It’s no secret that Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter has not been well liked by his state’s Republican party as of late. A state senator since the 1980s, Specter’s last primary in 2004 was not promising. Despite the public support of then President Bush-before the former president’s popularity dropped like a stone- the long shot primary campaign of Representative Pat Toomey was able to narrow the race to 49-41%. Following the election, Specter resumed his mantle as one of the more "independent" (or politically confused) voices in the Senate. Out of the entire Senate, Specter voted with his party the fourth least number of times (only 65.3% of the time).

                Specter’s Waterloo in the GOP, however, was his decision to join just two other GOP senators in voting for the Democrat’s Economic Recovery Act. Specter staffers have admitted in newspaper interviews that, following that vote, the office phones began to ring incessantly. Conservative groups took out adds criticizing the decision and they demanded the National GOP not assist his campaign. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators branded him a traitor. Specter’s primary chances, already weakened by the defection of many moderate Republicans prior to the stimulus vote, were all but destroyed. Successive polls showed his formed rival Pat Toomey gaining an ever larger lead. The most recent poll showed Specter trailing Toomey by 21 percentage points. Barring a political miracle, it was statistically impossible for Senator Specter to even win his party’s nomination.

                So it should have come as no surprise when Senator Specter announced on Tuesday, April 28 that he planned to switch his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat. Newspaper headlines called the move "shocking" and excitedly pointed out that the political world had been thrown into "turmoil." Pundits keep focusing on how close the Democrat’s 59 seats brings them to the magic 60, the number of seats a party needs to break a filibuster. Let us not forget that without Specter’s assistance, the GOP filibuster of the Economic Recovery Package would not have been possible. Without his vote, the GOP would not have been able to avert the ultra-liberal Kathleen Sebelius’s appointment as Health and Human Services Secretary. Or rather, had Specter actually supported his party’s own platform and the principles of many of his voters, he would have been invaluable.

                Arlen Specter, however, was not helpful in any of the efforts listed above. In fact, he voted against the GOP’s efforts to, at the very least, force more debate on every one of these issues. Why should the GOP and its conservative backers worry about the loss of a vote they couldn’t count on in the first place? Specter shies away from controversial votes and votes to please the political sentiment of the day. His lack of principle is only more apparent with his defection for personal gain and political expediency.  Somehow, conservatives are to believe that men like Specter will revive the GOP? That claim is ridiculous. As Specter’s own voting record shows, he did more to sidetrack the conservative agenda than many Democrats did. In the last election, moderate Republicans lost in droves as their fickle supporters voted Democratic and staunch conservatives refused to vote. The GOPs rightward turn is not only a good thing, it’s perhaps the best thing for the party since Ronal Reagan. The GOPs new direction is a real change that has energized the GOP’s core conservative supporters and will finally offer voters a choice between big government and big government-lite.

Photo by Madas and Sue Donneham 

For those of you who have been living under a rock, Barack Obama’s inauguration was Monday January 20, 2009. His speech pleasantly surprised me with its unprecedented inclusion of concrete policies and positions. I know many expected him to stick to his campaign standby of inspirational sound bites, but they seemed to be obviously disappointed. It was funny how you could hear the applause die down as the amount of concrete content went up. It’s kind of like when you go to the supermarket and your disappointed to see your favorite cereal with the caption "now with nutritional value!" You know the kind that I mean. Let’s face it, you don’t exactly pick up a bowl of captain crunch for its nutritional value. You eat it because it’s addictive, numbs your brain, and gives you a pleasant buzz. Messing with the formula diminishes the cheap thrills you love so much but doesn’t add enough substance to make it worth your while.

Since I am currently at college (one of those places famed for its diversity) I was pleasantly surprised to see that only about 90% of the students were ecstatic about the occasion. The dissenting 10% really adds flavor to the campus… At first I couldn’t quite figure out what the excitement was about… but then it hit me. This isn’t just any inauguration, it’s the inauguration of the greatest president in history. Don’t believe it? Don’t tell me you’re one of those old fashioned fogies who prefers to write history after it happens! Just take a stroll through your local bookstore. The displays are so cute… next to Dr. Seuss there’s a nice little beginners reader with the caption, "Son of Promise and Child of Hope."

