Comments by Steven P. Rader | Eastern NC Now

The word "conservative" does get used all too often by politicians who by no stretch of the imigination are anything close to a conservative. The one that always got me as particularly tone deaf was Democrat Sen. George McGovern, after running what at the time was by far the most far left campaign for president in US history in 1972, followed that up in his next reelection campaign in South Dakota calling himself a "conservative". Of course, most voters remembered his presidential campaign, and knew he did not have a conservative bone in his body, and he lost reelection. But there are politicians like McGovern out there who think voters are that gullible.

Voters need to look at actual political records much more than they do rhetoric. What candidates actually DO matters a whole lot more than what they SAY.

What I would like to see in local campaigns is endorsements based on issue quetionaires. Those questionaires should ask for examples in candidates records that prove their answers are genuine. That is the best way to do endorsements. It should not be based on personalities or factions, but where candidates actually stand on real issues.

Commented: Friday, February 23rd, 2024 @ 8:10 am By: Steven P. Rader

Well, as a Hamas apologist, Bob, you might consider hundreds of dead and sometimes tortured Jews to be funny, but most of us do not. And in the previous century, if not for Hitler's Reich Gun Law of 1938, Germany's Jewish citizens might have had some means to defend themselves against being sent off to the camps.

Commented: Sunday, February 18th, 2024 @ 9:07 pm By: Steven P. Rader

The GRNC is not as well known to the general public as the NRA, but those involved in gun rights issues know that GRNC is the organization that gets things done in the legislature. The NRA's NC lobbyist is based in Richmond, VA and only occaisionally shows up in Raleigh. GRNC volunteers, on the other hand, have an almost constant presence and they are the driving force in pro-gun legislation in our state. Indeed, other national pro-gun groups like Gun Owners of America, and the National Association for Gun Rights have a greater presence in our legislature than the NRA. GRNC is state-based and works with all the national groups.

Commented: Saturday, February 17th, 2024 @ 7:41 pm By: Steven P. Rader

Those issues were dealt with in the mid 1960s, Bob. You are history challenged again. Those things were gone where I lived in North Carolina when I was in high school in the late 1960s and college in the early 1970s. During that period, minorities not only had equal rights, they also had affirmative action. You apparently mis-remember things to try to push your race-based agenda.

Commented: Tuesday, February 13th, 2024 @ 11:54 am By: Steven P. Rader

Sad to see Randy and Carolyn caught up in this controversy, but as a former Methodist myself, I was pleased to see the emergence of the Global Methodist Church and proud that Washington's own First Methodist joined it. I myself bailed out of the United Methodist Church back in 1971 over the "social gospel" when I went away to college. I had grown up active in the Methodist Church, and our own congregation and minister were great, but in high school I became aware of the impact of social gospel on the overall church organization. I was going to have to join a new church in a new location anyway, and due to the social gospel decided it would not be a United Methodist Church. My family was historically Lutheran from the time they settled in North Carolina in the 1740s until my parents decided to join a Methodist church many of their friends and neighbors were members of, so I researched the Lutheran Church and found way too much social gospel in its dominant branch, so I ended up joining the traditionalist Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, which met my expectations. If the Global Methodist Church had been an option in 1971, that is probably where I would have gone.

Commented: Monday, February 12th, 2024 @ 7:30 pm By: Steven P. Rader

A comparision of how two eastern senators were treated by Berger on being forced to vote Berger's way on legislation or not shows how much Berger considers he owns those senators who rely on his campaign money to get elected. The first senator, whose name I will not call, is a staunch conservative who was a leader in the House Freedom Caucus before running for the senate and taking major support from Berger in his general election race in a marginal district. The second is Norm Sanderson, a staunch conservtive former House member who beat back a well financed challenge from a Berger henchman in his first primary. The Berger machine recruited wealthy businessman Randy Ramsey, a lifelong registered Republican who had nonetheless been a major Democrat political contributor to run against Sanderson in the primary. Ramsay outspent Sanderson by a lot, mailing a blizzard of postcards, but Sanderson won the primary by a wide margin.

