Conservatives have a way of talking about freedom that drives independents and moderates away.
This is really bad for the freedom movement.
The National Democratic Primary Race is likely to be boring which means that independents and many disaffected Democrats will vote in the Republican Primary.
This group is likely to vote for the furthest left candidate in the Republican field.
The massive influx of left leaning independents in the primary is likely to swamp the Tea Party … unless the Tea Party starts talking about freedom in a positive way.
For example, Members of the Tea Party want to overturn ObamaCare. This message resonates with every member of the movement. But it is an inherently negative message.
A campaign to "Restore Health Freedom" starts by overturning of ObamaCare.
This positive message starts a much broader discussion about the nature of health freedom and might help the Tea Party overturn the burdensome regulations put in place by states through the last several decades.
The left (aka, progressivism) has learned to grub power by manipulating language in ways that falsely project negative images onto the cause of freedom. Conservatives play the game that they accept the negative language. Even with the negative language, conservatism is better than progressivism.
Conservatives understand this game, but the population at large does not. The public at large chooses the Republican candidates.
If the Tea Party fails to challenge the manipulated language, the movement is lost.
If the goal is to restore health freedom; the Tea Party might have a chance in 2012. If the message is simply "Repeal ObamaCare" then health freedom is lost for the foreseeable future.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Friday, August 19, 2011
Community Color
My professors in college wasted many lectures spouting praise of Alinsky and Community Organizers.
Such community organizers unite one group against another and tend to created deeper divisions. The end result of activism and community organization tends to be an oppressive political machine and a top-down stagnant community.
The classical liberal tradition of the US Founders discovered that strong individuals make for vibrant communities.
I've burnt thousand of hours on a project called Community Color. The goal of this project was to explore the diversity that occurs in free societies simply by exploring local web sites.
As our nation is focused on the train wreck in Washington, our local communities are falling apart.
The centralized command-and-control economy envisioned by progressives is bankrupt. The classical liberals (aka the US Founders) had the right vision. A free society of strong individuals builds a strong community.
Progressives are leeches that infect both parties. Teddy Roosevelt, Hoover and many Republicans pursue progressive dreams. The LDS church is a top down progressive hierarchy that has Utah divided into an ugly US v. THEM dystopia. (Mormonism is a progressive ideology. There is little difference between the top-down health policies of Romney and Harry Reid. The state was founded as a commune. It still is run by a top down hierachy that actively suppresses non-Mormons.)
My goal in creating Community Color was to find a way to reflect the diversity of communities in the Mountain West.
At this point the project includes little more than a categorized directory and calendar. Unfortunately all the interactive features I added to the site were attacked by spammers.
The process of building the directory exposed me to the diversity of businesses and non-profits that occur in a free society. On the down side, I also got to witness sites going blank during the Obama Dominion.
A free society, by nature, becomes diverse and vibrant as the free people pursue diverse interests. Top-down organized communities tend to be stagnant and dependent on conformity.
Yes, I know diversity is a theme of the left. The current wave of progressives feign a forced diversity in a pathetic attempt to overcome negative images of the Socialism of previous generations.
IMHO, advocates of liberty would do well to emphasize that a free society of strong individuals results in strong communities. Freedom leads to an organic diversity. Foolishly, Conservatives conceded these terms to the left as progressives use forced diversity and top-down community organization in their grub for power.
I wish people would take the time to compare the dynamic social structure of free societies to the contrivances of community organizers and stand on the side of freedom.
Such community organizers unite one group against another and tend to created deeper divisions. The end result of activism and community organization tends to be an oppressive political machine and a top-down stagnant community.
The classical liberal tradition of the US Founders discovered that strong individuals make for vibrant communities.
I've burnt thousand of hours on a project called Community Color. The goal of this project was to explore the diversity that occurs in free societies simply by exploring local web sites.
As our nation is focused on the train wreck in Washington, our local communities are falling apart.
The centralized command-and-control economy envisioned by progressives is bankrupt. The classical liberals (aka the US Founders) had the right vision. A free society of strong individuals builds a strong community.
Progressives are leeches that infect both parties. Teddy Roosevelt, Hoover and many Republicans pursue progressive dreams. The LDS church is a top down progressive hierarchy that has Utah divided into an ugly US v. THEM dystopia. (Mormonism is a progressive ideology. There is little difference between the top-down health policies of Romney and Harry Reid. The state was founded as a commune. It still is run by a top down hierachy that actively suppresses non-Mormons.)
My goal in creating Community Color was to find a way to reflect the diversity of communities in the Mountain West.
At this point the project includes little more than a categorized directory and calendar. Unfortunately all the interactive features I added to the site were attacked by spammers.
The process of building the directory exposed me to the diversity of businesses and non-profits that occur in a free society. On the down side, I also got to witness sites going blank during the Obama Dominion.
