Brady's Loss To Quinn: Note To Fiscal Conservatives: Fiscal & Social Issues Are Related

Bill Brady's Loss To Pat Quinn: Note To Fiscal Conservatives: Fiscal & Social Issues Are Related And Do Matter

After State Sen. Bill Brady lost the Illinois gubernatorial race to Pat Quinn, it was no surprise to me. If the election was close enough, the Daley Democratic Machine would find some way to make sure Quinn had the votes to hand him the election.

I am 56 years old and I lived in Chicago for the first 50 years of my life. I remember how the presidential election was stolen from Richard Nixon in 1960. As usual, late returns from Cook County put John F. Kennedy over the top in what was one of the closest elections in our nation's history, up until that point. In fact, did you ever notice that when an election is close, the last votes to be counted are from Cook County? This is not an accident, in my opinion. Therefore, it's not a coincidence that absentee ballots are the last to be tabulated in Chicago because the Democrats need to know how many votes it will take them to win.

In fact, it is no longer conjecture whether the 1960 election was stolen by the Democratic political apparatus in Chicago and Cook County. Deals were made with the Mob by Joe Kennedy, the then-patriarch of the Kennedy clan. Louisiana, one of the three most corrupt states in America (along with Illinois and New Jersey) also played a part in the theft of a presidency in 1960 and the rest, as they say, is history.

This year it was reported Bill Brady won every county in Illinois, except for three. Out of millions of votes cast in the state, Brady ended up losing by a mere few thousands votes.

I wrote a column (see related article below) which, essentially, said Brady possibly lost the election because he did not energize the pro-family base of the Republican Party. But I no longer believe this is true. Every socially conservative Republican knew Brady was better on the issues they cared about than Pat Quinn. I believe it was the fiscal wing of the GOP which, in far too many instances, saw Brady as a tax and spend Republican. In fact, this past summer, I attended a banquet for a public policy group and outside there were individuals who were handing out anti-Brady flyers. They were calling Brady the "Tax Villain of the Month" and depicted Brady behind bars. When I questioned members of the group, National Taxpayers United, I was told the degrading and doctored photograph on their hand-outs was simply meant to encourage Brady to sign their group's pledge stating, if elected, Brady would not sign any legislation which would raise taxes.

What I have learned after nearly 20 years of following Illinois politics is that there is a chasm between social and fiscal Republicans which often leads to the demise of good GOP candidates. Fiscal Republicans refuse to make any connection between social and fiscal issues. But one of the reasons America is in such dire financial straits is due to the fact that fiscal policies led to the demise of the American family. In the 1960's, Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" actually created many of the social problems now facing America.

Minorities and poor people were encouraged to depend on government largesse. Johnson's "Great Society" created a welfare state where parents were rewarded for not getting married and having children out of wedlock. The more children a mother had, the more she received from the government, i.e., rent subsidies, financial assistance and food stamps. The group hardest hit by these programs was the African-American community which previously had stable families where both parents took part in raising their children. The government actually made sure fathers stayed away by checking homes to make sure the mother was on her own and not receiving any assistance from the father. Today, the number of children born out of wedlock in the black community is over 70%. But President Johnson's "Great Society" also bled over into other races, including poor whites, where today over 40% of children live in single-parent households.

But none of this took place in a vacuum that only affected poor blacks, whites and other groups. Johnson's policies had a negative impact on American society over all. Latch-key children became the norm. Radical liberal women's rights organizations, like NOW (National Organization for Women), actually advanced the premise women could have it all. Being a stay at home mom became a bad thing, according to these groups, because simply raising children was not enough to fulfill their lives. There were perfume ads which touted how a woman could "bring home the bacon, fry it up in the pan..." But there was only one catch to Johnson's "Great Society" which cost American taxpayers $5 trillion before the turn of the 21st century. And with the dependence on government, came higher taxation which eventually made it impossible for a family to survive on one income alone.

In the 1950's and 60's, my father worked and my mother stayed at home. She did not feel unfulfilled as a woman, as was the case with a vast majority of women who were mothers in American society at that time. My father's income was more than enough to support our family. We did not live in a palatial home, but there was always food on the table, money to pay the bills and then some.

