Run! It’s Those Scary, Racist Tea Party People!

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 6

image courtesy of SodaHead.com

Bigotry and disinformation are alive and well in the USA.

In Washington, DC for a Tea Party Patriots leadership conference, my wife and I entered our hotel elevator and joined three black women, expecting a friendly conversation with some locals. Their eyes dropped to the prominent “Tea Party” ID badges we wore, and the reaction was stunning.

The youngest of them jumped back against the wall, her eyes wide with palpable fear. The other two also shrank back, hands over mouths, mumbling obvious displeasure. It was as if Count Dracula himself had appeared before them.

“Hmmph. Tea Party, huh? Mmm, mmm, mmm, not good, not good . . . ,” the older ladies lamented.

We were stunned speechless. Before we could come up with a response, the door opened at our floor and the younger one jumped past us to the hallway. We followed.

“You people are trying to take my job away from me!” she shouted over her shoulder, rushing away from us as quickly as possible.

My wife and I looked at each other, wondering what her job is, why we would want to “take it” from her, and what we would do with it if we got it. As the young lady fumbled for the key to her room, I blurted out, “Wow, if you are afraid of Tea Party grandmas and grandpas, you need a new source of information!” Her door slammed.

Back in our room we tried to make sense of what we had just seen and heard. While race wasn’t mentioned, I’m very sure it played a role, because the left and the media have so successfully branded the Tea Party as racists.

My mind went back to the speakers we had just enjoyed at our Tea Party Patriots 5-year celebration event. One was Sonnie Johnson of Breitbart News, a bright and beautiful young African-American woman who abandoned her prepared speech to talk instead about something that “hit her heart”. Miss Johnson decried the federal government’s quest to replace God and religion with government dependency. She passionately prayed for the success of the Tea Party and America.

I remembered the fiery words of Anita Moncrief, the hard-nosed little African-American woman who, as an ACORN official, finally had to blow the whistle on the corruption that oozed between that organization and the Democrat party during the Obama campaign. “That was not helping people,” she cried. “I got tired of the victimhood and the race card.” She now works with True the Vote.

K Carl Smith, black Tea Party leader, spoke eloquently of Frederick Douglas‘ respect for the constitution and belief in limited government. US Representative Raul Labrador joked about his status as a “Puerto Rican Mormon Tea Party Member”. George Rodriquez, Mexican-American radio host and president of the San Antonio Tea Party, observed that every family wants the same opportunities for prosperity, regardless of race.

These people, and so many like them, not only know the Tea Party, they ARE the Tea Party. Which raises the question: Would the black ladies in the elevator have feared Sonnie if she had entered the elevator instead of my wife and I?

The Tea Party Patriots want to ensure that the children and grandchildren of all Americans have a chance to enjoy the freedoms and economic opportunities that we did. Yet the hateful left and the mainstream media have demonized us so successfully that under-informed black women fear for their safety in the presence of white grandparents wearing Tea Party badges.

It’s sad. And it has to stop.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

We can’t go on together
With suspicious minds
And we can’t build our dreams
On suspicious minds

Suspicious Minds – Elvis Presley

We Care So Much About You, We’ll Spend All Your Money To Prove It!

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 1

Winter Prep It snowed in Charlotte last week. What a perfect opportunity for local officials to demonstrate what’s wrong with government.

It seems that nothing is more important to public officials than public relations. They are compelled to show that they really, really “care” about us and our safety. After all, their mission is to protect us from anything evil that could possibly harm us, right?

This need to be seen as our faithful guardians often transcends common sense, and economic sense.

On Saturday the meaty urologists (weathermen) predicted rain and snow to arrive by the middle of the next week. So on Sunday, three days before the expected weather event, the DOT sent out an army of trucks, each manned by a driver and a second guy riding shotgun (maybe to balance the truck so it would not have uneven weight distribution causing premature tire wear?) to spray little white lines of brine on the streets. Surely seeing these little white squiggles made Charlotte drivers feel warm and fuzzy inside, knowing that their government officials really care about them and their safety.

