Unite for Freedom! (or Conservatives Unite!) | Eastern North Carolina Now

A message to the Tea Party, 9/12 groups, the Republican Liberty Caucus, Ron Paul supporters, and other Liberty-minded groups and individuals....

    In this article, I hope to convince grassroots conservatives to unite in the coming year to re-assert founding values and strengthen principles of Liberty and to reject the contorted view of the Constitution that President Barack Obama is pushing on the American people.

    First, let's view the results of the 2012 election, as much as it pains me to do so --

    1). Obama received a majority of the electoral votes - 332 to 206

    2). He won the popular vote: 50 - 48%

    3). Independents made up 29% of the vote this time, and Romney beat Obama by five points among those voters. This was an increase over 2008 when McCain didn't capture any of the independent vote.

    4). Surprisingly, Mitt Romney received less votes in November than McCain got in 2008. Romney received 2-3 million less votes than McCain. Romney lost the 2012 election not so much because he got fewer votes than Barack Obama but because he got fewer votes than John McCain in 2008.

    5). Obama received 60.6 million votes in 2012, almost 9 million less than he received in 2008. Again, if Romney could have had even a slightly better showing than McCain had in 2008, he would have won the presidency.

    6). Outside the South, President Obama defeated Romney 55 - 45%. In the South (minus Virginia and Florida), Romney took the lead 60 - 40%. As the Daily Beast put it: "Romney got elected president of the old confederacy."

    7). Romney won North Carolina by 2% of the vote.

    8). Obama only received 39% of the white vote - the worst showing among whites since Mondale. Yet outside the South, whites didn't turn out as strongly for Romney either. In fact, the share of votes cast by whites was at its lowest (at 72%) since 1992.

    9). Romney won among white voters by 20 percentage points. That was up from John McCain's edge of 12 percentage points in 2008. Of all those who voted for Romney, 88% were white.

    10). Non-whites made up 28% of the electorate, up a bit from 27% in 2008. This group largely backed Obama: 71% of Hispanics (up 4 points from 2008) and 93% of blacks (down 3-4 points from 2008).

    11). Romney, on the other hand, received only 2% of the black vote and 29% of the Hispanic vote.

    12). Young voters were important to giving Obama his first term. Voters under age 30 showed up again this time: They represented 19% of all voters, one point higher than 2008. But this time, they didn't back Obama as strongly this time. In 2008, they backed him 66%, but in November their support dropped by 6 points.

    13). Seniors backed Romney by 56 to 44%, mostly unchanged from 2008.

    14). Married women backed Obama by 11 points (down from 2008) while married women backed Romney by 7 points (a far better showing than McCain got).

    15). Men, in general, backed Romney (by 7 percentage points), but married men backed him by an even wider margin (almost 2-1).

    16). White Catholics went for Romney by a margin of 59-40%.

    17). Romney apparently didn't fare as well as he could have among Mormon voters. George W. Bush received more support from the Mormon community in 2004 than Romney did in November.

    18). While Romney won the presidential debates, the attention that Obama received in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, particularly with bloated NJ Governor Chris Christie, helped him in the polls in the days leading up to the election. (Never mind that the government has yet to provide any assistance to the victims). 42% of voters said Obama's handling of the hurricane disaster influenced their vote in a positive way. The Benghazi scandal, on the other hand, which far exceeded any wrong-doing that Richard Nixon did in the Watergate affair, seemed to have no negative impact on voters. 4 Americans serving their country in a hostile part of the world notified the State Department that their lives were in danger from radical extremists and requested additional security, but were denied. Hillary Clinton watched in real time as Ambassador Chris Stevens, computer specialist Sean Smith, and former Navy Seals Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were overcome by a terrorist assault on the US Consulate and a safe house. An urgent request from the CIA for military back-up and air support during the attack was denied. US forces were told to stand down and 4 Americans were left to be slaughtered.
While Romney won the presidential debates, the attention that Obama received in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, particularly with bloated NJ Governor Chris Christie, helped him in the polls in the days leading up to the election.