When Berger started pushing the Obamacare Medicaid expansion, which was then the top objective of liberal Governor Roy Cooper's agenda, Berger's operatives pressured the first senator to vote for it, while they left Sanderson alone and he voted against it without any attempt by Berger to force him to go Berger's way. Berger clearly considered that due to the political support he gave the first senator, he owned him, but Berger clearly knew he did not own Sanderson.

Berger's operatives approached the first senator and told him Berger expected him to vote for the Obamacare Medicaid expansion. The senator told them that he had made opposition to that expansion a major issue in his campaign and and promised voters in his district he would oppose it. Further, he was receiving a lot of comments from voters in his district opposing it. Berger's operatives told the senator that none of that mattered, and the only thing that did matter was that Berger insisted he vote for it. The senator pointed out that Berger already had enough votes to pass it without his vote, and was again told that did not matter and Berger insisted he vote for it, too. The senator then suggested that at least he could maybe take a walk during the vote and not vote at all. Berger's operatives told him that was not sufficient and he had to affirmatively vote for it. Further they told the senator that if he did not, then none of his bills would get out of committee and no money would be going from the budget to his district. The sanator finally decided in good conscience, the most he could do was take a walk, so that is what he did. While he did get some retaliation from Berger for that, it was not as total as threatened.

There is only one candidate for State Senate in the Third District who would not owe his political soul to Phil Berger in the senate and that is Mike Speciale. He is the Norm Sanderson of this race. If citizens want to have a voice in Raleigh representing us, instead of beholden to the backroom Raleigh establishment bullyboys, Speciale is the only one we should consider voting for.

Commented: Friday, February 9th, 2024 @ 11:06 am By: Steven P. Rader

Bob, you attack those who take an America First position, so what do you have to say about one of your ilk, a "Squad" member, Ilhan Omar a US Congresswoman who has openly taken a "Somalia First" position, saying among other things that the president of Somalia is her president? www.breitbart.com

Commented: Wednesday, January 31st, 2024 @ 9:48 am By: Steven P. Rader

Mike Speciale represented Beaufort County or at least a part of it for several of his terms, so we saw firsthand what sort of legislator he is. Mike was the real deal who walked the walk as a staunch conservative as well as talking the talk, and was a strong voice for the interests and principles of the district. He was approachable by citizens either at his office in Raleigh or in the town halls he held regularly in each county in his district, where constituents were encouraged to ask questions and make comments. He stood his ground in Raleigh on policy and in doing so often moved the needle significantly to the right. While keeping a respectful relationship with the more liberal leadership, he was adept at finding ways to manuever around them to achieve conservative results.

With no conservatives in the senate willing to engage with the leadership as Mike did in the House, Mike is exactly who conservatives need in Raleigh to make a real difference for the whole state, not just for our district but for all conservatives.

His opponent does talk a good game, but does not have the record of action that Mike does. He may talk the talk, but if he got to Raleigh, it would be an open question if he would walk the walk. If Berger is pushing money toward him, that means at least Berger beleives he would not.

We have seen too many politicians talk a good game but then do the opposite like Thom Tillis, or talk a good game and then sit on their hands and do nothing like Mark Robinson. All talk and no "do" gets us nowhere. When we have a sure thing, why take a chance on a "maybe"?

Commented: Sunday, January 28th, 2024 @ 11:36 am By: Steven P. Rader

I was astounded at what I read from President Trump's attorney in that civil case on the behavior of the judge which clearly denied Trump a fair trial. In any honest judicial system, he would be removed from the bench. Here is what she related:
Attorney Alina Habba: "Ladies and gentlemen, you are not allowed to be stripped of every defense that you have. You are not allowed to be told that you can’t bring it up. And imagine a point where a judge tells the lawyer before your client, the former President of the United States, the leading candidate and obvious nominee for the Republican Party, before he takes the stand to defend himself. Ms. Haba, tell me the questions you’re going to ask in open court and tell me exactly what he’s going to respond. And then edited my questions, edited the response he was allowed to give."

