Fellow conservatives,

I appreciate that you turned out to caucuses this evening. You represent the continuation of a movement that began with the TEA parties last year. Most of you recognize that the coming election is not about what the government can do for you. It is about what the government intends on doing to you.

The problem that conservatives face is that they must fight two wars at once. One war is with our enemies overseas. The second war is against enemies at home. The enemies at home are those who would see us enslaved by our own government in the name of equality.

Too many politicians don’t understand this. If you’re Barack Obama, you spend your speeches talking about good you are at creating jobs instead of talking about what he can do to improve to liberty.

What we must understand is that the battle to be fought is not just between Republicans and Democrats. More broadly, it is between conservatives and liberals. It is between those who are meek and those who are fighters.

I say this because those who are in the Republican Party are often too meek. That is what makes them conservative. On the other extreme, some Republicans can also be too outgoing. They aren’t very conservative at all.

The times we live in call for people who are both conservative and ready to fight for what they believe in. We need conservatives, activists and candidates alike, who are willing to go forth and enact conservative values without fear of retribution or electoral loss. Make no mistake, liberals are not afraid of fighting for their values.

Unfortunately for us, liberal values require that we as conservatives be enslaved and forced to live by them. Our values ask only that we be left alone and that we treat others as we would be treated.

Sincerely,

Rudy Takala

Greg Bennett, Campaign Chairman: Greg is the legal chairman of Reformers for Rudy Takala. Greg is a lifelong resident of Pine County. In 2002, he was elected to the Pine County Board of Commissioners. He was immediately elected chairman of the board, serving in that capacity for two years. He ran uncontested and was re-elected to the board in 2006. He became involved with Republican politics in 2008 and is currently a director on the board of the Pine County Republicans.

Dave Ostenson, Campaign Treasurer: Dave was a missionary in the Czech Republic from 1994-2004. He holds two master’s degrees in theology and has lived in Pine County since 2005. He has four children with his wife LouAnn and resides in Hinckley.

Art Usher, Deputy Campaign Treasurer: Art was recruited at the treasurer's request for help with the finances. Art was born in northwestern Indiana and relocated to Pokegama Lake twelve years ago after retiring from Northern Indiana Public Service Co. He also worked as an Electronics Technician 3^rd Class while serving in the U.S.Coast Guard. He is a past director and secretary of the Pokegama Lake Association and is presently a vice-chair on the Snake River Watershed Citizens Committee.

Stan & Glenda Spar, Isanti County co-chairs: Stan & Glenda have agreed represent my campaign in Isanti County. Stan is a graduate of Mora High School; Glenda is a graduate of Centennial High School in Circle Pines. They attended their first caucus in 2008 because they didn't like the liberal direction that the Republican Party had taken.

Tom Graikowski, Pine County Campaign Chairman: Tom is the honorary chairman of the campaign in Pine County. Tom served in the Marine Corps for four years before moving to Pine County. He was involved in the Pine County BPOU from 1998 through 2004. He was involved at the district level for four of those years, most prominently as first vice-chairman. He took a break from the party when it started to move left of center.

Matt Anderson, Kanabec County Campaign Chairman: Matt is the honorary chairman of the campaign in Kanabec County.  Matt is a lifelong resident of Kanabec County; his father Bruce Anderson is a supervisor in Comfort Township. Matt has been generally independent politically but chose to attend his first caucus as a Republican in 2008. He wanted to add that he believes in the Republican Party as it existed under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.

Clark Peterson: Clark Peterson is a resident of Hinckley and has worked most of his life in the reporting business. He started out as a radio announcer in Rochester; in 1978 his reporting team won an award from the Associated Press for best coverage of a local story. In 1992, he won another award for “Superbrawl Wrestling Announcing” from Turner Broadcasting. He holds a Ph.D in Theology & Biblical Doctrine from Grace Bible College in North Carolina. He is the author of five books on the history of Hinckley and on wrestling. They are available in a number of stores, including Tobies.

Richard Lindig: Richard has lived in Pine County since 1947. Shortly after moving here, he was drafted into the army and was stationed in Europe for two years during the Korean conflict. Richard worked as an artificial inseminator and dairy farmer for twenty years. Currently he is the vice-president of Pine County’s Historical Society. He is the father of six children and is a member at St. John’s Missouri-Synod Lutheran Church in Rush City.    