But wait a minute . . . the snow is not coming for three days, right? And this is the South where it ALWAYS rains before it snows, so the rain will wash all the brine off the roads and into the sewers before it snows, right?

The forecast was accurate – it rained heavily on Tuesday, and then snowed big time on Wednesday. The Charlotte streets were a real circus, complete with clowns and daredevil acts. It didn’t appear to me that the huge expense for trucks and gas and drivers and weight-distribution passengers on overtime and the brine was a very good investment of taxpayers hard-earned money.

But that’s government work. All that really matters is our government CARES. Gotta love that warm and fuzzy feeling.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

When I’m tired and thinking cold
I hide in my music, forget the day
And dream of a girl I used to know
I closed my eyes and she slipped away
She slipped away

More Than A Feeling – Boston

Here’s a heapin’ helpin’ of guitar tone to warm up your day – Boston live, 2008

Is the “Money Game” Dying in DC?

Posted on February 12, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 4

ChangeCongress-FollowTheMoney696 In my last post I decried the incessant corruption in Washington, DC. I recently read Peter Schweitzer’s amazing book “Extortion” and suddenly I see the baffling events inside the Beltway with new clarity.

Yesterday Speaker of the House John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor got 26 other Republican congressmen to join 200 Democrats and pass a “clean” bill to extend the debt limit until after the election. All the other Republican congressmen sensibly voted against passage.

Today the Senate, with Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican Whip John Cornyn voting along with the Democrats, passed the bill for President Obama’s signature. As a result the national debt will rise to at least $18.2 trillion while our government does nothing but accelerate the calamitous decline in our economy.

Until I read Schweitzer’s book I could not fathom how the Republican leadership of both houses of Congress could vote not only against the wishes and interests of their constituents, but also in defiance of their own body of legislators. The Republican majority-holding members in the House could have stopped this travesty in a heartbeat, and would have, were it not for John Boehner and the other Republican leaders. What kind of evil pathology is this? How can we face our children?

It just didn’t make any sense to me. Until I learned about “the money”.

I learned from Schweitzer and subsequent research that the game of government in DC is all about “the money”. A congressman cannot get elected without “the money”. Once a candidate is anointed by his party (both teams play by the same rules) and then elected, he is immediately indebted. He is required to not only raise enough funds to win his own re-election, he also must also raise funds to sustain the party. And let me tell you, these are some high stakes.

Committee assignments and leaderships are granted to legislators based on the funds they raise. Votes are bought and sold. Party leaders can financially make or break any member in a heartbeat. None of the attributes a congressman brings to his position – knowledge, experience, skill, hard work – matters at all. One’s status and hope for re-election is solely the result of how much dough he raises for the party. The vast majority of a legislator’s time is spent chasing “the money”.

While you never hear about this “Lord of the Flies” culture in the press, it is no secret inside the Beltway. It has been in place for a long, long time.

But a change took root in recent years. Conservative voters, seeing that the entrenched political class in Washington, DC no longer took any interest in limiting government, supporting constitutional rights, and passing reasonable budgets, began sending principled men and women to the nation’s capital. These newcomers were less engaged in “the money” and more driven by practical economics and common sense. As the Tea Party influence became more pronounced, and fewer members feared the leadership’s “protection racket”, the DC money machine started to break down. The Republican war chest was depleting. And the central control of the Republican leadership started to crack.

For a candidate, the worst thing about the Tea Party is that they will work hard for you, but they won’t bring you a lot of money. The best thing is that you won’t have to sell your soul to pay them back.

Boehner and friends have thrown in the towel. From the Huffington Post:

Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he “hoped to find 18 of them to join 200 Democrats to get the job done.”

“The fact is, we’ll let the Democrats put the votes up,” Boehner said. “We’ll put a minimum amount of votes up to get it passed.”

The new conservatives don’t care that much about raising money and are not indebted to the leadership. They voted a resounding NO, and led most of the Republican membership into the light with them. The old guard Republican leadership hunkered down in their central command, clinging to the hope that they could keep hold of their power and positions, and “the money”, by caving in, again, to their Democrat opponents. In his final hurrah, Boehner bought just enough votes to do the deal and now he is broken and broke, along with Cantor, McConnell and the others. “The money”, and the power structure it bought, may soon be extinct.