    19). Republicans lost 6 seats in the US House

    20). Republicans lost 3 seats in the US Senate

    The fatal mistake that we made was in thinking that voter turn-out would be like that of 2010 when Republicans made historic gains in state government and in Washington DC. The single cause of Romney's defeat was the failure of Republicans and conservatives to get out the vote. 3 million Republican voters stayed home on Election Day. If those Republicans had voted, Mitt Romney would have won the popular vote by 180,000.

    Why did Republicans stay home? The only conclusion is that they weren't motivated by the Republican party's election message. They weren't inspired by the Republican party. They weren't convinced that Mitt Romney was a better alternative than Barack Obama. They didn't see a clear-cut difference between the candidates.

    On the bright side, however, thirty (30) Republican state governors were elected.

    On Saturday, January 5th, Pat McCrory was sworn in as the new Governor of my state of North Carolina. The last time NC had a Republican governor was 24 years ago. And for the first time in 144 years, a Republican Governor will meet a Republican Legislative Majority.

    The NC General Assembly picked up an additional nine Republican seats (for a total of 77 out of 120 seats) and an additional two Republican Senate seats (for a record total of 33 out of 50).

    But unfortunately the NC GOP could not get an outstanding slate of conservative candidates elected to the NC Council of State. Ed Goodwin, Mike Causey, John Tedesco, Mike Royal, and Debra Goldman all lost their races. How could that be? Many, including the candidates themselves, believe that the failure of the state GOP to provide adequate funding to their campaigns, when it could have done so, was what cost them the victories.

    So let's look at where we are now that the 2012 election is over and what the challenges are ahead.

    On Monday, January 20, Obama was sworn in again as President. I could barely summon the fortitude to watch the event. I've changed the diapers of my four children with no problem, and endured their episodes of projectile vomiting, but I couldn't stomach to listen to this man. Just like a mother knows from the sounds her infant makes what vile mess awaits her, that's how I feel about Barack Obama. The notion of a socialist/Marxist, globalist as the President of the greatest republic in the world, premised on the greatest respect for individual liberty and property rights, offended me to the very core. The lessons of Nazi Germany and Communist Russia are playing out right now here in the United States. An ignorant and uninformed electorate, sufficiently devoid of morals and personal responsibility, more concerned in classifying themselves as a particular ethnic or social group than unifying into one common culture, was swayed by the charisma and promises of "hope" by a demagogue. We've given this man great political power and now we wait to see what he will do with it. It struck me how our country, in all its greatness and with its supposed dependence on the Rule of Law, is not insulated from the seeds of tyranny.

    In his inauguration speech, Obama laid out his agenda in stark terms: More spending on the same failing big government programs and another push for his global warming agenda to drive up energy prices and take away more of our freedoms in their name of sustainability and wealth redistribution. More centralization of power and more centralized planning over people's lives and property. We were treated once again to a lecture on Obama's interpretation of the Constitution and the meaning of our founding principles. And once again he talked about the transformation of America to meet the needs of a new day. It's clear once again that he is willing to trample on the Constitution anytime it interferes with his ends. We are seeing it right now with his gun control initiative.

    We have many challenges ahead and I hope they will serve to make our resolve stronger and unite the many conservative groups on common goals. These challenges include the mounting fiscal showdown, the government's outright declaration of war on the wealthy and its wealth distribution polices, the administration's open support of a gay rights agenda, Obamacare and its implementation, the re-interpretation of our Constitution, and the rising storm against Gun Rights.

    We already see the start of the same old fight. House Republicans are insisting on spending cuts in exchange for agreeing to a 3-month deal to temporarily raise the debt ceiling. But President Obama has already warned that he will not negotiate. He wants the rich to pay and pay and pay so that he doesn't have to make any cuts in government programs. Only in America can the rich people - who pay 86% of all income taxes - be accused of not paying their "fair share" by people who don't pay any income taxes at all.

    Welcome to 2013 where the gravest problem threatening the nation is spending, where our Democratic president refuses to make spending cuts, where the Democratic Senate lawlessly refuses to pass a budget, and where Democrats frustrate congressional GOP efforts to enact spending and entitlement reform, yet the public is conned into believing that Republicans are the problem. Almost all polls show that the American people blame Republicans for the fiscal mess (either because they refuse to give in or because they haven't aren't standing strong enough).

