Showing posts with label 2014 elections. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2014 elections. Show all posts

Monday, February 18, 2019

In Praise of Democrats

No doubt many readers will be put off by the unexpected title of this essay, so I'll hasten to add a crucial disclaimer: This article will not extol the godless, radically secularist ideology of the current Democratic Party leadership or its abominable methods of putting it into practice. Nor will it condemn the traditional Judeo-Christian values, strict constitutional government, and fiscal responsibility espoused by the current Republican Party leadership. Rather, my intention here is along the lines of Jesus' famous remark to his disciples that the children of this age are wiser in their generation than the children of light. My goal is to demonstrate that there is something truly praiseworthy in our worst political enemies, the Democrats, and that there is something truly blameworthy in our best political friends, the Republicans.

Looking back over the past ten years of contemporary American history, which includes eight years of President Obama and two years of President Trump, it becomes painfully obvious that the Democrats have been steadily gaining the upper hand in national and state politics. This increasing concentration of power in Democratic hands has been taking place despite the remarkable growth and ascendancy of the Tea Party movement which swept historic Republican majorities into the Senate, the House of Representatives, and state legislatures and state governorships across the nation in 2010 and 2014 and propelled Donald Trump into the White House in 2016. Ironically, Democrats are even more powerful and dangerous now in 2019, with majority control of the House alone, than they were in 2009 when they controlled the White House, the House and the Senate with a filibuster-proof supermajority in the latter chamber. How so?

In today's money-driven, politically polarized, social media-saturated culture, a political movement easily claims victory over its opposition based on the sums of money it raises and spends on advertising, the amount of media publicity it gets, and the number of seats and chambers it wins and holds in Washington and state capitals. Although these factors are to some extent important and necessary for any political movement to achieve national prominence, their sum does not automatically equal enduring influence. The true yardstick for measuring the long-term success of any U.S. political movement is its ability to accomplish its stated objectives. And the absolutely critical factor here is the movement's determination (or lack thereof) to implement its agenda.

During the past ten years, the Democrats have made it very clear that their agenda is to fundamentally transform America from a Judeo-Christian, Constitutional, pro-life, pro-family, small-government, low-tax, balanced-budget, market-economy-based, secure-borders nation into a godless, lawless, pro-abortion, anti-family, big-government, high-tax, high-debt, socialist, open-borders nation. Their toolkit to accomplish this has included lies, propaganda, secrecy, name-calling, character assassination, threats, and blackmail. Frankly, they've made substantial progress toward their revolutionary goal with the continued expulsion of God from our national life and public places, a litany of unconstitutional laws and executive orders from ObamaCare to DACA, maintaining taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood, Supreme Court decisions upholding ObamaCare and striking down state marriage laws, swelling of the federal bureaucracy, high taxes, a national debt increase of $12 trillion, stifled economic growth, and a massive population of illegal immigrants.

The fact that most of this was accomplished with Republicans controlling one or both houses of Congress is a shining reflection on the bulldog tenacity of Democrats to see their agenda through, come what may. It's also a glaring reflection on the disappointing lack of determination by Republicans to implement their own agenda for the country. Supposedly, the Republicans want to keep America a Judeo-Christian, Constitutional, pro-life, pro-family, small-government, low-tax, fiscally responsible, market-economy-based, secure-borders nation. And it's true that in the past two years, President Trump and Congressional Republicans have taken some important steps to implement their agenda, reversing some of the damage wreaked by Democrats under President Obama. However, the Republicans have not been anywhere near as aggressive in implementing their good agenda as the Democrats have been in implementing their evil one. Worse, Democrats consistently make agenda-driven campaign promises and deliver on them, while Republicans tend to make agenda-driven campaign promises and renege on them.

Case in point: the ObamaCare monstrosity. Democrats promised it during the 2008 election campaign, and after winning that election, despite opposition from Republicans and two-thirds of the American people, they delivered, ramming the controversial bill through Congress and into law in 2010. Republicans promised to either repeal or de-fund it during the 2014 election season, but after winning that election, despite massive support for fulfilling their campaign promise, in 2015 Republicans led by House Speaker John Boehner caved in to President Obama's demand for money for his pet law. Again in 2016, Donald Trump and the Republicans solemnly pledged to repeal the Affordable Care Act [sic] and replace it with entirely new healthcare legislation in line with their own agenda. But while a Democratic-controlled White House, Senate and House in 2009 and 2010 proved entirely capable of enacting ObamaCare, a Republican-controlled White House, Senate and House in 2017 and 2018 proved entirely incapable of repealing it.

The fact that ObamaCare is still on the books today certainly demonstrates the staying power of the corrupt Washington establishment behind it (with which the Democrats are fully in bed), but more to the point here, it exemplifies the ominous trend of the past ten years in which Republicans are quickly throwing their campaign promises out the window, quietly setting their agenda aside, and gradually ceding more power to their Democratic enemies. The donkey's iron determination combined with the elephant's hushed timidity effectively renders the Democratic Party the majority party in America today. If this trend continues, within twenty years the Republican Party will find itself an irrelevant minority party, leaving the Democrats firmly in charge of national affairs.

Why have Republican politicians abandoned their core principles, betrayed their loyal constituents, and compromised their cherished values in this fashion? Apparently, for fear of the Democrats who are threatening them and have added the incitement of mob violence to their toolkit in their increasing desperation to further advance their radically secularist agenda. And apparently, Republicans are so scared of the above-mentioned establishment that they've been transformed into creatures of that very establishment, while still claiming to represent "we the people." They are now followers disguised as leaders. The Republicans' hypocrisy is sickening and their cowardice is frightening. I have to hand it to the Democrats: they know exactly what they want to achieve and how to achieve it, and come heck or high water, they're accomplishing it. Meanwhile, much of the wholesome agenda our country sorely needs languishes in the comfortable offices of House and Senate Republicans.

Yes, the Democratic bullies have lots of money and power thanks to the corrupt establishment and the "mainstream" media. But that's a poor excuse for Republicans to roll over and play dead. The Republican principles that made America great are worth defending as strenuously as possible, and since the Republican agenda based on those principles holds the key to America's long-term survival, it must be pushed with even more determination than the Democrats are pushing their rotten agenda if it is to succeed long-term. This means the Republicans must be "wise as serpents and simple as doves," taking full advantage of their own strengths and fully exploiting the Democrats' weaknesses. The Democrats may seem stronger at the moment in worldly terms, but Republicans have the far greater strengths of faith and trust in God, the revealed truths of natural law regarding human life and liberty, the wisdom and example of the Founders, prayer and fasting, and divine grace. If Republicans utilize their own strengths with sufficient determination and resolve for a sufficient period of time, America will be rescued from the tyranny of radical secularism. If not...


Copyright © 2019 Justin D. Soutar. All rights reserved.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

ElectionWatch 2014: A Crowning Victory

Well, it happened again: another Republican landslide victory. Can you believe it? In the Louisiana Senate runoff election this past Saturday, December 6, Republican challenger Bill Cassidy soundly defeated Democratic incumbent Mary Landrieu, receiving 57 percent of the vote to 43 percent for Landrieu. With this stunning final victory of the 2014 Congressional general elections, Republicans have picked up a total of nine new seats in the U.S. Senate, three more than they needed to gain a majority in the upper house of Congress. Just a few weeks from now, Republicans will hold 54 Senate seats to 46 for the Democrats.

And yes, the mainstream media outlets were wrong again in predicting a close election. Of course, since they are overwhelmingly controlled and influenced by the same Wall Street corporate interests that largely control and influence the Obama administration, it's little wonder that their content is so heavily biased and unreliable (which is why I try to avoid it as much as possible). Because they worship the false triune god of money, sex and power and are thus living in permanent spiritual darkness, the big media moguls are naturally more interested in serving us deception than truth, especially when the truth inconveniently pierces their flimsy little soap bubbles. I was wondering how this election was going over the weekend, but I didn't hear anything about it, so this morning I visited the Fox News website (one of those mainstream media outlets) to find out what was going on. I had to do some digging to find any news of the election at all, since they had pretty well buried the story. Once I finally unearthed what I was looking for, I was pleasantly surprised. What a great capper to the historic and game-changing elections of 2014!