I hope we will look back at this day as a pivot point. It was a battle lost, but one that could light the path to winning the war, where true conservatives stand on principle and vote for the people, not “the money”.

(To my Montana friends – The “Responsible Republicans” in the Big Sky State should take note. Their future may look a lot like that of Boehner and friends.)

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

You never give me your money
You only give me your funny paper
And in the middle of negotiations
You break down!

You Never Give Me Your Money – the Beatles
covered by the Ed Turner Band

Boehner, Reid and Friends Are Playing Us for Fools

Posted on February 6, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 3

cartoon courtesy Rhode Island Insider Our federal government is dysfunctional. Everybody knows it.

Most people blame the polarization of politics in America today. The Democrats and Republicans can’t agree on anything because they have deep ideological differences, right?

Maybe not so much. Our entrenched political leaders in Washington – Democrats and Republicans alike – are less driven by ideology than they are by money. This is nothing new, but it sure seems to be accelerating.

The untold secret, closely guarded by the press and the political oligarchy, is that politics inside the Beltway is hopelessly corrupt. The average American assumes that lobbyists work for big, evil corporations seeking to buy political favors. Sadly, the opposite is more often true. Our political leaders live and breathe to extort money from corporations, fattening their campaign coffers and their own wallets by promising (or threatening) to pass (or not pass) legislation that will affect profits. They write bills specifically for the purpose of shaking down a given company or industry – often writing and then erasing the same proposals over and over to generate fresh cash with each iteration. Democrats and Republican leaders frequently collude on legislation, agreeing to pass it after all palms have been well greased. Legislative leaders repeatedly stall votes until the appropriate ante has been paid.

Peter Schweizer’s book “Extortion – How Politicians Extract Your Money, Buy Votes, and Line Their Own Pockets” lays out the schemes in non-partisan detail. Here’s an example: In 2011 the Wireless Tax Fairness Act, written specifically to help AT&T and Verizon prevent local taxation on cell phone bills, was stalled in the House, waiting for a floor vote.

“Everyone expected Boehner, given his general aversion to raising taxes, to support the bill and hold a vote. But as the months went by and mid-October arrived, it was unclear whether the vote would ever come.”

“Members of Congress from both parties had their hands out. Employees of Verizon and AT&T wrote over two hundred checks totaling over $180,000 to the campaign committees of members of Congress during September and October of 2011. Finally, he declared a vote for the bill on November 1, 2011, and on the day before the vote, Boehner’s campaign collected the toll: thirty-three checks from wireless industry executives, totaling almost $40,000. Twenty-eight of those checks came from executives with AT&T. The day of the vote, employees of Verizon sent twenty-eight checks to members of Congress.”

“The tribute had been paid. The vote was held. The Wireless Tax Fairness Act passed the House easily on a voice vote.”

Actually, the more polarized the Democrats and Republics seem to be, the more money they can raise. They love conflict, and work hard to preserve it.

Let’s stop being naive. There is a reason why the United States has slid to 19th place on the “least corrupt government” ranking by Transparency International. There is a reason why Congress writes thousands of bills for every one that is passed. There is a reason why Congressmen begin their careers with modest wealth and end them fabulously rich. There is a reason why a lobbying firm will frequently work for both Republicans and Democrats. There is a reason why so many lobbyists are related to politicians. There is a reason why the president’s campaign contributors get federal contracts. There is a reason why 154 (and counting) tax breaks are written to be “extended” every year or so instead of put in place permanently.

It’s called corruption. But you will never hear the press talk about it, and to this point no candidate has mentioned it.

The framers of our Constitution didn’t build in malware that would stop corrupt individuals from taking financial advantage of their positions. They relied on the voters to elect people of character.

We can’t afford to send one more corrupt or corruptible person to Washington. We must fight to remove Pelosi, Boehner, Reid, McConnell and Obama. Our last, best hope is the Tea Party – until we get principled people in the positions of leadership in Washington, DC nothing will change.

