Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to be a rich elitist, an evangelical, or a redneck to find a place in the modern conservative movement. We are all born and grow up with the same instilled beliefs and dreams of landing on the moon or going from rags to richs. We read history books of great American heroes and feats and watch movies where young men and women’s hard work and dedication lead them to a future of wealth and prosperity. This is an instilled virtue of the American way of life.  Liberalism and class warfare ideology strikes at the heart of our very way of life. Since when has our nation and great vision involved castigating success and demonizing privilege? These ideas are the very foundation of our nation and further form the pillars that has continued to guide our nation on a path of success.  It is what makes our nation great and is still the reason that people flood into our borders on a daily basis. We are however at the breaking point. Will our society let our deceived hearts take over, killing the American dream that each of us were afforded?  Will we be strong enough to take a stand so that we can allow our children and grandchildren to have these same dreams and aspirations? We must take a stand today. We must stand for the principles and bleed for the ideals that make our society great.   

I recently moved to New York City from the great state of Georgia, a transplant from a sea of red to just a tiny red dot in a sea of blue.  It was this great bombardment and attacks on conservativism that I hear on a daily basis that made me start to ponder the conservative argument and its vast unpopularity with young people, my peers of 18 – 30. To be “hip” is to be liberal. Why is this? It seems contrary to all of the things we learn growing up, all of the dreams that we have as children. There are very few degrees of separation between each of us, but I believe we are all connected as Americans through similar intrinsic core beliefs and, for a lack of better terminology, dreams. It is what creates the “American Experience” we are all so fond of. As I watch our economy shrivel and witness the blatant disregard for our future and a trampling of the core beliefs of prosperity and economic freedom. I cant help but feel that our very way of life is under siege. Today’s youth is blinded by our own privilege, we couldn’t picture a society in which these freedoms were not given. We cannot fathom an America not grounded in those intrinsic beliefs and take for granted the hopes and dreams we were afforded. We must realize, like so many great Americans before us did, that America is under attack from within.

I see so many of my peers and friends fall into the traps of the democratic party. To feel that if we are not liberal while we are young we don’t have a heart. This is absolutely ridiculous. Barack Obama has a great passion and that passion is absolutely infectious. But he is not like us and his beliefs are not in line with the common American dream. We cannot continue to argue within we must pass our message along to the younger generations. Conservatism makes sense. It is grounded in the American experience. It is freedom.   I will do whatever it takes to pass along this message and I hope I inspire you to do the same. We cannot continue to argue within we must pass our message along to the younger generations. Conservatism makes sense. It is grounded in the American experience. It is freedom.  

I cant imagine a general election win for Rick Santorum. A Santorum nomination will doom us in the general. Santorums focus on socially conservative issues might get him nods in the nomination process but this focus is not good for the general. I am a not Romney guy and still clinging to being a Gingrich guy. I dont want to vote for Romney but I cant bring myself to get behind Santorum. He is annoying. He couldnt win re-election in Pennsylvania. He isnt exciting. He doesnt have any new ideas that get me exciting. He is not an exciting candidate. He seems whiney, and his focuses arent inline with mine. WHAT DO WE DO. WEIGH IN… TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK… I REALLY JUST WANT TO START A DIALOGUE

Gingrich is such a better choice he has experience as a fiscal and social conservative. He is a big thinker sometimes he grabs flack for it, but one thing is sure, he uses his knowlege and intellect to do what he thinks is best for the country. Does anyone think that he can rise from the dead again. Otherwise, what do we do? I dont want Romney but I surely dont see myself turning to Santorum to fill that void….. THOUGHTS??

And then there were four. We are left with Newt, Romney, Santorum, and Paul. I can’t and won’t support Paul, Romney has not even made an attempt to gain our trust, and I dont think that Santorum has the skills to take it to Obama or the resources to wage a national campaign. The only reason that he won in Iowa is because he practically lived there for 6 months traveling to every single county and talking with almost every person in the state. He wont have the time or the resources to do that again in any state therefore we won’t see him surge again. That leaves us with Newt. Newt has had some personal shortcomings in the past, but he has apologized for those events and repented. He has received extremely crucial endorsements and is surging as the only viable anti Romney. In addition, he is the only individual on the stage with the charisma and witt needed to articulate the things that we all feel so passionately about. He has the skills to shove conservatism down Barack Obama’s throat.

