3rd Annual AFP Defending the Amer. Dream Summit, Wisconsin – Final Report

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, I am back home from attending the AFP Defending the American Dream Summit. The speakers were inspiring and the panel on which I sat during one of the break out sessions was really fun.

A word about what this whole thing was is apropos here. It was attended by some 4,000 folks, all regular every day folks, most from Wisconsin. Not all were necessarily AFP members as it was open to the public. A lot of different tea party groups also had representatives in attendance. There were some few vendors of buttons, T-Shirts and the like, but selling things was in no way the main point of this thing. The speakers and the message was preeminent. This was a true grassroots gathering.

The announcement was made that AFP Wisconsin had grown to 58,000 Wisconsinites and ranked as the second largest grassroots political organization in the state second only to the Wisconsin teachers’ union.

I guess my only complaint was that they tried to shoehorn so many speakers all into the 10AM to 11:30 AM slot. Here is the list of speakers we heard from…

• Mark block- State Director of AFP Wisconsin
• Tim Philips- National President of AFP
• Tim Nerenz- The Oldenburg Group
• Lord Christopher Monkton- Former advisor to Lady Margaret Thatcher and global warming skeptic
• J.B. Van Hollen- Wisc. Attorney General
• Grover Norquist- Amer. for Tax Reform
• Phil Kerpen- AFP
• Paul Driessen
• Eric O’Keefe- Sam Adams Alliance (Chicago, Ill.)
• Linda Hanses- Wisc. Prosperity Network
• Steve Moore- The Wall Street Journal
• Debra aller- Chairman and CEO of Jockey Int’l (Underwear manufacturers)
• Niger Innis- Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
• John Fund- The Wall Street Journal
• Dr. Chris Magiera- Healthcare (Bucky to the Rescue)
• Dr, David Gratzer- Canadian Doctor against Obamacare
• Judge David Prosser- Wisc. Supreme Court Justice
• Herman Cain- Author, Radio Show Host

OK, seriously? All these speakers in an hour and a half? Naturally it ran overtime. Still, they were nearly all riveting. So, the time went pretty quickly. But I do wish there weren’t so many as it was a tad much. As to the speeches, taxes, global warming and Obamacare dominated the discussion.

Also I was a bit disappointed that they were never able to get a table set up for me to live blog from. I guess they had trouble getting the union electricians, the Teamsters and other union layabouts to get in gear to get it all set up. Ah well, maybe next time.

After lunch (or rather as we ate), Michael Reagan, author and talk show host as well as son of Ronald Reagan, gave a nice address. Here I have to relate one of his stories about his dad as it was just so “Ronnie.”

When Mike was 8-years-old, he told us, he wanted a bigger allowance. Father Reagan gave him $1 a week and Mike said it was hard to keep up with all the other Hollywood kids that got far more than that. So, he asked his dad for more money. Instead of saying yes you can have it or no you can’t, Michael told us that dad Ronnie gave him a 20 minute lesson on Midwestern work ethics and federal tax policy! Ronald told him that he was taxed at nearly 90% and once a president gets into office that cuts his tax rate then Mike would get more money in his allowance. Michael Reagan laughed that once Ronnie’s tale was done, Michael almost wanted to give back half his $1 to his dad because of the unfairness of the tax! But, once JFK got to office and cut the personal income tax back to 75%, his dad gave him the raise he promised. From then on it was $5 a week. That whole story just seems so much like Ronald Reagan and it warmed everyone’s heart in the audience.

Breakout Sessions
I was part of the panel for the first breakout session after lunch. It was the RightOnLine, New Media Discussion Panel. Alongside me was Curt Mercadante of Merc Strategy Group and leading the panel was AFP’s RightOnLine Director Erik Telford.

We discussed how to use email, blogs, Google, FaceBook and Twitter to get your message out there and to get your friends, neighbors, family, and associates involved in the process locally. I was gratified that we had some really great questions from the audience, too. It seemed as if we had about half the audience with active bloggers and half that were trying to figure the whole new media world out. A good time was had by all.