    The question is whether the debt ceiling deal, the "No Budget, No Pay" bill that the US House passed and just recently the Senate, which will delay pay to members of the House or Senate if they don't approve a budget by mid-April. According to Section 2 of the bill, a payroll administrator would withhold Congress members' pay after April 15, 2013, if one or both houses of Congress couldn't agree on a fiscal year 2014 budget. The money will be held in an escrow account and given back to Congress members when a budget is passed or at the end of the current 113th Congress in January 1, 2015. Of course the deal lacks any meat since the 27th Amendment, our most recent constitutional amendment, would most likely prevent the holding of Congress' pay. The 27th Amendment essentially prohibits a sitting Congress from adjusting its compensation.

    Obamacare is moving forward. By November, the exchanges will be open and those without an employer health plan can start enrolling in the government scheme. And next year, the Individual Mandate kicks in. To fund this massive socialist entitlement plan, the government will deep further into our pockets. This will be in addition to the "American Taxpayer Relief Act" which Congress recently passed to allow the expiration of the payroll tax cut to have more money taken out of people's paychecks. (The mean increase, by the way, is $1,635). Embedded in Obamacare are approximately 6 new taxes which will hit everyone, while 21 new taxes will hit the wealthy (mostly affecting small business owners). Personal and real property will become less and less valuable to us and our children (perhaps even becoming a liability). Because poorer Americans will be exempt from the Individual Mandate and the insurance fee and the wealthy will have no problem paying the "penalty," Obamacare will be the largest tax increase on the middle class in this country's history. As Rand Paul said: "Just because a couple of people on the Supreme Court declare something to be "constitutional" does not make it so. The whole bill remains unconstitutional.." The four Justices who dissented wrote: "The values that should have determined our decision today are caution, minimalism, the understanding that the Federal Government is one of limited powers, and federalism. But the Court's majority undermined those values at every turn. The decision creates overreaching taxing power and undermines state sovereignty. The adherence to those core values is central to liberty, and when we destroy it, we place liberty at peril. Today's decision should have vindicated, should have taught, this truth; Instead, our judgment today has disregarded it."

    What the Court has done is to clear the way for a very broad use of the tax power, even to the point of coercing people into doing what the government wants them to do and punishing them for their inactivity. We think we have free will, as human beings, but according to the government, we may have to be burdened with taxes to enjoy that luxury. Under the precedent set by the healthcare decision, government can now impose pretty much any mandate of any kind. It could force people to purchase broccoli or cars or other product. It could force people to join a gym and exercise, take contraceptives, limit families to two children, or any other government initiative. We must continue to fight this bill in every way we can.

    The Obama administration has succeeded in updating the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which continues to include the offensive provisions which allows the President, and the Defense Department and Homeland Security personnel he surrounds himself with, to target American citizens as belligerents, thereby detaining them indefinitely, interrogating them, and stripping them of their constitutional (Bill of Rights) protections. He have already seen Obama's willingness to use the NDAA against Americans.

    Last August, a 26-year-old former marine and citizen of the state of Virginia, Brandon Raub, wrote the following posts on facebook: "The bill of rights is being systematically dismantled." "Your leaders are planning to merge the United States into a one world banking system. They want to put computer chips in you. These men have evil hearts. They have tricked you into supporting corporate fascism. But there is hope. BUT WE MUST TAKE OUR REPUBLIC BACK." For those words, the government showed up at his home, arrested him, and committed him involuntarily and indefinitely to a mental hospital. The government made the decision to take his rights away. (Luckily, his mother and a sharp lawyer were able to fight the unlawful arrest). But having the mental institution on his record might prevent him from exercising his Second Amendment rights.

