Posted on 04/02/2012 1:00:13 PM PDT by EternalVigilance
Tom Hoefling:
I believe...
We're One Nation Under God.
The first sworn duty of every officer of government is to protect the God-given, unalienable rights to life, liberty, and private property of every person, from creation to natural death.
The God-given institution of one man-one woman marriage and the natural family must be protected.
The right of the people to Keep and Bear Arms shall not be infringed.
Our national sovereignty, security, and borders must be defended.
Our republican form of representative self-government must be adhered to.
The oath of office to support and defend the Constitution of the United States must be fulfilled.
I also support the Platform of America's Party, and have signed the America's Party Leadership Pledge.
For Life, Liberty, and the Constitution,
-- Tom Hoefling (aka EternalVigilance )
I don’t think you’re going to get very far with “he won’t be any worse than Carter” as a talking point.
Let me tell you one thing that is infinitely worse than the dangerous prospect of Obama’s reelection:
The abandonment of all principle by “conservatives.”
We can survive wicked men in office. We’ve done it before, as you just pointed out. But we can’t survive an electorate that is utterly without principle. Especially that part of the electorate that should be the moral backbone of the body politic.
You say there's no difference between Obama and Romney. So, again, tell us, WHY should we expect Willard to be any worse than Bush I or Nixon? Or, do you think a re-elected "flexible" Obama will be no worse than they were?
I didn’t say there was no difference. Those are your words.
But there is no difference that will make me support the most liberal governor in the history of the republic out of abject fear of the most liberal (de facto) president in the history of the republic.
If you’re determined to jump off a political five hundred foot cliff, I probably won’t be able to talk you out of it, the way it looks. But I’m not going over the edge with you.
You need to get this straight: There are millions of principled Americans who will never vote for Romney, because to do so would violate their conscience.
Because in the end there is only one Person to Whom we will have to give an account for how we used our sacred franchise and the precious gift of liberty that He granted to us. And I assure you that He is not posting on FR.
I’ve gone through your sites and can’t find some things.
What is your educational background and your work experience?
But, I understand that as a candidate I'm going to have to do some of it, whether I like it or not. So, here's what I have time to put down on the fly before I get into this evening's work:
I have very little formal education. I was a ninth grade drop-out from a broken home. On my own when I was fifteen. So, whatever education I have was obtained the old-fashioned way, from the school of hard knocks. And, I know how to read and comprehend fairly well. It's amazing how easy it is to understand the words of the founders of this free republic, and yet how few "educated" folks in government these days seem to be able to grasp self-evident truth and fundamental principles.
I owned several severely under-capitalized small businesses early on in my life. The first one didn't survive the aftermath of the Carter years. Just couldn't deal with nearly 20% interest rates and 20% inflation. Another one didn't survive the advent of my political work. First I made the Democrats in town mad, then the compromised Republicans. Long story. Come on the America's Summit call tonight, or some other night, and I'll be happy to explain more to you personally.
In any case, I've spent the last twenty years or so as a full time political activist and some-time political consultant, the latter whenever the need arose for someone to fulfill a given task. Usually because the Republican Party wouldn't fund or support a good conservative candidate, and someone had to do it.
Of course, a guy has to keep his family fed, and clothed, and housed. Which means I did all sorts of real work throughout my life. Washed dishes. Worked on the farm. Worked on a carnival. Trimmed trees. Moved pianos. Worked as a painter. Laid block. Poured concrete. Worked as a riveter. Operated a feed mill and drove a feed truck. Upholstered furniture. Drove truck. Worked in an OSB mill, pushing a broom and then as a system operator. Worked in several factories as a machine operator. Helped run a grain elevator. Loaded trains. And a few other things here and there.
Now, I understand that there are going to be some folks who are going to look at my history and write me off because I don't have the usual credentials, but I will tell you this. I know how to relate to the regular folks. Because, I've walked in their shoes. And with my varied life experience, I almost always seem to be able to find common ground with people.
By the way, I've worked with plenty of those with impressive formal educational credentials. Very often, it was them leaning on my political knowledge, experience and abilities, not so much the other way around.
And I've seen some people with degrees come and go through the years that didn't have the common sense of a stump.
And by the way, welcome to Free Republic.
I agree with most of your positions. But I agree with all of my positions and I know that I can’t be president. Still, I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt. Here are some questions.