Donald Eaton: Don has agreed to act as an advisor to the campaign on agricultural issues. Over the course of his life, he has worked in nearly every type of farming. He worked for eight years on a chicken farm in Litchfield and eleven years at Faribault Foods in Cokato. He considers himself a sheep farmer and, on a personal note, is the father of six children. He was also in the Air Force for eight years and was a member of the air national guard for 23 years. He retired from the service in 1992.

Honorary Steering Committee

Dave Racer: Dave served as the campaign manager to Dr. Alan Keyes in his 1996 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. He has authored seven books and holds a Master of Letters degree from Oxford.

Dorothy Fleming: Dorothy was deputy chairman of the Republican Party of Minnesota from 2007-2009. Prior to that, she served as an advisor to Michele Bachmann’s first campaign for the U.S. House.

Jeremy Lindman: Jeremy has agreed to act as an advisor to the campaign on business and economic issues. He has owned Topline Automotive in North Branch for seven years and employs between 23-28 people. He briefly attended Century College for business administration before going into sales at the age of 21; he began his company at the age of 28. He is currently a commissioner with the North Branch Economic Development Authority (EDA) and a member of the Healthy Community Partnership Jobs Task Force. He has been married for 14 years and has six children.

Sheldon Anderson: Sheldon has been the mayor of Wyoming, Minnesota from 2004-present. He has agreed to be an advisor to the campaign on local politics and issues. In addition, he has been a business owner for 18 years and currently employs 45 people. He has four children with his wife, Olga, and is currently running for State Representative in House district 17B (Chisago County).

Mike Line: Mike has agreed to act as campaign chairman in Carlton County. He is currently deputy chairman of the Carlton County Republicans. Prior to that, he served as the campaign manager to Tim Hafvenstein’s 2008 campaign for the 8A State House seat.

 

Because of the success of the event, the next TEA Party is scheduled for Sunday at Freddies in Mora, November 15th, 1-4 p.m. Confirmed speakers once again include Sue Jeffers (KTLK 100.3FM radio host) and Craig Westover (columnist for the Pioneer Press). In addition to that, Dr. Gordon Anderson has confirmed his willingness to attend. Gordon is the president of the Minnesota LEA (www.mnlea.org).

Some people mentioned that they felt some of the speakers at the TEA Party were political. Someone even said they wanted to know "more of what they could do to change things." So what I plan to do with the next one is to have a special emphasis on caucuses and the caucusing process, which will take place on February 2nd.

Caucuses are held every two years; it is state law that they be held on the first Tuesday of February. It is at caucuses that people are elected delegates to local political conventions, and it is at those conventions that decisions directing the future of the political process are made.

In short, people who attend caucuses are the the same ones who have chosen our candidates. If you do not attend caucuses, your voice is irrelevant to the political process. I will say more on this in the future.

The next Simply Right is scheduled for November 19th. This is the event description as posted on Facebook:

I spoke to Minnesotans for Limited Government in early September. They put the four minute speech on YouTube today; click here if you would like to view it. Out of more than a dozen candidates who spoke, they catalogued the speech on their YouTube channel as being one of their top three favorites. (The other two favorites were candidates for governor.)

Dave Racer – Dave served as the campaign manager to Dr. Alan Keyes in his 1996 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. He has authored seven books and holds a Master of Letters degree from Oxford.

Dorothy Fleming – Dorothy was deputy chairman of the Republican Party of Minnesota from 2007-2009. Prior to that, she served as an advisor to Michele Bachmann’s first campaign for the U.S. House

I attended a gathering of interested folks last night, Thursday, Aug. 20, downstairs at Tobies Restaurant in Hinckley.

“Simply Right” is the name of the group and the gathering was hosted by the energetic dynamic young candidate for District 8, Republican Rudy Takala.

Rudy is another story. Rudy is a 20-year-old graduate of Hamline College and is the chairman of the Pine County Republican Party. If you want to see a new kind of politics this is it, none of the old pristine debates and party prestige and hijinks. This is real life. Anyway, back to the gathering.