    Also last year, the FAA, at the behest of Congress, made the decision to allow low-flying, unmanned drones to patrol the US skies to aid local law enforcement. By the end of the decade, there will be as many as 30,000 drones in our skies. Drone manufacturers are currently working on prototypes that would be equipped with fire power. These drones are so sophisticated that they will be able to read license plates, lettering on envelopes, faces, and at night, to detect activity through heat emission. Routine aerial surveillance would profoundly change the character of public life in America. It is said that at any given time, every American is likely breaking between 3-8 laws each day -- simply because there are so many laws that we can't possibly know them all. The only reason we aren't arrested or stopped or cited is because police themselves can't keep up with all the laws and plus, resources are limited in most localities. But imagine with the extra tools to spy on citizens?? Remember, you can be denied a license to carry guns if you are convicted of breaking the law.

    In 1996, Congress overwhelmingly passed the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) to protect marriage as the union of one man and one woman for the benefit of children and society. But the Obama Administration has disregarded this law and neglected its duty to defend DOMA in court.

    In March, the US Supreme Court will hear arguments in two crucial marriage cases: One involves the constitutionality of DOMA and the other involves the constitutionality of Proposition 8, which is California's voter-approved constitutional amendment protecting marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

    The potential impact of these two cases on the future of marriage can be potentially be disastrous. The question is whether we trust the Supreme Court to do the right thing?

    Years ago, the government had an interest in the education and morality of its children to ensure the best America possible. I remember the days when every student stood to salute the flag, acknowledged God, and then got a good, solid education, based on the time-honored principles of competition and responsibility. I remember when the family was the most important structure in society. I remember when church bells rang throughout my town and everyone's lives somehow centered around the church and its activities. Now the government proclaims that it has no business legislating morality. Now the government has an interest in our youth for the primary purpose of indoctrinating them with the mindset that traditional social policies are unfair and discriminatory and should be challenged.

    In 2001, Congress passed No Child Left Behind and now we have different standards set for different students and education has never been so bad in the United States. If a child doesn't get enough sleep, he qualifies for a disability. If he doesn't want to study hard, he qualifies for another disability. Children learn that in life, they all get to play by different rules. Administrators don't want to spend their energies disciplining children so they put the responsibility on the teachers so that valuable education time is spend managing problem children, at the expense of those who want to learn. Teachers don't want to spend time disciplining, so they dumb down their lessons, requirements, assignments, and tests. Teachers and school administrators don't want these troubled, bad students to keep returning so they move them along, often by setting lower standards so they can pass the classes. They use group assignments, often pairing smart students up with those who struggle. They share one grade. But diversity and tolerance is promoted... which all too often seems to be the aim of the public school agenda. Academic excellence continues to yield in the name of fairness, diversity and social justice.

    Currently, the Obama administration is bribing the states with federal dollars to implement his "Common Core" program, which is the administration's radical make-over of our children's public school core curriculum. Michele Malkin says the program should be called "Rotten to the Core." Grammar classes will be deemed irrelevant; literature classes will de-emphasize the classics because too many of the classic authors are white. History lessons covering western civilization and our Founding Fathers will be attacked as being racist. With respect to the math reforms alone, Stanford University has concluded that the Common Core scheme would place American students two years behind their peers in other high-achieving countries.

    Remember, America's downfall began with the entitlement generation and it will continue with the proliferation of the "low-information voter." And that, of course, starts right in our schools and in our homes..... It starts with the no-knowledge student. The same can also be said about the voter without morals and values.

    Probably most offensive to us, as Americans, are the 23 Executive Orders that Obama signed into law on January 16 to regulate gun rights. We knew Obama was coming for our guns. The school shootings just provided him the opportunity. We all know that psychopaths are attracted to schools precisely because they are gun-free zones and because they want to vent their anger in the most audacious way. We know that firearms are merely instruments. They don't shoot themselves. It's malevolent souls, like those who shoot helpless children in their classrooms, who are the problem, not the Second Amendment.

    We don't have a God-given right to the Second Amendment, but we do have a God-given to self-protection and self-preservation. And that's what the Second Amendment is all about. It protects our right to Life, and by extension, Liberty and Property. If we are denied the ability to protect those basic rights, then we are not truly free. The Second Amendment was not written to protect the rights of hunters, it was written to protect the rights of the hunted; whether those that are hunting us or our family are common criminals or a tyrannical government that no longer respects the Constitution, the Rule of Law, or our God-given rights as human beings.

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