Posted on 11/22/2011 1:13:15 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
“ … states' rights, states’ rights, states' rights!” — Rick Perry at the Alamo, June 15, 2009
Until you get higher in the hills, Laconia might be considered the vortex of New Hampshire redneck politics, heavy into the Tea Party. The Lakes Region Tea Party is small but might be indicative of how things will go. A straw poll on Nov. 16 gave Newt Gingrich 49 percent while Cain tied with Ron Paul at 15. Romney 12 percent and Rick Perry 0. Similar results in a straw poll at a Republican club in Alabama on Saturday: Newt 45 percent, Cain 13, Paul and Romney both 11 and Perry 3. Interesting because Perry first gave national credence to the Tea Party when he chanted for states’ rights at the Alamo. But with the sudden rise of Newt, the consummate Washington insider, the Tea Party is no longer really about states’ rights and specific issues. It’s about passion.
I'm all about the Rick Perry uprising, as he described it Friday night on Neil Cavuto's show. He is serious about a part-time legislature, term limits for judges, a balanced budget and state sovereignty issues.
His thinking and direction could save America. But it may take longer. For five years before the Texas governor cut loose at the original Tea Party rally at the Alamo 2009 event with Ted Nugent and Judge Andrew Napolitano present, I had been writing about states’ rights in northern New England. We were well-informed by the best lawyers and scholars in North America on these issues. Legal counsel advised that systemic change as great as this takes time and a lot of conversation.
Perry needs more time for this to sink in and he needs a posse; he needs allies. Not senators, not representatives, but likeminded governors and passionate advocates like Sarah Palin. His brilliant and brave manifesto, Fed Up! describes a path to "save America from Washington.” But it is clearly a world that devolves power to states, regions and their governors. And most governors today are not prepared to receive it.
For Perry's form to advance, governors’ power must be enhanced, their confidence and the people’s confidence in them must rise and the political status of states must rise. It is not a project for an aging and predictable “supercommittee,” but for rising young stars like Alaska’s Joe Miller, Tennessee’s Rand Paul and Utah’s Mike Lee and independent heartland governors like Idaho’s “Butch” Otter. Since 1913 and the 17th Amendment, states and their governors have lost status to Washington. This first must change, and possibly only a Constitutional Convention can change it.
I'd suggest a long-term plan and a council of governors or a “supercommittee of governors”; a council of elders, if you will, made up of former or current governors to consider devolution of power to states and regions. How would the country work then? Who would do what?
Thomas Jefferson’s premise is that the only defense against a bloated or malevolent federal government is the states organically related in their regions. In this model Texans are Texans, Alaskans Alaskan and New England may find its Emersonian soul again. Perry was first to go there again. But it can’t happen overnight.
Maybe the change Perry calls for is impossible. Things don’t change. They break. Then they start over again as something else. The colossal and predictable failure of the “supercommittee” is symptomatic of breakage ahead. But when it starts again, this time it might start with Perry.
Reminds me of a Chineese proverb:
"Today's problems were often yesterday's solutions."
I am skeptical of all POLs, but if what Rick says he wants to do to DC is what he would do if he were president, I am in. It is TIME to DownSize DC!!
Palin / Otter 2016. By then we’ll be REALLY fed up with two-term Baracchio, VP Hillary and their gang of idiots. And by then, Perry and Jindal could well be President and VP of a newly-seceded Conservative Confederacy (TX, SC, OK, KS, NE, SD, ND, AL, and LA).
I don’t dislike Perry and some of the stuff that people really get wound up about him over doesn’t matter to me. But I get the impression he’s making it up as he goes. First his “flat tax” and now this “half-time gov’t” deal.
Seems to me that if Perry’d had all this platform worked out in good detail and led with it from Day #1 of his campaign, he might have blown the socks off of everyone.
We could do a heck of a lot worse, that’s for sure.
I’d much rather it be Perry than Newtie or Mitty!
You forgot TN and MS...both are red States...TN is very red.
for what it’s worth, I do believe in his latest book , he talked about a flat tax. ( FED UP is the title but I could be having a stuttering brain fart )
so this isnt just thought of the moment for him.
Desperate populist Perry speak.
“I’d much rather it be Perry than Newtie or Mitty!”
Same here! I can’t stand Mitt and although I love Newt’s command of the facts and fiery speeches, his morals leave much to be desired.
I believe that Perry can and will rebound strong. He is a ferocious and determined campaigner and won’t give up!
He is not making it up as he goes. The "flat tax" is part of his platform.
So is changing the way the government works.
Here is the link to these platforms:
http://www.rickperry.org/
Me too. Rather it be Perry than anybody.
If you saw him on Neal’s show, you saw Neal attempt to bait him a little bit with a clip of Cain basically accusing Perry of being responsible for the bimbo eruption.
Perry stayed calm and pleasant, didn’t respond to the bait or say anything negative about Cain.
And he’s the only one who’s stood up for the Republican candidate whoever it turns out to be. A good example for us.
TN is very red.
And yet its Sens are Alexander and Corker. A perfect case for repealing the 17th Amendment.
He didn’t just make up the half time government, that is the way the Texas legislature works. Not sure of the exact details but it is not new.
I’m all in & have been since he announced. I said at the time I would back Palin or Perry, whichever one got in. Perry did.
Glad to see support picking up at FR for Perry and his plans.
Come on, send him a couple of bucks and start facebooking and tweeting (#perry2012) etc etc etc
You know in your hearts I’m right.
I wish he would change the way the DMV works in Texas....it's pathetic.
We live in opposite realities. In Illinois-Hell, the DMV is running like the trains in Mussolini’s Italy. Meanwhile, we are being taxed and regulated TO Death.
I’ll take a crappy DMV any day and twice on Sundays.
I have been reluctant, because I still prefer Rick remaining Governor of Texas.
But I would have no problems voting for him for President.
I grew up 14 miles from him, but have never met Rick. I know his parents. His family has live here in Haskell County about 3 years longer than my family, who came here in 1889.
I have been consistent in defending Rick here, but am also aware of some really bad calls he has made. Those come up too often and I do not defend them.
But bear in mind, when the right people called him on an issue he has always been brought back in line.
He is the most likely to really pull the trigger and DownSize DC. Whether or not he would actually do it is still in play.
True story, about 25 years ago, my husband was on a pay phone. He was held at gun point for his wallet. Our DMV was so bad, he took out the money and gave it to the guy and said here's my money--you can't have my wallet. All he was thinking about, he said, was standing on the DMV line for a new license. Thank God he wasn't shot.
The offices are now privatized and computerized and the people actually smile when you go in. Maybe you should write to the Governor and suggest that. But look at the bright side, you get to carry guns. In our state only the police and criminals have the guns.
What's wrong with the way the DMV works in Texas?
I've assumed that all is fine with the Texas state government since more than several supporters of the campaigning-for-president, part-time governor have assured me that it is.
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