Joe Repya spoke to us and was sincere of his disapproval of the way the Minnesota GOP is headed. There are a lot of individuals in the area and throughout Minnesota that agree with Joe. Joe’s message is “When a political party becomes so dysfunctional that it no longer can operate without tyrannical domination over the grassroots, it is time to stop enabling bad behavior from that party.”

The message boils down to “If the Republican Party can’t get their act in gear, they can kiss everything goodbye.”

Next speaker was Kohls for governor. He is a member of the tax committee and told us our taxes don’t have to be this high and that Minnesota should not be operating under duress of uncontrolled spending. Good talk.

Next speaker was a disabled American vet, Charlie Makidon, who has had trouble with the VA in Minneapolis as an employee.

He told us of his difficulties and the outcome in his favor of a discrimination suit and the 10-year binder of silence imposed by the government. The 10 years is up and he is telling his story. Wish you would have been there to hear it.

Next was Abe Mach with a message for all of us.

Next was Sue Jeffers. She is at radio station KTLK, 100.3 in the Twin Cities. She is a very exciting, interesting speaker. She was able to give a lot of good answers to the questions given her. Did you know we can’t institute term limits. It is against the Minnesota Charter. The only way to limit the time a person is in office is to vote them out. Too many times the voters just automatically pull the lever of the candidate and elect them or else the parties don’t take action and screen out the candidates in the primaries.

We adjourned at 9:30 p.m. The evening was so interesting that the time just seemed to slip by. No one nodded off to sleep and the presentations, questions and the answers were so interesting and pertinent to our present situations that everyone paid attention, even a few of the very young (not voting age yet, but we are working on them).

I wish you could have been present. The written is so empty of emotion and so hard to really feel what happened and was presented.

The next gathering of “Simply Right” is Friday, Sept. 25, 2009, starting at 7:00 p.m. at Tobies Restaurant downstairs in the big room. We invite everyone - Republicans, Independents, uncommitted, Liberals and just everyone. Come and see what is going on. I promise you that you will come away with a different prospective on everything.

This is a gathering where everyone can speak their views and no one is shouted down. Try it, you will like it.

Richard T Moncrief

Not many people have been writing about healthcare on a local level, so I wanted to take a few moments to ask some questions about the healthcare bill that, in the words of Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman, President Obama is trying to "jam through” using a process called “reconciliation.” It would allow Obama to pass it without support from any Republicans and one-sixth of all Democrats
The questions are as follows:

-         Will illegal immigrants be covered under this program? They are under the current version.

-         Will abortion being funded by taxpayers? President Obama promised that it would be.

-     To whom or what is the national committee, which oversees the entire health care system, accountable?

-         Will employee-provided health insurance eventually cease, as the president’s advisors have proposed in books they have written? (Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the president’s healthcare advisor, has asked that this happen?

These are questions to which the public deserves to know the answers before any healthcare legislation is passed. Our liberty depends on it.

In the meantime, if you are wondering what you can do to affect what is happening in our nation, I would like to suggest looking at the local level. For the first time in seven years, we have a fresh conservative candidate running for the Minnesota House. His name is Rudy Takala. I walked in three parades for Rudy this year and believe that with one or two people like him in office, we would be able to upset the system, at least in Minnesota.

You can find out more about him by looking at his blog (www.pinecountyrepublicans.org/blog.htm), joining his Facebook group, “Rudy for State Representative (which already has more than 260 members), or by looking at his YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/rtakala. You can also call him at 320-279-2684.

We are losing our liberty in this nation. We must have a groundswell of support for a reform of the system, soon, if our way of life is to be preserved. That is happening, but we have got to keep the energy going through November 2010.

Matt Anderson

Mora

To the editor:

In a recent column, Rep. Tim Faust listed a number of laws that were passed this year. He did not go so far as to take a position on them. So I wanted to take a few moments to list some of the other laws that Rep. Faust spent time on passing this year. Phil Krinkie, president of the Minnesota Taxpayers’ League, mentioned some of these in a recent column.

This year’s feel-good legislation—In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Minnesota Indian Removal law, removing the Dakota people from the state. This year, in the form of a nonbinding resolution, Minnesota lawmakers urged the president and Congress to repeal this federal legislation. (What has Congress been doing for the past 100 years?) It was a nonbinding resolution for nonbinding legislation.