How can you argue with that? Start ‘em young and they’ll grow up right. It seems these days, gentle reader, that history is written before it happens. Barack doesn’t have the potential to be a great president… he was the greatest before he was even elected. Sure there are a few small details in the way such like actually being president, but if we all play nice and bipartisan (what irony hearing that word from the part of Nancy Pelosi and pals) its sure to come true. This desire to write history before it happens is partly why the inauguration was so important for so many people. It wasn’t just any inauguration. It was history in the making. No I don’t mean an event who’s significance is not yet understood, I mean the first step between a fairly tale and reality.

Unfortunately for the Democrats, they have something more difficult than the media influenced voters to contend with now: the real world. No matter where your political leanings lie, it’s hard to argue with the media bias during the election season. Mohandas Gandhi and Mother Theresa got tougher press coverage than Obama. For God’s sake, CBS actually used "Yes we can" and Obama’s campaign logo to advertise for their upcoming comedy lineup. The comedians themselves won’t touch Obama. Chris Rock and many others admit to being unable or unwilling to make light of Obama’s gaffes. Leno was focusing on Bush and Cheney even on the day of the inauguration. Could you imagine if George W. Bush’s oath was anything like Obama’s? We would never have heard the end of that no matter who’s fault it was. As for those of us who have a sense of proper decorum, moral fiber, and personal character, we will grow to like and then love Mr. Bush as time passes us by. Here was a man who, despite an unceasing onslaught of bad press coverage, cranks like Nancy Pelosi, unprecedented disasters, and other calamities stayed true to what he believed and treated those around him with dignity and respect. Some may feel that he made the wrong decisions for the wrong reasons, but at least the man has convictions not dictated by the latest polls. George W. Bush was deemed a loser and Barack Obama was crowned the president by entrenched media interests. The Democratic party, meanwhile, has latched onto Obama’s reputation and you can bet that they’ll milk it for all it’s worth. They’ve tried to ride his popularity, but fundamentally they do not view the world in the same way. Mark my words, Obama and the top Democratic leaders will be in a state of mutual loathing by the next election.

Thank God there is something that can still be done. If the people elected Bush and his media image tore him down… then the people can tear down the image the media elected. Don’t misunderstand me. I am not bitter, at least not towards Barack himself. Barack Obama seems like a good man. He seems competent and he seems fairly centrist. Unfortunately, there is little substance to back that and I am disgusted at those who spent the last year fabricating a media friendly image to fill in the gaps. Barack’s bipartisan pitch is distinctly at odds with the Democratic party’s traditional tactics. Either he’s misrepresenting himself or his party is misrepresenting itself. I’ll put money on the second choice. This is the party, after all, who fought so many of Bush’s nominations despite their obvious qualifications and the lack of precedent for such fierce opposition. During Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s Supreme Court nomination, ideological issues were barely brought up. Ranking Republicans voted for her on the basis on her competence, not her views. This is the party which has done nothing but criticize Bush for policies they themselves authorized. This is the party who’s Speaker said to the national news that the Republicans deserved no input on the stimulus package because they "lost the election." How is that bipartisan? Bipartisanship is a give and take, not one party demanding the other cower and let every piece of legislation pass unopposed. Now, this same divisive party expects to use Obama’s popularity and reasonable persona to remake themselves? I’m sorry, but there is no way that I will forget the true face of the Democratic party; this is the party which bitterly opposed almost every Republican and Bush administration policy for eight years in an extremely partisan manner. People often say that Bush failed… but how many stop and ask themselves what might have been accomplished with even the slightest bit of reasonable cooperation? Now they want to move on as the reasonable "bipartisan" party, no doubt setting up conservatives for a media thrashing should they decide to oppose any of the Democrat’s policies?

Three years ago, the Democrats were the minority party and they used scare tactics, lies, demonstrations, and other counterproductive but high profile means to claw their way back to the top. While conservatives went to work and cared for their families, the liberal left was protesting, lobbying, and filing frivolous lawsuits against laws and institutions that stand for traditional conservative beliefs. Now, however, they have lost their most powerful tools. They cannot protest and they cannot blame someone else. They are in control and I call on each and every person, regardless of his or her political leanings, to demand the truth from the media. We cannot allow the fabric of society to be changed by a lie. We cannot allow fear to dictate policy and obscure the truth. When you see that a news outlet is unfairly reporting the news, boycott it and get your friends involved. Don’t just shake your head when you read about corruption and waste in the paper. Run for local office or join a local campaign. Don’t go about your day lamenting days gone by. Go to a protest… heck… start a protest. When’s the last time you saw a serious conservative protest? Granted conservatives prefer more productive means of opposition, but, if that’s what the media wants, then give them something they cannot ignore. My friends today we must become the modern counterculture. What small but dedicated groups of ultra leftists did to society in the 1960s and 1970s we are now in the position to do in turn. Popular culture lacks substance and it treats large swaths of political ideology, which are held by a large portion of the American population, with disdain. The media is entirely one sided, education amounts to no less than brainwashing, and politicians are spending your money without a care in the world. We need but create a small spark and the house of cards will come burning down. You can’t fool all of the people all of the time. Mr. Obama was right… change has come to America. Let’s make it happen.