The Democrats and Republicans have played us for fools for far too long.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Everybody plays the fool,
They use your heart just like a tool.
They never tell you so in school
Everybody plays the fool.

Everybody Plays The Fool – the Main Ingredient

Argentina Makes Our Favorite Mistake – Again

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

Printing-Money-300x300 A year ago I wrote an article warning that Argentina, under bubble-headed socialist president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, is headed for yet another financial disaster by printing artificial fiat currency, denying the reality of inflation by cooking the books, and failing to restrain runaway government deficit spending. I predicted things would only get worse in Argentina, and we would be right behind them because our own bubble-headed socialist leaders are following the same script.

I was right.

Argentina is in a world of hurt. And so are we. Our president told the nation this week that the state of the union is strong, and we are creating plenty of jobs. But, he said, we must print more money to extend unemployment benefits again (beyond 99 weeks). Only 63% of adults are active in the labor force. A majority of Americans receive government checks.

Soon the Democrats will demand to increase our debt limit. The Republicans will cave. Again. The Democrats insist we must grant amnesty and open our borders to millions of illegal immigrants who will put untold strain on employment and demand for public services. The Republicans will cave. Again. The Democrats have thrown our system of medical care into a state of chaos, and all indications are that it will wreak even further havoc on our economy. And the Republicans . . . well, you know.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve sucks up the wealth of those who have worked hard and saved money by holding interest rates to zero, passing it on to the mega-bankers. They hold the Fed’s artificial dollars on their balance sheets and enjoy the risk-free interest, or play the stock and derivatives markets with their corrupt “pennies from heaven.”

As vehemently as our administration and the media deny it, we have a currency inflation bubble ready to pop. We peasants should pay attention to the Argentine people. They have been in this boat before and have developed strategies for dealing with their idiotic government.

One way they attempt to beat crushing inflation is to spend all of their cash as quickly as they get it. Whatever one can buy with a dollar today will cost two dollars tomorrow. Why hold on to cash?

Another strategy is to buy tangibles that will hopefully have some value to somebody in the future, even when cash has lost its value. Real estate and gold are in this category.

But as predictable as the results are, they keep making the same mistake – they swallow more kool-aid, and elect more socialists.

They are the product of the same mistakes that have produced previous busts: uncontrolled government spending, heavy taxes on exports coupled with strict controls on imports and disincentives to foreign investors. Never learning from its mistakes, Ms. Kirchner’s Peronist party has pursued this course repeatedly, even as neighbors, including Chile, have soared past it in per-capita income by adopting free-market policies. — Washington Post editorial board

Can we Americans learn from our mistakes?

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

It’s the perfect ending
To the bad day I’ve got used to spending
When you go all I know is
You’re my favorite mistake
You’re my favorite mistake

My Favorite Mistake – Sheryl Crow

Compromise? Yeah, Right!

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 2

For you youngsters: these are “Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots” – a toy from the 1960s.

Are you tired of getting blasted because you don’t feel like compromising your important conservative principles with the liberals – first liberal Democrats, and now liberal Republicans?

The left calls us racists. They claim we hate women. They say all we care about is tax cuts for the rich. They repeat the most insulting and dishonest characterizations without conscience. And then they blame us for refusing to “compromise.”

Have you ever seen a liberal compromise on anything?

Compromise in the mind of a liberal does not have the same meaning that it does to you and I. To them, compromise only travels in one direction. Reaching across the aisle means moving from right to left, never the other way.

Recently many pundits and talk-show hosts who became wealthy pretending they are conservatives have joined the attack against the Tea Party. Karl Rove has gone so far to the left that he has lost all credibility, even among milk-toast Republicans. Michael Medved, Bill Bennett, and Mike Gallagher still throw out the occasional conservative talking-point biscuit, but in-between they soft-shill for the president and Democrat leaders and their big-government ideology. They say conservatives can’t compete with the liberals politically, so we must become more like them – we must “compromise”. In recent years we have offered plenty of weak-kneed Republicans to the voters, all eager to compromise. Tell me, guys. How is that workin’ out for ya?