1. Name three occasions where you were in a leadership role and had a tangible accomplishment.
2. How are you going to get John Boehner and - for argument’s sake - Harry Reid to pass the legislation you want passed?
3. How would you control the lifers at the Departments of State and Defense who are going to think that you are an uneducated yokel and will certainly work to stymie you at every turn?
4. What would your response be to the first Saturday Night Live, Daily Show, or Late Show joke about your lack of education and/or credentials?
5. Finally, I do notice a very strong Christian theme through your sites. What is your denomination? And what role would other demoninations - including Jews, Mormons, and Muslims - have in your Administration?
Very intelligent, incisive questions. My compliments.
I’ve got a busy schedule this morning, but I’ll answer them as thoroughly as possible when I can get to it.
Very intelligent, incisive questions. My compliments.
I’ve got a busy schedule this morning, but I’ll answer them as thoroughly as possible when I can get to it.
Really now, that's quite a claim and I'm sure it would be news to any number of principled Americans who know a thing or two about liberal governors past and present.
You need to get this straight: There are millions of principled Americans who will never vote for Romney, because to do so would violate their conscience.
You need to get this straight: There are millions of principled Americans who will never vote for some third-party, no-chance nobody. We've seen how that's worked in the past. This time, with a Marxist incumbent, the stakes are higher than ever before. To help him win a second term would violate my conscience.
Because in the end there is only one Person to Whom we will have to give an account for how we used our sacred franchise and the precious gift of liberty that He granted to us.
He will continue to appoint the right leaders for us regardless.
A few more comments on your questions before I undertake answering them as thoughtfully and completely as I can.
While I believe that I have the necessary principled basis for the restoration and defense of this free republic pretty well figured out, and a principled and practical vision for restoring an American political system that is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people; not of, by, and for the media and the money interests; your inquiries probe deeply into the personal and the practical aspects of what it will take to be president. I appreciate that, because those questions are critically important as well.
1. Name three occasions where you were in a leadership role and had a tangible accomplishment.
Many of the qualities of a decent leader are developed long before one has ever has a chance to lead other people. And so, my first response is a story about me having to lead a horse.
When I was about ten years old I was staying for the summer with my uncle on his farm in the Loess Hills of western Iowa, as I often did throughout my childhood. He had a few horses, one of which was a medium-sized, barrel-bellied, stubborn-as-a-mule pony.
One afternoon, somehow, the conversation turned to whether or not I could ride that pony bareback all the way to my grandmother's farm, which was more than fifty miles to the east. My uncle, with the usual twinkle in his eye, scoffed at the idea that I could ever do that. So, of course, I immediately went into the house, threw my few possessions into a pillow case, tied it up with a bit of rope, jumped on the horse, and rode out of the lane.
Now, of course, my undertaking of such an endeavor was based in youthful foolishness. It only took me half a mile of gravel road on that horse to figure that out. Because, every step of the way, that pony wanted to turn around and go home. For 55 miles and three days that pony wanted to turn around and go home. There were even a couple of times that he got away from me and made several miles in that direction before I could catch him.
But, I finally made it, much to my uncle's surprise. And along the way, I learned a lot, especially about the rewards of persistence.
I learned not to undertake anything lightly, but that once you do start something you need to see it through all the way, if you possibly can.
My second answer I'm going to broad brush a bit more than you might like, but feel that this is the best way I can answer you. The Bible says that "a man's gift makes room for him." My experience confirms that truth. In whatever job I've been engaged, I've become a leader, in the true sense of the word. In other words, I've become an intrinsic part of getting the show down the road. Of getting the day's production quota out the door. Of getting the load safely to its destination. Of getting the crop planted, and harvested, and in the bin, and dried, and loaded on the train. I've ended up being a person that people, and teams of people, have looked to to get the job done, and to get it done right, wherever I've been.
My third answer goes to my political activism and activity. I had been somewhat politically active starting in the Eighties, mainly due to my involvement in the homeschooling movement. But, in the early Nineties, with the rise of the Clintons, who scared the dickens out of me, I decided that I must involve myself more directly in the political arena.
So, I ran for Republican precinct chairman and won. I became a delegate to the county convention and then the district and state conventions. I was elected to the state central committee, and then became involved in the recruitment and election of many candidates for public office, at all levels, in all parts of my state.
