One of the most popular and most talked about movies of 1993 was Falling Down, starring Michael Douglas, Barbara Hershey, and Robert Duval. 

Douglas played William “D-FENS” Foster, an engineer at a defense contractor who has a really bad day.  Some described the movie as “an ordinary man at war with the everyday world.”

Foster became an iconic anti-hero for the people who (stealing Bill Clinton’s line)worked hard and played by the rules, yet found themselves at the bottom of the heap in the post-Cold War era of 1993.

Foster’s wife (Hershey) had left him, and he moved back in with his mother. Making matters worse, Hershey had a court order barring Foster from visiting their young daughter, whom he clearly loved more than life itself.

On the little girl’s birthday, everything falls apart.  Foster gets laid off from the defense contractor job.  The police (Duval) remind him he’s not to go near his wife or daughter.  And in one memorable scene, a fast food chain’s rules interfere when Foster just wants breakfast:

When I read the story of Jetblue flight attendant, Steven Slater, Falling Down  comes to mind. 

And I’m not the only one. 

According to a new Wall Street Journal/MSNBC Poll, two-thirds of Americans believe the worst is yet to come for the economy.  Democrat pollster Peter Hart sees Steven Slater as metaphor for voter sentiment.

Mr. Hart said the 2010 contest is being pulled by the sentiment associated with the JetBlue flight attendant who fled his plane via the emergency chute after an altercation with a passenger. Calling it the "JetBlue election," Mr. Hart said: "Everyone’s hurling invective and they’re all taking the emergency exit."

Like William Foster, Steven Slater seems to symbolize—in exaggerated form—the mood of the American people.  We’re fed up with bureaucracy and petty rules, “minute and uniform,” as Tocqueville put it,  “. . . through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd.”

Steven Slater broke through, alright.

In 1993, ordinary Americans—the Tea Party before it had that name—were ready to rumble.  After the Reagan years had restore some semblance of normalcy following the weird 1970s, Bush and Clinton conspired to impose a “new world order” that was inconsistent with our constitution, to use 18th century lingo. 

On November 6, 1994, the American voter signaled our disgust with Washington’s incompetence and encroachments. We switched controll of Congress from Democrat to Republican. In 2006, the voters reversed themselves, returning Congressional control the Democrats.  The voters wanted a change.

It worked.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 12,398 when the Nancy Pelosi’s surgically enhanced hand snatched the Speaker’s gavel from Denny Hastert.  Today, the DJIA opened at 10,300 and some change.  Some change, indeed.

In 2007, the unemployment rate was 4.6 percent. Today’s it’s 9.5 percent and rising, according to Timothy Geithner.  Today, new unemployment claims unexpectedly rose by 2,000 for the second week in a row. Consumer spending slowed. The national debt has increased 21 percent since the Democrats took over Congress—and sole authority to tax and spend.

Even with all that bad news and angst, there is great news ahead. Elections offer Americans the opportunity to take control of their lives and their future. In 2010, the shift in power from Washington to the people could be  of a historic scale.

Can you see November?

Technorati Tags: falling down, msnbc poll, steven slater, wsj poll

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The primaries are over.

I honestly believe that in the St. Louis area, the rightward-most, viable candidate won each of the key votes. The people of Missouri are in a position to make historical shifts in our Washington representation. And those shifts are just the first step and restoring America’s First Principles.

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Roy Blunt is a conservative.  He will be a big step up for conservatism in the Senate.  No, we wasn’t the rightward-most candidate in the race.  But he was the rightward-most, viable candidate.  He still is.  He is the only candidate to the right of Robin Carnahan who has any chance of winning.  Any chance at all. If you don’t work hard to get Roy elected, then don’t complain when Robin Carnahan is the 51st vote to put the next Elena Kagan on the Supreme Court.  This race could decide the life or death of the USA.  And Roy Blunt is the good guy in this very close race.

Ed Martin Jr. has the best chance to win the 3rd Congressional District in my lifetime.  He’s running against a weak, flawed, and frivolous empty suit named Russ Carnahan. Ed Martin is a solid conservative, an original Tea Partyer, and dedicated American patriot. Ed can reconstitute the Reagan Coalition in South St. Louis city and county and in Jefferson and Ste. Genevieve Counties.  I believe he will.  Ed is the kind of patriot, along with John and Gina Loudon and Jim Lembke, who took an enormous gamble by showing up at that first tea party in February 2009. Politicians avoid situations they don’t control, and none of those people knew me from Adam.  But Ed believed that his country needed him at that moment, just as it needed the other 1,500 people who gave up a day of work to stand for liberty, responsible government, and community. Now, Ed believes his country needs him in Washington.  I can’t think of a better person to represent the district where I grew up and where my mom and dad and sisters, nieces, nephews, and grand-nieces and nephews still live.

