Well said! I'm with you.
If we can get back some of our rights from fedzilla we may not always agree with what happens in a state we reside in, but we will have the option to move to a state that better represents our values. IOW, we will be free and the govt will be subject to our will. As it stands now we are approaching a time where our only alternative is to submit to the govt, or leave the country.
The only other candidate that I've heard say anything about the Tenth Amendment is Newt Gingrich — who mentioned in passing that Perry's interest in the Tenth was well-justified, and that he had sparked his, Gingrich's, interest, too.
My second choice behind Perry. My concerns with him are electability and his tendency to look to big govt solutions to big problems. I think he could be a great VP for Perry.
Perry is my #1 though for a lot of reasons. The most important to me being I think he is the kind of person you could do business with on a handshake. He has that middle America rural background that places a premium on honor.
My question is can Perry get out of his own way and get on a steady track with a clear no-nonsense message to the American people sans the hot headed outbursts and gaffes?
I share your (to me) valid concern that Newt is a "big government" guy, a font of big, sweeping ideas.
But I don't want another "big government guy." I want Washington's scope and intervention into our lives to SHRINK, not grow. Newt proffers "expert answers" to everything, while I just want to leave as much to the states and the people as possible, so as not to have our lives run by "experts" — no matter how "'brilliant" — out of Washington.
Newt is a Washington insider par excellence. Perry is not — indeed he is quite the reverse. If power is ever to be devolved out of Washington, it'll take a man like Perry to get that ball rolling.
The two men are so unalike I can't even see them on the same ticket. Their respective temperaments, values, and basic political philosophies seem to be totally mutually opposed.
I thought this was very well said, dear wmfight:
If we can get back some of our rights from fedzilla we may not always agree with what happens in a state we reside in, but we will have the option to move to a state that better represents our values. IOW, we will be free and the govt will be subject to our will.I so agree! Washington is all about top-down expert technocratic answers to every problem in life uniformly imposed on all "from above." Either we stuff Leviathan back into his cage (where he belongs), or we will absolutely, positively lose all our personal liberties before too long.
Perry looked to me like the only potential "Leviathan tamer" in the room last night. For openers, he distinctly does not have a knee-jerk, in-built, pro-Washington bias.
[FWIW, the other big "constitutionalist" in the field, Ron Paul, is a thoroughly indoctrinated crackpot who probably hasn't had a fresh idea in decades. He just cycles all data through the filter of his doctrine, which (to me) is the flattest, most reductionist view of the Constitution imaginable. Given his views on foreign policy, I wonder what planet exactly he lives on. His grasp on Realism seems quite slight to me. JMHO]
The long and the short of it is: I just like Perry — he's "my guy." I hope I'll get the chance to vote for him.
We'll just have to wait and see if that can happen....
Thank you ever so much for writing!