Through encouragement from Erik Erickson as well as what we have seen with our own eyes over the past week, RS is ever increasingly supportive of Mr. Gingrich. We dont want to see Mitt win this thing. One of the major criticisms of Newt is his lack of organization and a nationwide campaign structure. So get on out and use your talents to help us out!

So, what do we do? Get out there and support the speaker in any way that you can. If you look back at my posts it has been no secret that I am a Newt supporter.

Since early November I have been volunteering my time with Newts Campaign at his Campaign HQ in Atlanta, GA. Some of the things I have done and you too could do include:

•  Phone banking from the State or National HQ,
•  ***Make phone calls from home (Via Newts website: www.newt.org, there is a phone banking system)
• *** I have pounded the pavement out in Greenville and Easly SC (You can in FL or anywhere in your own state or upcoming primary state)
• Pass out literature
• Answer phone calls and questions via telephone (ATL or other HQ)
• Open mail (If in ATL or any other HQ)
• Write letters to the local Newspapers
• Of course donate money
• And many other important tasks

Log On to www.newt.org and sign up to be a volunteer. Someone will get in contact with you.

Go to Facebook and go to Newt’s Profile, they have a “states with Newt” section. Just find your state, post that you want to help and start chatting and someone will get you set up.

Also directly email:

Atlanta, GA: Patrcik Mayer: pmayer@newt.org (Atlanta, GA Coordinator, but she will get you in contact with someone from your state)

South Carolina: Ella Krivitchenko: ellak@newt.org (SC Coordinator, she can get you set up anywhere in South Carolina)

Florida/National: Sonya Harrison: sharrison@newt.org or Patrick Mayer: pmayer@newt.org (Just let them know you are from florida or whatever state you are from, either one of them can get you set up)

Also copy me in on any of them and I will follow up to make sure that someone gets back to you  Nathan Bell: nabell87@gmail.com

So get on up, lets stop talking about this and put your money or your sweat where your mouth is.

I know that Ron Paul is consistent. I know that he has not changed his stances in over 30 years in Congress. I know he has a strong conservative fiscal policy. But this guy is unnelectable. Your rants, raves, and unwillingness to debate or converse in exchange for closeminded and naive ATTACKS is sickening. You are not doing yourself a service by attacking people who don’t share your opinions. All of your arguments are now falling on deaf ears the party is sick and tired of being attacked by you and the only thing you are doing is polarizing your candidate (as if he hadn’t already done that himself over the past 30 years). Look the Tea Party is tired with the establishment and big government hubbabaloo as well but you dont see them booing down candidates and relentlessly ripping into those who dont share your viewpoint. Strong conservatives don’t shout conservatives down, they dont rant and rave without allowing intelligent discourse, you are looking more like Occupy fools than conservatives, we save that mess for the liberals. Its tacky, distasteful, and only encouraging those who might have  listened to you viewpoints or even joined your viewpoints want to distance themselves from you.

I don’t deny that Dr. Paul is consistent and unwavering, but there is absolutely a reason that he has only been able to get a VERY SMALL FRACTION of 1% of his legislation through congress throughout his entire 3 decades in congress…. Because people can’t get on board with his radical ideologies. He would be the most unsuccessful president ever because of how unwavering he is. If we want to get this country turned around we need someone who can unite both sides and get some real change effected. Newt has proved he could do that in the 90′s already when he forced Clinton to balance the budget 4 years in a row, the only thing that Paul has proven is that he can stay steadfast making an argument that he can’t get anyone else to get on board with, he has never and will never effect change because he can’t work with other people to get things done. He might be the single most ineffective legislator in history out in his own world for the last however many decades he’s been there. The only reason he has gotten where he is today is because of an open primary system. I would argue that in the general over half of his supporters would meander back over to Obama where they have been all along. That’s the Paul I see in all honesty. No hard feelings it’s just politics and I know my opinion doesn’t really matter a hill of beans to you.