Tom Schweich took a lot of heat during the primary, but no one challenged his credentials for Missouri Auditor.  I was personally skeptical of Tom before I met him.  His only public service involved foreign service, working for the State Department at the UN and in Afghanistan. When we met for lunch, my doubts about his fitness for Auditor quickly disappeared. In fact, I got the sense that it was all Tom could do to restrain himself from running over to the bar and balancing the cash drawer. He has a lifetime of experience overseeing various kinds of corporate audits and criminal financial investigations. Who do you want auditing the disbursement of billions of dollars in stimulus funds?  Democrat Susan Montee?  Democrat Jay Nixon?  Turncoat Chris Koster who won’t even defend Missourians against Obama’s un-Constitutional insurance mandates? John Ashcroft doesn’t endorse RINOs, and Ashcroft has endorsed Schweich.

I was thrilled to see that Paul Curtman, running for Missouri’s 105th House seat received almost twice as many primary votes as his Democrat opponent.  But Paul has a lot of work to do before November, and he’ll need a lot of help.  If you want a viable strict Constitutionalist candidate for the US House or Senate down the road, you better be working for Paul Curtman this year.  He is the future.

Likewise, Gary Fuhr’s win in the Republican primary for MO 97 makes me happy, although a couple of other fantastic candidates were in that race.  Gary will make a great leader in Jefferson City if his friends and neighbors and primary opponents put him there.  He and Paul will make a great team.

There’s a lot more to cover, but I have work to do around the house.  And we’re all busy with preparations for the Biggest Tea Party St. Louis Ever Saw on 9-12 Under the Arch.  If you haven’t already done so, please RSVP on Facebook and invite your friends and family from anywhere to spend a patriotic weekend in St. Louis.  Our local economy can use the visitors.

I know that the passions of the primary are still with us, but we can’t sit around licking wounds or celebrating much longer.  We have thousands of doors to knock, dozens of rallies to attend, tens of thousands phone calls to make.  The Tea Party movement launched to change America’s future through a revolution at the ballot box.  I don’t give hoot in hell who gets the credit, just so there’s a lot of credit to give.

And just to end with a cliché, let’s get out there and win one for the Gipper.

Technorati Tags: ed martin, election 2010, gary fuhr, Paul Curtman, roy blunt, tom schweich

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First:  Be at the KMart in Ellisville at Manchester and Clarkson at 1:00 p.m. for a MASSIVE lit drop.  We want to canvass the whole area for GOTV.  Cars,homes, you name it.  Then, at 3:30, we’ll caravan to Sunset Hills for  . . .

Second:  Be at the GOP HQ in Sunset Hills at 4:00 p.m. for PHONE BANKING until 8:00.  Pizza provided.  You don’t have to stay the whole time, but we’re your friends and we wan to see you there. Details:

PHONE BANKING PARTY!!! @ the GOP HQ Sunday nite (8/01 @ 4-8PM*).

FREE PIZZA!!!

They have 40 phones!!! Let’s make some calls and GET OUT THE VOTE FOR PROP C!!!

Victory Center (GOP HQ)(on Watson Rd. just west of Lindbergh.  "Borders" is across the street).

10825 Watson Rd.

Suite 120

St. Louis, MO 63127

Folks, this is the most awesome, exciting election year since 1994.  I am so privileged to spend time with the great people who come out to these events.  God bless you, and please come out tomorrow. If you’ve never been on a busy corner advocating for something you’re really passionate about, you haven’t lived.  Do yourself a favor and join us tomorrow at Manchester and Clarkson, even if only for 30 minutes.

Here’s some shots from Saturday’s events:

And it looks like Russ Carnahan knows what’s coming.  He’s put his office up for rent already.

We learned that this administration is bent on ending republican government. Article IV of the Constitution — which guarantees a republican form of government to the states — means nothing to Obama, the Congressional majority, and Obama’s Supreme Court appointees. Obama rules by decree. Elena Kagan’s okay with banning books.

November 2 is our last chance to stop the free fall into tyranny.

In Missouri, passions rage this primary season. I understand. To a degree, I helped enflame those passions.  But that was before we fully understood what’s going on—before we realized that Barack Obama and the Congressional Democrats (not to mention Woody Allen and Ed Schultz) believe in tyranny.

On November 2, I will follow the advice of the wisest man I every met, William F. Buckley Jr. Buckley’s rule for picking a candidate was simple: “Always support the rightward-most, viable candidate.”

Some good, sincere people want to tear down candidates they believe are less than ideal.  In some election years, I’m inclined to do the same.  But not this year. Not with what we know.

In 2010, we have a choice between liberty and tyranny.  The candidates of one party will vote with the President on every issue on which he demands their loyalty.  We saw this in healthcare. We saw it in finance “reform.” We saw it on stimulus. We saw it on budget reconciliation. The President’s party would vote for human extinction if Obama asked them to.

