Saxby Chambliss wins the runoff, yet more than a week later, some are still grumbling that he and the people of Georgia who voted for him are backward hillbillies clinging to their guns and religion. (Hmm…clever. One needn’t wonder where they heard that phrase).

There are those who poke fun at Saxby’s name, calling it “redneck” or dubbing it “too deep south.” Others stand around water coolers asking one another sarcastically, “Saxby…is he that chicken guy?” as they chuckle with “know-it-all” grins. Of course, what else can one expect from arm chair political quarterbacks who, while uninvolved and detached from the action, look like champions to others when taking cheap shots? But these pontificating folks couldn’t be more misguided. 

Red, as in Republican, is again on its way to becoming the new black, and the people who voted for Saxby (and didn’t vote for Obama) are self-sufficient, hard-working folks who don’t wait around for the government to fix their problems, much less pay their bills and bail them out of their own mistakes. They are people who continue to set a precedent of the establishment created for us by our Founding Fathers—people who rally to uphold The Constitution rather than redraft it to suit government-loving,

“I need my mommy” liberals. They are fellow citizens who take personal responsibility for their own actions, good or bad, and who don’t mock the Saxby name because they know better. 

The name Saxby is of English origin, and its family crest motto translates to: Let the stone be firm. In other words, this man “ain’t no stupid hick ya’ll.” And, as someone who worked for the Saxby team and attended the events, I can tell you this respected gentleman stays true to his family motto in remaining strong in his convictions and working relentlessly to help hard-working Georgia families keep the money they earn and maintain their sovereignty and duty as responsible Americans—the people who keep America what it is, sustaining the free market, upholding and creating jobs, and paying taxes. You can’t help but feel pride when listening to Saxby speak and looking around at his supporters—folks who don’t want something for nothing and who, with Saxby by their sides, fight so Georgia families can continue to make their own choices rather than let the government make those choices for them. 

Politics aside, all people of Georgia, Republican, Democrat and Libertarian, should be pleased with the Saxby win because of the dire need to preserve diversity in Washington. He needed to win because our president-elect Obama publicized his desire to work across party lines, yet, without a Saxby victory, there would have been few lines to cross.  Justice must prevail. With a filibuster-proof Democratic majority, our nation would have been reconstructed under only one agenda for the benefit of the government-dependent, not the government-independent.  And, without fair numbers in Washington, our nation would have become more divided. As John Adams once said, "People and nations are forged in the fires of adversity."   And, as Obama recently said, "There is not a liberal America and a conservative America; there is a United States of America." Staying true to our leaders’ wisdom, we need both sides in Washington to formulate a concrete plan of action that benefits all citizens. 

Democrats want to keep people where they are, in fear and in need, as that is how they get votes. Republicans, however, are determined to follow in the footsteps of our Founding Fathers, attempting to motivate instead of coddle, raising from the bottom up and stimulating people to work, thus bolstering their abilities, confidence and drive so they don’t remain entrenched in poverty.  Lowering from the top down—from the people who already work hard and succeed to create jobs, form companies and sustain America—is larceny on the part of Democrats. Saxby doesn’t believe successful people should be punished (i.e. taxed) for their hard work any more than they already are. If everyone in America wore an educated thinking cap, regardless of his or her socioeconomical level, it would become clear this is a valiant effort on Saxby’s part to protect the Georgia taxpayer.  Lower-income earners, living in projects, for example, don’t seem to realize that these high-earning, high-tax paying individuals, paying well over 80% of the federal tax money, are the whole reason they and their families have what they have every day, including welfare, food stamps, etc., without having to do a thing for it. But sadly, in our country, overachievers are punished, and underachievers are rewarded.  Somehow, that makes sense to liberal America and those who didn’t hope for a Saxby win.   

Also important is that Saxby is without peer in trying to push forth an agenda of change…the Fair Tax. We hear so much about change, but America is too enchanted with Obama to think of it as part of the Republican agenda. And, as one of only three forward-thinking (hardly backward hillbilly) senators trying to push this bill in Washington, Saxby Chambliss is a benefit to all folks in Georgia. The Fair Tax platform is not Republican or Democrat. It is a bipartisan way to eliminate the IRS and establish a new form of taxation based on what you buy, not how much you make. That is why it’s called the Fair Tax, and it’s very fair indeed. Read “The Fair Tax” book and you will see. We should all feel fortunate to have a discerning senator who supports such a tax.