Then I hit the road to get back so I didn’t stay for the 5PM closing reception.

Anyway, I have to thank Mr. Telford for inviting me up to the summit. I enjoyed my overnight trip to the Wisconsin Dells.

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Terrorists at Fla. Atlantic U Are O.K., Young Americans for Freedom VERBOTEN

-By Warner Todd Huston

We send our young adults to university to be educated in the ways of the world, we all know. Following that well-worn path, young James Schackleford decided on the publicly funded Florida Atlantic University for his edification and boy did he learn a lesson about modern education last week. Mr. Schackleford learned that the FAU administration prefers on its campus Islamic terrorist supporters over representatives of the conservative Young Americans for Freedom organization. He also learned that it’s open season on all conservatives at our American universities.

At the Boca Raton campus Mr. Schackleford determined that his school needed a chapter of YAF, a 40-year-old conservative student organization, and so gathered a few like-minded students to meet with YAF State Director Daniel P. Diaz to discuss how they should proceed on organizing a chapter in the school.

As the few gathered were meeting, university administrator *David Blank burst into the room and demanded that they cease their meeting and vacate the room. According to the YAF press release, Mr. Schackleford asked for an additional 15 minutes to finish and Blank acquiesced to the request. But the 15-minute grant was short lived.

Upon hearing Diaz address the liberal bias on the FAU campus, Blank stopped the meeting again and boorishly ordered the students to vacate the meeting room. Blank then shut off the room lights, tore down the group’s promotional posters, and called the campus police.

It didn’t end there. According to YAF, the campus police arrived and began to harass the students and Mr. Diaz outside as they were in the process of leaving the campus. The police demanded to see student IDs and then menacingly followed YAF rep. Diaz to his car.

Police told Diaz that they were investigating a “possible trespassing charge,” and then loudly joked that Diaz “probably had tea bags hanging out the back of his car” as Diaz prepared to leave.

Diaz says that the whole incident is proof positive of why a conservative group is needed at Florida Atlantic University.

“If we were a Marxist, Socialist or Liberal group they would have let us finish our meeting, but the university officials and police harassed us because we are conservatives. This was the exact liberal bias on campus that I was discussing in the meeting that these future YAFers experienced firsthand. The university is no longer a place of open discussion and freedom of expression, but a breeding ground of intolerance for conservative beliefs.”

One question immediately comes to mind over this incident: did student organizer Schackleford and YAF representative Diaz officially reserve a room at FAU for their informal meeting? I asked Diaz this very question.

Diaz told me that since it was an informal meeting that should have been over rather quickly, Mr. Schackleford did not think that he needed to officially reserve a room through the university staff. In fact, according to Diaz, himself a former FAU student, such unscheduled meetings occur all the time.

No we did not reserve a room. When I was a student at the university when a room wasn’t being occupied one could go in and meet or study, and as long they left before the next scheduled group arrived they would be ok. After asking around that is how it still is.

In retrospect it was an obvious lapse in judgment not to officially reserve a room. Or perhaps they should have met off campus.

However, that small lapse in judgment does not absolve this oppressive, over-the-top reaction that university administrator David Blank exhibited. After all, not long ago Florida Atlantic University hosted a whole slew of Islamic terror supporters on campus. In 2006, for instance, the Muslim students group at FAU hosted an event at which appeared Hamas and Hezbollah supporter, Al-Haaj Ghazi Khankan; alleged Neo-Nazi, William Baker; and potential co-conspirator of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, Siraj Wahhaj.

Apparently it’s perfectly O.K., as far as the FAU administration is concerned, to have Islamofascist terror given full-throated support on its campus but it is a serious no-no to talk about organizing a patriotic American conservative student’s organization there.

Perhaps Mr. Diaz is right in his contention that a YAF chapter is sorely needed at Florida Atlantic University?

*David Blank appears to be the Event Planning Specialist for the Student Union at FAU. He can be reached at dblank@fau.edu.

