RedState Gathering – Nothing Resolved, We All Just Disagree

Posted on August 14, 2016 by Tom Balek Standard 3

I attended the RedState Gathering in Denver this weekend, not knowing what to expect, and even prepared for a brawl. I joked with friends that if I saw talk radio flame-thrower Steve Deace walking by, I would trip him.

The RedState Gathering is an annual political event hosted by RedState, the right-wing media group led in recent years by Erick Erickson. I have followed Erickson for years and held him in high esteem as a deep thinker and a solid defender of conservative values – small government, free markets, and personal responsibility. But then Trump happened, and Erickson and I parted ways.

Somehow, out of 17 GOP candidates for president, Trump won. My first favorite, Carly Fiorina, held on as long as she could, but was never really a contender. My second favorite, Ted Cruz, put up a good fight that got ugly at the end. Trump emerged, without the support of the majority of voters, as the only alternative to Hillary.

The right side of the electorate immediately fractured into four groups, deftly described by Guy Benson in the final panel discussion at the Gathering, and only slightly modified below by me.

There are those who were on the Trump train from the start, and will gleefully vote for him in the general election. They are furious that no one in government has listened to them for a long time, and they want to blow up the Washington DC cartel and start over. They have no reservations about Trump’s character or ability.
Then there is the group that is not crazy about Trump, but see the election as binary, and are terrified of the inevitable and irreversible harm a Hillary presidency will bring: activist courts shredding the Constitution for decades to come, accelerated immigration that will guarantee liberal domination into perpetuity, unstoppable growth and overreach of government, ridiculous imposition of political correctness, destruction of jobs and the economy, loss of national security, racial and gender disharmony, and Clinton Corruption in every corner. This group feels compelled to vote for Trump. I am in this camp, as are most conservative media pundits: Limbaugh, Ingraham, Hannity, Hewitt, Gallagher, and others. Hugh Hewitt defended our case admirably to the Gathering.
The third group which includes Erickson and RedState are so disturbed by Trump’s personality, and the perception that he is not a pure conservative, that they are actively campaigning against him. They refuse to vote for or support Trump on principle; they just can’t live with a president who is persistently politically incorrect. They suspect his motives, even though he has never been in government and has no policy record. They don’t like Hillary either, but are willing to let her slip into the Oval Office in the hopes that they will be able to re-group and pick up the pieces in four years.Iowa radio talk show host Steve Deace is the most vitriolic Trump critic – you can imagine the blood spurting from his eyes as he rails against Trump on the radio every day. Other less strident members of this group are radio host Michael Medved and Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard. Katie Pavlich, TV spokeswoman for Townhall.com, rationalized her opposition to Trump to the Gathering this morning, saying Trump will not beat Hillary anyway, so she is doing no harm. Erickson, a newly ordained preacher, views the election in biblical terms. He said, “The weather after November is going to be really bad. Expect to see houses falling from the sky.” But Erickson and his followers won’t vote for Trump, or stop criticizing him, under any circumstances. Glenn Beck passionately pleaded with the audience to not vote for Trump, promising an apocalypse if he is elected. He made the obligatory criticisms of Hillary, but he wasn’t specific about what actions Trump might take that will cause the mountains to crumble and the stars to fall from the sky.
The fourth group is made up of people who claim to be conservatives and have decided they will vote for Hillary. I agree with Erickson’s observation that these people are mentally ill.

As I said, I didn’t know what to expect, but I still brought home some surprises from the Gathering. I thought the attendees would be predominantly anti-Trump; they weren’t – most people there will be voting for Trump. I thought the stridently “NeverTrump” organizers would be unwilling to accept or listen to opposing views; they weren’t – they were patient and understanding of those whose views don’t line up with their own. And I thought Senator Ben Sasse, who Kristol and Erickson floated as a third-party opponent to Trump, might be a self-serving demagogue; he certainly isn’t. In fact, his homespun Nebraska common sense, along with his extraordinary speaking skill, makes him a serious contender for leader of the conservative renaissance, if the “right side” survives.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

So let’s leave it alone ’cause we can’t see eye to eye
There ain’t no good guy, there ain’t no bad guy
There’s only you and me and we just disagree

We Just Disagree – Dave Mason

Prediction: Trump’s Vanity Will Wear Thin

Posted on September 7, 2015 by Tom Balek Standard 2

photo by Gage Skidmore

Trump, Trump, Trump!

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump continues to dominate the news, leaving other candidates scratching their heads and scrambling for scraps of airtime.

Several of the early favorites in the GOP primary race are barely hanging on as their funds dry up, their ratings continue to sink, and the only question reporters ask them is, “How about that Trump?” Many observers thought the flop-haired tycoon would be kicked to the curb when his lack of depth on issues was revealed, but his campaign continues to gather steam.

While pundits no longer deny that his candidacy is for real, they still don’t understand how he has won the hearts of so many voters. Insider elites call Trump’s followers at best “angry”, and at worst “stupid.” They are still waiting for him to self-destruct.