Today, there is a reluctance by fiscal conservatives to recognize that big government and high taxation are inexorably connected with the social ills which plague our nation. I heard from some of these fiscal conservatives who blamed Brady's loss on his pro-family voting record, saying the state Senator from Bloomington did not pay enough attention to fiscal matters. Some even compared him to his Democratic opponent, Pat Quinn, who after elected, stated he had a mandate from the electorate to raise taxes on Illinois residents. This monolithic thinking has driven a wedge between those of us who care deeply about social issues and those who only care about money. I'll never forget one individual who said that whenever he's around a candidate who's labeled as a compassionate conservative he puts his hand on his wallet.

However, the facts regarding the downfall of American society are clear. According to FBI statistics, most crimes committed by young people take place in between the hours when school lets out and their parent(s) get home from work. America's juvenile justice system is overloaded, costing taxpayers billions of dollars. The impact of drugs and pornography have arrested the social development skills of children who end up being adults who are not equipped with the psychological tools to function productively in our culture.

Abortion has devalued life on both ends of the spectrum...from the innocent unborn to the elderly who are now looked upon as a drain on society and the fiscal bottom line. Children are abused and, sometimes murdered, often by their own parents. Sex abuse and other forms of psychological and physical abuse leave millions of children scarred for life. These children become adults who end up abusing their children and the cycle continues.

Here is an example of how fiscal conservatives are out of touch regarding the issue of same-sex "marriage." If homosexual "marriage" becomes the law of the land, the financial cost will surely doom the Social Security system because survivor benefits will have to be paid same-sex partners or, more accurately, "husbands of husbands" or "wives of wives". Yet we rarely hear fiscal conservatives addressing this issue. They spend more time complaining that Social Security was not meant to be a retirement program than they do quantifying the cost to Social Security if same-sex "marriage" becomes the law of the land. This is a myopic view and many fiscal conservatives just don't get it.

Another example is school vouchers. The best way to stop the cycle of poverty is by providing poor children with a good education. But many fiscal conservatives vehemently oppose school vouchers and inner-city children of all races are locked into an educational system which leaves them lacking in the skills needed to live a productive life and become taxpayers themselves. In many cities, the school drop-out rate is over 50%. This has led to young people joining street gangs, committing crimes and costing our legal system many more billions of dollars.

In a perfect world, the cost of social ills in America would be considered in the argument which advances fiscal responsibility. Unfortunately, this is not the case and we are left with a society spinning out of control and Americans are left with a huge bill, both in a human sense and monetarily.

What's the answer in Illinois? Many politicians believe the expansion of gambling will cure the state's financial woes. At the same time, they deny the human cost of gambling addiction which devastates the addicted individual, his or her family and society. There is no candidate who everyone will agree with on every issue. But there are individuals and organizations who insist that a person running for office agree with them on just their issue alone. If they do not do so, they become the enemy, as was the case with the hand-out targeting Brady from the single-issue group, National Taxpayers United. Yet the Republican Party does have a political platform in Illinois and nationally and Bill Brady's voting record adhered to that platform. Abraham Lincoln, one of our greatest Presidents, and one of the founders of the GOP, said, "you can't please all the people all the time." But literally, the Devil is in the details and there are those who, apparently, seem willing to sacrifice the greater good.

Hopefully, one day we'll see a breakdown of how Brady lost his gubernatorial bid. In fact, I wish Brady would have called for a recount, especially in the three counties where he lost and specifically Cook County. But the election is over. Brady conceded and we are left with the same corrupt political system called "The Chicago Way". Vote early, vote often, where even the dead vote.

Bill Brady's Loss To Pat Quinn: Was The Illinois Gubernatorial Election Stolen? Or Did Failure To Adequately Energize Pro-Family Conservative Base Play A Role In His Defeat? Posted on 11/08/10 at http://rffm.typepad.com/republicans_for_fair_medi/2010/11/bill-bradys-loss-to-pat-quinn-was-the-illinois-gubernatorial-election-stolen-or-did-failure-to-adequ.html

Excellent column, Daniel. I agree your original premise was faulty but you hit on the nail on head for this one. Some very good points, although you left out a few very important factors, most notably the effect of the combine on the IL GOP.