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Move Over Gore, Make Way for Lindsey Graham

The Guardian, official mouthpiece of Britain’s pointy-headed establishment Left, can’t help but admit that the Nobel Prize-bedecked Al Gore is a figure of fun. Referring to the Goracle’s recent desperate rant in the friendly New York Times, Guardian contributor Dan Kennedy (a Boston journalism professor) laments that Prince Albert

has not only spent his political capital, but is running a deficit. Mocked by the right every time he pops up, he is no longer in a position to convince anyone who isn’t already convinced — especially when he writes for our most liberal daily newspaper.

It started, of course, with the vicious lies told about Gore during the 2000 presidential campaign, the most notorious of which was that he claimed to have “invented the internet” … the smear campaign that almost certainly cost Gore the presidency.

You don’t get much more vicious than poking fun at a blowhard politician for indulging in excessive self-promotion. It’s almost as mean as saying that skunks stink.

The hate stirred up by that effort has long since congealed into conventional wisdom. Now, whenever Gore speaks out on climate change, he is subjected to withering, fact-free scorn. It has its effect on those trying to figure out the truth. Go ahead. Feel the hate:

“Do you think of your breathing passages as spewing sh*t?” sneered Ann Althouse, referring to Gore’s use of an “open sewer” metaphor.

Another rightwing blogger, Van Helsing, wrote that Gore had emerged “to demand totalitarian restrictions on economic activity in the name of a crisis that clearly does not exist”.

And Andrew Breitbart’s notorious Big Journalism site ran a commentary by Kyle-Anne Shiver, who said of Gore, “His life as a jet-setting, Nobel Peace Prize-sharing, Oscar-brandishing celebrity is on the line. Without the people’s diehard faith in his religion of global warming, Al will be forced to trade his lifestyle of the mega-rich-and-famous for an ignominious and expensive defense of never-ending lawsuits brought by enraged sucker governments and private investors.”

Not to worry, moonbats. Another hero has arisen to take up the burden of rescuing the polar bears from our freedom and prosperity:

But if Gore’s effectiveness as a climate-change activist has expired, there is nevertheless reason to hope. Because there, in the same edition of the Sunday Times, just a few inches away, was columnist Tom Friedman’s interview with the ghost of climate change present, South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham—living proof that it is possible for a conservative Republican not only to be sane, but to work toward real solutions to actual problems.

Grahamnesty is praised for wanting to shut down Club Gitmo (which would be a big propaganda coup for Muslim terrorists and their liberal enablers), for backing racist radical Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court, and most of all, for conspiring with the disgraceful Hanoi John Kerry to drive millions of jobs overseas in the name of the global warming hoax with Tax & Charade. They might also have mentioned his support for shamnesty, his denunciation of those who want our border defended as “bigots” who need to “shut up,” his alliance with sinister hard left financier George Soros, the delight he took in Dems taking over the Senate, and his support for leaping toward communism by nationalizing banks.

With uncharacteristic understatement, the Guardian admits that Goober is “well to the left of many South Carolina Republicans.” Fortunately, Tea Partiers are on to Graham; as is the Republican Party of Charleston. Less fortunately, there’s nothing voters can do about him until 2014. Maybe he’ll pull a Specter by then.

On a tip from Floccinaucinihilipilificator. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.

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Using the System FOR Us: The Freedom Force Strategy

The National Precinct Alliance is an effort to give tea party folks the guidance to make a difference at home, within their own local political system. This is the only way that we conservatives can influence what is happening in our state government and what is happening in Washington. All our tea party protests are great, but if they aren’t followed up with real political activism — as opposed to mere bombast and carping — we will find that politics will move on without incorporating our ideas, we will stay marginal in the actual power plays in our governments.

So, with that said, here is some info from the National Precinct Alliance:

The Freedom Force Strategy

The American people find themselves in the very difficult position of having to reform their government from the bottom up, after decades of public neglect which allowed politicians from both political parties to behave as though the U.S. Constitution doesn’t exist any longer.

State legislatures have been forced by over-reaching federal policies, to restate, reclaim and reassert Tenth Amendment rights just to defend the citizens of their states from oppressive policies coming out of Washington DC.