It's plainly obvious that the Obama administration and the mainstream media are in denial about the sweeping Republican and Tea Party takeover of America. It's a huge defeat for them and their anti-God agenda, and they just can't seem to get over it. These pundits and politicians are the sorest losers I have ever seen. President Obama and his lackeys want their way no matter what, and even with the end of their political careers staring them in the face, they are desperate to ram the rest of their agenda down our throats by any legal or illegal means necessary before the day of reckoning arrives and they are finally compelled by law to leave office. They and their mainstream media pals wish that all of this just hadn't happened, that the new Republican majorities in Congress and state governorships would just go away. They need to wake up and face reality.

As a last-ditch attempt to minimize their losses, the big corporate interests that back the Obama adminitration and the mainstream media are now putting enormous pressure on our newly elected and re-elected Republican and Tea Party representatives in both houses of Congress to cowardly surrender to their immoral agenda for this nation. Their one remaining hope to is corrupt enough Republican senators and members of Congress to allow that agenda to continue moving forward largely unimpeded despite this historic power shift. So let's keep our newly elected and re-elected public servants in our prayers, that they stick to their guns and do what is right for our country in accord with their Judeo-Christian values, the natural law and the Constitution of the U.S. instead of giving in to bribery and blackmail as so many establishment politicians have done. It's our duty as Christians to pray for our elected officials, so let's not forget to do this. We are, or at least we should be, a Christian country, a nation that trusts in God. We cannot restore America to greatness without Him. So let's pray for our country every day.

With this post, I will now close my ElectionWatch 2014 series. Thank you for reading and following along. May God bless you, and may He watch over and bless the United States of America! Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, pray for us!

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

ElectionWatch 2014: Eight Seats...Maybe Nine?

As of mid-November, the historic 2014 midterm elections are now behind us--at least for the most part. Nearly all of the close House, Senate, and gubernatorial races have now been decided. Republicans have secured 244 seats in the House of Representatives compared to 186 for the Democrats, with the outcome of five House races still pending. And just a few days ago, Republican challenger Dan Sullivan was declared the winner of the Alaska Senate race, defeating Democratic incumbent Mark Begich; thanks to this victory, Republicans have now picked up eight seats in the Senate, bringing their total to 53 compared to 46 for the Democrats. The one remaining inconclusive Senate race in Louisiana is now being hotly contested, with Democratic establishment incumbent Mary Landrieu desperately attempting to defeat Republican challenger Bill Cassidy; the two candidates will face off in a special runoff election on Saturday, December 6.

Successfully withstanding a massive and all-time record barrage of big money, big lies, and big media from corrupt Democratic incumbent politicians, Republican and Tea Party candidates for the House, Senate, and state governorships alike fared extremely well in this election, their spectacular tidal wave of victories driven mainly by public outrage over ObamaCare and the hunger for a return to traditional Judeo-Christian religious and moral values as the bedrock of sound national governance. Although some of the really close races such as the Virginia Senate election and several House races have tipped in favor of Democrats, this simply reflects the fact that Democratic candidates across the country did their utmost to keep public opinion on their side and crush their upstart Republican and Tea Party rivals. So yes, they have managed to pull a few victories from the jaws of defeat, but not to worry: The corrupt Washington establishment has already been shaken to its core by the Tea Party revolution of 2014, and its days are numbered. With the right kind of changes on the horizon, we the people of the United States can look forward with reasonable hope to better days and a brighter future for our once-great country.

Although badly shaken two weeks ago, the corrupt establishment is not quite dead yet and is still eager to snag one final victory in particular. Polls now being fed to us by the mainstream media indicate that the Louisiana Senate race between Cassidy and Landrieu is extremely close. Does that sound familiar? Polls released prior to November 4 showed numerous Senate and several gubernatorial races extremely close, and they were all wrong, probably even deliberately biased, so it's reasonable to wonder whether the latest polls of the Senate race in Louisiana can be trusted. I believe that such flawed and deceptive polls from the mainstream media can be used, and are being used, as a method of psychological warfare on behalf of Democratic establishment candidates to convince Republican and pro-life voters that their efforts are all in vain because the Democrats are probably going to hang on anyway. Given what just happened in the general elections, it's reasonable to assume that Bill Cassidy may be more popular than the big media would like to admit, and more popular than their polls show. I think that, in spite of everything, he still has a good chance of defeating Mary Landrieu. That said, predicting the future is a notoriously tricky business, so I'm not going to predict the outcome of this particular race. I'll just wait and see what happens, pray for a good result, encourage all Louisianans to give Cassidy their vote, and wish him the best.

The historic 2014 elections represented a tremendous achievement for the Tea Party movement in the United States despite a concerted effort by the Washington establishment to discredit and defeat it. Just a few weeks ago, it seemed unlikely that Republicans would pick up the six additional seats necessary to regain control of the Senate. Now they have picked up eight, and if Cassidy wins in Louisiana, they will pick up one more for a total of nine new seats. That will be a nice bonus if it happens. But if it doesn't, the Louisiana Senate race will become merely a footnote in the story of the mold-breaking elections of 2014--a hard-fought and hard-won battle by a teetering yet still desperately tenacious establishment Goliath that was losing the political and cultural war for America's future.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

ElectionWatch 2014: We Did It!

Defying widespread expectations of a close election contest, the Congressional and gubernatorial elections of 2014 resulted in a landslide victory for the Republican Party and were a major step forward for the Tea Party movement in its quest to take over Washington politics. As of this writing, Republicans had picked up an additional seven seats in the Senate, going from 45 to 52, regaining control of that house of Congress for the first time since 2006; moreover, Republicans had slightly expanded their majority in the House of Representatives from 232 to 244 seats. As a result of these electoral gains, Republicans now have their largest Congressional majority since the 1940s. Furthermore, Republican (and Tea Party) incumbents held on to state governorships in Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, New Mexico and several other states, while new Republican candidates scored gubernatorial victories in the traditional Democratic strongholds of Illinois, Maryland, and Massachusetts.

Personally, I was surprised and delighted by the news of this spectacular victory. Like many other observers, I was completely misled by the apparently inaccurate and biased polls conducted by the mainstream media showing all of the key Senate and gubernatorial races extremely close. As a result, my expectations were about ten percentage points to the left of the true public opinion. For two months, I predicted that Republicans would pick up only three to five seats in the Senate; that they would hold their own in the House; and that they would lose one or two state governorships. My predictions were based not just on the flawed polling data but on the tenacity of the corrupt Democratic political establishment in Washington and on all the big money, big lies, and big media they were employing so relentlessly in their bid to dupe the voters into keeping them in power. I was also aware of the potential for vast voter fraud in a close election and knew that Democrats would not hesitate to exploit this technique to their advantage wherever possible. Corrupt and dishonest Democratic politicians have used all these dirty tricks to win election or re-election in 2008 and 2012, so I didn't want to get my hopes up again for this election, only to be disappointed once again. Of course, it's true that the midterm elections of a president's second term traditionally result in major defeats for the president's party (this happened less dramatically in 2006 during the Bush administration), but given the times we are in now, I wasn't about to fall back on electoral tradition.

On the evening of November 4, as I flipped around to various AM radio stations to find out what was happening, I found the early news reports mixed and inconclusive. Republican Governor Rick Snyder had won re-election in Michigan; Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen had narrowly won re-election in New Hampshire; several key Senate races and the Wisconsin governor's race were undecided. Nothing significant seemed to be happening; apparently, we were in for a repeat of 2012 at the Congressional and gubernatorial levels. Snyder's re-election was the proverbial tip of the iceberg, but I didn't realize that at the time. One Libertarian commentator was dubbing the whole election event "a big yawn" and saying, "Democrats win, Republicans win, nothing really changes." Although I was disappointed, this was exactly the result I was anticipating. "Oh well," I thought, "I guess I was right on." I went to bed expecting no change in the status quo.