>>> I remember how the presidential election was stolen from Richard Nixon in 1960. As usual, late returns from Cook County put John F. Kennedy over the top in what was one of the closest elections in our nation's history, up until that point. In fact, did you ever notice that when an election is close, the last votes to be counted are from Cook County? This is not an accident, in my opinion. Therefore, it's not a coincidence that absentee ballots are the last to be tabulated in Chicago because the Democrats need to know how many votes it will take them to win. n fact, it is no longer conjecture whether the 1960 election was stolen by the Democratic political apparatus in Chicago and Cook County. Deals were made with the Mob by Joe Kennedy, the then-patriarch of the Kennedy clan. Louisiana, one of the three most corrupt states in America (along with Illinois and New Jersey) also played a part in the theft of a presidency in 1960 and the rest, as they say, is history. <<

Bingo. RAT voter fraud in Crook County was done on an epic scale. I know the BS excuses that Brady "didn't work hard enough in Cook" or that Brady scared away "moderate suburban women" are false because I live here, and many other freepers can say the same. Bill Brady, the tea parties, and the local GOP organizations worked tirelessly to GOTV here (I've been knocking on doors since 2000 and this campaign I worked harder than I ever have in my life! -- I blanketed FIVE precincts in my township although I'm only pct. captain for one of them). We had several "super Saturdays" were dozens of us were out there covered a huge portion of my township, to the point where the week or two before election day we were even looking at taking the fight to the Dems home turf and working some nearby neighbors in Chicago like Mt. Greenwood (since they voted 35%-40% Republican in non-theft election years) Voter response was EXTREMELY positive and the only suburbanites who openly hated Brady were voting straight RAT anyway. But we didn't rest on our laurels, even with Brady ahead by big margins in poll after poll. The numbers on election day don't reflect any of the data we had going into this election. Mayor Daley always wanted to show he just as big as boss as daddy, and he had everything under his belt so far except stealing a statewide election. With this final show of massive vote fraud, Daley can leave office knowing he replicated dear old dad's machine silencing the voice of the people.

>> I wrote a column (see related article below) which, essentially, said Brady possibly lost the election because he did not energize the pro-family base of the Republican Party. But I no longer believe this is true. Every socially conservative Republican knew Brady was better on the issues they cared about than Pat Quinn. <<

Indeed. Brady (and those of us who supported him) made some mistakes in this campaign, most notably thinking Scott Lee Cohen would take Quinn votes when the opposite was true -- but energizing the GOP's base and social conservatives was not one of them. Brady's scripted message was excellent and he was extremely focused -- he didn't hide from his social conservative views or apologize for them -- but he made the campaign a referendum on Pat Quinn's fiscal policies, knowing economic issues was what caused the population as a whole to turn against Quinn. To GOTV for social conservatives, Brady knew had to focus on certain constituents, so he created special mailings to pro-life households and socially conservative church groups (one was prominently displayed in my church) highlighting the fact he was the first openly (and 100%) pro-life nominee in the history of Illinois. For gun groups, he had "Sportsmen for Brady" leaflets that were given out to all the voters who were registered gun owners, and distributed at gun shows. For traditional values, he made a promise to ban gay marriage of his 10 major planks for what he would do as governor, and didn't shy away from it after the media focused solely on that plank and repeatedly attacked him for it. Brady's message was: I'm a social conservative and proud of it. I don't hide it, and you may not agree with me on some issues, but we can all agree that Quinn has been terrible and we can't allow him to raise our taxes"

>> I believe it was the fiscal wing of the GOP which, in far too many instances, saw Brady as a tax and spend Republican. In fact, this past summer, I attended a banquet for a public policy group and outside there were individuals who were handing out anti-Brady flyers. They were calling Brady the "Tax Villain of the Month" and depicted Brady behind bars. <<

The one positive thing to come out of terrible tactics like that, is that some so-called "conservatives" have been unmasked for what they are. And now it's payback time. Jim Tobin and his ilk gave us Quinn, they should not get the time of day from conservatives. He proclaims to be a hero for taxpayers and one of us, but for years this guy was the No. #1 Blago apologist in this state and kept sending out newsletters telling us how Blago was sooooooooo much better than any Republican Governor. (of course Jim Tobin could validly claim most of our RINO GOP governors sucked, but to claim Blago was an improvement was blatantly false). Tobin claims to be a "libertarian" but he never endorses LP candidates, just Democrats. Endorsing Pat Quinn's former running mate and running attack ads against Brady (who votes the right way on tax issues 90% of the time) should be the final straw. Tobin's a Democrat, he needs to come out of the closet. Ditto with all the "conservatives" who constantly smeared Brady as "identical" to Emil Jones by cherry picking one or two bad votes he cast on immigration (and ignored the dozens of good votes he cast on that issue). Again, Brady was the MOST conservative nominee we've had in 50 years (and I'd be willing to bet it will be a long time before we get another candidate as conservative), and yet these a-holes weren't satisfied and preferred the Dem over him. Some of those "conservatives" even post here on FR. It's time to give them the same level of "support" for future campaigns they showed Brady. I hate RINOs, but phony "conservatives" who do the left's dirty work are even worse.

