It’s amazing how ingenious inspiration comes in the middle of the night. So it happened at 2:30 a.m. reading Karl Rove’s book, "Courage and Consequences" which I planned to have Rove sign the next day at a public event. I was wide awake thinking about the disastrous toll the Obama agenda is taking on our country and what – if anything – I could do about it.
Conservatives must win Congress November 2nd to put the brakes on the Liberal legislation coming out of Washington. But I live in a safe Republican district, so my vote won’t change anything. Maybe I could devote some time and effort to helping elect a Republican challenger in a nearby district. Nearby my family home is Mississippi Dist. 4, where 22-year incumbent Democrat Gene Taylor is being challenged by some young guy. All this is going through my head in the middle of the night – could I make a difference beyond my home district?
By the time I arrived at the book-signing, I had learned the Mississippi Republican’s name is Steven Palazzo. I joined a very long line waiting for Mr. Rove, started chatting with a couple near me, was joined in the conversation by a few people behind us, then a few ahead of us, all of which resulted in my pulling out a notepad and pen, and passing it up and down the line for anyone interested in helping in MS-4 to sign up. Two pages were filled and "Adopt a District" was launched.
I had also written a letter to Mr. Rove, which I handed him outlining the plan and asked for his support. He later sent me a list of vulnerable Democrats. I had already researched the districts where Republican challengers have a chance of winning, with a little help, and I began contacting them.
The plan was simple: contact conservative individuals and groups in a nearby safe Republican district, explain the "Adopt a District" project, and let them take it from there. In some cases, the suggestion was met with excitement at the thought of being able to take part in the November Revolution; in other cases, the response was confusion ("You mean go to another district to campaign?"), or questioning why someone in Covington, LA, would be calling them about a congressman in Pennsylvania, or Florida. But persistence paid off, and the concept of "Adopt a District" spread.
By August, I realized we needed a website. I could have a professional build it and it would only take a few weeks. Then, it would be posted on Google – in another 6 to 8 weeks. Since that would be of no benefit in time for the election, I went for the alternative – stayed up all night putting something together, the most amateurish website ever, but it was done – www.ConservativesWin2010.com.
We have made contacts with campaigns and potential volunteers in over 40 districts and 11 states, initially supporting candidates who did not seem to have a chance. Of those, at least 35 are ahead or moving up there. How much difference it actually makes, we’ll never know, and it doesn’t matter – only the outcome matters.
We see the turmoil today as the Socialist-leaning nations of Western Europe attempt to get their countries back on a fiscally sound footing after decades of unsustainable policies of government spending to support their "Nanny states." At age fifteen I spent a year in post-war France, which was immersed then in "La Guerre Indo-Chinese," which later became our Vietnam War. Later, as a student at the University of Vienna, Austria, I learned of the horrors of the recent Hungarian Uprising from expatriated Hungarian students living in Vienna – the registration, then subsequent confiscation, of their guns. They had only their Molotov cocktails against the Russian tanks. It makes you think twice before "registering" your gun with the government, and instills a deeper appreciation of our Second Amendment! These early formative experiences determined my lifetime convictions regarding the danger of Big Government, and the value of our liberty.
In 1996, out of frustration over the possible reelection of President Clinton, I created a board game, "Hot water," a spoof on the Clintons’ involvement in Whitewater, along with all the other scandals. The mysterious death of Vince Foster, Hillary’s vanishing Rose Law Firm billing records, the firing of the White House Travel Office staff, Hillary’s impossible gains on the cattle futures market – it was all too irresistible. The game was an authorized souvenir gift to be sold within the Republican convention at San Diego, and was picked up by representatives of the Smithsonian Museum for their 1996 political exhibit. Despite my efforts, Clinton won again.
It was seven months ago now that I awoke in the middle of the night with concern about the future of our country. Since then, we have witnessed the charade of the passage of Obamacare, spending bills that are driving America into bankruptcy, the deficit soaring by trillions of dollars, the woefully inadequate response to the Gulf Oil Spill and refusal to allow foreign skimmer ships in to help because their crews are not union members, the incompetence in dealing with jobs and unemployment, and the political corruption in the Democrats’ attempt to have the greatest possible number of illegal aliens in this country to boost their voter base, culminating in the travesty of suing the sovereign state of Arizona for passing a law to enforce the federal laws on immigration. Did you once see Dan Boren on the floor of the House speaking against the administration on even one of the issues? Not even once?
The Republicans spoke out, fought against them all, earning the title "The Party of No." No more of the corruption and incompetence. We must now elect more Republicans like Charles Thompson, candidate US House of Representatives Oklahoma District 2 who will speak out in support of the will of the people, defend our liberty, protect our country, and put us back on the road to fiscal sanity and security.
Yes here in Louisiana we are so interested in taking back Congress, and taking back our country, that we’ll do whatever we can to help Charles Thompson in challenging incumbent Democrat Dan Boren in Oklahoma District 2.
After Nov. 2, we move on to – "The Lame Duck -a shovel-ready project."