The next morning, I went to CNN's website with some apprehension to check the news. The headline was "RED AMERICA" across a map of the continental U.S. almost solid red; the subheading read, "Republicans seize Senate, gaining full control of Congress." I was stunned. "We did it!" I shouted. "We took over the Senate!" I could hardly believe what I was saying. I was never so glad to be wrong in all my life. I was even more blown away when I read the full story and learned that nearly all of the Republican and Tea Party incumbents and challengers had won handily: Joni Ernst, Thom Tillis, Tom Cotton, Cory Gardner, Shelley Moore Capito, Steve Daines, Mia Love, Scott Walker, John Kasich, Rick Scott, and so on and so forth. It was nothing short of a massive political earthquake for the Obama administration, a clear repudiation of its ongoing project to "fundamentally transform" America into a socialist paradise. The election results were all the more dramatic and rewarding given that the corrupt establishment did its absolute utmost to prevent such an astounding upset from ever occurring under President Obama. Planned Parenthood even spent a record $20 million in key races to retain its pro-abortion majority in the Senate. So much for that concerted endeavor. The establishment's worst nightmare has now become inescapable reality: the balance of power in Washington has shifted decisively into Republican and Tea Party hands.

Why did this election go the way it did? The answer can be summed up in one word: ObamaCare. Just as in the similar midterm elections of 2010, the American people were angry with President Obama and his Democratic cronies for betraying their trust, lying to them, and saddling them with an unjust, immoral, unconstitutional, and unaffordable socialized healthcare system that kills the unborn, attacks their religious liberties and moral conscience rights, restricts their healthcare options, and further burdens our struggling economy. The main difference between 2010 and 2014 is that ObamaCare is now in effect and the majority of American individuals and families are directly suffering from its negative consequences. They want this disastrous pork-barrel law repealed in its entirety and replaced with sound healthcare reform legislation that respects their God-given rights and allows decisions to be freely made at the local level.

And that's all because--despite the glib pronouncements of career politicians, celebrities, and mainstream media pundits--most Americans still hold traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs and values in accord with the natural law and the wisdom of the Founders. They believe that America is (or at least ought to be) a Christian country, and they reject the godless ideology of radical secularism being shoved down our throats by President Obama and activist judges. They believe abortion is wrong and should be further restricted if not outlawed altogether. They believe that marriage is the union of a man and a woman and should be legally defined that way. They believe that religious liberty is sacred, that they have a moral right in conscience to refuse to participate in objectively immoral acts, and that no government law may interfere with either. They believe in limited, effective government and fiscal responsibility, not in a bloated bureaucracy with unlimited spending and unsustainable debt. They believe in a free-market economy with limited regulation, not wholesale government takeover of the private sector. They believe in equal opportunity for everyone regardless of race, gender, or background. And they believe that our borders should be secured and our immigration system properly reformed. These are the religious and moral values of Middle America, and these are the values that decided the election of 2014. It was a victory for the American people and their much-maligned, attacked, and ridiculed traditional values whose demise (to paraphrase Mark Twain) have been greatly exaggerated.

As the old Latin saying goes, Vox populo, vox Deo: The voice of the people is the voice of God. I believe that this election was a powerful manifestation of God's Will for our country: God shouting through a megaphone, if you will. In His great mercy, I think He has a better future in store for us and doesn't want our nation to keep going down the tubes as it has been thanks to our corrupt and dishonest establishment leadership. He is giving America a chance to get back on track and become a great nation once again. And not even President Obama can prevent that from happening if it is God's Will.

It was my earlier predictions for this election that turned out to be right on target. Six months ago, in my first ElectionWatch post for this series, I opined that the 2014 election season "promises to be just as exciting and historic, if not more so, than the elections held four years ago." In my second, I wrote that the nomination of Joni Ernst was "an indication, albeit an early and a small one, of what is probably going to happen this November when we the American people go to the polls: We're going to take back the Senate!" I added that "on the whole the desperate efforts of establishment politicians to cling to power will fail to hold back the wave of national rebellion now gaining momentum... We are going to elect (and re-elect) a slew of Tea Party candidates to state governorships as well as the U.S. House and Senate--citizen statesmen and women of religious faith and moral principle who will strive to return our country to greatness by governing in accordance with the law of God and the Constitution of the United States as the Founders intended." All of this has now come true, with the Tea Party revolution of 2014 meeting or even exceeding my original expectations.

However, this election was not just a landslide victory for the Republican Party and the Tea Party movement. It was also a victory for the weakest and most defenseless among us--the millions of innocent unborn Americans hidden in their mother's wombs. We owe it to them and to our nation's future to protect their inalienable right to life and put an end to the unspeakable tragedy of legalized (and now taxpayer-funded) abortion. Now that we have a pro-life majority in both houses of Congress, including many who have pledged to cosponsor and pass the Life at Conception Act, the time is ripe to move forward with this excellent legislation that guarantees legal protection, and thus a chance at life outside the womb, for all unborn Americans. When passed, the Life at Conception Act will do just that: by defining that human life begins at conception, it will overturn Roe v. Wade legislatively and end the horror of legalized abortion in America once and for all. Way back in 1983, President Ronald Reagan prophesied that such legislation would someday pass Congress, "and you and I must not rest until it does." So let's honor his legacy by remaining firmly committed to ensuring Congressional approval of the Life at Conception Act. This should be the first priority of the new Congress.

As the saying goes, our newly elected and re-elected senators, representatives, and governors definitely have their work cut out for them. Six years of President Obama have taken their toll on our country, and we can't expect all our problems to be resolved immediately, especially with two years of his disastrous presidency still to go. However, our Republican and Tea Party leaders now have a clear mandate from the voters, and they know what they must do: outlaw abortion, repeal ObamaCare, protect marriage and religious liberty, cut taxes, approve the Keystone XL pipeline, shrink the government, balance the budget, secure our borders, and hold President Obama accountable for his egregious abuses of power. We the people have spoken; now our elected representatives must act. As the baton is passed to the next generation of American leaders, let's keep them and our country in our prayers as the next Congress moves forward with the challenging but much-needed work of reform. And no matter what happens along the way, let us never forget that Divine Providence is watching over our country. In the words of a famous anthem, "Let this be our motto: In God is our trust."

Go Tea Party! And may God bless America!

Monday, October 27, 2014

ElectionWatch 2014: Us v. Them

We're just eight days away from Election Day. On November 4, 2014, tens of millions of American citizens will head to the polls to elect their governors, senators, and representatives--those who will govern and represent them in public office. This occasion presents a responsibility on the part of the electors to know who they are voting for and to cast an informed vote, in accord with their religious and moral values, based on the candidates' positions on important issues. It also presents a responsibility on the part of those running for public office to be clear and honest about their stances on the issues and to respect the fundamental religious and moral values on which America was built and without which a free society cannot endure. In a republic and a democratic society such as ours, we the people have both the right and the responsibility to participate freely in political life, including casting our vote in state and national elections, for the sake of the common good.

Unfortunately, this key hallmark of our democratic society--free and fair elections--is somewhat compromised by the lack of a genuine sense of civic responsibility among many voters and is now under tremendous assault from an increasingly corrupt Washington political establishment. While some of the voters fully grasp the seriousness of their responsibility and choose their candidates rationally based on fundamental issue positions, a large percentage do not really appreciate the responsibility involved and choose who to vote for based on superficial factors such as likeability or oratorical skills or TV advertisements. These swing voters, the ones who generally decide elections, are being subjected to a barrage of campaign ads by candidates from both the major parties.

Most of the Republican candidates, especially Tea Party contenders, are taking their responsibility seriously and doing a fairly good job of candidly explaining their positions on the issues while respecting our nation's traditional religious and moral foundations. The behavior of our corrupt and dishonest Democratic establishment politicians, on the other hand, is downright embarrassing and morally despicable. They are pouring millions upon millions of dollars into negative, slanderous and libelous campaign ads designed to smear and destroy their Tea Party opponents so they can retain their grip on power. These desperate career politicians can't run positive campaigns and play by the rules because they have nothing positive to stand for and know that the voters are turning against them, so their strategy of last resort is to outspend their opponents and cover them with mud. What they are doing is not only dishonest but unjust. They are taking an election that should be a landslide for our movement--the Tea Party movement--and turning it into a toss-up. Using big money, big lies, big media, and voter fraud, they are gradually transforming our national election process into a meaningless charade to keep their beloved establishment firmly in place to the fullest extent still possible.