In Montana, a group of Republican state legislators apparently worship at the altar of compromise. Calling themselves “responsible Republicans“, they frequently side with the Democrats, even on critical issues.

What is it about “compromise” that is so noble and righteous? If you know that something is wrong and harmful, why would you condone it, even a negotiated measure of it?

Should Franklin Roosevelt have compromised with the Nazis? “Hey, Adolf, how about this? We’ll stay out of your way if you would just promise to shut down the incinerators every other day.”

Should the 1964 civil rights advocates in the Senate have compromised with the southern block of Democrats who said, “We will resist to the bitter end any measure or any movement which would have a tendency to bring about social equality and intermingling and amalgamation of the races in our (Southern) states”? Maybe they could have agreed to allow blacks to vote only every other year, and attend integrated public schools, but only through sixth grade?

graphic courtesy of Litchfield Ecclesia Tolerating illegal and unconstitutional acts, or looking the other way when government malfeasance results in the loss of American lives is every bit as onerous as voting against the principles of those who elected you.

There are details that can be compromised in a representative government. Should we build a four-lane highway or two-lane? Do we really need new streetlights this year?

But an elected official who won’t stand on principle when he or she knows for certain that the wrong choice will cause serious harm to the citizens has no business in government.

And he or she has no moral authority to criticize those of us who will stand for important principles.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Mercy’s hard to find
It’s just a state of mind
Drop the slack, get out the way
We don’t have another day
Right is right, wrong is wrong
Right is right, wrong is wrong

Right is Right – Rufus with Chaka Khan

No video today, just a smokin’ hot song from one of my all-time favorite soul singers that came to mind with this topic.

Protect Jobs in China or in the U.S.? Take a Stand!

Posted on January 24, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 2

Why does our economy continue to decline as more Americans are reduced to government-dependency every day? Please take two minutes to watch our vice-president Joe Biden try to defend the US free-trade policies of recent years (including the Trans-Pacific Partnership which is currently being fast-tracked through Congress) and see Pat Buchanan destroy them:

Biden, his boss President Obama, and Harry Reid claim to be motivated by the dream of a “New World Order”, a “level playing field”, and “the success of those with whom we compete”. Sadly, many Republicans including house speaker John Boehner are rolling over as well.

Could it be that these Washington, DC elites are owned by the incredibly wealthy business tycoons and their lobbyists who have profited greatly by shipping 55% of our manufacturing jobs overseas?

In his upcoming state of the union speech President Obama is expected to decry income inequality, while out of the other side of his mouth he promotes free trade. The two are incompatible. Free trade clearly creates income inequality by creating enormous corporate profits without domestic employment.

Isn’t it about time our leaders take a stand for American jobs and families?

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Now stand in the place where you work.
Now face west. [toward China!]
Think about the place where you live,
Wonder why you haven’t before!

STAND – R.E.M.

————————————

———————————–

Side note for Montanans: Rep. Steve Daines (R) and Sen. Max Baucus (D) have supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership; Sen. Jon Tester (D) appears to support the treaty, but has demanded protections for the US timber industry.

———————————-

Sign Up Now for ObamaCar – Subsidized Car Insurance!

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 3

Cheech and Chong - Up In Smoke Why fight it? You know, when he’s right, he’s right.

This ObamaCare deal is sweet. My friend Barack (he still calls me “friend” and asks for $5 every day) says we can all have better health care, it will cost little or nothing, and we can keep our favorite doctors.

Isn’t it great? Instead of buying my own health insurance, he says I can get a subsidized policy for a lot less money that covers a lot more stuff – even stuff I don’t need, like birth control and drug counseling! And nobody has to pay for it! I think the money just comes out of his “stash”.

Most people have quit working now that unemployment checks keep coming indefinitely and disability is so easy to get. A family of four can get $632 per month in free food — and heck, now they are all on the ObamaCare website getting free health care too through Medicaid! My friends in Colorado are so happy, because they have more money to spend on those awesome brownies.

It’s great that I don’t have to face the risk of health problems any more. In fact, ObamaCare is so cool, I’m going to call my friend Barack on my ObamaPhone and ask him for another new program.