A free society, by nature, becomes diverse and vibrant as the free people pursue diverse interests. Top-down organized communities tend to be stagnant and dependent on conformity.
Yes, I know diversity is a theme of the left. The current wave of progressives feign a forced diversity in a pathetic attempt to overcome negative images of the Socialism of previous generations.
IMHO, advocates of liberty would do well to emphasize that a free society of strong individuals results in strong communities. Freedom leads to an organic diversity. Foolishly, Conservatives conceded these terms to the left as progressives use forced diversity and top-down community organization in their grub for power.
I wish people would take the time to compare the dynamic social structure of free societies to the contrivances of community organizers and stand on the side of freedom.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Activist Training School
I reluctantly signed up for the Campaign For Liberty Activist Training Camp this weekend at the Southtowne Exposition Center.
I used the word "reluctantly" as I have never been fond of activist training.
Back in school, I followed my professors' lead and attended activist training for Marxist causes and came out of the experience seeing activist training itself as part of the problem.
An activist is self-committed to a cause and no longer committed to the pursuit of the truth. Activists training builds a political hierarchy of dullards and systematically fails in the pursuit of our ideals.
I think it is valuable for conservatives and libertarians to learn about the Alinsky Method to understand the corruption of the left. Sadly, when reactionary conservatives get too engrossed in the method, they become as bad as community organizers of the left.
I am attending the "Activist Training" hoping it will be an opportunity to network.
My greatest fear is that reactionaries will become the spitting image of the left destroying this nation once and for all.
I used the word "reluctantly" as I have never been fond of activist training.
Back in school, I followed my professors' lead and attended activist training for Marxist causes and came out of the experience seeing activist training itself as part of the problem.
An activist is self-committed to a cause and no longer committed to the pursuit of the truth. Activists training builds a political hierarchy of dullards and systematically fails in the pursuit of our ideals.
I think it is valuable for conservatives and libertarians to learn about the Alinsky Method to understand the corruption of the left. Sadly, when reactionary conservatives get too engrossed in the method, they become as bad as community organizers of the left.
I am attending the "Activist Training" hoping it will be an opportunity to network.
My greatest fear is that reactionaries will become the spitting image of the left destroying this nation once and for all.
Thursday, August 04, 2011
Beat Up on the Debt Ceiling
The media really beat on the Tea Party during the debt limit debate. The movement likely suffered a loss of political capital for very little gain.
The Tea Party got beat up because they let the left choose the issue. The debt limit was a crisis because the Pelosi/Reid Congress failed to raise the debt limit to match their spending.
The Pelosi/Reid Congress could have used their super majority to raise taxes or raise the debt limit. Pelosi/Reid chose to put our nation is a terrible spot hoping to gain political points by pushing our finances to the brink.
I hope that the budget fiasco made it clear to leaders of the Tea Party movement that they cannot simply let progressives define the battlefield and expect to win.
To restore American freedoms, the Tea Party needs to choose the issue.
The most powerful issue is Health Freedom.
The Health Freedom debate must start with fundamentals. It cannot start with the assumption that employer based insurance is health freedom.
Employer based health insurance was designed by progressives in decades past as part of the path to socialism. In the Carter administration, I attended lectures during which the professor put forward the notion that the first step to socialism was to convince Americans that group funding was the only way to pay for health care.
The professor instructed young activists to promote employer based health care.
I figured that if supporting group-funding of health care was the first step to socialism; then the first step to the restoration of liberty would be to promote self-funded health care.
While working in the insurance industry, I carefully deconstructed a group insurance pool and created a viable alternative to insurance called "The Medical Savings and Loan."
I developed the Medical Savings and Loan as a business model (not as a political platform).
However, I believe that this business model could play a vital role in the restoration movement.
The fact that the MS&L is important. It actually shows how the free market creates new businesses and new jobs.
BTW, the idea that austerity measures lead to prosperity is paradoxical until one realizes that government is, by nature, in a negative space.
Government, by nature, places constraints on the market. The argument for limiting government is a argument for limiting the constraints.
The argument for limited government is convoluted because it argues for a negative. Conservatives seek to place limits on the ability of the government to limit.
Adding the Medical Savings and Loan into the puzzle creates a mechanism in which one is arguing a positive.
My argument is that we should create the Medical Savings and Loan as an alternative to employer based insurance.
The Medical Savings and Loan, at this point, is simply a logical structure for self funded health care.
If the Tea Party argued for this new logical structure in conjuction with the argument for limited government, then they would have a complete system which shows why constraining government leads to prosperity.
Much as I would like to move on to different topics, I think I will continue to pound the drum for the Medical Savings and Loan through 2012.
The Tea Party got beat up because they let the left choose the issue. The debt limit was a crisis because the Pelosi/Reid Congress failed to raise the debt limit to match their spending.