This national election campaign has become a classic battle of "us v. them": David versus Goliath, the people against the establishment, America's traditional religious and moral values against the encroachment of a radically secularist ideology, inalienable human rights and freedom against tyranny and oppression, corruption against honesty, character and integrity against greed and lust for power, career politicians against statesmen and public servants. The mighty Washington political establishment is beholden to the large abortion, biotechnology, junk food, pharmaceutical, and insurance corporations that have kept it entrenched for many years now. By contrast, most of the little Tea Party and Republican candidates actually share our values and represent our interests. They are the ones who should be running this country. And the good news is that they are on track to do just that despite all the efforts of the establishment to keep them shut out.

Consider that most of the Democratic incumbents are outspending their Republican rivals two to one, three to one, four to one, in some cases even five to one, yet their challengers are still very close to them in the polls, dead even with them, or even slightly ahead of them! This is very telling. If both sides were spending the same amount on their campaigns, the Democrats would already be soundly defeated in this election. Good candidates can run strong campaigns on their own merits and don't need barrels of money to prop them up--and they're proving it. Considering the unfair disadvantages they're facing, our Tea Party candidates are doing splendidly well, and American public opinion is clearly on their side.

Obviously, because of the Washington establishment's dirty tricks, not all of the Republican and Tea Party candidates are going to win in this particular election, but at least some of them will--and that will be good progress for our movement. By all accounts, this is going to be a very close election, with many races undecided for at least a day or two after Election Day, and probably several runoff elections and a couple dozen recounts. At least two or three Senate races will be nearly tied, and control of that house of Congress may well come down to just one very close and bitterly contested race, with the most probable final result being a 50-50 split.

Pray for our country and make sure you go to vote on November 4 if you're physically able to do so. Continued prayer and action before, during, and after this election are essential if our movement is to keep advancing. We can't stop now--we are winning! Any losses in this election must not discourage us. We should count our victories, not our losses. The Tea Party revolution has only just begun. We must keep the big picture in mind, and keep looking toward the future. If God is with us, who can be against us? Together, with the help of Divine Providence and the assistance of Mary Immaculate, our national Patroness, we the people will reclaim our country and restore its greatness for the benefit of future generations.

In God we trust!

P.S. Stay tuned for coverage of the actual election results, coming next month.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Will the Tea Party Lose Again?

With growing disapproval of the Obama administration’s leadership and the increasing popularity of the Tea Party movement within Republican ranks, many observers—myself included—are hopeful and even quite confident that the underdog GOP may make a strong comeback in the upcoming November elections, regaining control of the Senate, further expanding its strength in the House, and picking up a few more state governorships. This may yet happen, and we won’t be surprised if it does. However, we may not be as accurate and objective predictors of the upcoming election results as we like to think we are. We may be allowing excessive optimism and wishful thinking to obscure the full reality of the electoral situation America is currently facing. Specifically, we may be deliberately ignoring and failing to take into account (or at least underestimating) the two most influential and decisive factors in the upcoming elections, particularly in the Senate: 1) the relentless determination of the corrupt and well-funded Washington political establishment to retain its grip on power by any and all means necessary, and 2) the regrettable failure of Tea Party Republican candidates to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy for winning elections that is at least as reliable and effective as that of their establishment counterparts.

The plain fact is that the integrity of our national election system is now seriously compromised by the increasingly widespread and pervasive corruption of the Washington political establishment, which includes not only President Barack Obama and his Democratic cronies in the Senate and House, but also fat-cat Republican politicians in Congress who are content to tolerate his radical agenda for the sake of prolonging their careers. This immoral and unscrupulous establishment has been, is, and will continue to use big money, big lies, big media, and voter fraud to maximize its advantage over upstart Tea Party challengers, thus dishonestly and illegally manipulating America’s election system in order to retain control of our national politics.

Meanwhile, Tea Party Republicans, who have emerged as the prime alternative to the corrupt establishment in D.C., have the right principles and sound issue positions but lack a well thought out and coherent strategy for winning elections. Part of the problem is that, instead of clearly and consistently distinguishing themselves from the establishment, they frequently compromise with and surrender to it for the sake of short-term political gain. By employing such “go-along-to-get-along” tactics, they turn off the very voters that they set out to attract in the first place. For example, in both the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, the Tea Party settled for an establishment Republican presidential nominee, hoping that its own more conservative vice-presidential nominee would convince Republican and independent voters to go for both of them. This tactic failed miserably in 2008 and contributed to the Tea Party failure of 2012.

Another part of the problem is that most Tea Party candidates are still using the old Republican campaign formula of focusing mainly on their middle-aged and older white voter base, whose overall percentage of the U.S. electorate is gradually shrinking. The Tea Party as a whole has not yet adapted to the changing demographic realities of the twenty-first century American electorate, nor is it adequately tapping the vast and steadily growing reserve of conservative black, Hispanic, and Asian voters in the nation’s larger cities who will play an increasing role in deciding national elections over the next few decades. Instead of aggressively campaigning to win minority votes as the Democrats constantly do, the Tea Party is simply writing off most urban black and Hispanic voters as committed Democrats. This is a big mistake, because despite their voting habits, most of them are in reality potential Tea Party Republican voters because of their solidly traditional values. According to recent Gallup polling, a majority of all minority voters identify themselves as pro-life, and a Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute poll revealed that 83 percent of Hispanics are pro-life. Furthermore, 70 percent of blacks and 53 percent of Hispanics supported California’s Proposition 8 which defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The main reason why so many African, Hispanic, and Asian Americans routinely vote Democratic despite their values is because Democratic politicians have them convinced that Republicans are racist. Unfortunately, many Tea Party leaders reinforce this notion by neglecting to nominate minority candidates or reach out to minority voters.

But the biggest flaw of all in the Tea Party campaign strategy is its inversion of the proper hierarchy of values. The critically fundamental and non-negotiable moral and cultural issues such as the right to life, traditional marriage, religious liberty, freedom of conscience, and America’s Christian identity are of the greatest importance and should be given top priority; our other constitutional rights (such as the right to keep and bear arms and privacy rights) should come next in line; and all the important negotiable issues such as the economy and jobs, our national debt, education, energy, food safety, health care, poverty, prison reform, taxes, immigration, national defense, and foreign policy should follow. Yet most Tea Party candidates have the whole thing backwards: they place the most emphasis on jobs and economic growth, followed by selected negotiable issues and constitutional rights, and then at the end, almost as an afterthought, they mention that they are pro-life and will defend marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

Many Tea Party candidates believe that focusing mainly on jobs and the economy is the best strategy to win votes in a prolonged recession. But the fact is that, even in troubled economic times, focusing primarily on the absolute moral values that form the very basis of our society and nation is what resonates most with voters across party lines and enables conservative candidates to win elections. It was an unswerving focus on these key moral issues that helped propel that Tea Party to victory in 2010 and powered Rick Santorum’s remarkable insurgency against Mitt Romney in the 2012 Republican presidential primaries. When candidates speak of abortion as a grave moral evil that must be outlawed, when they pledge to protect our First Amendment rights from unjust federal encroachment, and when they defend marriage as it has been understood by all cultures throughout human history, these truths of the natural law resonate deeply within the core of potential voters in a way that job growth and securing our borders simply cannot. Furthermore, by courageously speaking the truth and sticking to their guns on these fundamental moral issues, candidates win the respect and support of many more voters than they otherwise would.

A related flaw in the Tea Party campaign strategy to unseat the Washington establishment is its failure to take full advantage of all the issues, and neglecting to make certain important topics campaign issues when they would certainly qualify as such. For example, most Tea Party candidates have little or nothing to say about the gradual loss of America’s traditional identity as a Christian nation due to the increasing influence of radical secularism on our national culture, nor do they discuss how to address this monumental problem. Furthermore, they prefer to avoid the thorny questions of whether “In God We Trust” should remain on our currency, whether prayer should be allowed in public schools, and whether the Ten Commandments should be displayed on public property. Their silence on these matters implies consent to the negative answers already being imposed on America by radically secularist lobby groups through the courts, the major media, and corrupt establishment politicians. In other words, by neglecting to make America’s traditional Christian identity one of their foremost campaign issues, which it certainly should be, most Tea Party candidates are allowing their opponents—America’s radically secularist enemies within—to control, dominate, and dictate the terms of the debate on this subject. They are surrendering when they should be on the offensive. They are victims when they should be leaders.

