With a needle that did not point in the same direction as mine, Howard Dean, as Democratic chairman, had a moral compass. Not sure about Michael Steele’s moral compass.

Dean also had a strategic compass and a keen sense of where it was pointing for the last four years. Not sure about Michaels Steele’s, but the direction of Dean’s strategic compass pointed EXACTLY where mine points now. And that’d be toward a 50-state stragtegy.

The GOP needs a 50-state strategy.

Dean sensed that the 2006 and 2008 elections would not be about what states and what districts had done what when. We tend to strategize for the last war. In war and politics.

The election was about Bush fatigue, war-on-terror fatigue, the economy, corruption in Washington — all accentuated by the 24-hour media. And the fact that American politics is all about pendulum swings, even in the traditionally red states and the traditionally blue states.

The pendulum will swing back. Perhaps quickly, depending on the economy. Obama’s personal appeal will not withstand an economic calamity. FDR’s personal appeal would not have withstood massive unemployment for eight years in today’s media climate.

Read the rest…

The message of the day today at Intellectual Redneck .Com is:”Let’s see how many times, in the next four years, we can use ‘Obama’ and ‘fail’ in the same sentence.” Then our top article is entitled “Let’s Hope Obama Fails at Turning Us into Imperial Rome.”  Here’s the post:

Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s. But remember, you’ve created a Caesar.

If there was one thing more humiliating than being hauled off by a Roman tax collector, it was standing in line for a ration of grain. The stimulus workshops being held around the country make me think of Imperial Rome.

The praefectus annonae was the official in charge of the grain in Rome. Get control of the grain, and one had control of Rome. Augustus himself held that position prior to being Emperor.

Obama has control of the grain. He is doling it out. But America is not ready to get rid of her republican (or Republican) values quite yet.

To see the accompanying illustration, visit Intellectual Redneck .Com.

Intellectual Redneck .Com has endorsed already for 2012.  Here is part of that endorsement:

We are pleased to endorse, for the GOP ticket in 2012, two awesome intellectual rednecks — Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin.

Why both members of the ticket at once? They’re both vetted. And vetted. And vetted. And they’re both just what we need.

Mike Huckabee is a man of deep faith,humility, solid character, and firm conviction. He enjoys people. He knows how to laugh at himself. And very importantly, he knows bailouts don’t bailout and wild spending just makes our economic problems worse.

Sarah Palin can gut a moose. And more importantly, she lives her faith.

Read more of this endorsement.

A sin is something we do, and repeatedly do, when we give up on ourselves. Gay marriage is about men giving up on women. And women giving up on men. In a sense, isn’t that what divorce is? By giving in to our tendencies to give up, we put all our social institutions in danger, not just the institution of marriage.

Governor Jim Douglas, Republican of Vermont, is a good man. Bill O’Reilly said so. But O’Reilly added that he’s not a strong man. What I believe is that Douglas has lost his way, much the same as many other Republicans. (Three U.S. senators come to mind.)

Douglas has given up on the Republican message. Repeatedly. Most recently, he has sacrificed his own pride by begging President Obama for money.

Now Douglas stands poised and ready to let the gay marriage bill become law without a veto fight.

What other principle will Governor Douglas sacrifice next? He’s given in to the unions on agency fees. What’s next after gay marriage? Vermont is the one remaining state without concealed carry permits for firearms. Will that be next?

It is a pitiful governor that never loses a veto fight. But he’s got time left.

Yes, Douglas has given up on Republican principles. That being said, I’m not ready to give up on him.

Read more…

Three men go into a diner — a policeman, a teacher, and a preacher.
The policeman, a long time veteran, says, “Man, we’re losing the war on drugs.”

The teacher, also a long time veteran, says, “Yeah, we are.”

The preacher says, “Not me! We’re winning it over where I work.”

“Sure y’are,” says the cop. “Yeah, right,” says the teacher. So the preacher explains this to his skeptical friends:

We’re not going to win the “War on Drugs” one community at a time or one school at a time. We’re going to win it one person at a time. For some, education might be enough. For others, it might be the law. For still others, it might require a lot of churchin’. For some, it might mean death. Sometimes great victories are secured, but at great human costs.

The cops can give up. The teachers can give up. But there’ll be younger, more ambitious law enforcement and education people to take their places. And there will always be the churches.

Read this and more at Intellectual Redneck .Com.

Much to learn, I still have. Like for instance, why is it that Yoda can verbalize that way and be considered a Jedi Master, but if a student does, he’s called dyslexic?

And what sort of arrogance led our leaders of education to conclude that regular classroom teachers could not step up and figure out how to have inclusive classrooms on their own without a bunch of special education professionals and aides?

Why is it again that we spend millions and millions on special education? Is it humanitarian? Is it compassionate? Is it nice? To give children labels they can not rise above? To hold them back, by having adults always rush to their aid? With aides that barely graduated high school themselves?

Yes, much to learn I still have.

This and more at Intellectual Redneck .Com.