Vive la liberté!

  —Madas

If you want to fix America, you need to start with yourself. You need to be more knowledgeable than your opponents. The first thing you must do is to go and read the founding documents of the United States. Go read the U.S. Constitution, the Federalist Papers, the Anti-Federalist Papers, and the Declaration of Independence. I guarantee that you will know more about constitutional law than 95% of the population.

When someone suggests something like social/economic justice, state persecution of religion (also known as “separation of church and state”), gun control, etc. you will have the historical and legal knowledge to argue not only why it is wrong, but why it is actually illegal. Leftists won’t be able to argue facts with you, but, if you don’t know the history of what you seek to defend, you have no hope of defending against more appealing populist ideology.

After you have built a strong conceptual foundation, you need to go out and spread the word. You need to find an organization or individual who you wish to help or you need to organize a movement yourself. The left has been extremely successful in mobilizing supporters through a "nucleation" strategy. Similarly to how a bubbles form more quickly on a solid dropped into a soda, leftists concentrate on manufacturing an outrageous token issues which they can use to organize and attract supporters. We must do the same. If there is something in your town that seems wrong, do not writer letters to your town officials, immediately report the issue to the media and get as many people involved as possible.

Writing that doesn’t seem right. I have always despised those who abuse our legal system. I have never respected those who are unable to fix a problem through their own action and, to augment their inadequacy, decide to get the government involved. Sadly, those very same people have used their dissatisfaction to mold the world to their own preferences. The Achilles heel in their actions is that they are inconsistent. They have implemented social programs that racially discriminate, they allow radical policies to influence government so long as they have no religious grounds, and they assassinate the character of conservatives.

We must reveal that, at the core of the issue, these people do not want consistency. Let’s take these absurd policies all the way to their logical conclusion and expose them for what they are: the wrongs of the past with a new label. When you see reverse discrimination (such as racially motivated hiring) notify the media and see if you can get an organization with a legal team involved. Does the local educational system indoctrinate your children? Does it ridicule your beliefs and promote contrary ideology? Look up privacy laws in your state, and, if it’s legal, secretly record classes; send your children to class with tape recorders. Evidence collection is key my friends.

We are entirely too kind. We suffer the abuses of those who disagree with us in the spirit of legitimate debate and dissent. They take our courtesy and try to silence us with it. No longer. Now the game is all about documentation and dissemination. Beyond the mainstream media, use YouTube, Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, etc. to spread the world. On YouTube, you can post video responses to popular videos. Document examples and show them to the world. Find liberal videos and post your evidence as a response. TIVO news stations that you don’t like and extract segments of bias, racism, and bigotry. Post those as well.

Now, you should stop writing to your politicians. Direct your efforts elsewhere. You would be better served writing a letter to the editor which can then be seen by hundreds of people(if you wish, you can send a copy to your representative) Get behind candidates who are not necessarily party affiliated but who will uphold your beliefs. If your representatives are ineffective, corrupt, etc. then do everything that you can to replace them even if you must fight your party’s establishment. If the party refuses to do what is right, then gather all you can and find someone who will uphold your standards. If that person is you, then you are the person for the job.

It’s all up to you. I will do my part and you must now do yours. If you would like advice or want to discuss this article, I encourage you to use our web forums. If you do not know how, it’s an excellent time to learn. We must empower all those who think as we do to use the internet and the technology that now surrounds us.

The real revolution that we need is a revolution of the mind. We have all the tools to enact that. We have unprecedented access to global communication channels to spread the word. Too many concerned citizens look at TV and the Internet as bad things.  I would agree except that media now work both ways. It’s time to reverse the flow of the effluent that pours forth from mainstream culture right back to those who forced it upon us. If they experience it themselves, I doubt we will have to deal with its absurdity much longer.

Let Freedom Ring. God bless America and long may her flag wave.

–Madas