If the Tea Party is to present itself credibly as the future of America, it must develop and implement a comprehensive, aggressive, and forward-looking strategy for winning elections adapted to the realities of the twenty-first-century electorate. This strategy must include a proper order of emphasis on the issues and reaching out to the silent majority of black, Hispanic, and Asian voters who share its values. Only if it develops and implements such a strategy for victory at the polls will the Tea Party have a fighting chance on an electoral playing field artificially skewed in favor of the corrupt, and predominantly Democratic, Washington establishment by big money, big lies, big media, and voter fraud. These four dirty tricks often go together now in elections, and their combined results are most effective when used by establishment Democrats against establishment Republicans, or against Tea Party candidates who look and act like establishment Republicans. The close presidential election of 2012 offers a painful lesson in this regard.

In 2013, the American Civil Rights Union, an independent legal organization, uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2012 presidential election. In Ohio, for example (that key swing state in nearly all U.S. presidential elections), the ACRU found that Barack Obama received more than 99 percent of the vote in more than 100 precincts in Cuyahoga County alone. In Ohio and Pennsylvania, the organization discovered a large number of precincts in which Mitt Romney received no votes at all. (Both results are statistically impossible.) In Pennsylvania, a poll watcher found that electronic voting machines were switching about five to ten percent of the votes from Romney to Obama. In one of Virginia’s largest cities, another poll watcher reported that thousands of voters for Obama who could not speak English were apparently being bussed in, and many were voting more than once at the same polling location throughout the day. And in more than 200 counties across two dozen mostly eastern and central states, the number of registered voters exceeded the number of eligible voters. The total number of fraudulent votes cast in the 2012 presidential election was around four million. As a result of all this, Barack Obama was declared the victor by one and a half million votes, becoming the first president in American history to successfully pull off re-election through massive organized voter fraud—while keeping his dirty trick well concealed from most of the voters. Mitt Romney should have won the election by two and a half million votes.

And that was just one presidential election. Who knows how many other fraudulent elections we have unknowingly witnessed in recent years? There’s good reason to believe that voter fraud may have resulted in the narrow Colorado Senate race of 2010 being stolen from Tea Party challenger Ken Buck by Democratic establishment incumbent Michael Bennett. Probably several Senate races were stolen from Tea Party and Republican candidates by establishment Democrats in 2012. And just a few months ago in the Mississippi Republican primary, establishment Republican Thad Cochran claimed victory over Tea Party challenger Chris McDaniel thanks to outright voter fraud. (McDaniel has been challenging this result ever since, and his case is currently being reviewed by the Mississippi Supreme Court.)

In addition to declining public approval of the reigning Washington political establishment, accurate and objective predictions for the return of the GOP in the rapidly approaching 2014 midterm elections will take into account the tenacity of that establishment as well as the strategy problem of the Tea Party that aspires to take its place. Putting all these most influential factors together, I predict that Republicans will pick up three to five seats in the Senate, not enough to retake control of that house of Congress. They will hold their own in the House of Representatives and maybe lose a state governorship or two. This will happen as a result of some of the upcoming elections again being stolen by establishment Democrats. Some may consider this forecast a bit pessimistic, but it is better to be realistic than to indulge in wishful thinking. On the whole, the 2014 elections will be another blow to the Tea Party movement, but hopefully this defeat will serve as a clear wake-up call to the realities of its own shortcomings and the staying power of the corrupt D.C. establishment. As a populist movement committed to returning America to her founding principles, the Tea Party has grown remarkably in national power and influence in recent years. It is here to stay, and there is no question that it carries within itself the potential to take command of our national future for decades to come. The question is whether it will make full use of that potential—and thus become strong enough to actually take over Washington and put its own agenda fully into practice.

Copyright © 2014 Justin D. Soutar. All rights reserved.

Thursday, October 9, 2014

ElectionWatch 2014: What's Going On?

With the Congressional general elections just a few weeks away, the battle for control of the U.S. Senate has become a real horse race. Although establishment Democratic senators are outspending their Republican Tea Party challengers by millions of dollars to try to win re-election in multiple key races, those challengers are staying very close to them in the polls--either neck-and-neck, slightly behind, or slightly ahead. This reflects the fact that the corrupt Washington establishment is slowly losing control of the federal government despite all its efforts to hang on to power. This trend is a hopeful sign for our country's future, even if Republicans fail to win a majority of seats in the Senate this time around, and even if Tea Party control of Washington politics is still some years away.

If polls indicate that American voters in general are turning toward the Tea Party, they also reveal a significant level of dissatisfaction with our nation's corrupt and deeply entrenched two-party system. At the moment, incumbent Democratic politicians can claim the support of 40 to 48 percent of likely voters in most of the key races, but in those very same races, their challengers are in the same boat, unable to gain the support of a majority of likely voters. Doing the math, this indicates that anywhere from four to twenty percent of the voters are not lining up behind either candidate. Of course, some of these voters are undecided at present and will throw their support behind one of the two leading candidates closer to Election Day. Others, however, are simply rejecting the two leading candidates and siding instead with third party or independent candidates. Both of these smaller groups of voters can be considered "swing voters" because they are the ones who will determine the outcome of these close races, whoever they end up voting for. These swing voters, along with many other "mainstream" voters who are already committed to one leading candidate or another, are increasingly disenchanted with the reigning two-party system as they realize that it has come to represent large corporate interests rather than the interests of the American people.

As a grassroots populist movement, the Tea Party offers an attractive alternative to this corrupt establishment, although its mass appeal may be somewhat limited by the fact that it operates within the structure of the Republican Party. I think the Tea Party movement carries within itself the potential to lead America gradually away from the two-party system and back to the non-partisan political system favored by George Washington. This could happen once the Tea Party becomes the unchallenged majority party of America. This won't happen overnight, but it's the direction in which our country is moving. Once that happens, with a general return to smaller, more honest, and more representative constitutional government, the stage will be set for the demise of the two-party system.

Getting back to the present situation, as its own candidates are being consistently outspent by incumbent Democratic politicians, unfortunately the Tea Party leadership cannot resist the temptation to curry favor with corrupt Republican establishment heavyweights in order to give its fundraising efforts a boost. This is detrimental to the movement, both in the short term and in the long term. In my opinion, the Tea Party is shooting itself in the foot by getting cozy with super-wealthy career politicians and business moguls like Mitt Romney and Dick Cheney. Its use of such big names to raise money for a grassroots movement with very different principles and values is blatantly dishonest. It is equally dishonest for such career politicians to represent themselves as friends of the Tea Party movement when their own track records tell a completely different story. The Tea Party must maintain its integrity by clearly and consistently distinguishing itself from the corrupt Republican establishment; otherwise, it will simply melt into that establishment and fail to bring to Washington the significant change and lasting reform it promises.

The race is on for control of the U.S. Senate. Our nation's future is hanging in the balance. Let's keep praying for our country and supporting pro-life Republican and Tea Party candidates. This is the best we can do for now. Stay tuned for further updates.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

ElectionWatch 2014: Chris McDaniel Has His Day

Today the Mississippi Supreme Court will begin hearing oral arguments presented by the Conservative Action Fund, a citizens' organization, on behalf of Tea Party Republican Senate candidate Chris McDaniel, officially challenging the outcome of the June 24 primary runoff election which was tainted by massive organized voter fraud.

Establishment politician and incumbent Republican Senator Thad Cochran managed to steal victory in that election by convincing thousands of registered Democratic voters to illegally cast votes for him. But, despite some setbacks--their case has been dismissed by lower courts--McDaniel and his loyal Tea Party supporters are determined not to let Senator Cochran get away with this sham "victory." They are continuing to fight back, and are determined to win this battle.

