Courage of Conviction

The Hill, one of DC’s political inside-the-beltway magazines, ran an article on its blog today by Sen. John Kerry, D-MA about insurance for kids.  Here’s how it starts:

The fact that nine million children in our country live without health care is unacceptable. When it comes to family values, it’s time for Congress to start putting its money where its mouth is.

Ok, I have a problem with this statement, and it’s not even with what you might think of first.  My problem is the continued notion that health insurance = health care.  They are two distinct things.  You do not need health insurance in order to have health care. 

I’m not naive - so I understand why this confusion of terms is happening.  It’s simply this - If people believe the spin of politicians across this country that health insurance equals health care, then how much easier it is to push universal health insurance. 

As I mentioned in yesterday’s posting, I have a new podcast show - “The Keystone Report.” 

My first interview was with Jim Taylor, the Franklin County Republican Committee Chairman concerning his article in the Patriot-News on July 15th concerning the GOP’s out of touch stance on immigration, among other things.

You can listen to the interview here.

I’ll be making some changes to the blog over the next couple of weeks.  I’ll still be commenting on issues and news stories that attract my attention - I will just be mixing in some new features which I believe will make the blog even better than it already is.  

Here’s a preview to what you’ll start to see.  First off, I’ll be incorporating more of my “real job” into the blog.  This means that there will be some changes to the content of the blog.  I’ve never really taken full advantage of the whole concept of courage here at the blog.  I plan on changing that.  The focus will be on courage - unleashing courage to be exact.  Courage is displayed in many forms and I plan on highlighting examples, some political, some not.  I’ll share thoughts on courage development - both my thoughts and others.  I really see this blog as a tool for developing courage for people who have an interest in courage. 

Recently I added a podcast radio show, called The Keystone Report.  I plan on having an weekly podcast, sometimes more.  When I record a show, I’ll be sure to post the podcast here.  As many of you know, I write for The National Networker and have occasionally posted my articles here.  I plan on posting all of my articles here. 

There are other changes that I’m working on that I think readers of this blog will really like - like an online community devoted to politics, that is unique and goes far beyond alot of the other networking sites that are out there. 

I’m also working on changing the look of of the blog, so don’t be surprised if you go to the blog one day and it looks different.  I may even test a few looks out.  When I do make changes please make sure to leave your feedback, positive or negative.  If negative, please give me some suggestions for how to improve, don’t just complain. 

You’ll see other small changes, added features, etc. to the blog.  Enjoy!

There is some interesting discussion going on over on the comment section of Grassrootspa - specifically about Judge Saylor’s retention election. 

I see two sides coming out - one in favor of Judge Saylor because he is a decent judge and the alternative would be worse.  The other side saying that he needs to go because his recent votes are nothing more than pandering to save his hide and that the house cleaning is not done.

I can understand both sides because I’ve been on both sides of this debate in one discussion or another over the many years. 

After reading all the comments, I wrote the following comments:

Here’s the real reason this discussion is happening in the first place - The establishment has violated its integrity. Integrity is one of the most, if not the most, important thing there is. Without it, there is no trust, no communication,etc. You see the results of the establishment violating its integrity ever since the pay raise fiasco up until and including today’s comments here. It takes a long time to build up integrity, and not long at all to destroy it. Right now the GOP establishment has no integrity in the eyes of the grassroots. That, ultimately, is why this whole discussion is occurring. Saylor may be a good judge or a bad judge, it really doesn’t matter in relation to the long term relationship of the GOP establishment with the base. Saylor could be the best judge who ever walked the planet, I would venture to guess that the same comments would still be made for the simple fact that the GOP establishment destroyed its integrity with the base. You can equate this to a marriage. If one partner has an affair, that is a major violation of integrity. It conflicts with all the vows, expectations, matters of trust, etc. that were set up at the beginning of the marriage. Until integrity is restored, I wouldn’t the expect the base to be openly supportive of any candidate that the establishment supports.

My question to the establishment is - what are you going to do to rebuild your integrity? It’s not a simple one step process. Integrity is too important to just give is a passing notice. It won’t fly with the base either. It will take a few years. What steps are you going to voluntarily do to rebuild the integrity you had with the GOP members? I’d love to hear what the plan is, as I’m sure so many others would as well.

James Taylor, the Franklin County GOP Chair penned a great piece that ran in the Patriot-News today.  The people’s revolt is finally being heard within some leadership ranks within the Republican Party.  It’s about time someone who is a leader within the party started grabbing the party by the shoulders, shook the beast, and looked it straight in the eye and told it to wake up.  That’s what Mr. Taylor’s article did.  He’s asking the questions that conservatives have been asking for a few years now - what does it mean to be a Republican?  Who are these people that supposedly represent the Republican Party?  Why are they not as conservative as the rest of the base? 