If he can’t reach across the aisle and make concessions to get things back on track, then all he is doing is standing up and making philosophical statements that don’t matter at all because they will never be a reality. Heck he cant even get 80% of republicans on board how will he get anything done in the real world. Rick Santorum summed it up best. As president he will get all of things Americans fear him most for done on the first day and all the things we like him for likely never will get done.

If you like him and want to support him, thats fine. But quit the relentless attacks. We Redstate contributers enjoy a good conversation and debate. Your strategy is destructive at best!

Thanks everyone, I had to get that off my chest.

I really like the description of Romney as being too coached. I think that explains a lot of our distaste for him. It is far too easy for people to distinguish between what is genuine and what is “coached.” For many reasons Romney’s speeches just don’t smell right to us. Something about the way that Mitt tries to relate to the common person doesn’t feel honest at all. When he delivers a speech it feels like we can all picture what his staff said to him before he went out on stage. Its hard for me to focus on what he is saying because I can see him backstage with his PR guy who make a million dollars a year as they sit down and cook up all of these strategies for him to connect with the public. We all know that he is filthy rich but that isn’t what makes us dislike him. It’s the fact that he tries to dupe us all so smuggly that really gets on my nerves. It’s like… Mitt we know that you were not worried about getting a pink slip. Don’t try to gain our support by coming up with such disingenuous trash. Mitt supporters want to know why we don’t trust him and in my eyes this is not some great mystery. He tries to gain our support with blatant dishonesty that is written directly on his forehead.

In the early 90′s Mitt was a independent leftist because it was politically adventagious of him to do so, he is now an “ardent conservative” for the same reason. Mitt spins his idealogical flip flops as a a developmental growth. That as he grew older he gained the wisdom that allowed him to see the light. This personal and idealogical development was far too politically convenient time and time and time again to be pure coincidence. Everyone knows this. Everyone knows that Mitt will do and say whatever it takes to advance himself. When he talks about career politicians in a negative light, we all know that he has tried to be a career politician his entire life. He tries to convince us that his lifelong personal failures in politics were somehow orchestrated. He tells us that he opposed Ted Kennedy never expecting to win.  He would have us believe that he has always wanted to just be a business man, never a politician, and he is merely running because he knows that America “Needs him” and it is his duty to run for us, and that he hasnt had political asperations his entire life.  I believe Newt hit the nail on the head with the Pious Baloney comment. Mitt is out for Mitt. He is willing to do and say whatever it takes to get elected.

I don’t think that Mitt will be as electable in the big show as we might think for one major reason. Obama is likeable, it doesnt take coaching for Obama to say things that we can all connect with. We feel his presence and he is a naturally likeable personality. I could see myself striking up a natural conversation with Obama. Whereas, I feel like I couldnt have a decent conversation with Romney that didnt follow up with… “Ok, Yes sir, are you ready for your check, would you like another glass of wine?”

?????? What a drastic change by this Judge. I’m not a conspiracy theory guy….. But one has to wonder??? What the heck happened between then and now that made him change his mind (so drastically).

Hmmmm

WE GET ALREADY “establishment” and mainstream media. Mitt is not to be touched in your eyes. We stand by and let Romney use his millions to tear apart his oponents but… how dare you… its taboo to say anything about Mitt…. Because gosh darn it… don’t you stupid conservatives and tea partiers know???? We want him to be our nominee. He’s off limits!

Well I tell you I don’t care. I believe Mitt is a Myth.

Wait wait wait. Let me rethink that.

He’s not a myth he’s just a patchwork of lies sewn together in attempt to create a candidate the establishment can puppet around. They are convinced that his history of conflicting viewpoints will make him impenetrable to the Democratic Party, when really he is just an empty vessel that cannot create any passion or excitement. A person cannot be passionate or excited about ideas that aren’t their own. Mitt has proven he will say and do whatever it takes to get elected, the people don’t trust him and he will likely be the least exciting and arguably the most detrimental down ticket candidate our party has nominated in our recent history.