These recent events have caused a great awakening in the American populace, which has manifest in numerous patriotic activist organizations like the many Tea Party, 912, Town Hall and We the People movements across the country. We refer to these combined common efforts as “the patriot movement” which is much bigger and broader than any individual faction of the movement.

Early efforts to protest and petition elected servants of the people have fallen on deaf ears… and

American patriots determined to protect and preserve freedom, liberty and prosperity for future generations, find it necessary to take specific tangible actions via constitutional processes, in an organized strategy to reclaim control of their nation.

In this mission, if we fail to plan, or to organize with tangible strategies, then we have planned to fail and the price of failure is unacceptable.

Operations like the Tea Party, Town Hall and 912 movements have done a great job of waking folks up, getting them engaged in protesting their runaway government, identifying the very real assault on American freedom, liberty and prosperity. But now, patriots have figured out that these activities fall short of the mark of affecting change.

Despite popular rhetoric about a “leaderless movement” and “no need for unified efforts” that work in concert with each other in an organized fashion, real and tangible solutions to very real threats to Americas future require planning, strategizing and organizing between the more than 2000 patriot groups in the country today.

A very well organized assault on our country cannot be defeated by a disorganized and fractured resistance.

Freedom Force has been formed to address certain specific challenges facing the patriot movement and the need to work together to reclaim control of the United States of America.

Freedom Force is a non-profit, non-partisan educational foundation focused only upon helping the patriot movement unify in tangible strategies designed to return control of the runaway government to the American patriots. Freedom Force has NO ties or loyalties to any political party, or special interest group.

Freedom Force goals are based solely upon the Charters of Freedom, and our strategies are based solely upon peaceful and constitutionally grounded uses of the existing system of self-governance, aimed at returning the American people to their leadership roles as prescribed by our founding documents.

Our Stated Challenges

• A runaway federal government acting at odds with both states and individual rights, and beyond the enumerated powers afforded the federal government via the US Constitution
• Fiscally irresponsible elected officials who have driven the most prosperous nation ever known to mankind, to the brink of bankruptcy
• A federal government which has adopted a “top down” view of power, at odds with our principles of self-governance of, by and for the people and their individual right to live free
• Returning the US Constitution to its rightful place as the supreme law of this land
• Re-educating the American populace which has been carefully misinformed for decades, via the failing state run education system, the internationally controlled US press and the entertainment industry
• Protecting 1st, 2nd and 10th Amendment rights, along with all “unalienable” rights
• Unifying the patriot movement employing organized tangible strategies without offending anyone’s ego
• Dealing with profiteers in the movement who are exploiting the grass-roots volunteers
• Directing patriots towards real solutions and away from all “mock” solutions that waste time, energy and resources needed to restore our country to greatness
• Address the use of PACs (Political Action Committees) to redirect patriot funds into partisan interests often at odds with the patriot movement

Our Strategy

Our strategy is not to “control” anyone. We have no interest in interrupting the productive efforts found in many of the local or regional patriot groups. Our strategy is simply to develop tangible action oriented and results driven initiatives that can make a real difference, rather than just “send a message.”

To accomplish this, Freedom Force has “strategically partnered” with several significant patriot groups already operating on the ground, with track records of success in their initiative-specific operations of expertise.

Four ways to be part of Freedom Force

• A Strategic Partner – is a patriot organization which is focused upon and directly engaged in a specific tangible initiative vital to the overall Freedom Force strategy for reclaiming America through peaceful and constitutionally grounded activism.
• A Strategic Alliance – is a patriot organization that participates and promotes the strategic initiatives within Freedom Force and its partners, in addition to its own internal organizational initiatives.
• A Member – is an individual who believes in, participates in and supports the Freedom Force strategies and initiatives by engaging with Freedom Force and its strategic partners and allies.
• An Advisor – is an individual with special expertise in a particular area of interest to Freedom Force and our partners and allies.

