great nation, and I cannot bear to see her flounder. I want America to achieve her epitome of greatness with the restoration of our Constitutional values. As for myself, I want to someday work for a multinational computer electronics company. I want to be able to provide for my family, and I want my future children to have even better opportunities than I had. Neither one of these dreams is easily possible with the current onward march of liberal policies and socialism, at least not according to some of the greatest political minds. Many have equated our recent lapse to that of Western Europe after World War II. It is a commonly held belief in the United States that Europe is very similar to our country, but in truth, it has many problems we have never had to deal with, including strangled access to healthcare. Here, generally speaking, if one is insured he or she can schedule an appointment with a doctor and have met with him or her within a week or so. In other nations where socialized medicine exists, everyone has access to healthcare, but many people’s health suffers because of long lead times for life-saving surgeries and routine checkups. Also, the citizenry is taxed beyond belief, to the point where the tax rate reaches atrocious and unbelievable amounts. At what point do we say enough is enough? The idea of healthcare for all is valiant, but the execution is wrong. Providing healthcare is not government’s job. Many argue that private companies cannot and should not be in charge of providing medical assistance, that they wield too much power of people’s lives. However, the evidence points to the contrary. Even with their problems, private companies tend to provide a much better service, due to competition in the market. All the government needs to do is encourage that competition by lowering taxes, and thereby fostering growth, and repealing senseless regulations. Look how much government has regulated education in America. Does it sound exciting to be required to take a standardized test to verify your lifestyle choices before doing a urine analysis? Do you want to have to write your Senator just to have an emergency appendectomy? I have experienced such a surgery, and I can assure you that sitting up is murder, let alone handling a keyboard.
My conservative beliefs do detach me from my peer group of young college students, at least from the majority.This aspect of my being cannot be separated from me as a whole; it makes up an integral part of my being, of who I am as a person. They do not fit the expected mold, but I accept that and embrace it. I will not change who I am simply to force myself into such an idea. We can never fully escape stereotypes, because generalization is part of who we are as human beings. However, we can rewrite them to include more facets of other individuals. Once we have broadened those horizons, we must do all we can to transform stereotypes from the crystalline stones they are today to the malleable clay they must be tomorrow, changing and updating them with each new person we meet, as we learn to connect more deeply.
Tonight, the U.S. Senate will vote on Obama’s so-called “stimulus” plan, a bill that is really just a left wing wish list in disguise. Even though it passed the House, we as Conservatives one a sort of ideological victory: not a single Republican voted for H.R. 1. It looked like our stalwart opposition would continue in the Senate.
That is, until Sen. Collins (R-ME) decided for some reason that she would like to support such a spending bill, under the guise that she’d helped to trim off around $100 billion. While that’s a great feat, she’s missing the point. What’s occurring here isn’t stimulus, it’s generational theft. We are stealing from the younger generations, from our children’s and grandchildren’s generations. How will we ever pay this off?
Thanks to President Obama, and now Sens. Collins, Snowe (R-ME), and Specter (R-PA), we’re about to fall off the cliff into the cesspool of European-style socialism. So much for capitalism, free-markets, and plain ol’ American success.
Luckily, unlike what President Obama would have you believe, all is not lost; there is still hope (and I thought he was the one who owned that word!). The Senate will not vote on this bill until this evening, so we still have a few precious hours to stave this thing off.
Below is the entire text of the email I sent to the three fence-sitters, replacing “Maine” for “Pennsylvania” when necessary.
Dear Senator,
I am writing in complete disgust. While I appreciate your efforts to work with others, frankly, this is not the time for cooperation across the aisle, unless it means the defeat of this so-called stimulus package. I laud your efforts to cut spending from this spending bill; truly $100 billion is a large number. However, when you compare this figure to the monstrosity of spending that still exists, you can surely understand my frustration.
Senator, the future of this bill depends on you. If you support it, you will catapult our nation into a world of European-style big government socialism. If you oppose it, we may still fall off the deep end into the cesspool Obama is creating, but at least when it falls apart, the world will know you stood for what is right. On the other hand, with your opposition, we may very well defeat this so-called stimulus once and for all and save capitalism and our free-market system.
The voters have spoken. If you view the latest polls, you will see that you are not on the side of the American public, your bosses. If you do not stand for us now, why do you expect any of us to stand for you when you run for re-election? I don’t live in Maine, but I support out-of-state politicians running for national office. I don’t, however, support cowards.
The choice is yours.
Thank you,
Caleb Hays
#tcot Operation Fight the Stimulus
Please contact these Senators while there is still time! Feel free to use my email, above. Just make sure you replace my name with yours.