Christmas had its humble origins.   In Vermont, it had a humble rebirth last night, as the school board chair behind the school’s policy that denied a little girl the right to put up a reindeer decoration was defeated 140-77.

The local paper that covered this story back in December, sees no significance in this victory now in March. That’s okay. We intellectual rednecks see it.

I’ve invited Bill O’Reilly to come visit the state I know.  I would think he’d want to witness the rebirth of Christ in Vermont. No small story is that.

My beloved Vermont still exists on the map. And that map points to the tiny community of Benson.  Go Benson Bears!

First published at Intellectual Redneck .Com.

Calvin Coolidge called Vermont a brave little state.  I’m not sure we are anymore.

In 1927, Vermont was hit with a flood of biblical proportions.  Governor Weeks accepted federal assistance secured by our congressional delegation.  But he didn’t go begging for it.

And Coolidge didn’t rush off to visit the disaster, even though it was in his home state.  He knew that Vermonters could do for themselves.  Vermont would be presented with a federal plan to build 85 dams.  We rejected it.  We knew that the federal government’s answers were not always the best answers for us.

Coolidge did his job.  He gave us what we needed, and he didn’t give us what we didn’t need.  And in the tradition of Cincinnatus and General Washington, he chose not to run again.  FDR had none of that wisdom.

Weeks also gave us what we needed and rejected what we didn’t.

Our nation needs the wisdom of Calvin Coolidge.  And our state needs the wisdom of John Weeks.  Governor Douglas would do well to study Weeks.

I put this on my blog (Intellectual Redneck .Com) recently.  I thought Red Staters might enjoy it.

Taxation is slavery. The sixteenth amendment was a violation of the thirteenth. And Grover Norquist, in a sense, is the William Lloyd Garrison of his day.

Slaves were cared for. They were fed, housed, and clothed. Some slave masters were abusive. Some were benevolent.

Government does the same. It cares for us. It provides material things for us people it deems too stupid to do for ourselves. Governments too sometimes have abusive leaders.

Was the occasional abusive slave master the problem? If so, the thirteenth amendment should have just outlawed whipping. Maybe it was the arrogant paternalism that was the evil in slavery. And maybe that’s the same evil we face now.

Sharecropping replaced slavery. It wasn’t much better. There wasn’t much freedom. The plantation owner kept most of the money. And he spent on his opulent holdings.

Now we have people who make $250,000. It sounds like a lot of money. But it isn’t anymore. Who knows what they have for bills? Who knows what good or evil they do with their money? And is it our providence to judge?

They work until into June for the government. Shall we make it July?

And where does the January-to-June money go? That we do know. Lately it’s been going to the opulence and splendor of Wall Street executives.

Taxes enslave the government as well. Think of the harmful substances Americans are addicted to — alcohol, tobacco, gasoline. When government taxes them, it becomes addicted to those substances as well. And we know that addictions are enslaving.

Our government once fought arrogant paternalism. First, the British. Then the plantation owner. Then the robberbaron. Now, the government’s own arrogant paternalism has replaced them. It is now what the British were — big taxers. It is what the plantation owners were — enslavers. And it is what the robberbarons were — fat.

Bring back the thirteenth amendment. Throw away the sixteenth. And Godspeed, Grover Norquist!

And the numbers are getting massive. (I’m not going to use numbers. Just a bunch of examples.  And the transitions are quick.)

Sure Obama is great. Great senator. (Well, better than Burris.) Great politician. (Well, better than McCain.) Great orator. (Well, better than just about anybody since MLK himself.)

But remember the Peter Principle. Obama has been promoted to his level of incompetence.

Obama is messing with every good thing that comes out of recessions. It’s like a forest fire. Sure, you can put it out. But then you still have dry, overgrown timber. And the deer can’t browse there. Someone needs to harvest it. Or eventually it will burn. But no deer will be there anyway, so big deal. Let it burn.

The recession has gotten my local schools to realize that they can’t spend beyond their means. But now Obama’s giving them millions to waste again.

The banking industry, the insurance industry, the auto industry — I was sensing that they were all about to get better. They were all about to learn from their mistakes.

These bailouts are like throwing all children with a record into juvenile hall. Children can learn. Does the state have to take custody of them to make them learn? If so, why aren’t the liberals doing exactly that with the little urchins?

The best stimulus might be to build prisons. And juvenile prisons. But bridges? More bridges to nowhere? No politician wants to be the one who lets another Minnesota bridge collapse happen. So the contractors have the politicians by what we rednecks sometimes call “the nards.” Even in states where the pay-to-play rules aren’t outrageous.

Why do we remember the Minnesota bridge collapse? It only killed 13 people. The answer is because bridge collapses are so rare. Bridge fixes shouldn’t take years. Months would make more sense.

There are real lessons to be learned from recessions. Obama’s not learning them. And he’s not allowing others to either.

Read the views of an intellectual redneck first at Intellectual Redneck .Com.