The only question remaining is, what are the grassroots going to do about it?  The grassroots has already voted against the party a couple of times.  There are really two options left - to keep shooting their own by voting against the party, which is quite negative and frankly, most people will get sick of in the long term, or to leave the party.  Either way, the party is headed for the dumpheap if the people in charge remain stubborn because there will be no one willing to identify themselves as a Republican.  It may take some time. 

Of course, the revolt could end tomorrow if the party started to listen to the people that are members of the party.  Don’t count on it though - there’s way too much ego at the top.  They won’t really understand the message until no one is left to stand by their side.  It’s kind of like the old proverbial question about the tree in forest.  In this case, if the leadership of the Republican Party embraces true reform, and no one is there to hear it, does true reform actually happen? 

As for me, I’m still a registered Independent.  I had enough of the arrogance, the in-fighting, the pettiness, the smallness, etc.  I moved on with my life.  I’m glad I did.  The continuous infighting that is still going on and the egos at the top just confirm to me that I made the right decision.  Yeah, yeah, I know what all the critics are saying - but you don’t have a voice in the primary.  Bull.  I get involved in primaries, like I did in Eichelberger’s campaign. 

It comes down to this.  Do I want to identify myself politically with the likes of John Perzel, Rob Gleason, Bob Jubelirer, and other Republican leaders, meaning the people who actually run the party?  Nope, not a chance.  I don’t share the same values as they do and I don’t have the same vision as they do.  I’m all for a big tent.  I’m also for humbleness and listening to the people that you represent.  In the current state of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, those two qualities are lacking. 

I’ve had a couple of interviews over the last couple of weeks that I’d like to share with you.

First, I was interviewed by David Wolf of Small Biz America.  You can listen to that interview here.  It’s an online radio program, so you may have to wait a little bit to get through the rotation of interviews. 

The second interview was with Garry Gamber of Good Politics Radio.  You can listen to that interview here.  This is actually an introductory interview.  In the very near future I’ll be hosting my own podcast show.  Please feel free to send me your ideas for topics and/or who you’d like to hear interviewed.  I’m also open to suggestions. 

I’ve got a bunch of other changes coming, so stay tuned. 

Here’s the link to the article I did for July’s edition of The National Networker.  I interviewed Will Fogel of Unity ‘08.  It was a nice interview and I felt gave some good insight into the organization.  Enjoy.

I heard there was a live earth concert yesterday that attracted a large number of people to watch it.  I, of course didn’t see it.  I was busy doing something useful - moving furnature around the house to rearrange space, and give my 5 month old son his own bedroom. 

It is my understanding that this concert was one of those “save the ______” concerts - fill in the blank with your favorite cause/crisis, hold a concert to show you care and then everyone goes back to living their lives and the people who put it on feel important because they did something about the problem.  Here’s the problem with these things - how many people watched it because they really, truly, deep down in their heart were concerned about the climate and were hell-bent on doing something about it?  How many of the people watched the concert because of the bands that were playing and while they “care” about the planet, they don’t care enough to do more than watch the concert. 

Rich Galen wrote about the event on his Mullings enewsletter.  He said that the biggest push that the concert made was to get everyone to go change their lightbulbs.  Yippee!!!  I wonder how many people went out an got new lightbulbs.  Here’s the thing - I doubt many people did, or will, especially long term, because a lightbulb just isn’t worth people’s time.  The only reason I think about a lightbulb is when one blows out and I have to change it, otherwise, I could care less about it.  If you want to get people to do something, and make it appear like it’s something worth while, I like Rich Galen’s idea - go plant a tree.  That’s an investment, not something you do because of an inconvenience of a blown lightbulb.  And it actually makes some difference.  Yeah, yeah, the whole CO2 thing.  But really, planting a tree has more to do with enhancing the beauty around you and life around you.  A tree is alive, a lightbulb isn’t.  Because of a tree, you have the potential for other living things to call the tree home.  What do you have with a lightbulb - just light. 

Help me out with this.  We’ve had a budget impass for six days now.  I’m not exactly sure how it has affected me.  I don’t feel any effects of the impass.  In fact, life is pretty good.  I’m always amused by the wording of the budget crisis.  First off, is it really a crisis?  If it were, why am I not concerned - and from what I can tell, the vast majority of the population couldn’t care less either.  The budget is going to be late, it’s always late.  Maybe if the legislature didn’t waste time at the beginning of the year on riduclous legislation, it would have had more time to work on the budget and get something passed in time.  Of course Rendell wants an increase in spending and taxes - He’s wanted that since he first came into office. 

The big stink right now is about the unnecessary employees - or “unessential personnel” as they are stated in the press.  If they are so unessential, why do their jobs exist in the first place.  Why is the government hiring people to fill unnecessary positions?  I think it’s a legitimate question and I would like an answer.  How would you like to be one of those “unessential” employees.  I wonder how that makes you feel.  Not only do we have people in jobs that aren’t necessary, but now we’ve just made them depressed by telling them that they don’t matter when it comes down to it.  Way to raise the moral there.  No wonder people think government’s version of customer service stinks.