And, if all Georgians had attended a Saxby rally, in addition to doing their own research, they would understand this intuitive proposal and his inspiring position. Saxby people don’t talk about what is wrong and how they can help you. They talk about personal responsibility, limited government, fairness for all people and doing whatever necessary to let people make their own choices. Saxby voters don’t want to be slaves to the government. They are clinging alright, but not to guns and religion. Rather, to uphold the individual rights and freedoms granted to us by our Founding Fathers, privileges many Democrats seem to have forgotten.

And, while some Democrats are proud of their contempt for Saxby and his supporters, they, too, are clinging—clinging to the need to be part of something bigger than themselves called the U.S. government. It appears these people are willing to give up those rights and push them aside for government security, rather than creating that security themselves. In case you haven’t noticed, we live in a country that gives everyone the opportunity to be something other than the middle man, unless you sit around and do nothing every day. And that is what Saxby and his people know.

Those fooled by the middle man rhetoric are gullible. Democrats don’t want you to rise up for the same reason Obama doesn’t want you to make more than $250,000 per year. They want the middle-class scared, and if you try to expand your wealth, you’ll be punished by having to spread that wealth. It’s time people understand this manipulation rather than dubbing Saxby’s platform antiquated politics. Bottom line: if you want less of something, tax it. People who voted against Saxby must obviously want less of their hard-earned money, because without a Saxby win, less money would have made it to these people’s wallets, while more of it would have gone straight to the government’s pocket.

Speaking of the government, we hear how dreadful Republicans such as Saxby are because they don’t support government bailouts, etc., as they are seen as heartless and cruel. Ironically, it is Saxby along with other Republican congressmen, who are the concerned ones—those in Washington who don’t want to usurp taxpayer money to use for the government’s and other people’s boo-boos. Saxby is the one out there protecting the taxpayer; it is not the other way around.

Everybody has a horse in this race called real life, but if your horse pays taxes, then you simply cannot argue with Saxby’s outlook for Georgia and the Fair Tax, no matter your political preference. If your horse thinks otherwise, then he and the person who rode in on him help to make up the team of backward hillbillies in Georgia, not the Saxby voters.

October 15, 2008

While in the post office this week, I observed two young boys (nine years old at best) sporting black Obama T-shirts. The shirts were blinding with huge, florescent words and graphics, and the boys were obtrusive and rowdy, as if they had just come from a rock concert and wanted everyone there to know it. But, these were not concert T-shirts, and the boys, clearly too young for heavy metal. Rather, it was obvious they were showing off their “coolness” because they wore Obama T-shirts and the rest of the people there did not, and somehow, this gave them a special right…a power to act out. These are children who do not know the first thing about politics and this election. Yet they, along with many other young people, have somehow been taught it is hip to like Obama and passé if you do not. As far as presidential elections go, this is a first, but it wasn’t the first time I have seen this out in public and surely won’t be the last.

Another first: Has anyone in Atlanta noticed the massive amount of Obama signs and stickers around town and the measly handful out there promoting McCain? If you have wondered why that is so, let me tell you what people are saying. After asking around, the verdict:  many people (in cities especially) are afraid to put McCain signs in their yards and stickers on their cars. Why? They told me they don’t want to instigate a potential problem, in their words, a robbery, vandalism, carjacking, etc. That is certainly unjust —people should feel comfortable about supporting their candidate without worry of dire situations.

This is not written to promote one side or another, rather, to put something out there that should be talked about. We all know what this means, and if it isn’t a prime example of a racial race for president, I don’t know what is. And frankly, it isn’t fair to those who wish to proudly endorse their candidate, as the Obama voters are doing in an exceptional fashion without much worry of possible danger or repercussion from their actions.

In the end, I call this “unpresidented,” pun intended.

October 17, 2008

During these presidential debates, we constantly hear the following: “The American people have the right to know.” Well, I’m an American person who is going to share my thoughts on this straight: Don’t wait for the right to know.  In fact, don’t wait to know anything. Go out and read up on this stuff yourself. Become educated instead of becoming convinced on the issues and know for yourself instead of being told.