Three cheers for them! As American citizens, we should all support this worthy legal effort to overturn this fraudulent Senate primary election and give Chris McDaniel the nomination that rightfully belongs to him. Let's wish him the best and pray that justice will be done.

Monday, September 22, 2014

ElectionWatch 2014: Turning Up the Heat

As we approach the general elections here in the United States, corrupt Democratic establishment politicians are going all out to retain their grip on power and prevent the Republican Party from regaining control of the Senate. They're spending millions of dollars on negative and dishonest TV advertisements filled with outright lies and stupid allegations in a full-on attempt to discredit and defeat totally respectable, honest, principled, hardworking, and competent up-and-coming Tea Party leaders who truly represent the American people and hold the future of this great nation in their hands. And sad to say, the mudslinging is working: the big money, big lies, and big media are having some effect on the American psyche, gradually swaying public opinion in their favor and away from the truly deserving candidates.

Several key Senate races are now too close to call. In Iowa, for example, Tea Party Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst is nearly tied with the Democratic candidate Bruce Braley due to the vigorous onslaught of negative campaigning. It's the same story in Colorado, where Tea Party Senate challenger Cory Gardner is neck in neck with Democratic Senator Mark Udall as a result of negative campaigning. Here in Virginia, home to another key Senate race, Tea Party challenger Ed Gillespie has been steadily closing in on Democratic Senator Mark Warner in the polls, but it's not at all certain he will successfully withstand the hurricane of negative ads now swirling around him. If Democrats win any of these three races thanks to their despicable dirty tricks, Republicans probably will fail to take over the Senate.

Nor is the corrupt establishment content with keeping the Senate under its control: Incumbent Republican (and mostly Tea Party) governors, senators, and representatives are fair game as well, and the same dirty tricks are being employed in an attempt to oust the good leaders we already have and replace them with more establishment stooges. In Wisconsin, for example, Governor Scott Walker, a popular leader who has served the state well these last four years, is facing the challenge of a lifetime just to win a second term. His Democratic opponent has unleashed a veritable assault of negative campaign advertisements filled with slander and falsehood, designed to destroy his good name and prevent his re-election.

In such a hostile climate, it's doubtful whether Republican candidates will manage to pick up the six seats necessary to regain control of the U.S. Senate. The corrupt Washington political establishment is bound and determined to steal as many of these elections as is necessary to retain and even expand its illegitimate control of national politics, thereby holding back the Tea Party landslide that should wash it away in a few months. However, faced with this frustrating situation, we the people must not become discouraged in our quest to take back our nation. Despite all attempts at suppression, our movement continues to grow in strength and numbers. Failure to win six seats in the Senate will not signal the end of the Tea Party movement or the total demise of America. Each of us must keep doing what we can--pray for our country and vote for good leaders--while remaining faithful to our core values of Christian faith and morality, human rights and liberty, and Constitutional government. It is united and unflagging adherence to these timeless values that will rescue our country from deadly peril and set it on a path of reconstruction and renewal, offering hope for a brighter future for the United States of America.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

ElectionWatch 2014: Virginia Is Back in the Game!

Good news! Another U.S. Senate seat held by an incumbent Democrat is now up for grabs. For the past several months, Virginia's Democratic Senator Mark Warner was expected to easily defeat Republican challenger Ed Gillespie and win re-election handily this coming November. But now, thanks largely to increasing public disapproval of Warner's loyal support for ObamaCare in violation of his own explicit campaign promises in 2008, Warner's lead in the polls over Gillespie has shrunk from 30 points earlier this year to just ten points at the end of August. Bottom line: Virginia now features one of the nation's battleground Senate races, and political experts agree that a Republican victory in Virginia will be critical to shifting control of the Senate back to Republicans.

Does Ed Gillespie have the credentials to replace Mark Warner? Absolutely. A devout Catholic grandson of Irish immigrants and a coal miner's son, Ed represents the humble working class that made America an economic powerhouse. Ed is a true "conservative," which means pro-life, pro-religious liberty, anti-ObamaCare, constitutionally limited government, lower taxes, a balanced budget, and economic opportunity for everyone. He has quite a bit of experience in politics, having served as a White House counselor to President Bush, chairman of the Republican National Committee, chairman of the Virginia Republican Party, and as a successful campaign strategist for President Bush (2000 and 2004) and Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell (2009). Ed has what it takes to serve our state and nation as a U.S. Senator, and as such he would be a vast improvement over Senator Warner. We in Virginia and the United States stand in great need of the principled leadership offered by Tea Party and other Republican candidates like Gillespie.

The only remaining question is: Will Ed Gillespie unseat Mark Warner on November 4? This is shaping up to be yet another close race, so it's very difficult to predict two months in advance what will actually happen on Election Day. After unfortunately narrow defeats for the Tea Party in the 2012 elections and in Virginia's 2013 election for governor, I don't want to get my hopes up too much that we will win this time. Although he is losing ground, Warner is still leading in the polls and has millions of dollars to spend on negative attack ads against Gillespie, which may enable him to just barely hold that lead just long enough to pull victory from the yawning jaws of defeat. On the other hand, however, Gillespie's campaign has now reached a critical mass to threaten Warner's re-election, as Warner's own campaign strategists now admit, and if public opinion continues to shift away from Warner and toward Gillespie, he may end up winning the election and joining the U.S. Senate.

Either way, Virginia is now definitely a battleground state for control of the Senate, and thus of the federal government. The stakes are high, and we really need to win this time. So let's get busy! Pray for victory, get the word out about Ed, donate to his campaign, volunteer if you can, and if you live in Virginia, vote for him and urge your relatives and friends to do the same. Together, we the people can take our country back from the corrupt and irresponsible establishment politicians who are destroying it for their own financial benefit--one prayer, one donation, and one vote at a time.

Go Tea Party!

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

ElectionWatch 2014: Setback in Tennessee

On Thursday, August 7, longtime Tennessee Senator and establishment Republican-in-Name-Only Lamar Alexander cruised to victory over Tea Party challenger Joe Carr in the state's primary election. This is undeniably a setback for the Tea Party movement at the national level, although not such an utter failure for our side as the mainstream media would like us to believe. As Paul Harvey used to say, "You know what the news is. In a minute, you're going to hear the rrrrest of the story!"

So here's "the rest of the story." Yes, Lamar did win his party's nomination for another Senate term, but he did so with only 49 percent of the popular vote--the lowest winning percentage for any Republican Senatorial candidate in Tennessee history. Furthermore, his challenger, Joe Carr, received a very respectable 40 percent of the vote--the largest percentage for any Republican challenger to an incumbent Senator of his own party in the history of Tennessee. If Tennessee's primary election laws were the same as those in Mississippi, requiring a candidate to receive at least 50 percent of the popular vote to secure the nomination, Lamar would currently be in the same position as Tea Party rising star Chris McDaniel was after June 3, and he and Carr would now be headed to a runoff election. Additionally, if you look at the polls for Lamar and Carr taken over the past year and a half leading up to this primary election, you'll find that Lamar's popularity has been steadily declining over time while Carr's popularity has been just as steadily growing. In fact, just a year and a half ago, Carr was barely even considered a serious candidate for the Senate primary. If current trends continue, and Carr runs again in 2020, he'll probably win easily. And then there was the wild card factor of four lesser-known candidates who also ran in this election, taking 11 percent of the votes away from the two leading candidates, which particularly hurt Carr. Hypothetically speaking, if all those who voted for one of these lesser-known candidates had voted for Carr instead, he would have won the election with 51 percent of the vote.

All of this goes to show that the Tea Party movement (symbolized by Carr) continues to grow steadily in strength and numbers, while the popularity of the corrupt Washington establishment (symbolized by Lamar) just as steadily continues to wane. It's important to keep the reality of these trends in mind as we move closer to the upcoming general elections this November, especially when we face a setback or two in the primaries. We're not going to win every single contest with our establishment opponents, certainly not even in the general elections, and we're not going to take down the establishment overnight. But the momentum is on our side, and the establishment is slowly but surely losing control of national politics and public opinion. The future of our country belongs to the Tea Party movement and to all Americans who share its ideals of Christian faith and morals, traditional family values, human rights and liberty, and Constitutionally limited government in accord with the intentions of the Founders.