>> What I have learned after nearly 20 years of following Illinois politics is that there is a chasm between social and fiscal Republicans which often leads to the demise of good GOP candidates. Fiscal Republicans refuse to make any connection between social and fiscal issues. But one of the reasons America is in such dire financial straits is due to the fact that fiscal policies led to the demise of the American family. In the 1960's, Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" actually created many of the social problems now facing America. <<

I think alot of true fiscal conservatives (for example the FairTax people) were extremely supportive of Brady. But you need to distinguish between them and the "FCINOS" (Fiscal Conservative In Name Only, as Carly Fiorina dubbed them in the infamous demon sheep ad), who are big spenders and only campaign as "fiscal conservatives" to get votes. In other words, RINOs like Judy Baar Topinka and Mark Kirk. There is no doubt who they cast their ballot for in the voting booth, and it wasn't Brady. The RINOs, like the phony conservatives, did everything they could to undermine Brady and allowed this blatant election theft to take place. >>>

>> Hopefully, one day we'll see a breakdown of how Brady lost his gubernatorial bid. In fact, I wish Brady would have called for a recount, especially in the three counties where he lost and specifically Cook County. But the election is over. Brady conceded and we are left with the same corrupt political system called "The Chicago Way". Vote early, vote often, where even the dead vote. <<<

The bottom line is we're outnumbered by paid machine RATs in Crook County and simply don't have the numbers to combat their vote fraud, no matter how hard we work. This is the sad reality we face today, Crook County is a lost cause. The Democrats even bused in 10,000 RAT campaign workers from Lake County, Indiana to add to their droves of paid hacks canvassing the dead vote on election day. I don't know the answer. But I can tell you one of thing -- Brady probably conceded after three days because the combine "party leaders" like Pat (no relation) Brady took him aside and privately told him they wouldn't support any challenge he made to the official numbers and he'd likely be ridiculed by party officials and politically damaged for doing so. We all remember how Topinka, Ray LaHood, and the rest of their ilk acted when Jack Ryan refused to "withdraw immediately" after the "shocking" revelations that he wanted to have sex with his own wife. The combine is merciless and beats alot of decent conservative Republicans into submission. That's a huge element you're missing in this article.

The war on drugs, etc., has nothing to do with social conservatism. It is a progressive act and would never work in a socialist country anyways, where people are paid to not work and not marry and illegitimacy is encouraged, etc. Druggies get money and resources, so it is encouraged.

Social conservatism is the only thing which works because it preaches responsibility. Not only for oneself but for one’s children and wife. This all ended with the socialists/Progressives and cultural Marxists who destroyed marriage laws and tax laws—to take women aways from their children who would be put in “day care”—the very invention of Lenin—who wanted to mold the plastic minds to communism. Group everything, no individual responsibility, no excellence, no competition—no F’s. Destroy the image of the strong white male, who made this country great. With promotion of promiscuity and sexual immorality, we destroy families and all relationships and create a society in need of a master. Children become uneducated with no moral foundation, who can easily be led.

Two pillars of Western Civilization are the natural family and Christianity. It is what made this country the greatest on earth ever in the history of mankind. Christianity is what led to individualism, responsibility, love and loyalty to family members, led to abolition, and elevated women (because of the status of Mary) to a level in society that is unheard of in the rest of the unChristian world.

Cultural Marxists in the 30’s said to destroy America, we have to destroy the family (promotion of feminism and homosexuality and promiscuity in movies) and destroy Christianity (infiltrate the churches and create Liberation Theology (infusion of Marxist ideology) and add “collective” salvation.

Fiscal responsibility ONLY comes from moral people—people who care about their children and their future society.

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