That is not the American system of justice. It more resembles the old Soviet Union.

Commented: Saturday, January 27th, 2024 @ 9:04 am By: Steven P. Rader

As a former political appointee serving in the Jim Martin administration, I am well aware that staffing an administration is the key to success or failure. Martin brought in policy oriented and competent Republicans and conservatives, and he cruised to easy reelection. Pat McCrory on the other hand shunned appointment of policy oriented party activists and as a result, policy blunders cost him reelection.

With this in mind, Folwell has demonstrated that he knows how to staff a state government department with solid competent policy oriented people, while Robinson has floundered badly trying to staff the much smaller lieutenant governor's office. Folwell has demonstrated the competence that Robinson clearly lacks.

There is an old campaign slogan used years ago by the British Conservative Party that sums up the difference between Folwell and Robinson - "Action, Not Words".

Commented: Wednesday, January 24th, 2024 @ 9:50 am By: Steven P. Rader

While I have never liked the term "RINO" because it is too much inside baseball and the average voter has no clue as to what it means, I am familiar with how the Democrats define the word "compromise". It means doing everything 95-99% their way, with maybe a few minor bribes to a Mitch McConnell or a Paul Ryan thrown in. They never would consider a true compromise where each side got about half of what they wanted.

Commented: Monday, January 22nd, 2024 @ 4:51 pm By: Steven P. Rader

Like most extreme leftists, you are ignorant of history, Bob. Traditional conservatives were at loggerheads with the National Socialist German Peoples Party, the formal name of the Nazis. The last effort to stop the Nazis that might have worked was in 1932 under Chancellor Brunning of the Catholic Center Party where a plan was worked out with the two conservative monarchist parties, the German National Peoples Party and the German Peoples Party to restore the Hohenzollern monarchy in order to stop Hitler. That plan fell apart when the German National Peoples Party insisted on bringing back Wilhelm II while the others wanted to restore the monarchy under his grandson. When the Nazis came to power, both of those two conservative parties were banned along with other traditional conservative parties like the Bavarian Peoples Party and the Peoples Conservative Reich Union. If the von Stauffenberg plot to blow up Hitler at the Wolf's Lair had succeeded, the plotters intended to restore the Hohenzollern monarchy under Prince Louis Ferdinand, the grandson of Wilhelm II. Fascism is more akin to socialism than it is to any true branch of conservatism which is why the Nazis had the term "socialist" in their party name.

In contemporary Germany, it is the parties of the left who are more prone to Nazi-like behavior like limiting free speech.

Commented: Monday, January 22nd, 2024 @ 9:09 am By: Steven P. Rader

I have seen the fund raising letter that got the school board incumbents panties in a twist, and while it was not structured in the most effective manner, its content seems to be accurate. It is also interesting that the school board majority faction seems to admit that in its resolution by not disputing any of the facts presented.

Why are they so frantic about the public learning those things? Indeed, the letter's content about the county school's lousy scores on the state evaluations are something that the School Board itself is required by law to advertise itself. They do a deliberately poor job of meeting that statutory requirement. A link that goes to those scores is buried on the School Board's website, and even if you find it and follow it, there is still a lot more navigation of the state site necessary to find Beaufort County schools' scores. If the school board really had wanted to level with the public on the lousy scores our schools are getting, they would have taken some of the thousands of dollars they pay for puff piece ads in the Washington Daily News and buy a quarter page ad there revealing the scores. They don't want them revealed, so they don't do that and they get mighty upset when someone else reveals them.