More money for attorneys—Another piece of legislation passed eliminates a per-hour cap on an award of attorney’s fees in a civil action or contested case where the state is a party. The goal of this legislation was to increase the pay for government attorneys. The old $125 an hour just wasn’t enough.

Making Minnesota’s fishing laws more complicated—The minimum age of a resident who may fish free during the “Take a Kid Fishing Weekend” when accompanied by a child younger than 16, is lowered from 18 to 16. (Can anyone else figure out what this means?) Anyone may fish from shore in water that is wholly contained within a state park, except in waters that require a trout stamp; spearing a fish is added to the list of available lifetime licenses (with some exceptions, of course); and finally, a nonresident license may be issued to spear fish from a dark house.

To compensate himself for enacting this legislation, Rep. Faust voted for a higher compensation package on the first day of the session. Is this really the representation we need?

I would like to thank and endorse Rudy Takala for running against Rep. Faust this time around. It’s time for a “change.”  

Carolyn Stivers

Bruno

Some of the columns written by local Democratic legislators as of late have portrayed some factual inaccuracies that I wanted to correct.

For one, Republicans did not advocate for a property tax increase this year. Democrats voted to lift the cap on property taxes. The issue now is whether local governments should cut spending or raise taxes to facilitate higher spending. I believe that local governments should cut spending. What, for instance, does Rep. Tim Faust believe? He undoubtedly believes in higher taxes, because that is what Democrats always aim to obtain. This difference should put to rest the issue of whether it is conservatives or Democrats who want higher property taxes.

Secondly, Democrats are claiming that they voted to lower property taxes. How do they justify this claim? Well, literally, it was by proposing tax increases at the state level. Rep. Faust voted to make Minnesota’s income tax bracket the fourth highest in the nation in hopes of using that to fund local governments’ spending. Democratic legislators in Minnesota are very liberal even by the national standard, and you can tell by looking at our tax rankings.

A third, and more technical point, pertains to GAMC, or General Assistance Medical Care. Democrats claim that it was cut in this session. That is only partially true. Funds for the program were unallotted for the period to come following the next legislative session. There was a general understanding that programs such as GAMC could be modified next year, before any cuts had actually been made.

The short of this third point is that Democrats have been complaining about non-existent cuts in spending. If they were able to find legitimate problems with the cuts in spending taking place this year, they would be complaining about those instead of “making up” cuts that have not happened.

I would suggest asking your Democratic legislators what cuts in spending they suggested following the close of the session. (They key phrasing is “after the close of the session.”) The governor requested their input as to what spending should have been cut, but they refused to provide any input. They did not participate in the process because they wanted to be able to place blame on the governor for anything that happened. In doing so, they refused to represent us as their constituents. They put politics over their responsibility as legislators, and that was unfortunate.

If you would be interested in a more detailed discussion of the issues, I have created a YouTube channel detailing them at www.youtube.com/rtakala.

Yesterday's picnic in Robinson Park went amazingly well. Nearly 200 people attended. Especially considering how poor the weather was, we really exceeded expectations.

Donna Zastera was our freelance photographer for the day. I posted a number of the pictures online (click here). For future reference, you'll be able to access the photo gallery from the front page of this Website. (Scroll down, lefthand side.)

A couple of reporters from the Minnesota Independent stopped by to do a story on us, accessible here. The author is an open homosexual, so it is slanted strongly in their favor. I would suggest scrolling down to Abe Mach's comments at the end of the story to get both perspectives.

Finally, you can find another version of the story in the Pine City Pioneer by clicking here.

I wanted to comment on last week’s commentaries from Rep. Tim Faust and Rudy Takala. It troubled me that Faust claimed to support lower property taxes when he spent the session trying to raise them.

As Mr. Takala pointed out, Mr. Faust voted with his party to eliminate the cap on local property taxes. At the same time, they came up with a budget that required the governor to cut aid to local government. It was a strategic move; Democrats did not have the votes to raise taxes at the state level, so they are trying to force local property taxes up.

At the same time, Faust tries to sound like a Republican by claiming that he wants to lower property taxes. This is misleading at best, and disappointing from someone who knows exactly what is happening.

In a time when career politicians are ruining our state and nation and misleading the public, Rudy Takala is a breath of fresh air, and I wholeheartedly support him in his bid for the State House.

A pro-family picnic is slated to take place in Robinson Park in Pine City on June 7^th from noon to 5 p.m. The park is located one block east of the old courthouse on highway 61. The picnic is being organized by a group of local citizens and pastors in response to the GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Transgender) Pride in the Park Picnic scheduled to take place in Voyageur Park at the same time.

Abe Mach, a spokesman for the group, said, “The GLBT picnic is being brought in by groups from around the state. If you go to their Facebook group, you can find people asking to be bused in from Minneapolis. These aren’t the values of our community, and we want to make that clear. We do not want to this to become the defining event of our city.”

The picnic will include local musicians, barbeque, speakers, and other entertainment. Numerous officials are expected to be speaking, including Pine City Administrator Don Howard and House Minority Leader Marty Seifert. Local Representatives Tim Faust and Bill Hilty, who co-authored a bill supporting gay marriage in the Legislature this year, have also been invited to speak. Other invited speakers include Reps. Jeremy Kalin, Sens. Tony Lourey and Rick Olseen, Rudy Takala, a candidate for the Pine City area’s seat in the Legislature, and a number of local pastors. 

The event is being sponsored entirely by free will offerings from local residents.  If you would be interested in participating, contributing or learning more about the event, contact Abe Mach at Abraham.J.Mach@uwrf.edu. Those who are on Facebook are encouraged to RSVP in the event “Pro-Family Picnic.”

I appreciated the columns in a recent edition of the Pioneer from Reps. Tim Faust, Marty Seifert and Editor Becky Glander. They went a small distance in explaining the complex legislative session that ended on Monday.

The issue was that some DFL legislators wanted to spend $3 billion more than the state government had available. A Politics in Minnesota report from May 15 summarized the numbers by noting that, in all, 24 percent of all Democrats and all of the Republicans in the Legislature voted against the tax bills that were passed.

The proposed tax increases were so egregious, even conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans would not vote for them. Over the course of the session, the more liberal wing of the Democratic Party managed to propose tax increases on things such as internet downloads, across-the-board income tax increases (and a new top income tax rate that would have been the fourth-highest in the nation) taxes on alcohol and cigarettes; elimination of elderly or disabled income subtraction and elimination of the cap on local property taxes.

Democrats often talk about lowering property taxes, but the majority of their party members managed to propose the exact opposite in this session. But to his credit, State Senator Tom Bakk, chairman of the Senate Taxes Committee, blasted his Democratic colleagues in the House, saying, “I will not go to that menu of tax expenditures the House had… I just will not do any of those things.”

Rep. Faust claimed that more than 80 percent of the people in his district supported raising taxes on cigarettes and alcohol. I am skeptical of this claim to put it mildly. In areas like Pine and Kanabec counties, raising taxes on alcohol or tobacco would simply kill economic activity by encouraging people to buy those products from Grand Casino or Wisconsin. Most people realize this and would prefer to be saved the trouble of driving to those places.

It was the sole responsibility of the Legislature to produce a workable budget by the end of the session. There was a $3 billion gap between what Democratic legislators wanted to spend and what they had; a budget could have been passed if that gap had been closed. A narrow majority of Democrats refused to let that happen. Instead, they proposed $1 billion in tax increases literally one hour before the session ended. They refused to pass any proposals for reform that would have cut spending. Republicans presented more than 20, all of which were shot down.

The Democrats did not want to take responsibility for the cuts that had to be made. By refusing to balance the budget before the session’s end, they made it necessary for the governor to do it himself. The governor is now required to decide what to cut, or the parts of state government that do not have funding will simply start to shut down. Those in the Legislature who made this path necessary showed a blatant disregard for the well being of the state.

Editor Becky Glander voiced legitimate concerns about the potential effects of cutting from the Health and Human Services budget. This was one of the areas that the governor compromised in by allowing Democrats to write the budget and then signing it.

It contained $503 million in cuts, which Rep. Tim Faust ironically complained about in last week’s column in talking about cuts to hospitals. It was inappropriate given that his party was the one to write and pass the budget he was complaining about.

Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller, one of the Democratic Party’s most prominent figureheads, said a little over a year ago, “I think it’s simplistic and naive to say people can spend their money better than the government… it’s trite, wrongheaded and anti-democratic.” In a nutshell, this was the mentality that produced the year’s legislative session. If our state is to be successful, it must get beyond the arrogance of elected officials who believe that they have a right to use the government to infringe on the lives of others.