Our Strategic partners

National Precinct Alliance was formed in early December 2009 with the single purpose of filling vacant precinct seats in both political parties and NPA has already become the national leader in that initiative, moving more than 30,000 patriots into precincts across the country. Tax Day Tea Party was the first to send their 60,000 members to work the NPA precinct executive strategy, and recently, Tea Party Express sent their 350,000 member base to join in that effort. Patriots seeking precinct power should join www.NationalPrecinctAlliance.org immediately and get engaged.

Icaucus is leading the nation in the arena of in-depth candidate vetting, so that we are no longer dependent upon campaign rhetoric alone in choosing those who wish to lead our nation from elective office. Candidate vetting information developed by icaucus will be fed through the Freedom Force network, where Freedom Force members and partner organizations can use the best available information to move constitutionally conscious candidates into power from the ground up. Patriots seeking to engage in the effort to vet candidates should join that effort at www.ourcaucus.com immediately.

The Voices of America (www.thevoicesofamerica.org) is a national effort focused on teaching Precinct Organizing best practices to help grow patriot organization membership, to help these organizations gain greater political clout, and to impact 2010 elections by electing candidates who adhere to Constitutional principles of limited government, free markets, and individual freedoms. This Precinct Organizing methodology was successfully used by Democrats in 2008 to gain control of the House, Senate, and Presidency with only 20% of the population being Liberal. Just think what can be accomplished by engaging and mobilizing the 76% of voters who consider themselves Conservatives or Moderates and who have decided to be the “Silent Majority” no more!

Freedom Force has many new strategic allies coming on board, which we are not yet ready to publicly announce.

But the rumors of division and an inability to unify in common purpose is false. We are being very successful in building strategic alliances with numerous patriot organizations behind the scenes, which is where such an effort is much easier to accomplish. When we do release a list of strategic allies in the near future, folks who thought it couldn’t be done will be shocked and those who do not appear on that list will hope to appear on that list soon after.

We have three strict rules about alliances with other organizations…

1. NO profiteering on the volunteer works of patriotic citizens
2. NO direct or indirect affiliation or financial interest in partisan or special interest organizations
3. NO wasted energy, time or resources on non-tangible or “mock” initiatives

We will not knowingly align with any organization involved in any of the three counter-productive activities. End of story… So if an organization does not appear on our list of allies, there is a good chance that they are engaged in one or more of these activities.

Internal Initiatives

Freedom Force also has a few key internal initiatives which are already operating below public radar. For strategic reasons, we do not discuss these initiatives openly at this time. These particular initiatives are of a sensitive nature. Information on these actions are “close hold” and available only on a “need to know” basis at present. We can only hope that our members and allies understand the need for a certain level of security.

Unifying the Right in Tangible Action

Unlike the left, which functions on group think and group actions, the right is made up of free-thinking independent minded individuals not accustomed to “community organizing” concepts. The right is made up of self-sufficient individuals accustomed to meeting life’s challenges on their own.

As a result, there is no shortage of ideas or leaders on the right. That’s why we have 2000 leaders leading in a hundred different directions at the moment, each equally certain that they have the right plan and can accomplish the goal all alone, as they have done all of their lives.

But this challenge is different from anything they have ever faced before.

• The leftist movement is massive, international.
• It is VERY well organized, around the globe and in America.
• It is VERY well funded.
• They play by no set of rules, other than the Rules for Radicals.
• They plan on taking no prisoners and are happy to destroy every American in their quest for a New World Order.
• And they are years ahead of the opposition, already in full control of the White House, congress, the judicial system, the press and academia.

In short, they control everything today. So, mounting a successful counter-movement is made much more difficult by the fact that the right currently controls none of the tools needed to stop the left from steamrolling forward.

The Money Thing – Money is Power

It doesn’t matter whether or not we like it. Reality is inescapable and one reality is, in politics, money is power. Every political strategy requires funding at some level and usually, the best funded ideas move forward.

To date, Freedom Force has thousands of members across the country who have “pledged” financial support for the operation and to say that we are very grateful for that support would be an understatement.

As of today, we have not yet asked anyone to send in a single penny to fund the many activities already underway. ALL of it has been done with internal “out of pocket” funding by the founding members of Freedom Force, and the volunteer efforts of many great patriots.