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

ElectionWatch 2014: Ed Gillespie for Senate

I have decided to endorse Republican challenger Ed Gillespie for the U.S. Senate seat in Virginia currently held by Democratic Senator Mark Warner. A communications consultant and former White House aide, Gillespie is pro-life, will defend our Second Amendment rights, and will work to repeal ObamaCare, lower taxes, and reduce the size of the federal government, all of which will help our struggling economy to make a real recovery.

Over his past six years in office, Senator Warner has consistently failed to protect the rights of millions of innocent unborn children; has sided in favor of President Obama's sweeping gun control legislation (which thankfully never made it to his desk due to a storm of protest from liberty-minded Americans); voted for ObamaCare, an unjust and unconstitutional law, despite massive public opposition; and has consistently supported raising taxes and increasing the size of the federal government, both of which are negatively impacting our economy. For all these reasons, Senator Warner must be replaced.

I respectfully urge all my fellow Virginians to vote Ed Gillespie for Senate on Tuesday, November 4, 2014.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

ElectionWatch 2014: Two Victories in Georgia

Continuing with this ElectionWatch series, I'm delighted to announce two more victories for the Tea Party movement, both of which occurred in Georgia this past Tuesday. In close and competitive primary election races, Jody Hice and Barry Loudermilk won Republican nominations to the U.S. House of Representatives for Georgia's 10th and 11th Congressional districts, respectively, defeating better funded establishment-friendly candidates. Hice and Loudermilk join the growing ranks of Tea Party House and Senate nominees across the United States. This grassroots movement is fueled by strong public dissatisfaction with our corrupt establishment politicians and a desire for return to the traditional values that made our country great: faith in God, respect for human rights (especially the rights to life and liberty), acknowledgment of the Creator's design for marriage and family life, and adherence to the moral law. Much as it did four years ago, the Tea Party movement is preparing to sweep Washington, D.C. and state governorships across the country, in spite of establishment attempts to hold it back.

In related news, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has endorsed Joe Carr for the U.S. Senate in Tennessee. This will be a closely watched race since Carr is competing against Republican establishment stooge Lamar Alexander, who has voted with President Obama 62 percent of the time. Everyone wants to see whether Carr will defeat Lamar. Palin's endorsement should be a big help for Carr, but of course Lamar won't go down without a fight.

Things are just getting warmed up. Stay tuned for further coverage of the Tea Party revolution of 2014.

Monday, July 14, 2014

ElectionWatch 2014: Challenge in Mississippi

It's time for another ElectionWatch update! As you probably all know by now, the corrupt Republican establishment politician Senator Thad Cochran managed to narrowly defeat Tea Party candidate Chris McDaniel by 6,800 votes in the Republican primary runoff election in Mississippi a few weeks ago on June 24. This was a minor setback for the Tea Party movement here in America, but the good news is that Chris McDaniel is fighting back. You see, the Tea Party Leadership Fund and Conservative Action Fund have investigated this election and uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud in violation of Mississippi voting laws. For example, Senator Cochran convinced tens of thousands of registered Democratic voters in the state to vote for him in the runoff election, which is illegal because according to state law, registered Democrats who have already voted in a Democratic primary election are not allowed to cross over and vote in a Republican runoff election. So basically, Cochran stole this election and the result is invalid.

Now, Shawn McCutcheon of the Conservative Action Fund has filed an official complaint in Mississippi court on behalf of Chris McDaniel challenging Senator Cochran's illegitimate victory in the Republican primary runoff. I fully support this move on the part of the Tea Party leadership. Free and fair elections governed by state and federal law are a key cornerstone of American liberty, and any action or attempt taken to illegally subvert the democratic process in favor of a particular candidate must be firmly resisted. We can't allow the corrupt Washington establishment to get away with such an open assault on our civil liberties. Now the Mississippi court must do its duty to take action on this complaint and rule the election invalid. No doubt Cochran will attempt to influence the court's decision, using any means necessary to get it to give this stolen election a free pass. So let us pray that the judges be given the strength and courage to properly exercise their duty by upholding justice and the rule of law with regard to this clearly fraudulent election.

Chris McDaniel certainly should have won this election. Although Cochran outspent McDaniel nearly ten to one on his campaign, McDaniel was still the people's choice and the plurality of voters were not to be fooled. In the initial Republican primary election on June 3, McDaniel received the greatest number of votes--1,386 more than Cochran. In this position, and with the voters behind him, McDaniel should have won the runoff election handily. But Republican establishment heavyweights sprang into action to prop up their failing comrade Senator Cochran and do whatever was necessary to avert defeat. To their credit, they achieved their goal--but at what cost?

Senator Cochran's electoral "victory" was truly a Pyrric victory. Just look at what he had to go through to achieve it: recruiting two prominent and influential cronies, Michael Bloomberg and John McCain, to raise not just millions but billions of extra dollars for his campaign, and illegally recruiting tens of thousands of Democratic voters to vote for him because he couldn't win with Republican votes alone--and even with all that, he only won by 6,800 votes. This "victory" truly rings hollow, not only for Cochran but for the entire Washington establishment it symbolizes. This highly suspicious Republican runoff election in Mississippi highlights the ridiculous lengths to which the corrupt Washington political establishment will go to retain its illegitimate grip on power and prevent the Tea Party movement from gaining control of national politics despite overwhelming pressure for substantial change from the American people.

How long can things go on this way? How long can these corrupt and arrogant Washington career politicians keep flaunting the rule of law and the will of the people and getting away with it? Hopefully, not much longer. The establishment keeps getting more and more corrupt, while the people are getting more and more fed up with it. Sooner or later, something has to give. Either the American people must give up and surrender to the corrupt status quo, or the establishment must topple and fall to the floor with a crash. We the people must never give up! Despite the difficulties we face, we must never abandon our quest to restore just and moral and honest government to Washington, D.C., for the good of all Americans.

The establishment has drifted so far from the real meaning and purpose of politics, which is service to the common good. We must recover the true meaning and goal of politics from the usurpers who are destroying our country for the sake of their own private enrichment. Real change is possible, but only with the help of God. So as we work to restore government of the people, by the people, and for the people, let's not forget to pray for our country and for all our politicians and candidates for public office. In a special way, let's keep Chris McDaniel and the Tea Party leaders in our prayers and wish them all the best as they mount their important legal challenge to the flawed election result in Mississippi.

Friday, June 13, 2014

ElectionWatch 2014: Great News, and Lots of It!

As it turns out (and as I suspected), the victory of Tea Party candidate Joni Ernst, who won the Republican nomination to the U.S. Senate in Iowa early this month, was just the tip of the iceberg. Tea Party candidates are now sweeping primary elections all over the country, against the odds and despite the machinations of corrupt establishment politicians. In Mississippi, for example, Tea Party candidate Chris McDaniel received 1,386 more votes than longtime incumbent Republican Senator Thad Cochran, although the latter is well funded by Washington special interest groups and outspent McDaniel ten to one. Since he received less than 50 percent of the vote, McDaniel is now headed to a runoff election against Cochran on June 24. (Pray to Saint John the Baptist that he wins!) Tea Party candidates also won primaries in other states: Ben Sasse in Nebraska, Alex Mooney in West Virginia, Tim Scott in South Carolina. Tea Party candidates swept Texas, including John Ratcliffe who defeated Republican incumbent Ralph Hall in a runoff election (the first time in twenty years this happened). Even more dramatically, here in Virginia, Tea Party candidate David Brat soundly defeated Republican establishment favorite and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor--although Cantor had outspent Brat twenty-five to one on his campaign!

This is just the beginning of the Tea Party revolution of 2014 here in the United States. The American people are fed up with their corrupt establishment politicians in both the major parties, and they want good solid, trustworthy, religious, moral, pro-life, pro-family, and pro-Constitution candidates who truly represent their interests, not the interests of a select few. They are decisively rejecting career politicians who merely pretend to represent their interests while actually working to advance the interests of the giant abortion, GMO, junk food, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, insurance, and other industries, and all the while padding their own pockets. It's about time we started putting these corrupt politicians in their places! The twin grip of Big Government and Big Business on American politics and the economy is starting to slip. We the people have begun to take back our nation! We are winning! We Tea Partyers are finally in a position to take command of our national politics, for the glory of God and the good of our beloved country. With the help of Almighty God and Mary Immaculate, Patroness of the United States, we can and will reclaim the proper governance of our nation.