The Biblical book of Esther tells an insightful story about Haman, the equivalent of Persia’s prime minister in 500 B.C. Haman demanded that all who were beneath him bow in reverence. But Mordechai, a prominent Jew who “sat in the king’s court,” refused to bow down before Haman. When Haman found out that Mordechai was a Jew, he set out to kill all of the Jews in the kingdom.         

But Mordechai asked Queen Esther to appear before the king, uninvited, in order to plea for his people’s survival. An uninvited intrusion was punishable by death. The queen responded to the prospect by saying, “If I perish, I perish.” Ultimately, it was her selflessness that saved the Jews. The king had Haman hanged in gallows that had been intended for Mordechai.

Like many politicians to follow him, Haman demanded unquestioning reverence. And he found, like many to follow him, that it led to revolt rather than to respect. This lesson has been repeated often enough in history that it should have been by now imbued upon our collective consciousness.

Yet it remains one of the most common reasons for the downfall of leaders. We should be reminded it of it in light of Colin Powell’s continued complaints that the Republican Party is “getting smaller and smaller” at the expense of more moderate members.

Similarly, the liberal Bob Shrum delighted in a column last month, “In politics, the smaller a party gets, the more small-minded it becomes. With only 24 percent of voters identifying themselves as Republicans, the GOP is being miniaturized.” In Shrum’s assessment, the problem is that there are too many conservatives in the party, and too few who realize what Powell explained. “Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less.”

Powell and Shrum are advocating for the same end on the basis of two different principles. For Powell, it is that politicians, in order to be successful, must place their own popularity on a pedestal, and pursue it as an end in itself, one for which principles may and should be sacrificed. For Shrum, it is that liberalism is the mandate of the American people.

Both believe the Republican Party should move to the left. But if the two gentlemen were correct, the Republican Party would find itself still holding a majority. 

Powell’s philosophy has already governed the party for the better part of a decade. In attempting to become popular, politicians such as John McCain sacrificed swaths of the conservative platform from global warming to fiscal conservatism.

The party made it a goal to attain adoration as an end in itself. A corollary effect was an application of Shrum’s suggestion that it become more liberal. And in the process, party members who objected to the transformation were ridiculed or sent into exile for not revering their leaders over their principles.

What Shrum failed to mention in citing the statistic that only 24 percent of voters affiliate with the Republican Party is that only 37 percent (according to Pew) affiliate with the Democratic Party, and 32 percent as independents.

The numbers do not suggest a sweeping mandate for an increase in government. The number of those affiliating with the Republican Party has declined over the past year, even in the face of its advocacy for more government and its persecution of those who objected. Conservatism has not harmed the Republican Party.

Nor has there been any sort of failure to help its more moderate members; Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) complained a couple of months ago that the National Republican Senatorial Committee was supporting Republicans who had voted for the Obama bailout – Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Arlen Specter – but not others who were more deserving of support, such as Sens. Tom Coburn (R-OK) or Jim DeMint (R-SC).

In contrast, the Senate Democratic leadership’s conferral of junior status upon Arlen Specter illustrates their determination to maintain their (successful) party’s ideological coherence.

The Republican Party has rewarded those who did what it took to get elected and actively tried to be more “mainstream.” It has punished and sought to be rid of those who tried to govern as individuals. Ironically, governing as individuals is exactly what most mainstream Americans would do if they were elected.

The Republican Party does not need to focus on becoming more liberal, or even on being popular. What it must do is remember that leaders are rarely adored, but rather only tolerated. The current president is precariously close to forgetting the same lesson; the Republican Party would do well not to be associated with it when the American public once again grows weary of demands for unearned veneration.

 

I recently bought Mark Levin’s new book, Liberty and Tyranny, at the behest of friends and acquaintances that wanted me to read it. Many of you may also have heard Rush Limbaugh promoting it on his show.

It was a good review of the dialogue taking place on the direction of the Republican Party. Nothing that I haven’t seen before, but it was a very good review of the issues central to that dialogue. I’m just including a few excerpts from the book here.