What if somebody smashes my car? I can’t afford a new one. And my friends in Colorado might hit a light pole on the way home from work now that everybody is smoking weed on coffee breaks. We shouldn’t have to pay for our own car insurance. We need ObamaCar! Free or subsidized Car Insurance!

You know, now that I won’t have to buy health insurance or car insurance any more, I’m going to move to Colorado, get on disability and food stamps, hang out with my friends, hire me a driver, and just cruise around all day smoking weed in the back seat of the low rider! ObamaCar! Woo hoo!

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Baby you can drive my car
Yes I’m gonna be a star!
Baby you can drive my car
And maybe I’ll love you.
Beep beep, m’ beep beep, yeah!

Baby You Can Drive My Car – Paul McCartney

Rubio Threatens ObamaCare Bailouts – Health Insurers Freak Out

Posted on January 13, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 2

photo courtesy of Gaebler.com Have you wondered why the big health insurance companies have not put up a fight against the federal government takeover of their industry? By outward appearance it would seem that Obama, Reid and Pelosi are hell-bent on putting the health insurance guys out of business. Shouldn’t they be screaming bloody murder?

The ObamaCare concept is, at best, a house of cards. I contend it is a predictable “train wreck,” certain to happen. It is based on the premise that healthy young people will suddenly trip over themselves running to buy insurance plans that they don’t want, don’t need, don’t understand, and can’t afford, in order to subsidize coverage for the sick and elderly. The further assumption is that fear of a tiny tax penalty some time in the distant future will scare the youngsters into compliance today – kids who, if they report taxes at all, just hand their W2s to H&R Block once a year, and then turn right back to their Facebook pages.

Early indications are that the young are staying away from ObamaCare in droves. Many older citizens who had individual insurance have lost or dropped their policies. Most transactions on the ObamaCare exchanges are actually signups for free Medicaid, not affordable insurance. And since it didn’t occur to the ObamaCare planners to release hospitals from the requirement to provide emergency care to anybody who shows up at the door, guess what? The “poor” are still going to the ER, largely because they don’t know any better.

The demographic assumptions that established the viability of ObamaCare have already been blown to smithereens.

It would appear ObamaCare is pushing the insurance companies (and self-insured employers) toward financial armageddon. They are now loaded with mandates and reporting requirements, forced to assume high-risk clients and pre-existing conditions, faced with the loss of profitable group insurance policies and struggling to react to minute-by-minute rule changes well after the game started. Why haven’t the insurance guys complained?

Now we know. The whole thing was a setup.

ObamaCare stack The CBO had already projected that the federal government will pass $1 trillion of taxpayer funds through to the insurance companies. But Wait! Now we learn that buried deep in the 20,000+ pages of the ObamaCare regulations are two little gems that the administration didn’t want to see the light of day: Section 1341, the “reinsurance fund” and Section 1342, the “risk-corridor provision”.

The reinsurance fund provides the insurance companies a stop-loss at $45,000 on big claims. 80% of any claims above that amount are covered by (you guessed it) the taxpayers. The risk-corridor provision even further insulates the insurance companies from losses (up to 80%) due to changes in the demographics of ObamaCare enrollees (see above).

Thanks to Charles Krauthamer and Senator Marco Rubio these boondoggles have been revealed (don’t wait for an expose’ on MSNBC) and a push to repeal the provisions is gathering steam.

Krauthamer: First order of business for the returning Congress: The No Bailout for Insurance Companies Act of 2014. Make it one line long: “Sections 1341 and 1342 of the Affordable Care Act are hereby repealed.” End of bill. End of bailout. End of story.

Not surprisingly, the health insurance executives are freaking out.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

All that pressure got you down
Has your head been spinning all around?
Ah, freak out! (Le freak, c’est chic)
Freak out! (Le freak, c’est chic)
Freak out!

Le Freak – Chic – 1977

The gals are still lookin’ mighty freakin’ good in this 2004 Chic concert footage:

Steve Daines (R-MT), Other Congressmen Can Do Better

Posted on January 6, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

Steve Daines 1 Here is what’s wrong with politics in the United States today.