The only legitimate government authority comes from God and in fact belongs to the whole people, as Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Robert Bellarmine wrote. Thus, we the people have the right and the duty to establish our own government, and any government that is not responsible to the people (assuming a religious and moral people) is not legitimate. As Saint Augustine wrote, in the absence of justice, what is government but a band of robbers? That's a fit description of the Obama administration and most of the Democratic governors currently in office. With the upcoming general elections, we have the opportunity to restore some measure of good, honest, responsible, religious, moral, and constitutional government to Washington, D.C. and to our state governorships. Keep praying for our country, and be sure to Vote Tea Party!

Power to the people!

Oh, just a footnote: Sensing imminent defeat in battle, that career politician mentioned above, Senator Thad Cochran, has enlisted the help of a Goliath--former New York mayor, Republican establishment crown jewel Michael Bloomberg--who wields a gigantic $2.1 million sword, hoping thereby to defeat that nasty boy David, i.e., Chris McDaniel, in the Mississippi runoff on June 24. The race is pretty close at the moment, and that extra two million dollars just might deliver Cochran the nomination after all. Yes, the corrupt political establishment still might win a battle here and there. But it's losing the war big time. That is plainly evident from the slew of Tea Party victories reported above. The tide is turning in our favor, and will continue to do so. The Tea Party revolution is sweeping America! Praise the Lord!

Thursday, June 5, 2014

ElectionWatch 2014: Primary Victory in Iowa

Two days ago, Tea Party candidate Joni Ernst won the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate from Iowa. This is an important victory for the Tea Party movement in the United States which highlights the resurgence of this movement despite the attempts of the reigning political establishment to suppress it. It's an indication, albeit an early and a small one, of what is probably going to happen this November when we the American people go to the polls: We're going to take back the Senate!

Fox News and other mainstream media outlets are already admitting that the Ernst campaign could change the balance of power in Washington. Of course, corrupt establishment Republicans and Democrats alike will spread lies, use psychological warfare, spend millions of dollars on advertising, and probably even utilize voter fraud in some close races to try to defeat the Tea Party--all of which they have been doing for the past six years. Granted, some of these tricks may produce the desired result in a few isolated cases as happened in 2010, but on the whole the desperate efforts of establishment politicians to cling to power will fail to hold back the wave of national rebellion now gaining momentum (as they failed to do in 2010). We the American people are fed up with the corrupt Obama administration and its overreaching policies, especially ObamaCare and the HHS mandate. We are going to elect (and re-elect) a slew of Tea Party candidates to state governorships as well as the U.S. House and Senate--citizen statesmen and women of religious faith and moral principle who will strive to return our country to greatness by governing in accordance with the law of God and the Constitution of the United States as the Founders intended. I'm looking forward to the next revolution in American politics, and hoping and praying that the Tea Party reform efforts won't be stymied or derailed by the big corporate lobbyist parasites in Washington who have been corrupting most of our nation's leaders for many years now.

Let's keep supporting all the Tea Party candidates with our prayers, our financial assistance, and our votes. They deserve them. Our nation's future depends on their leadership. And let's also pray for the conversion of our incumbent establishment politicians who continue to put power, money, and prestige ahead of concern for human rights and the common good.

More information and commentary on the historic 2014 elections coming soon!

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

ElectionWatch 2014: Gearing Up

With the big midterm Congressional and many state gubernatorial elections less than six months away, it's time to begin another ElectionWatch series here on my blog. Some readers may recall my previous ElectionWatch 2010 series that I ran four years ago leading up to the historic 2010 midterm elections, which resulted in a landslide victory for the Tea Party movement and for the traditional religious and moral values held by the great majority of the American people. Now it's time to prepare for another important election season that promises to be just as exciting and historic, if not more so, than the elections held four years ago.

Surveying the current American political landscape allows us to discern some striking similarities between now and four years ago. The red tide of Republicanism that swept America in November 2010 was largely driven by public anger and outrage with the Obama administration over its new healthcare reform law, the deceptively misnamed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), colloquially referred to as ObamaCare, which was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama despite the loud objections of fully two-thirds of the American people. Thus the elections of 2010 became a referendum on ObamaCare, a massive and outrageously expensive piece of legislation that turned out to be little more than pork barrel for the abortion, pharmaceutical, and insurance industries and for our corrupt Democratic leaders who supported it. Just two years after Barack Obama had been elected to the White House by a landslide, Republicans took back the House of Representatives by a comfortable majority, increased their strength in the Senate, and took over more than half of all state governorships.

Now, four years later, the American people are once again angry with President Obama and his corrupt Democratic cronies, and for the same reason: ObamaCare. The difference is that now this disastrous law we never wanted is in effect and we the people are suffering all the consequences that President Obama and Senate Democrats persistently denied would ever materialize. Our freedom of religion, freedom of conscience, and freedom to make our own healthcare decisions are under attack as never before. Catholic hospitals are being forced to either perform or provide referrals for abortions. Health insurance plans must now include such population control items as abortifacients, contraceptives, and sterilizations, or they don't qualify as health insurance. Thousands of Catholic and Christian educational and charitable institutions, as well as secular business owners, are being forced to sue the federal government to avoid paying massive fines for refusing to violate their religious and moral principles. Many business owners can't afford to comply with the new health insurance regulations, so they're cutting back on employees and work time. Many good doctors are suffering pay cuts and can't afford the new insurance plans either. The states can't afford to administer ObamaCare, and those attempting to do so will soon be going bankrupt. Millions of us have lost our existing health insurance coverage and can't afford the ObamaCare premiums. Millions of us are in the "coverage gap" and don't qualify even for Medicaid, leaving us just one health emergency away from financial ruin. And tens of millions of us are watching our hopes for a decent and prosperous future fade away under the onslaught of higher healthcare costs, more taxes, new bureaucratic regulations and a national debt spinning hopelessly out of control.

Bottom line: ObamaCare is destroying America, and we know it. We've been lied to. We've been cheated. The truth is getting out and hitting home. If our country is to be rescued from annihilation, ObamaCare must be repealed. But it can't be repealed unless we have a majority of Tea Party leaders in both houses of Congress. We already have a Republican majority in the House, which we held on to and slightly increased in the otherwise disastrous (and fraudulent) 2012 election. Our job now is to take back the U.S. Senate. We're only six seats away from regaining control of the Senate. We must win at least those six seats. And we have a good chance of doing just that. Incumbent Democrats in the Senate are in big trouble precisely because of their unstinting support for ObamaCare. Their constituents of both parties are angry with them. Thus, barring massive voter fraud (which negatively affected the outcome of the 2012 elections), I think it's safe to predict that we will win a majority of seats in the Senate this November, and that most of the races will be landslide victories for the Tea Party.

Let's keep our nation in our prayers as we head towards the 2014 elections. While we have good reasons to be optimistic, we must remain vigilant. The corrupt Democratic politicians who have saddled us with ObamaCare won't give up without a fight, and they will certainly throw every dirty trick in the book at us in their desperate, last-ditch attempts to retain power. However, our country desperately needs better leaders--good Christian, pro-life leaders who will uphold and protect our God-given rights and liberties and govern our nation in accordance with the Constitution as the Framers intended. We have many such leaders in the House and state governorships already. We just need more of them in the Senate. The only way to get them in is to vote for them. And only American citizens can (legally) vote. So, if you're an American citizen, start preparing now for this important election. Make sure that you're registered to vote; that you clearly know the candidates' positions on the issues, especially on abortion, religious liberty, and ObamaCare; that you go to the polls on November 4, 2014; and that you vote pro-life, pro-liberty and against ObamaCare. We can't afford to lose this time!

Stay tuned for continnuing coverage of the decisive 2014 midterm elections.