George Rebne

[This is the transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 28 February 2014.]

It is election season again, and, frankly, it is becoming so that election season has become a perennial pageant.  With the troubles of Obamacare, Benghazi, IRS political targetings, DoJ’s fast and furious selective enforcement of laws, militarizing of federal departments, the economy’s doldrums, foreign policy fiascoes, and no end in sight for deficits and borrowing, …, you’d think that the Republicans would enjoy and easy sail to November and beyond.  Not so.

By the way, if you haven’t heard about half of the preceding litany, then you’ve been too glued to the dying embers of outlets like MSNBC and CNN.

But back to business.  Last October the GOP had its head handed to it by the Democrats when both sides could not come to an agreement on the continuing resolution to appropriate budgetless funds in return for spending limits.  Remember that?  Team Obama was able to put the whole blame on the Right, and with the help of the lamestream media, Americans lapped it up hook, line, and sinker.  Led by Boehner, McConnel, and other luminaries of the Right, the mainstream Republicans slinked away from that encounter mumbling ‘Never Again’.

And just to prove that they had learned their lesson, enough House Republicans voted for the new but still cynically named ‘Farm Bill’ to let it fly through Congress without so much as a meaningful dent into the Democrats’ agenda.  The big hope of the Right was to maintain the possibility of separating food stamps from ag subsidies.  But the Democrats said ‘boo’, and showed Boehner a picture of his head on a platter from last October, and the 80% food stamps part of the farm bill was wedded to farm subsidies forever.

Well, it turns out that not everyone was ready to play the ‘you gotta go along to get along’ game.  The so-called Tea Party faction of the House continued to spout conservative principles and oppose the Republican leadership.  Led by freshman Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, we heard Republicans start saying some mean things about other Republicans, and a whole bunch of primaries this spring will see some serious scrapping between the ‘get along’ and the ‘not any more’ wings of the party.

So what is the ‘get along’ gang’s plan forward?  The best that one can tell is that they have adopted the ‘make no waves’ policy in Congress, believing that being on good behavior will maybe get them a pat on the head from the Democrats.  The big thought seems to be that we’ll lay low until we can get veto proof majorities into both houses of Congress, and then suddenly we’ll hoist our principles up the flag pole again.  Boy, that would sure surprise them liberals!

On the other hand, the Tea Party faction’s plan seems to be ‘Damn the Democrats, if we have to go down, we’re going down with our principles.’  Their long term thinking is that if the Democrats are loudly opposed as they implement heavier doses of socialism – more regulations, higher taxes, redistribution of wealth, income equality – you know the drill; then the country will hit the skids and people in the bread lines will abandon progressivism and vote in the Republicans, who will promptly point the way to the shining city on the hill.  In short, the Tea Partiers are saying to fellow Republicans, we gotta take her all the way down before we can start the climb back up.  The Democrats, of course, are delighted.

This coming Monday night you have a chance to hear all this in person at the Nevada County Fairgrounds.  There the Nevada County Tea Party is sponsoring an evening with Pastor Rafael Cruz, Senator Ted’s dad and number one fan.  The event will be held in Ponderosa Hall 6:30 – 9 PM.  These meetings are always well attended and fun, and you can even bring your own questions for the good pastor.  More information is available on the NC Tea Party website, and, of course also on Rebane’s Ruminations.

My name is Rebane, and I also expand on this and related themes on NCTV and georgerebane.com where the transcript of this commentary is posted with relevant links, and where such issues are debated extensively.  However my views are not necessarily shared by KVMR.  Thank you for listening.

[Addendum]  The comment stream below again corroborates the one-sided attempt from the Left to silence any and all media voices from the Right, especially those they consider effective in exposing audiences to viewpoints that are diverse and differ from their own.  On KVMR mine is a commentary invited by the station’s Board and management; although afforded a bi-weekly slot on the evening news, it is clearly introduced as a commentary that purports to offer only my views on subjects I select that may be of interest to KVMR’s audience.  I am a volunteer, as are so many others at the station, and Jo Ann and I also support that non-profit community outlet.  I am grateful to be the station’s lone conservative commentator, and in these past years I have continued in those efforts solely at the pleasure of the station’s Board and management.

(Mr Marc Cuniberti on KVMR focuses on financial news and advice.  However, I am told that his counsel seeps of sufficient capitalism and constitutionalism at times to also raise the ire of the same intolerant collectivist voices in the community.)

But from a broader view, in our national forum the Left enjoys a distinct advantage in the public’s mind by its ability to disguise and deny the constant din of its ideological promotions.  These come under the guise of social good and public benefits, and are presented in the form of events, forums, exhibits, shows, concerts, workgroups, festivals, etc sponsored by leftwing organizations with ‘pro bono’ names like ‘Save the xx’, ‘Friends of the xx’, ‘People for xx’, ‘Stop the xx’, … .  In promoting these gatherings, the lamestream media never identify the ideological message and the prescriptions for achieving their common goals, which always invite larger government, higher taxes and fees, ever more encompassing controls and regulations, the mandated altruistic surrender of individual liberties (oxymoron recognized), and the glorification of this or that collective.  None of these activities nor their media promotions are deemed by the Left as furthering their ideology.

Closer to home, KVMR is an admittedly left-leaning voice.  Its editorial content espouses collectivist causes throughout its broadcast day, including more extended programming – some lasting an hour – that blatantly promote progressive ideals and causes.  My lonely conservetarian voice makes up about 0.002% of its air time.

Finally, my own hope is for KVMR to some day become an outlet for more diverse ideological content that better reflects the political make-up of the community it serves.  In spite of that, I would never criticize KVMR’s right to continue promoting the worldview of its Board, management, volunteer staff, and the sponsors who pay its bills.

[3mar14 update]  We attended the Nevada County Tea Party gathering tonight in Ponderosa Hall at the fairgrounds.  It was a soldout event with over 300 people attending, some driving quite a distance on a rainy day from other northern California counties.  The featured speakers were TP co-founder Mark Meckler (currently with Citizens for Self-Governance), Republican candidate for governor Tim Connelly, and, of course, Pastor Rafael Cruz.

The event was organized by the NCTP leadership that included Nancy (past NCTP president) and Eddie Garcia who hosted Pastor Cruz’s stay in the county.   We arrived a bit early and I was fortunate to be introduced by Nancy to Pastor Cruz.  The Pastor and I had a chance to chat a bit, and the three of us had our picture taken by a friend.

Mark gave a short talk updating his activities to warm up the crowd.  Then Tim Connelly, whom I had not heard before, talked to us about the state of California’s economy, drought, and what was required to stop the outflow and repatriate lost businesses.  He is a good speaker, energetic and very knowledgeable about California.  Nevertheless, he has a hard road ahead to beat Jerry Brown going for his victory lap.

The main event was the barn-burner delivered by Pastor Cruz.  His was a story that celebrated America’s founding glory, diagnosed and mourned its current departure from what made us great, and prescribed a path of redemption and return that centered on getting the Christian community off its collective ass and into the voting booths.  The sad statistic that he focused on was that only about half the nation’s Christians (Protestants and Catholics) are registered to vote, and half of those registered actually do vote.  He put the lion’s share of the blame on the Christian clergy who eschew political issues and “hide behind their 501c3 pulpits.”

After his long and comprehensive talk, filled with citations from our founding documents and the Bible, Pastor Cruz answered questions from the audience.  The man is a refugee from communist Cuba, sharp as a nail, and has energy to burn in taking his message across the country to meetings like ours and to numerous pastors’ conferences where he excoriates his colleagues and does his best to light a fire under them.