The Conservative Revolution

I just watched David Bossie’s new film, “Hillary The Movie.” It was a good reminder of the corrupt and power-hungry Clinton political machine. I highly recommend it to conservative opinion leaders who want to spread the word about the threat her presidency would pose to our national security, individual freedom and economic prosperity.

The film also has a cameo by my boss, FreedomWorks chairman Dick Armey, which is cool. So get the dvd, watch it and pass it along to someone else.

Congrats to Citizens United and David Bossie for a key tool in the arsenal of truth against the Clinton propaganda machine.

As the race for the GOP nomination heats up, I thought I would add my two cents to the debate. I originally supported Senator Sam Brownback for his staunch pro-life record coupled with his sound economic record. Once he left the race, I decided that Senator Fred Thompson and Congressman Ron Paul best represented my views on economic liberty and social issues. Their foreign policy positions are in stark contrast, and I agree much more with Thompson than Paul on foreign policy. [Paul has a strict non-interventionist view that is less realistic in today's world.]

Who will I vote for in the Virginia primary on Feb. 12th? I guess it depends upon whether or not the race is still up for grabs after super-duper Tuesday. I don’t think it will be, which means I will probably cast my vote for Ron Paul, my ideal candidate. If Thompson is in serious contention for the nomination on election day, I will likely vote for him instead.

What I love about Ron Paul is that when he is asked about ending government programs, he answers by saying he’d rather abolish entire departments, starting with the IRS and the Department of Education. His platform is not just to slow the growth of government, but to cut it down dramatically. No other candidate is bold enough to take such a stand. Ron Paul is without a doubt the most libertarian/conservative candidate in the race.

As for the others…

Rudy is a proven leader, and would probably make a strong commander-in-chief. But his liberal views on abortion and his anti-liberty position on guns are disheartening. I would only vote for Rudy if he got the GOP nomination and was taking on Hillary or Obama.

Mitt is a flip-flopping used car salesman of a politician. I like some of what he says, his private sector experience and his strong family values (practiced as much as preached.) I just don’t know if I can believe what he says, since he seems to be driven by the polls more than anything. I would more than likely support Mitt against the Democrat nominee.

McCain is a statesman and a patriot, but is hostile to free speech (McCain-Feingold), supports global warming nonsense like a “cap and trade” system and voted against the Bush tax cuts. While his leadership, judgment and character are his strongest attributes, he is not my favorite in the race. I would have no problem supporting McCain against the Democratic nominee in November.

Huckabee is a populist with sharp anti-business rhetoric. He sounds more like John Edwards than Ronald Reagan. His tax and spending record in Arkansas is awful, and the Cato Institute and Club for Growth have given him failing grades on fiscal policy. I would have an extremely hard time voting for Huckabee, even against the Democrats.

Today’s Washington Post has a piece by Jackson Diehl about human rights activists from Egypt who recently came to Washington to meet with American organizations about community organizing and new media strategies. I had the opportunity to meet these activists and offer my own advice and experience in a training session hosted by Freedom House, a human rights organization in Washington. There is a young generation of Egyptians that wants to move beyond the authoritarian ways of Hosni Mubarak and the Egyptian government. These activists deserve our support and friendship. Hopefully I helped them out a little in their efforts to bring human rights and democratic reforms to Egypt. Here is a quote from the Post article about one of the most energetic young activists from the group, Ahmed Samih.

“The majority of Egyptians are like us, under the age of 35,” said Ahmed Samih, the 28-year-old director of the Andalus Institute for Tolerance and Anti-Violence Studies in Cairo.

Samih, a fearless man who says he has been a political activist since age 17, founded a Facebook group called “What happens when Hosni Mubarak dies?” Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt under “emergency law” since 1981, is 79. But he is noticeably fading. And Samih’s group has attracted 2,741 members, almost all of them Egyptian.

Ahmed and his fellow activists are a brave group of people. They are also very creative in applying new technologies to spreading the word about their cause. I wish Ahmed and his fellow freedom fighters luck in their noble pursuit of liberty for all Egyptians.

For the second year in a row, The Young Conservatives of Texas at UT-Austin are displaying their “ACLU Solstice Barn” instead of a traditional nativity scene on campus. They are parodying the anti-Christian and far left stances of the ACLU, by replacing the three wise men with Stalin, Lenin and Marx, leaving out a baby Jesus and replacing Mary and Joseph with “Gary and Joseph.”