In such a perverted environment, I believe we have a duty to stop the descent into tyranny, even if that means supporting a candidate who falls short of our ideal. To tear down the rightward-most, viable candidate is to tear down the last the defense against tyranny. If that’s why we started the Tea Party movement, then I wish it had been still-born.

Put another way, between Hamilton and Jefferson, I’d choose Jefferson.  But I wouldn’t destroy the one to elect the other.

Even more revealing is the opposition to ObamaCare.  According to Mason-Dixon:

Statewide, 61 percent of those who responded to the Mason-Dixon poll said they opposed the health care law passed by Congress in March. Republicans opposed the bill overwhelmingly, with 91 percent saying they were against it. Among independents — the key demographic in a race in Missouri — 65 percent opposed the health care law.

That’s great news for America. Our mission now must be to maximize voter turnout on Tuesday, August 3.  A strong win for Proposition C in Missouri will build momentum for measures on ballots in 5 states in November. With the November referendum, the new Congress will have no trouble blocking funding for ObamaCare until we can repeal the legislation altogether.

Remember, the strongest GOTV tactic is face to face communication.  Ask your friends and family to vote Yes on Prop C on Tuesday, August 3. 

What might surprise some people, though, is the demographic breadth of support. In fact, in every neighborhood I’ve been to, over 90 percent of the people I talked to have a favorable opinion of Prop C. In fact, the strongest positive response I experienced was last Saturday at a bus stop on Kingshighway at Chippewa. 

Over the course of two hours, I handed out Prop C flyers to four different set of bus passengers—twenty-four people in all.  Nineteen were African-American, and ages ranged from late teens to late 70s.  Men outnumbered women better than two-to-one.

Of the twenty-four people, five asked questions. Only two said anything negative.  The rest smiled,thanked me, and either read the flyer or put in a purse or pocket.

But there’s more to the story. 

I wasn’t dressed to fool anyone. I wore my traditional uniform for Tea Party street events, my navy blue TEA: Special Forces t-shirt.  On two trips to the bus stop, I announced my name.  Neither my Tea Party branding nor my name nor the purpose of Prop C elicited a strong negative response, In fact, 22 out of 24 people responded positively to our message.

What does that tell you?

First, it says that Liberty Evangelism—reaching out, one-on-one, to people, regardless of our perceptions of their voting history—is not only successful, it’s a moral obligation.  We owe EVERYONE the opportunity to learn about the magic of liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and good, limited government.  Forget past voting history. Let everyone decide for themselves whether they want tyranny or liberty.

Second, it says that Proposition C’s popularity is surging going into the August 3 primary.  That means a strong Get Out the Vote campaign will put Proposition C over the top. 

Most Effective GOTV Tools

If you’re wondering what works and what doesn’t in GOTV drives, Donald Green and Alan Gerber have the answer in their book Getting Out the Vote: how to increase voter turnout.

Effective (in order of effectiveness)

1. Door-to-door canvassing
2. Commercial Live Calls w/ professional coaching
3. Volunteer phone calls w/o professional coaching
4. Election Day Festivals

Most other methods—leaflets, direct mail, television ads—have miniscule effects.  The face-to-face canvassing has an additional benefit:  carryover.  About 80 percent of people who vote because of personal contact will vote the same way in the next election without an additional contact of any kind.

Let me say that again:  If someone votes on August 3 because you asked them to vote, there’s an 80 percent chance they will vote the same way on November 2. 

Let’s knock on some doors this week, people.

1980

1984

Reagan always struggled through the primaries and blew away his opponent in the general election.  I think he’d have been equally effective at the generals had he stayed a Democrat.  (Reagan switched parties after the 1964 election, becoming a Republican after a lifetime as a Democrat.)

Reagan won because people loved him and trusted him. Many who disagreed with him on particular issues voted for him anyway.  In my view, that’s how it should be.  Issues are transient.  What matters is the candidate’s mind.  Reagan’s mind was steeped in the stories that made America great. He understood economics, law, history, philosophy, and business.  But he translated the facts and figures of those disciplines into stories—true stories, whether real or invented.

Reagan’s greatest achievement was the story he invented about America in the 1980s. Even before he became president, Reagan told us that he saw America rising above the stagflation, unemployment, and foreign policy morass we’d been living in for a decade.  He painted for us a shining city on a hill to which the whole world looked and wondered.  The richest, most powerful, most benevolent nation that ever existed.

And just four years after his election, America had become just that.

Reagan didn’t transform America.  You did.  All Reagan supplied was the blueprint, the story that brought economics and history to life. 

You will do it again.

Technorati Tags: 2010, election, reagan

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Rasmussen Report has the latest numbers from the Missouri Senate race.