Then there is the issue of local control of local schools which the majority faction on the school board clearly does not favor, based on the wording of their resolution. They clearly take the position that they should be subservient to the state DPI in Raleigh on curriculum, when the state law, on the contrary, gives the local school boards total control of what is in their curriculum. That was underlined when Rep. Kidwell introduced a bill to allow use of the Hillsdale College history curriculum, and the attorneys at the state legislature told him that was unnecessary because local school boards already had absolute control over curriculum and DPI had no authority to tell them what to do. Of course, the out of town attorney used by our school board is connected at the hip with DPI, so should he be expected to do anything other than sing DPI's tune?

With DPI being run by a Roy Cooper appointed majority on the state Board of Education, anything coming out of there is going to tilt to the left, often heavily. Therefore it is critically important to elect a school board that believes in local control of local schools. The current majority on the Beaufort County Board of Education clearly does NOT, and that is a huge issue IMHO.

Commented: Saturday, January 20th, 2024 @ 9:22 am By: Steven P. Rader

It is not surprising that the farmers have finally had enough and have gone to war with the climate-industrial complex. Not only are they being saddled with onerous new rules and more expensive fuel, but last year, the EU parliament decided to pass a "nature restoration" bill that targets farmers.

The climate-industrial complex has been busy clear cutting ancient forests for their very land intensive wind and solar "farms" leading to substantial deforestation. In turn, deforestation aggravates flooding problems and destroys wildlife habitat. Now they want more natural areas, but not by retreating on what they have done to the forests with wind and solar but by forcing real farmers to put farmland back into nature. How people are supposed to eat in the future has not really been explained.

Godspeed, farmers, you are standing up for the people.

Commented: Wednesday, January 17th, 2024 @ 1:00 pm By: Steven P. Rader

This is hardly the first time that the Democrats have done this dirty trick to interfere in the Republican nomination process, and probably will not be the last. The media usually tries to sweep it under the rug.

That said, Republicans need to do more to protect our nomination process. In North Carolina, we have a cut off date for registering Republican prior to our conventions and for all parties, prior to filing for office. No one can swith for a day to play games. They can however register Unaffiliated to vote in our primaries if they do it early enough, and many GOP activists object to that and want to close that loophole.

Iowa needs a cut off date, no later than January 1 to be registered Republican to participate in the caucus, and probably more like December 1 to make this Democrat mischief harder to set up. Also, early primary states like New Hampshire and South Carolian need to close their primaries to only Republicans, and the RNC rules need to set major penalties if they do not.

In 2008, McCain got the momentum out of open primary states New Hampshire and South Carolina to get enough of a lead of the pack to capture the nomination. Exit polls showed, however, if only Republicans had been voting, McCain would have lost both states and we would likely have had a different nominee. That is the huge difference that opening or closing a primary can make to the outcome of a campaign. McCain proved a useless nominee on economic issues, which became the election key in the Fall. A different nominee would have probably beaten Obama and saved the country from a lot of nonsense like Obamacare and the Iran deal.

Commented: Monday, January 15th, 2024 @ 8:33 pm By: Steven P. Rader

Good observation, Mark. Huxley's "Brave New World" and Orwell's "1984" were competing visions of a totalitarian future. The "Great Reset" of today's globalists combine elements of both.

You might enjoy Roland Huntford's book "The New Totalitarians" written about Sweden after decades of Social Democrat rule which he argued was sliding into a Brave New World type of totalitarian state. Huntford was longtime Stockholm correspondent for the London Times so he had lots of material to work from. Fortunately, Sweden's slide in that direction was stopped by the center-right finally beating the Social Democrats, and now the rise of the populist nationalist anti-immigration Sweden Democrats.

Commented: Tuesday, January 9th, 2024 @ 10:52 am By: Steven P. Rader

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has published a newspaper column denouncing the efforts to kick Trump off the ballot and pointing out it was the same tactic Putin and other dictators use. www.dailymail.co.uk

Commented: Friday, December 29th, 2023 @ 5:42 pm By: Steven P. Rader