On the “Republicanism” of George W. Bush: “By abandoning principle for efficiency, the neo-Statist, it seems, is no more bound to the Constitution than is the Statist. He marches more slowly than the Statist, but he marches with him nonetheless. The neo-Statist propounds no discernable standard or practical means to hem in the federal power he helps to unleash, and which the Statist would exploit. In many ways, he is objectionable as the Statist, for he seeks to devour conservatism by clothing himself in its nomenclature.” (10-11)

In other words, Levin is stating that “Republicans” like the last president do not care about lessening the control of government. They do not want to lower taxes, or allow us to live in a society of fewer laws. Just as much as liberals – or as Levin describes them, “Statists” – they want to use government to control people’s lives according to their own standards. Their only criticism of liberalism is that it is not as “efficient” as big-government Republicanism. As neo-conservatives William Kristol and David Brooks wrote, big-government Republicanism “does not despise government…. The way to restore faith in our government is to slash its flabbiness while making it more effective.”

Levin talks about the Bush tenure more explicitly in his book’s summary:

Just as another Republican president, Herbert Hoover, laid the foundation for Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, Bush has, in words and actions, done the same for President Barack Obama—the most ideologically pure Statist and committed counterrevolutionary to occupy the Oval Office. (194)

Really, the entire book attempted to explain the difference between Conservatism and Statism. In Statism,

The individual must be dehumanized and his nature delegitimized. Through persuasion, deception, and coercion, the individual must be subordinated to the stat. He must abandon his own ambitions for the ambitions of the state. He must become reliant on and fearful of the state. His first duty must be to the state—not family, community, and faith, all of which have the potential of threatening the state.” (15)

On a more local note, I enjoyed Levin’s subtle commentary on Governor Tim Pawlenty.

A minority of Conservatives agree with [Saul] Alinsky and Marx only to the extent that they see the future as pandering to the “middle class” or “working class” or “Sam’s Club shoppers” or “the suburbs” with appeals of further government intervention aimed at this (or these) loosely defined groups of citizens. (65)

As Levin explains, true Conservatives believe that the free market will best serve all of these classes. This is in contrast to Tim Pawlenty, who was the first to use the term “Sam’s Club Republican,” and who now spends his days lecturing on the need to increase government controls (or make them more efficient--whatever the rhetoric of the day is for the nanny-staters) on behalf of Sam’s Club shoppers.

The book’s subtitle, A Conservative Manifesto, rings true. This is not Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, but it is one of Hayek’s contemporary offspring. It’s a good reminder of what Conservatives are really fighting for, and of where the Republican Party went wrong. And for those who aren’t very involved in politics, it’s a fantastic articulation of what Conservatives really believe in.

                                             U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock

                                                      March 26, 2009

Rep. Schock has been in the news frequently as of late for being this year's youngest member of the U.S. House. He's 27 and the first member of Congress born after 1980.

You can find his biography on Wikipedia. It was inspirational to me as his is very similar to my own. He graduated when he was 21 (a year later than myself) and was elected to the local school board when he was 19. He beat a four-term incumbent Democrat for a seat in the Illinois State House at the age of 22. You can check out the more entertainment-oriented side of his persona at TMZ.

He was also born in Morris, Minnesota. It's too bad we didn't get to keep the talent.

A record seventy people turned out to the Pine County Republicans’ annual convention on the evening of March 9^th to either participate in or observe proceedings that saw Mike Cummins, last year’s Republican opponent to Congressman Jim Oberstar, face off against Rudy Takala in an election to chair the group.

Takala, a graduate of Hamline University, has chaired the group for the past two years and is the only Republican so far to announce candidacy for the House seat currently held by DFL Rep. Tim Faust. He ran on a platform that the Republican Party had become unprincipled in recent years and that Republicans would need to return to their limited government roots if they were to win again.

Cummins, a resident of Brook Park, ran on the basis that Takala deviated too much from the party’s generally accepted talking points and that it caused conflict. Kurt Daudt, the congressional district’s only representative on the state Republican Party’s Executive Board, could be seen observing from the guest section.

Takala’s independence has resulted in several incursions in to Pine County by the 8^th Congressional District GOP. Ted Lovdahl, the chair of the congressional party, sent a letter to the Pine County Republicans last year demanding that Takala “either resign or be removed” from the board. “We hope that you make the right decision,” the letter’s conclusion ominously portended.