For the first time in my life, I am actually receiving mail from people upset by the fact that we have not yet asked them to send their money in. What a great position to be in, with so many wonderful patriots anxious to do their part! Many have even written to up their pledges because the web site won’t let you change your initial pledge amount. – Thank you all!

We have not asked you to send money yet for two very good reasons…

1. Our initial estimates are changing as we have begun to build a network of patriots willing to use their own talents and resources to make a difference for their country. We do not want to ask for more than we really need, or ask any sooner than we actually need the funds.

2. As we have been able to fill in vital parts of our strategy through strategic partnerships, those operations are able to raise funds directly and we recommend that Freedom Force members support those operations directly so that Freedom Force funds can be dedicated to internal initiatives managed by Freedom Force directly, reducing the need for funds.

But fear not… We will ask for the pledges to be acted upon very soon, as those funds become necessary and as we are able to disclose more information about all of the Freedom Force objectives and initiatives. Thank you for your patience and continued support!

At this time, we ask that you help spread the word by sharing the Freedom Force story with as many fellow patriots as possible, encouraging them to become a member of Freedom Force, pledge support for our objectives and strategies, and engage with our partners and allies immediately.

We do not have to wait on funding to be productive in the patriot effort immediately. Get in the game wherever you best fit, but get in the game.

Our country’s future depends upon what each of us is willing to do in the effort to restore America to that shining city on the hill, and the beacon of freedom and liberty all around the globe.

www.FreedomForce.us

www.NationalPrecinctAlliance.org

www.ourcaucus.com

www.thevoicesofamerica.org

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The Mount Vernon Statement, A Poor Man’s Manifesto… VERY Poor

-By Warner Todd Huston

A group made up of some of the biggest names in contemporary conservatism got together a few days ago and crafted what they are calling the “Mount Vernon Statement,” a manifesto of sorts meant to give direction to today’s conservative movement. Put succinctly, it fails to fill the bill.

Taken as a whole this statement is fine as a short history lesson. It explains pretty clearly what the founders had wrought when their basic work was done with the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. But as a statement of principles that might guide today’s discussion I do not think the letter works.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that this effort is harmful. In fact, I think every young person should read it for its explication of our historically conservative American principles. The problem is that this thing doesn’t seem to speak directly to what we are facing today like a statement that perhaps aims to become boilerplate should.

Some of those involved with the statement said that the 1960 “Sharon Statement” served as their inspiration. The Sharon Statement, intended to give some ideological umph to Goldwater conservatives, is an effort that works much better as a rallying cry to action. Sadly, the Mount Vernon Statement falls a little flat in this respect.

Historically I have two minor qualms about the newest effort. First of all its name doesn’t resonate. Yes, George Washington was the indispensable man of our early republic. Without him the warring factions facing off in political battle during our early republic just might have strangled this baby in its crib. But, as steadying a force as he was, Washington was not really the ideological or intellectual father of our nation. He was the father that kept the kids from beating each other up, the father we looked up to as a model of comportment, the man we looked to as the solid rock of the family, certainly, but he wasn’t the idea man. For that we looked to men like Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams among many others.

So, naming this letter after George Washington’s estate seems a bit odd. Better that these folks should have met in Independence Hall, Philadelphia and called this the Philadelphia Statement, the Independence Statement, or some such thing. The words “Mount Vernon” are obviously meant to lend historical heft to the document but they just don’t succeed as a meaningful ideological association. In fact, it’s sort of hollow. Are we naming our bedrock ideological principles for the man that didn’t craft them? That seems a bit odd to me.

Secondly, I find fault with this paragraph (my bold):

The conservatism of the Declaration asserts self-evident truths based on the laws of nature and nature’s God. It defends life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It traces authority to the consent of the governed. It recognizes man’s self-interest but also his capacity for virtue.