One thing is certain: he is not winning support because of his conservative positions on the issues, which have been anything but consistent. He was for abortion before he was against it. He is against ObamaCare, but for single-payer health care. Trump was for amnesty, then against it, then for it again, kinda. He has been a consistent supporter of Hillary Clinton over the years – unthinkable and indefensible to right-wingers.

Other Republican candidates have held back their frustration with his scattershot positions and also with the apparent lack of discernment on the part of the voters. Their patience is wearing thin. Moderate-leaning Jeb Bush, who wanted to run a “happy” campaign, has begun to take retaliatory shots at ‘the Donald’. Solid conservative Carly Fiorina is the latest to take on Trump, saying, “I think it’s very difficult to lead if you don’t have the requisite knowledge.”

Some speculated that Trump won early support because he was the most “masculine” of the candidates, causing opponents Cruz and Walker to visibly “cowboy up” their presentation styles. Trump’s aggressive style is masculine, for sure, but also gratingly self-aggrandizing.

Trump certainly gets approval from disaffected conservative voters who have had a gut full of politicians whose actions don’t resemble their campaign promises – with Speaker John Boehner and Leader Mitch McConnell at the top of the list. But Trump is joined in the race by fellow “outsiders” Carly Fiorina and Dr. Ben Carson, and Ted Cruz has shown a willingness to stand up to the DC insiders as well.

It’s early, but not too early for my prediction: primary voters will tire of Trump’s vain rhetoric and failure to do his homework on the issues. But one of the other outsiders will triumph, and the Republican nominee will have Boehner and McConnell to thank for her success.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

You’re so vain,
You probably think this song is about you.
You’re so vain!
I’ll bet you think this song is about you!
Don’t you? Don’t you?

You’re So Vain – Carly Simon

Here’s another of my favorite Carly’s!

We Must Demand Real Federal Budgets

Posted on April 19, 2015 by Tom Balek Standard 1

zero based budgeting Zero-Based Budgeting is a simple concept, practiced by every family and every company in the USA. We all determine how much money we will receive for a given period, and then decide how we are going to spend it. We give priority to necessities, and then, if funds are available, we may indulge in luxuries or less-important items.

In fact the practice is so simple, so obvious, so common-sense that we don’t even give it a thought. We just do it. Most Americans would be surprised to learn that our federal government, with the largest budget on planet Earth, does not. The government simply takes whatever amount each department or agency spent last year, and adds to it. It is a recipe for economic disaster, and our $18 trillion debt is exactly that.

Last month Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL) introduced HR1591, the “Zero-Based Budgeting Ensures Responsible Oversight Act of 2015”. ZERO for short. It’s his third attempt to bring reason to our federal budget process.

The ZERO Act would require each department to justify all of its spending every year. Congressman Ross points out that in recent years taxpayers paid $615,000 to digitize Grateful Dead tickets, $442,000 to study male prostitutes in Vietnam, and $2.5 million for a Super Bowl ad. Neither you, nor I, nor any of our elected representatives authorized that spending. But it happened because there is no oversight, and under the current “continuing resolution” system, there can’t be.

If ZERO is enacted, departments would have to describe every activity for which funding is requested, provide the legal basis for the activity, and offer three alternative funding levels, two of which would be below the current year’s level. They would have to provide details on the benefits derived from each activity and any added benefit for increased funding. Plus, they must show measures of cost efficiency and effectiveness.

Congressman Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) told me he and the budget committee “will take up zero-based budgeting as part of budget reform later this summer.” So far only one congressman, David Jolly (R-FL) has co-sponsored HR1591.

At least three presidential candidates are advocates of Zero-Based Budgeting. Two of them, Rick Perry and Jeb Bush, are governors who understand budgeting. The third is Carly Fiorina, a dollar-savvy former CEO to whom ZBB is second nature. Fiorina told Breitbart News about something I personally experienced as a small business owner:

“I started my career in Washington, D.C. and sold to the federal government. As anyone who has done business with the federal government knows, in the last six weeks of every year, every government agency spends every dime,” she continued. They do that because they want to make sure the appropriations process is focused on the rate of increase for the following year – not what they actually need or whether they actually need to spend it.”

We taxpayers are dropping the ball. First of all, we don’t understand our own tax returns. And second, we don’t do a good job of holding our elected officials and the bureaucrats they are supposed to oversee accountable for spending our money.

It is admittedly hard work to budget every year, and to actually plan and prioritize spending. Families do it. Businesses do it. Is it too much to ask of our government officials and employees? Let’s encourage our congressmen to get behind real budget reform.

This article can be seen in its entirety at Watchdog Arena.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

What’s that honey?
Pick you up at eight? And don’t be late?
But baby, I ain’t got NOOOOOOOO money, honey!
Oh, all right honey, you know what I like!

Chantilly Lace – the Big Bopper

Here’s a fun video about a guy with a budget problem: