About a month ago, Senator Jamie Eldridge's office filed legislation on my behalf. The draft bills, currently Senate Dockets 1921 and 1922, deal with improving the business climate in the state beyond the Clawback bill, and reforming state government while reducing spending. Granted, they're both large-scale undertakings, but I feel it is necessary to get them on the floor in the Senate. Fortunately, I've received cooperation from Jamie's office, but the dockets are still held up in the Ethics and Rules Committee.
I've been told that in order for them to be admitted to the Senate, the committee would need a request from the office of a Senator, which means that I'm calling for Jamie's continued support and assistance.
This would be a testament to what bipartisanship should be - Eldridge doesn't have to necessarily agree with the bills, but nevertheless he can help to get an outside, citizen opinion heard on the Senate floor.
We must improve the small business climate in this state in order to remain competitive.
Did Ryan Sorba's outburst against gay rights and GOP-Proud signal the beginning of the end of the Tea Party's momentum. If we assume that the Tea Party is built operationally on libertarian ideals and dedicated to opposition to the enlargement of the federal government, can it withstand those who take a less than nuanced view of "ordered-liberty" based almost exclusively on Judeo-Christian philosophy?
D.R. Tucker explains, masterfully as usual. The conclusion isn't pretty:
From Sorba's perspective, the libertarians at CPAC were booing him because his call for public morality could interfere with the right's political momentum. CPAC's organizers attempted to push the idea that the American right is open-minded, tolerant, welcoming; Sorba simply countered that the American right, and especially the GOP, cannot be open-minded, tolerant and welcoming with regard to all things.
In Sorba's mind, CPAC wanted to set truth aside, set values aside, set right and wrong aside in the name of inclusion and future political success. In his mind, and in the mind of every ordered-liberty conservative, truth and values can never be set aside. Why should anyone have to forfeit their principles, if only for one moment, or one election cycle?
This conflict-between libertarianism and ordered liberty, between those who believe social issues need to be put on the back burner for now and those who believe social issues cannot be temporarily dismissed-will inevitably doom the Tea Party movement and the GOP. When the American right is truly united, it cannot be defeated-but the American right hasn't been truly united in years.
Would I have joined those who booed Sorba at CPAC? No. I would have simply walked out, horrified by the severity of the right's internal conflicts, heartbroken by the reality that ordered-liberty conservatives and libertarian conservatives loathe each other more than they love this country.
Tuning in this morning to the Michael Graham show on 96.9 WTKK, listeners learned of a new ballot initiative to roll back the Massachusetts sales tax to 3 percent.
But that's not all they heard about...
Turns out that while the initiative to roll back the sales tax is still in the early days of gathering petition signatures, the teachers union is already trying to create road blocks. Red Mass Group revealed that - borrowing a page directly from the Obama White House playbook - the teachers union sent out an email to members requesting they report petitioner encounters.
Well, that was enough to get me back into high gear on this campaign. And, it looks like I'm not the only one. This got plenty of other people's blood boiling.
So, what's this all about? And what can you do to help? Here's the scoop...
The Alliance to Roll Back Taxes recently formed to get an initiative on the 2010 ballot. Brought to us by Carla Howell and Michael Cloud from the Center For Small Government (the same folks who brought us the End the Income Tax ballot question), this citizen effort aims to cut the state sales tax from 6.25% to 3% - the lowest amount allowed by law.
To get the sales tax cut initiative on the Massachusetts ballot in 2010, we need to collect 100,000 signatures this fall. And the Alliance to Roll Back Taxes needs your help.
Politicians are borrowing and spending money like there's no tomorrow - and jacking up your taxes to pay for it.
If TEA Parties and Town Hall Meetings reflect the mood of voters, the politicians may have finally gone too far.
Maybe, just maybe, we can stop them dead in their tracks and roll back taxes.
(I have yet to pick this up. It is my next book after I'm done Newt's new tome. - promoted by EaBo Clipper)
Grover Norquist is the Lenin of the center-right coalition answering the question, "What is to be done?" He's not short on answers and not afraid to use a pithy quote from a nasty Marxist if it serves his purpose. And while he's not right on everything, he's a very sharp thinker on the challenges facing those who believe in small government and freedom. More information about the book here:http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?WRD=Grover+Norquist,+Leave+Us+Alone&r=1
I will attempt a review early next month. Meanwhile, Michael New shares his thoughts over at NRO.
As a irrepressible heretic, Tyler Cowan thinks the virtues of small government are mostly locked in the imagination of libertarians and conservative, certainly a view that will rub Grover and Company the wrong way ever so slightly.