The word “recognizes” is not the correct word to use for what the founders thought about the word “virtue.” They didn’t merely “recognize” virtue existed. They built their entire political edifice on the insistence that our political leaders practice virtue and that they base their every move on the need to be seen as civically virtuous. This is an idea about which few of our political leaders today have the slightest clue, not to mention that the public is generally ignorant of what the founders meant when they discussed public virtue. Sadly, this letter doesn’t help us regain a proper perspective on the founder’s idea of public virtue.

The Mount Vernon Statement missed an opportunity to better explain what virtue in government could mean as a rallying cry for today’s conservative movement.

The Mount Vernon Statement is a fine little history lesson but compared to the Sharon Statement, it just doesn’t seem to as immediately take on the issues that we face. Where is the discussion of the destruction of our educational system, where is the warning against our worst foreign threat, where is the assertion that our system of jurisprudence has been undermined? All these things are broadly implied by the Mount Vernon Statement, granted, but one wishes that today’s problems were more directly addressed.

While we don’t want a statement that names names or attacks specific policies directly — that would detract from the essential universality of such a statement of principles — still to my mind the Mount Vernon Statement is a bit too broad. I feel that we need something a tad more direct. The Sharon Statement was perfect for its mixture of what were then current issues and timeless conservatives principles.

Should you have signed onto the Mount Vernon Statement, or should you feel that you’d like to do so, I can find no harsh words for you. As I said, there is no great harm done by this effort. Unfortunately, there is also correspondingly little succor that this effort can lend to our cause. It seems like a nice history lesson but as a manifesto to rally around it is more like a staid assertion than a battle cry. It is eminently forgettable.

Part Two

Yes, it’s easy to criticize. Surely it will occur to the minds of many readers of my criticism here that I should offer solutions along with my criticisms. So I offer the following basic idea of what I’d consider a better “statement” than what resulted from the efforts at Mount Vernon, Virginia. I’ll call it the “Huston Statement” for lack of a better title and since, well, I’m the one writing the thing.

Remembering that I am one man, not a committee of 80 some high-powered conservative operatives, here are the ideas I thought of while reading the Mount Vernon Statement, humbly offered as a basis upon which to further the discussion:

The Huston Statement

Since our political climate has long since drifted from the first principles of our founding and since we now face a crisis threatening to tear down our American moral center we commit ourselves to re-establishing our American character.

We believe that our Constitution and the principles espoused in the Declaration of Independence form the best guide by which to nurture our American character and provides a firm bedrock upon which to build a government.

We as Americans believe:

That as individuals we have the right of self-determination, to be free of overweening involvement in our lives by government at all levels from local, to state, to federal.

That as free men we must strongly assert that we are responsible for ourselves, our family, and our property and that others owe us nothing but to observe our rights as we observe theirs.

That our liberties depend on our civic virtue and that it is up to each of us to become informed citizens.

With these God-given liberties in mind, that our representatives must strive to keep government out of the lives of the people to the greatest extent practicable and that they should honor the principles of limited government as handed down to us from our founders.

And we assert that adherence to these principles will act as a beacon of freedom to the world, that we should actively promote them abroad giving succor to all those that would follow in our footsteps, and that we should not lend legitimacy to foreign bodies or nations that retreat from them.

We affirm that:

Private property is sacrosanct

The market-based economy free of government meddling must be preserved

Employees must be free of compulsory associations

Governments must be accountable to the voters not to judges and unions

Communities have the right to draft standards without federal approval

Education is a local responsibility solely under local and state control

It is freedom of religion, not freedom from religion

And that our Second Amendment rights are God-given and cannot be infringed

Additionally, we as Americans also reaffirm that legislation is the rightful duty of our constituted bodies of representatives and not the venue of capricious judges. Ruling from the bench is no better than the ill-considered tyrannies from the throne from which we so long ago rebelled.

Finally, let us understand these principles to be an affirmation of our American character, one that has made our nation the richest and strongest nation in human history. Any force, whether domestic or foreign, that wishes to materially alter this character is an enemy to our nation and one that should not be treated lightly but faced squarely and with resolution.

Well, this is how I see a statement of principles that are geared to today’s issues but are still the sort that attest to our timeless conservative ideals.

I hope this can serve to continue the discussion that the Mount Vernon Statement started.

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