Takala’s Executive Committee voted by 8-2 to reject the letter regardless of the consequences. Lovdahl issued no further response to the action.

Last week’s convention voted to re-elect Takala over Cummins after more than three hours of debate on a wide array of issues. Takala was assisted by endorsements from several prominent party figures, including a letter from Rep. Steve Drazkowski calling Takala “the type of leader able to usher in the change necessary to bring about the realization of the deeply held values of Minnesotans.”

Other officers elected to the group’s board were Dr. Michael Monte of Braham; Carolyn Stivers of Bruno; Dave Ostenson of Hinckley; Randy Christensen of Sandstone, and Oryol Dominguez of Braham. Directors elected to the board included Art Usher of Grasston and Abraham Mach of Sturgeon Lake. Dr. Monte gave Takala’s nominating speech.

“Republicans need to unite in supporting limited government candidates interested in promoting traditional, conservative, American values regardless of whatever wayward side trips that others in our political leadership may feel like taking. Rudy Takala is one person who offers that, and that is more than the DFL can say of Mr. Faust,” said Dr. Monte. “Mr. Faust has done what his party told him to do. I do not believe he has an independent streak in him. But I value political independence, and would like to see more of it in our state government.”

Takala cited Rep. Faust’s positions on gay marriage and the $6.4 billion budget deficit projected to take hold by 2011 as being Faust’s biggest shortcomings.

“Mr. Faust, along with the rest of the Democrats in the Minnesota House, has no solution to the deficit other than to increase taxes and hope for pork from the federal government. He cannot name one government program that he wants to cut. State spending has gone up by 140 percent since 1992 because Democrats go to the Legislature every year, increase taxes, and come home to cavort at gay pride rallies on the side. When we have such an unprecedented combination of spending, inflation, and profligate legislators running amok, no one should have to question why our economy is tanking.”                                      

I would like to take a few moments to thank Greg Bennett for agreeing to serve as my campaign chairman. Greg is a former Democrat with an independent mix of ideas that reflect my own fairly well. He was twice elected to serve as a Pine County commissioner, the second time without an opponent. Additionally, our convention on March 9th approved him to serve as one of the three directors on the board of the Pine County Republicans. Greg has never been involved in Republican politics before.

New activists are the best in my view, because they don't know what the established order of things is. They don't know whose toes they're stepping on when they speak up, and they don't care. People who have been involved for too many years eventually get to a point where they just sit in the corner, shut up and try not to look at anyone, because they find out that there are usually repercussions for doing so.

I am glad to have a campaign chairman who has political experience but who does not have the scars that accompany a long history of involvement with any political party.

Michael Steele, you are head of the RNC. You are not head of the Republican Party. Tens of millions of conservatives and Republicans have nothing to do with the RNC and right now they want nothing to do with it, and when you call them asking them for money, they hang up on you....

I would be embarrassed to say that I'm in charge of the Republican Party in the sad-sack state that it's in. If I were chairman of the Republican Party, given the state that it's in, I would quit. I might get out the hari-kari knife because I would have presided over a failure that is embarrassing to the Republicans and conservatives who have supported it and invested in it all these years....

What culminated with my speech on Saturday at CPAC was the reawakening of a huge sleeping giant that is ready to rumble, and that is American conservatism, which is found in the Democrat Party, it's found among independents, and it's found in the Republican Party....
 

The pressure is on the Republican Party to be more Democrat Party-like, and too many Republicans in Washington want to make that happen. Well, just the opposite is going to happen. The sleeping conservative giant has been awakened here. It's a beautiful thing."

From http://minnesotaindependent.com/25777/gop-already-eyeing-legislatures-swing-districts-in-2010.

"Rudy Takala, a veteran GOP activist and chair of the Pine County Republican Party, intends to run against Rep. Tim Faust in House District 8B. Faust has squared off against Judy Soderstrom in the previous three elections, winning two of the contests.

Takala believes it’s time for someone else to take a stab at the seat. He expects gay marriage and high taxes to be important issues in the 2010 contest and argues that the state Republican party has strayed too far from its conservative roots.

“I don’t think they look at who the best candidates are,” he says. “They look too closely at whose turn it is. I think that needs to change if we’re going to get better candidates.”