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Please come to our March meeting, a
city council and school board candidate forum. Our last candidate forum
in January was a great success, and if you were there, you knew who to vote
for. Be an informed voter and come to this meeting. As you know,
city elections are non partisan and there is no Republican "label." But the candidates will make it apparent who
shares your beliefs and values. You will be able to ask questions and the
candidates will each give a presentation.
Dr. Mark R. Hanson is the
President of the Arlington
Republican Club.
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2.
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Legislative Alert: Meet the Vast, Left-Wing Conspiracy
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It was
only three years ago when the Democratic Party was in total disarray. Although the Democrats had received
record-setting donations from wealthy contributors, they had still failed to
win the White House and Congress. Greatly disappointed by their defeat, George
Soros and other wealthy liberals decided to create a political infrastructure
of nonprofits, think tanks, media outlets, leadership schools, and activist
groups, to compete with the Conservative movement. This group of merry liberals was to be called
the "Democracy Alliance," and was to become the clearinghouse for financial
contributions to all the Liberal nonprofits approved by the DA. Their ultimate goal: to permanently realign U.S. politics while electing as
many Democrats as possible. Make no
mistake: this George Soros-backed group created
a true Vast, Left-Wing Conspiracy.
After
the embarrassing defeat of John Kerry in 2004, George Soros and over 70
billionaires and millionaires met in Phoenix,
Arizona, in 2005 for a secret
planning session. Some of the other
attendees were former Clinton
cronies Mike McCurry, Sidney Blumenthal, and that "objective" journalist Bill
Moyers. At that meeting, 84% of them
decided that the conservative movement was "a fundamental threat to the
American way of life," and they were going to do something about it. Hence the "Democracy Alliance" was born to
counter conservatism and promote progressive politics. It is an ironic name for a collection of
ultra-rich liberals committed to turning America to the far left.
The DA
has at least 100 member-donors comprised of individuals and organizations. Some of these limousine Liberals who want to
change America
are George Soros, Peter Lewis (Chairman of Progressive Casualty Insurance
Company), Rob McKay (Heir to Taco Bell fortune), and Rob Reiner (television's
very own "Meathead"). One of the largest
institutional members is the Service Employees International Union.
Since
its inception in 2005, the DA has funneled over $100 million to various groups.
Some of the more notable recipients of
DA grants are Media Matters (David Brock's group), Center for American
Progress, People for the American
Way, Air America, the Sierra Club, and the
Employment Policy Institute.
In 2006,
the Democrats were able to regain control of Congress with the assistance of
left-wing organizations funded by the DA.
Despite
the DA's financial support, the Democratic-controlled Congress has one of the
lowest approval ratings in history. Perhaps this indicates that many of
the liberal policies being promoted are not readily acceptable to the American
people. Therefore, the Vast, Left-Wing
Conspiracy still has much work to do. They
will continue to spend millions to make its progressive, big-government ideas
more popular and to win more elections.
Anne
Coker is the 4th Vice President of the Arlington Republican Club and owns a business
that sells pre-employment assessments to business.
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3.
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Book Review: The
Right Moment by Matthew Dallek
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Who was Ronald Reagan before he was
President Reagan, the man every Republican admires and every Republican
candidate evokes? Most know the
thumbnail sketch biography (governor, actor, politically-minded citizen), but
few descriptions go beyond those resume bullets. Matthew Dallek's excellent book, The Right Moment: Ronald Reagan's First Victory and the
Decisive Turning Point in American Politics, describes Reagan's rise to
California Governor in 1966. In so
doing, he builds upon the Reagan we know by explaining the context that brought
Reagan to political leadership and his views to popular esteem.
An important part of Dallek's story
is the context, which is Pat Brown's California. California's
Governor Brown was seeking a third term in 1966, though the state had changed
so that it was not the same as when California's
Attorney General Brown first sought the office in 1958. He had pushed through the legislature a
liberal agenda, capped off by a fair housing bill that the state legislature
voted to his desk with literally minutes left in session. This, along with his defeat of Richard Nixon
in 1962, convinced Brown that liberalism was the way of the future. It also blinded him to the effects of
gathering storms. When he telephoned the
leader of a student protest at U.C. Berkeley, for example, the student hung up
on him. The police took all day to
arrest students, dragging limp protestors one-by-one to jail. And when riots broke out in Watts, Brown was
vacationing in Greece.
These were big stumbles, sure. But they were politically fatal errors when
Brown's self-confidence in himself and in liberalism was coupled with his
misunderstanding and outright dismissal of Reagan and conservatives. Brown wanted to believe the descriptions of
Reagan as a dull-witted former actor. A
letter to Brown described John Birch Society members as "retired military
officers and little old ladies in tennis shoes," and the governor bought into
that marginalization of the opposition.
In hindsight, we know that he did so at his own peril.
Dallek's informative book is also a
good read, in so small part because of the ironies that he enjoys sharing with
the reader. We know that Reagan began
his political life as a Democrat. But
who knew that Pat Brown began his
political life as a Republican? Or
this: Reagan, the Goldwater
conservative, employed moderates to run his campaign.
Maybe the greatest contributions the
book may make to the politically aware reader are the lessons that might be
applied to the issues and candidates we believe in. Conservatism-which was pronounced dead after
Goldwater's 1964 run for president-became a viable governing philosophy. Likewise, Reagan went from improbable
candidate to prohibitive frontrunner, all in about the span of a year.
In short, Reagan's brand of conservatism did not change.
Its political fortunes, on the other
hand, did.
Keegan Drake is the 2nd
Vice President of the Arlington Republican Club
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March
29, Senatorial
District Conventions
April 8,
Primary Runoff
April
24, ARC Meeting, guest James Dark,
Exec. Dir. of TexasState Rifle Assn at Cacharel
May 22, ARC Meeting, guest Jonathan
Saenz, Free Market Foundation at Cacharel
June 12-14, State Republican
Convention, Houston, TX
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March 3,
Bill Daly
March 9,
Peggy Dodson and Judge Terri Livingston
March
10, Mary Morris
March
12, Judge Bob McCoy
March
13, Tonya Cook
March
14, Patti Harper
March
16, Dorothy Lary
March
18, Winifred Seaman
March
31, Barbara Thomas
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