The Pelosi/Reid Congress could have used their super majority to raise taxes or raise the debt limit. Pelosi/Reid chose to put our nation is a terrible spot hoping to gain political points by pushing our finances to the brink.
I hope that the budget fiasco made it clear to leaders of the Tea Party movement that they cannot simply let progressives define the battlefield and expect to win.
To restore American freedoms, the Tea Party needs to choose the issue.
The most powerful issue is Health Freedom.
The Health Freedom debate must start with fundamentals. It cannot start with the assumption that employer based insurance is health freedom.
Employer based health insurance was designed by progressives in decades past as part of the path to socialism. In the Carter administration, I attended lectures during which the professor put forward the notion that the first step to socialism was to convince Americans that group funding was the only way to pay for health care.
The professor instructed young activists to promote employer based health care.
I figured that if supporting group-funding of health care was the first step to socialism; then the first step to the restoration of liberty would be to promote self-funded health care.
While working in the insurance industry, I carefully deconstructed a group insurance pool and created a viable alternative to insurance called "The Medical Savings and Loan."
I developed the Medical Savings and Loan as a business model (not as a political platform).
However, I believe that this business model could play a vital role in the restoration movement.
The fact that the MS&L is important. It actually shows how the free market creates new businesses and new jobs.
BTW, the idea that austerity measures lead to prosperity is paradoxical until one realizes that government is, by nature, in a negative space.
Government, by nature, places constraints on the market. The argument for limiting government is a argument for limiting the constraints.
The argument for limited government is convoluted because it argues for a negative. Conservatives seek to place limits on the ability of the government to limit.
Adding the Medical Savings and Loan into the puzzle creates a mechanism in which one is arguing a positive.
My argument is that we should create the Medical Savings and Loan as an alternative to employer based insurance.
The Medical Savings and Loan, at this point, is simply a logical structure for self funded health care.
If the Tea Party argued for this new logical structure in conjuction with the argument for limited government, then they would have a complete system which shows why constraining government leads to prosperity.
Much as I would like to move on to different topics, I think I will continue to pound the drum for the Medical Savings and Loan through 2012.
Tuesday, August 02, 2011
A Parasitic Nation?
In 1983, Ronald Reagan created a stir by calling the Soviet Union an "evil empire." Predictibly, the MSM and cultural elite belittled Reagan as a lunatic for the statement; however, the reformist Mikhail Gorbachev and others engaged in introspection and saw great faults in their nation.
In 1987, the failed experiment of the Soviet Union finally collapsed.
This week Russian leader Vladimir Putin called the United States a parasite stating that we are living beyond our means and leeching off the world economy.
Prior to the New Deal and Great Society, the United States was the world's leading producer. In our new progressive era, we systematically attack and burden the productive sectors of our economy to create massive subsidies. This backwards way of thinking has created the largest parasitic class since the days before the of Ancient Rome.
Last century, America was the largest creditor nation in human history. Our political class borrowed and spent until we've become the laster creditor nation in history.
The parasite class not only lives in the government. Parasitism has taken over our schools and much of our financial sector.
Our current financial world is built around hedging and not producing.
The fall of America is a horrifying show to watch. The parasitic ruling class of America is bound to eat this nation whole and is likely to take down much of the world in its fall.
In 1987, the failed experiment of the Soviet Union finally collapsed.
This week Russian leader Vladimir Putin called the United States a parasite stating that we are living beyond our means and leeching off the world economy.
Prior to the New Deal and Great Society, the United States was the world's leading producer. In our new progressive era, we systematically attack and burden the productive sectors of our economy to create massive subsidies. This backwards way of thinking has created the largest parasitic class since the days before the of Ancient Rome.
Last century, America was the largest creditor nation in human history. Our political class borrowed and spent until we've become the laster creditor nation in history.
The parasite class not only lives in the government. Parasitism has taken over our schools and much of our financial sector.
Our current financial world is built around hedging and not producing.
The fall of America is a horrifying show to watch. The parasitic ruling class of America is bound to eat this nation whole and is likely to take down much of the world in its fall.
Monday, August 01, 2011
On the Battle Against Evil
There are two ways of looking at the issue of evil.
One can see evil as the opposite of good, or one can see evil as the perversion of good.
When one holds that evil is the opposite of good, one develops the idea that fighting evil is a matter of fighting those labeled as evil.
When one holds that evil is a perversion of good, one is likely to see introspection as the first step in the battle against evil, for if one becomes evil in the fight for good, then the fight is for naught.
One can see evil as the opposite of good, or one can see evil as the perversion of good.
When one holds that evil is the opposite of good, one develops the idea that fighting evil is a matter of fighting those labeled as evil.
When one holds that evil is a perversion of good, one is likely to see introspection as the first step in the battle against evil, for if one becomes evil in the fight for good, then the fight is for naught.
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