The poll does not include any mention of Republican candidate Chuck Purgason. Purgason seems to be enjoying something of a surge. He’s doffed his toupee and traded the Bolo tie for a regular one. And Purgason’s released a radio commercial in key areas around the state.

Rasmussen finds strong support for Roy Blunt among those who consider themselves tea partyers:

Blunt has the support of 85% of Tea Party members and 50% of those who are not sure. Carnahan gets 61% of the vote from those who are not members.

And a very large plurality of Missouri voters support the Tea Party movement.

Overall, 43% of Missouri voters say the Tea Party movement is good for the country, while 27% view it as a bad thing.

Twenty-two percent (22%) of Missouri voters consider themselves members of the Tea Party movement, compared to 16% nationwide. Fifty-four percent (54%) say they are not members, but 24% aren’t sure.

Of the 24 percent who “aren’t sure” whether their members of the tea party movement, I wonder what evidence they need to make up their minds

When it comes to the general election, Rasmussen pits Blunt against Secretary of State Robin Carnahan. Blunt leads Carnahan 48 to 43 percent. 

Need Primary Poll

It would be nice if a national pollster would check on Blunt vs. Purgason. The last poll of that primary race was in March and Blunt led 48 to 18 percent.  Again, though, Purgason seems to have caught a bit of a tailwind in recent weeks, at least in the St. Louis area.

When we look at issues, it’s a stark reminder of Robin Carnahan’s hard left liberalism. One example: 81 percent of those who oppose Arizona’s new immigration law support Robin Carnahan. 

Technorati Tags: Chuck Purgason, Missouri Senate Race, rasmussen report, Robin Carnahan, roy blunt

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And send a thanks to Annette at iheardthepeoplesay@gmail.com for her leadership.

It’s time for a change in politics as usual, because it’s no longer politics as usual!

Freedom Fights

Missouri’s Largest Candidate Fair

Sunday, June 27, 2010, 12 noon – 5 pm

St. Charles Convention Center 

You will not want to miss this event!  Informative and engaging?  Yes!  Boring and stuffy?  No! 

Advance tickets, as well as booth spaces, are available for purchase by clicking HERE.

 
Small version of press release below.  You can email us to receive a full-sized copy of the press release, or for further questions, at iheardthepeoplesay@gmail.com.

Do you worry that conservative grassroots might get overconfident and blow our chance to stop the advance of socialism in America?

I do.  I am concerned that we keep repeating the same tactics to the same audiences until both the audience and the actors become  . . . well, bored.

When I read stories like this one, that GOP sentiment is at an all-time high, I worry that some on our side might decide they can go back to their regularly scheduled programming. 

We can’t sit back, folks. 

The Block Captain and Liberty Evangelism project is intended to swell our ranks, not get us fired up.  We’re already fired up.  But we need to reach out.

Reach to whom?  Well, about twelve percent of us say we’ve participated in a tea party-type event in the past year.  But 58 percent want government to be smaller and less expensive.  We need to make sure that the 46 percent who want smaller government but who are not tea partyers are registered and ready to vote this year.

To do that, we need to get out and meet people. That doesn’t mean reading blogs and talking to other outspoken critics of big government.  That’s entertainment, not action.  Action requires a little bit more of us.  All of us.

When was the last time you handed someone a Constitution and said, “this is a gift. Please read it and decide for yourself whether we’re living into to these documents.” 

Who was the last new voter you registered?

When was the last time you asked a friend or loved one to join you in the Liberty Evangelism program?

I can tell you that it’s been over a week since I handed out a Constitution (except to new Block Captains), and I haven’t handed out a voter registration form in two weeks. I’m behind. (And I need to grab more Constitutions fast.)

There’s a temptation to wait for big rallies. There’s a temptation keep doing the same actions over and over again—writing on facebook, tweeting pithy comments, calling Claire McCaskill’s office. 

Each of these actions is worthy, but they’re not enough. In fact, most of those tactics have lost some value because we’ve done them so often for so long.  I mean, do you really think McCaskill’s office is shocked that so many constituents oppose cap and trade? 

I’m not saying stop calling or writing or rallying.  I’m saying swell our ranks. 

Polls tell us more Americans have decided, “You know what? I can live my life better than Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi can.” Every day our opportunity to create a sea change in history increases. In other words, people have heard and agreed with our message of smaller government, fiscal responsibility, lower taxes, and renewed federalism.

But we will prevail in November only if we convert those frustrated people into passionate voters.

That means we have to engage them, invite them, befriend them, court them, and register them.  Then we have to remind them to vote.  We should identify those who will take the extra step of engaging and recruiting others.

This is how we grow the base.  And we must.

Can you spare two hours this week to talk to the 58 percent who want to vote for smaller, cheaper government? 

Technorati Tags: block captains, gallup, Liberty Caucus, liberty evangelism, overconfidence, rasmussen

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