Take action. Take notes. Become politically involved. Start really listening and make your own opinion, not the opinion made for you by the media. Vote on the issues because you truly know and understand them. Seek out different opinions on both sides. Create your own fair and balanced stories, which are certain to be much different from the “fair and balanced” stories you see and hear on CNN, for example.

The Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) is as corrupt as its outreach program is wide, preying on potential voters in America who know nothing about each presidential candidate’s values, issues, etc. The group is making peculiar and outlandish efforts to find every possible Obama voter…deep into the hills, the hollers, locations miles from civilization, places where some people don’t even know how to read and certainly don’t have the knowledge as to whether or not to vote for Obama, places where people will simply listen to a helpful hand and vote for whom ACORN feels should be the next president. In other words, scam! This drive makes efforts and spends money to go to such people who would have never made the effort on their own (personal responsibility….reminder to those who don’t get it) to register to vote as upstanding and responsible U.S. citizens do regularly.  Even when politically correct Americans move, as I have done many time, one of the first things they do is re-register to vote in a new district or state. 

Acorn’s efforts in this respect are ridiculous, intolerable and drastic—efforts that will dangerously skew this election. The standard system, where we, as loyal Americans, no matter the party, register to vote (and do vote) is somehow not acceptable in this particular election? Interesting, isn’t it? ACORN states our current system “was designed to disenfranchise voters.”  What??!!  Have we really come to this?  Where we need an organization, funded by other organizations and needy followers, etc., to go out and achieve and execute such a thing for people who would otherwise not do it for themselves?  We are not talking about delivering somebody’s groceries or helping a person cross the street—we are talking about adults leading other adults along as if they were children and unable to do for themselves, yet somehow giving them the will and the way to vote for Obama. Think of it this way: Your child has a homework project due the next morning. It’s the night before, and your child doesn’t want to do it. You do your best as a parent to be firm with him or her, but bottom line…he or she must do it or suffer the consequences, which, by the way, are well learned lessons in life. Do you let your child suffer those consequences and go into school the next morning without a finished project? Or, do you complete the project for him or her, thus, teaching your child no personal responsibility lesson whatsoever? One would hope most parents would do the first option, for the second is equivalent to what ACORN is doing; they are doing the homework (and the leg work) for these people…people who should otherwise not vote if they don’t make the effort themselves.

ACORN, as Bill Clinton did in the 90s via the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), also works to mandate that the government sell homes to people who are otherwise not able to buy one—in other words, people who have no income close to affording a home.  Well, that’s life. I was 40 years old with two children when I could finally buy a home, and that was just fine with me. These people shouldn’t have purchased homes, bottom line. And, because Bill Clinton pushed the CRA, this problem has now escalated, and Bush is being blamed for it.  Bush is handling the problem folks; he isn’t the reason for it. This started over a decade ago and is the reason why Charles Krauthammer, famously, calls Bill Clinton a “parenthesis” in the presidential chronology. Things were set in place for him by Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, but he, in turn, set in place what would become part of a monumental screw up for those to follow, in our case, George W. Bush as part of the cleanup crew, and the American people as the private, yet innocent, public investors. Interestingly enough, regulatory changes during the Clinton years allowed community groups better access to CRA information, enabling them to increase their activities. But, at the same time, economists believed the CRA would lower bank profitability…and were they right.

Simply put, it looks better in America if all people—blacks, whites, Asians, Hispanics and any other minority, no matter what they can afford—own homes.  What a mammoth mistake has been made!  The Community Reinvestment Act is real, is not being talked about in mainstream America and has caused much of the momentum for what is happening today, but people are afraid to talk about it.  It, along with its instigators, are protected, as is Obama (which is why we can’t talk about Rezko, Bill Ayers, etc.).

We have all heard the phrase “responsible voter” for most of our adult lives. Let these people get out and register and vote themselves, with the exception of physical disability, handicap or the like, of course. Otherwise, people shouldn’t vote if they don’t make the grown-up effort to take steps in order to do so, just like our kids should do their own homework. Voters are responsible citizens. That is what makes this America…what makes us American. How could any conscientious and self-reliant American support this nonsense?!