Steve Daines was elected to the US House of Representatives from Montana in 2012. While he was never touted as a “Tea Party Conservative,” Daines courted the increasingly politically powerful coalition of Tea Party groups from across the Big Sky State and enjoyed their support through his primary push and the general election.

You will hear enlightened voters lament often, and everywhere: once a politician of either party gets to Washington, DC, they are swallowed up by the federal power structure. Men and women of the highest integrity, with the best of intentions, land inside the Beltway and in very short order become pawns of their respective parties, losing their autonomy and values along the way. Blame the money, blame personal ambition, or blame the system, it seems to happen over and over again.

Maybe Congressman Daines is the latest victim.

A conservative friend of mine recently wrote to Daines encouraging him to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The TPP has received criticism from both Democrats and Republicans alike, for widely varying reasons. The benefits to the US of joining such a broad-ranging multi-lateral trade agreement are sketchy at best, dangerous at worst, and the secrecy of the proceedings has caused considerable alarm. President Obama’s recent overtures toward inclusion of communist China in the agreement is a five-alarm fire.

I am not arguing the merits of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement in this post. What upsets me is the way Congressman Daines responded to his constituent.

It’s clear that the Daines staff has two form letters prepared for citizens who contact his office about this issue. (This procedure likely applies to every issue about which a constituent might contact the congressman.) Form letter “A” would be sent to a constituent who supports the congressman’s position. Form letter “B” is sent to one who opposes.

My friend, a conservative supporter of Daines, received form letter “B” because she opposed the TPP. And here is the ugly, cynical, political part of the process. Republican Daines’ staff assumes that if a constituent opposes his position, he/she must be a Democrat. And by deductive reasoning, he/she must be a big supporter of labor unions and environmental causes. So this is the response that Congressman Daines’ conservative constituent received:

Thank you for contacting me to express your concerns about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations and international trade in general. As someone with nearly three decades of experience in the private sector, I value your point of view on this important issue and appreciate the opportunity to respond.

As you know, the United States is currently negotiating a TPP agreement with twelve Trans-Pacific countries. The purpose of the potential agreement is to create jobs and boost economic growth in our country by increasing U.S. exports to this growing region. You may be pleased to know that labor and environmental concerns are being addressed as part of the negotiations. (ed. emphasis) The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has noted that such provisions “are now standard (in U.S. trade agreements) and increasingly enforceable.” I respectfully support our efforts to expand trade in the Trans-Pacific region, and I am monitoring the negotiations.

I’m pretty sure Congressman Daines did not personally read the letter from his (former) supporter. If he had any personal or political sensitivity, he would not have suggested that his Tea Party Conservative supporter’s top priorities are “labor and environmental concerns” – especially at a time when the indefensible and incredibly expensive “global warming” hoax is being laid bare by record ice packs and an “inconveniently truthful” pattern of global cooling.

How cynical, how disingenuous, how condescending is this letter to a conservative supporter? Did this come from Congressman Daine’s office, or from Speaker of the House John Boehner’s?

I know how difficult it is to get elected to a national office. I understand that a congressman must represent all of his constituents – even those who did not vote for him. But shouldn’t a congressman have principles from which he can articulate and defend a position? Must he pander to the beliefs he assumes to attribute to a given constituent?

I’m tired – very tired – of politicians who are quick to say whatever they think the nearest voter wants to hear. And of those who try to ride the fence to election without studying an issue and coming to a conclusion that they are able and willing to defend. Has our vaunted system of government – the federal republic – been reduced to nothing more than a poll-driven, focus-group, finger-in-the-wind marketing campaign?

Steve Daines, and the rest of you in Congress and the Senate: you can do better than this.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

I’ll even tell you that I love you,
If you want me to.
Third-rate romance,
Low-rent rendezvous.

Third Rate Romance – Amazing Rhythm Aces

Sorry there are no “live” video performances available of this great story/song by the Amazing Rhythm Aces. There are many covers, but nothing compares to the original. I sing this song almost every weekend – it is not only a poignant vignette about the sometimes sad state of romance in our culture, but it also serves as a reference point to the “bend over” current state of politics in our once-great nation.