Newt has told no lies. These attacks were inevitably going to come up. If anything it is noble to draw attention to it now rather than wait for the general. Imagine a point in which Romney and Obama are neck and neck, this could foreseeably be the bombshell that hiccups the campaign just enough to edge Obama in the big show. This gives us an opportunity to sort it out now. Let someone with less flip flops or plausible ammo step in or allow Mitt to come up with an effective defense. These are fair game facts. They play directly into the Obama’s already designed plan of attack. They will be effective, to think that that the American public will overlook this would be to have, and I hate to say it, TOO much faith in the intelligence of the American people. This is a fair attack at getting the party to rethink Romney’s default and so far unquestioned position of electability. Somebody had to have the guys to put on trial Romney’s chosen status. Look I personally believe that Newt is the only candidate capable of effectively articulating the things we all feel so passionately about. If dirty laundry is what you’re worried about with Newt we need to call the Hazmat team in to clean out Mitt’s closet. He has been on every side of every argument one can think of, and the fact that Romney supporters want to call Newt out on a policy here and there is laughable. The hypocrisy in sitting back and watching Romney attack Newt in Iowa from the left on welfare reform and then calling the party to arms when Newt highlights a legitimate question of Mitt’s electability is ridiculous.

Disclaimer:

We have mistakenly given ourselves over to cognitive biases in this nomination process and we will inevitably come to gravely lament our foolishness come 2012. As many of you have likely done, I have found myself rather displeased and unsatisfied with the path that conservatives are in leaving New Hampshire. I have come to the conclusion that many of our frustrations can be attributed to a few common psychological and interrelated biases including the Availability Cascade and the Semmelweis Effect.  Please take a few minutes to Read, Reflect and eventually Rethink your opinion of Romney’s electability in the general election. I have used some merciless language throughout this essay, it reflects my own frustration in falling into these same biases and my aggravation in the seemingly futile attempt to change minds; however, I do believe that I have highlighted many intriguing viewpoints and a unique perspective on the current nomination situation.   

Lets Get Started:

Why is Mitt so electable? He couldn’t beat Ted Kennedy in the 1994 senate race, approval pole’s suggest he likely wouldn’t have been reelected for Governor in Massachusetts, and we chose John McCain instead in 2008. Why all of a sudden is Mitt the right guy for us now? Mitt hasn’t done anything to show us that he is any different or better of a candidate now than he was four years ago when he lost to John McCain! It seems the Republican Party is playing into the idea that he is the “default” candidate this time around and that he is least likely to create any bad waves with the far too coveted moderates. The idea that Mitt is most electable has undergone a self reinforcing process as this collective belief becomes more plausible through the repetition of commentary in public discourse regarding his appeal to moderates and lack of controversial stances that could be enumerated by the Obama Camp (Availability Cascade). I believe we have given Mitt a fairly effective, from his perspective, free pass up to this point. We have vetted all the other candidates and inspected them with great focus thus explaining the undulation of popularity for each of his competitors.

 The party just does not like or trust Mitt Romney and we have voiced our opinion week after week as we have seen each of his competitors shuffle ahead and subsequently fall in the polls. Our default opinion then has been to support Romney. We all constantly admit with reluctance and apprehension that we believe Mitt will eventually become the candidate even though there are a plethora of reasons we don’t like him, we cannot relate to him and there are many things about him that will make him most vulnerable to the inevitable strategy of the Obama Campaign (Semmelweis Effect). This is a MISTAKE. We are taking our hatred and disapproval of President Obama for granted. The establishment and the entire party, for that matter, believes the voters will eventually come on out and support Romney in droves because he will be the only alternate to Obama. We forget the passion and excitement that Obama can create and we forget just how infectious that passion was in 2008. It doesn’t take a political genius to see that Mitt is not exciting and that he seems disingenuous. He has changed his stances over and over again. We are told that he is great by the establishment because he can appeal to moderates and his views line up with moderates, but he isn’t even genuine with his moderate views. He has since reversed his own moderate opinions to satisfy everyone in hopes to gain more conservative acceptance. He is a patchwork politician doing and saying whatever he thinks will get him elected. At the end of the day he can’t be excited or passionate about his own views because, deep down, they are not his. We absolutely cannot afford to nominate a candidate that does not excite and inspire the party.