KVUE news has a short video report. You can also view YCT’s pictures here.

Although the media isn’t paying too much attention to this right now, Venezuela is set to hold an election on Sunday to vote on Hugo Chavez’s referendum. If the Venezuelans vote “si” Hugo Chavez will be able to become presidente for life.

Unfortunately, Chavez has been able to become quite popular with many poor people in his country, and expectations are that they will vote to grant him the power he covets. This reminds me of a line from the Star Wars series, when Natalie Portman’s character Queen Amidala says, “So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause.” The evil character Palpatine had just declared martial law and granted himself the title of “emperor” to a cheering Senate.

Sadly, the Chavez story is a real one. But the lesson from Star Wars is as old as human civilization. Lord Acton said it best, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

My question is whether Cindy Sheehan, Danny Glover, Harry Belafonte and Sean Penn will ever come to regret their sycophantic photos with the power-hungry and brutal dictator of Venezuela. Then again, the left has never really come to grips with its support for Castro or Stalin, so my expectations are low.

This article by two professors at Washington State University claims that conservatives are racists trying to “corporatize” college campuses. It mentions yours truly, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and the Collegiate Network as people responsible for the conservative revolution on college campuses.

Political theater has proven as important to advancing conservative ideologies as more serious venues like newspapers. In keeping with broader trends to disclaim racism under the cover of humor and satire, conservative student groups embrace the power of play to advance their agendas, which mix politics and pleasure in unexpected ways. Indeed, in describing the rationale of affirmative-action bake sales, one of their creators, Brendan Steinhauser, former executive director of the Young Conservatives of Texas at the University of Texas at Austin, remarked, “The idea was to parody the actual policies that some colleges had enacted, which gave points to members of certain ethnic groups while at the same time punishing those from other ethnic groups.”

The whole article is worth reading. It’s a pity they didn’t contact me for an explanation of our goals on college campuses. It is not about promoting one race over another, but rather, about moving toward a society where race is a non-issue. I really don’t think these two professors understand our opposition against political correctness and multiculturalism. I’d be more than happy to come to Washington State and discuss it with them at a forum or over coffee.

If they don’t believe that conservatives face hostility on college campuses, they should check out Indoctrinate U, a film that documents such situations quite well.

I called the office of student affairs at Texas State University today and they told me that they were not attempting to stifle the free speech of one of their students, Jessica Irwin. The person I talked to said that the university received a letter from the ADC about the possibility of an event called Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week. The official said that the university then contacted the David Horowitz Freedom Center and asked who the TSU contact for the Terrorism Awareness Project was. According to the school official, the Horowitz Freedom Center gave them Jessica’s name. I have not heard back from the center about how they got her name and contact information.
The university then told Jessica to come to a meeting, and at the meeting proceeded to ask her whether she was planning an Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week. The official told me that the reason for this meeting was to “make sure the students would be safe” in case the event were to occur on campus. But when the university found out that Jessica was not organizing such an event, the official claims they let the matter drop.

This is not what Jessica told me. Jessica said that she was asked to prepare a written statement indicating that she was not taking part in the project, nor was her chapter of College Republicans. Jessica also added that the university grilled her about whether her group was planning to protest illegal immigration. Jessica was “strongly urged” not to hold a Catch an “Illegal Immigrant” event.
When Jessica tried to submit her statement to the University Star, the student newspaper, the editor did not run it. On top of that, various reporters have been calling her and CR chairman Traci Adams, asking them about the event, even though Jessica told them that CR had never planned to hold such an event. Jessica has sent the statement to the newspaper and the university, but it has not been published.
Something is rotten in the state of Texas. There seems to be a pattern of university officials and student journalists refusing to leave Jessica and Traci alone. The two might even have to face a panel of administrators or the board of regents to “talk about” the plans they have for various events.

I am not sure what direction this story will go next, but the president of Texas State University and the student affairs office are on notice.

Any violation of freedom of expression or intimidation tactics waged against the College Republicans will be met by a public outcry from concerned friends, alumni and donors of TSU. If the university decides to shut down an event because they don’t like the message, they will encounter a public relations nightmare from groups that are dedicated to protecting students’ free speech rights.

I strongly urge the university to refrain from harassing, intimidating or singling out the CR’s in any way in order to prevent them from holding an event on campus that is within the bounds of political and intellectual discourse.

If you’d like to help Jessica and Traci, please leave a comment and I’ll let you know how you can do so. I will post an update next week on this story as it unfolds.