For example, I helped recruit and elect seven candidates to the state senate, flipping the control of that body from the Democrats to the Republicans.
I managed, in a few short years, to turn a part of my district - counties that I was primarily responsible for - that had historically been Democrat, into Republican districts, which they firmly remain to this day.
I helped put a gentleman you may have heard of, Steve King, first of all into the state senate, and then into Congress.
I was asked in December of 1999 to try to revive a presidential campaign that was struggling along in last place, which I did, in five weeks, obtaining one of the three proverbial tickets to New Hampshire for Dr. Alan Keyes.
Over the years I've also worked on and helped lead a number of other campaigns, at all levels, across the country. I've won a few, and lost more, since many of the candidates I agreed to help were conservatives that the GOP refused to fund. But, win or lose, those candidates almost always performed far better than anyone thought they could, in spite of their lack of resources. And I always left a better informed, better trained, better organized, conservative movement and Republican Party in my wake.
But primarily I've been an advocate for the principles laid down in the Declaration of Independence. For life. For liberty. For private property rights. For the Constitution. For our national sovereignty and security.
There are a multitude of other battles - both victories and defeats - that I can't possibly go into in this format. I don't have the time to sit here and write a book.
I've already taken more time today on this one response than I can afford, quite frankly. But as the day proceeds I will try very hard to get to your next four questions, which are excellent ones. If we were talking together, I could give you thorough responses to all of them in about ten minutes, but in writing, it is going to take me a little longer, in between other obligations that I have today.
You can easily disprove my assertion by pointing to another governor who has instituted "gay" "marriage," socialized medicine, complete with taxpayer-funded abortions, homosexualized state government and the public schools, and banned "scary" guns that are, to quote Mitt Romney, "instruments of destruction with the sole purpose of hunting down and killing people." You know, the exact sorts of weaponry that the British headed on out to Lexington and Concord to try and confiscate.
If you can't come up with such a governor, you should just admit that I'm correct, and try to find a bit of understanding for conservatives who wouldn't support him even if hell froze solid.
For the record, I never had any illusions that I would win the support of those who prioritize having a "name," ie recognition by the liberal media, or membership in the Republican-Democrat monopoly, above the defense of life, liberty, and the Constitution.
LOL. Given your narrow set of criteria, you are "correct." Furthermore, I see no reason to waste any time making a case to prove you wrong. Congratulations.
“Narrow”? I don’t think so. Romney’s record contains violations of virtually all of the moral, constitutional, legal and political premises of conservatism, and of our constitutional republic.
I’m sorry that you don’t care about those things enough to have them affect how you vote.
But, I must say, you will make a fine Romney Republican. Congratulations.
Of course you don't.
Ideally, there wouldn't be any John Boehners or Harry Reids in the Congress when I arrived in Washington.
But, assuming I can get elected without that important task having been accomplished, a great deal of wisdom would be needed in terms of the strategy for dealing with a corrupt Congress.
First, you have to know what hills you're willing to die on. The defense of the lives, the liberty, and the property of the people. The defense of our national sovereignty and security. Things like that. There's no debate, no negotiation, no hesitation possible there. The full force of the executive office must be immediately deployed against any politician who would hinder it.
But there are a host of reforms that can and will take time to bring about. I would foster a thorough-going national debate concerning those things that would rock the existing politicians world, and force them to confront the realities of what is going to be required to put this country back on a firm moral, constitutional, legal and financial basis.
Again, it's a matter of knowing what hills you're willing to die on.
But, before I address that, let me say that with the current occupant of the White House I'm somewhat glad for the intractable nature of the departments you ask about. Especially the Defense Department.
You see, there is a good side to those departments being what they are, one which is grounded in the nature of the government of constitutionally-divided and limited powers that the founders set up.
In many areas it is a good thing that the president is constrained in what he can do. Especially the current one.
In any case, the trick in dealing with these folks is in knowing what and where those constraints are, and then acting forcefully, but wisely, within those parameters.
You have to know what you want. You have to have complete data concerning the nature and scope of what you're dealing with. You have to have the best analysis of that information. And then you must have a good strategy, appropriate tactics, and persistence in executing your policies.
And as always, "personnel is policy." The quality of leadership that is installed with the new administration is the most important determinative factor.
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