Furthermore I think that to dismiss the “King of Bain” film and the negativity surrounding his career at Bain Capital is naïve at best. We can all argue that this is a facet of capitalism, and it is! Dismissing the issue and claiming the American people will overlook this or that it will somehow backfire would be, and I hate to say it, overestimating the American people.  There is a large difference between starting your own business and stalking companies, slicing them up, purging them of their assets, and firing a majority of employees who poured their lives into their work and staked their livelihood on its success. It plays directly into the Democrats strategy. Mitt was a corporate raider. Remember the first Wall Street movie? Mitt Romney will become a real-life Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglass) remember the sentiment when he wanted to destroy Bud Fox’s (Charlie Sheen) father’s airplane company? Obama will draw on the same sentiments except with a billion dollars to do it in the real world. These issues were going to come up at some point. It is better that it came out now so that the Republican Party still has an opportunity to decide if we still think Mitt can survive attacks claiming he is an elitist and corporate vulture. The average person has less in common with Mitt than we would like to believe. Look, I believe in capitalism (I’m a financial statement auditor), but this film will destroy Mitt in the general election, and is the very reason the Democrats would LOVE to go up against Mitt Romney.

The vowed inaction of a Ron Paul administration in which he allows those who yearn to destroy our very way of life is irresponsible and frankly, unacceptable. I wish we could all just get along and I would love to not ever have to involve ourselves into another foreign struggle, but that is just not the world we live in.

I would agree that in an ideal world, the United States would keep their noses out of others business and we likely should have never been in Iraq. But when you have a country such as Iran, that open preaches the merits of martyrdom coupled with an open hatred for western values (these guys have openly stated they would love to blow Israel right off the map), there is no room for educated debate on the subject and the threat of mutual destruction, as in the case of the arms race with the Soviet Union, does not work to deter the inevitable use of such weapons. Let’s face it, these people don’t care if they die so what is to stop them from erasing those they openly detest from existence. A world in which Iran has a nuclear weapon is a much more unsafe world.

I don’t advocate all out war but we have to be involved in covert efforts to prevent them from obtaining these weapons. Inaction is unacceptable. And as far as our economy being broken by getting involved imagine our what would happen to the markets if an Iran with nuclear weapons cut off the supply of oil to the world. Hmm

A president that does not actively seek to hinder our obvious and open enemies from obtaining weapons of mass destruction is doing all but ensuring destruction and inevitable mass murder of our friends and allies. I can’t accept that and neither should you. His positions on foreign policy are frankly naive at best and surely far left of Obama. I think that his fiscal policies are spot on and I think they would make him top choice to manage the federal reserve but utterly unelectable as commander in chief and president of the United States.

These pundits are absolutely ridiculous. We hear all of this “news” regarding some of the stances Newt has had over the years. “in 2006 Newt wrote a paper that had good things to say about the individual mandate” goodness guys, Romney instituted the thing. Look at Romneys record, the man repeatedly took stances far left of Ted Kennedy but we we never hear a thing about it. Gingrich united the country created a republican congress for the first time in 40 years, reached across the aisle and GOT the opposition to help out to balance the budget. I mean goodness the man has done more for the Republican party than anyone the last 20 years, this all occurred at the same time that Romney was debating Kennedy and voicing opinions that cut right at the very heart of our parties core belief structure including: anti Reagan, pro choice, pro gay rights, anti second amendment, pro affirmative action stances. Let’s get real here!!! Check out the link below it shows Romney’s true feeling on the issues that are at the heart of our parties core belief structure. Romney supporters say well…. he was trying to win election in the State of Massachusetts, this man said these things, and spoke passionately about them. He is not a conservative and never has been one, yet we are considering giving him the coveted nomination to lead our party in 2012. Lets GET REAL conservative Republicans. Lets not sell ourselves short again.

You keep supporting this guy and you are going to get more of the same. He is an EMPTY VESSEL of a politician. Fill him with the latest flavor and boom you have yourself a candidate.