Being Thankful

  On Thursday, we will all stuff our little faces with turkey, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie, to name just a few items on the gluttony list. We will have houses full of people, chasing kids and watching football. Maybe before the chaos ensues, it would be a good time to think about the things we are most thankful for.

  First and most importantly, I am thankful for my awesome family. My wonderful husband Randy. He is my best friend, and biggest supporter. Randy is an aspiring writer, and I am so proud of him. My Mom, who has learned to at least cope, on most days, with being a widow. It has been three years since we lost my Dad, and it doesn't seem to get any easier. But she has learned to do things, and be on her own in ways I am sure she never thought she would. Must be the Irish in her. My brother Marc. He is a part-time musician who would love to be a full-time musician. But alas, there are bills to be paid. So he, like so many other frustrated rock stars, must keep his day job. He has gone back to school, and even made the honor roll. I am also very proud of him.
  I am thankful for all of the good friends we have. Kathy and Jon, we always have fun when we get together. Martin and Gina, you guys have become such wonderful friends to us. Don't know what we would do without you. All of the good friends I have made in the St. Louis Conservative movement that are too many to mention here. We will continue the fight every day, and in every way!
  I am thankful for being employed. It might not be my dream job, but when so many people are unemployed, I can only count myself and my husband as fortunate. I am thankful for the roof over my head. After seeing so much devastation in the northeast after hurricane Sandy, it is the things you take for granted, that you end up appreciating the most.
  Perhaps the most overlooked on a day to give thanks, I am so grateful to be an American, and live in the greatest country on Earth. Things may look a little shaky right now, and the next four years even worse. But we are Americans, and we will do what we must do to keep America safe, and keep her the shining city on a hill that she was meant to be.
  It may be a little early to talk about the new year, but I know that good things are going to happen. Optimism is in the American DNA. It is what we do. It is who we are.
  Happy Thanksgiving.
 

What Would Breitbart Do?

  Now that the election is over, and we can all come back to some sort of reality, we can also discuss some other important issues.
  There is a lot of back and forth about what Conservatives must do in order to, well, win elections. Do we broaden our appeal? Do we water down the message? Do we change the message entirely? I believe I have one more issue that is an in-house one that also must be addressed. It is the 800lb gorilla in the room.
  I cannot take credit for this phrase, but I think it accurately describes this condition. It's called "Conservative elitism".
   Allow me to explain. Since the beginning of the Fox News Channel, Conservatives have seen their media become bigger and better. At first, all we had to cling to was Rush Limbaugh. He all but single handedly invented Conservative talk radio. Many more of us have followed. We not only have radio, but the internet, the blogosphere, and on the rise is internet radio. Sure, Liberals have the Daily Kos, Huffington Post, and a few successful talk radio shows. But for the most part, Conservatives own new media. I heard someone say that the goal of new media should not just be to be better than the mainstream media, it should be to replace it.
  I agree, and it seems as though we are on our way. Many of us are lucky, we have become rock stars. People clammer for photos, handshakes and autographs at conventions and book signings. And we are not done yet. Many more are coming behind the ones who are at the top. It is in this climb to the top where the problem seems to come in.
  There is a clique-iness developing. A "you are not good enough to be in my group" mentality, a sense of being unwilling to give a leg up to the author, blogger, or internet radio host on the rung below you.

  I was fortunate enough to meet Andrew Breitbart only once briefly. But I don't think you had to be Andrew's best friend to know what his vision was. It was very clear. he wanted to create an army of "citizen journalists". People from all walks of life, with no formal journalistic training, but knew when they saw or heard something that just wasn't right, were not afraid to record it, take a picture of it, or videotape it, and make sure it got out to as many people as possible, by any means possible. I think he would have wanted all of his citizen journalist army to be a solid wall. Unified. Working together. Not caring about groups or titles, or levels of success. I like to think that Andrew would have been very anti-clique, and would not have hesitated to call out his own for participating in Conservative elitism.
  So maybe before we tackle any of our bigger problems, we need to take a look at ourselves. Take a look within. Maybe we need to ask ourselves, how are we helping someone who would like to jump into the political arena of ideas? Do they need help with a blog? A website? Do they need a good interview for their online radio show? Aren't we all on the same team? Is our own success so important that we must leave someone else behind in order to achieve it?
  C'mon Conservatives. What would Andrew do?     

We Are The Resistance

Well, here we are. The same spot we were in this time back in 2008. Let's face it. Losing sucks. It has been kind of a rotten day for Conservatives. Last night, we watched Barack Obama win re-election, and most of us no doubt stared at the television watching the results and scratching our heads. How could this possibly happen? How could a President with the record from hell that he has possibly get re-elected? We watched as thousands of people cheered at the prospect of four more years of record  unemployment, shaky futures at best for small business, and a never ending stream of entitlements and goodies for those that feel they are entitled and goody deserving.
  What happened? What did we do wrong? What did we do right that maybe we should have done more of? Of course there has been a whole lot of Monday-morning quarterbacking and finger pointing going on. I would like to offer my own suggestions.
  Absolutely number 1, the hierarchy of both the Missouri State and National GOP needs to endure a very thorough housecleaning. Top to bottom. They seem to be checking off their own winners and losers, and bestowing money on those they deem "worthy." There is just one problem. They are not asking the people who they deem worthy. And if you screw up, don't plan on them letting you forget that any time soon. Todd Akin is an expert on this. On a very basic level, there is nothing wrong with old white guys, however, the Party is filled with old white guys. Their ideas are old and stale and are obviously not getting us anywhere. We need to recruit young people from all walks of life not only to investigate Conservatism for themselves, to find out what it really means to be a Conservative without any spin on it, but they must also be recruited to higher office within the State and National Republican Party, and also to run as Conservatives at the State and National level.
  Second, would it be too much to ask that the leaders of the Republican Party, to put it politely, acquire a bit of testicular fortitude? When Liberals and the Media ramble on about Conservatives being nothing but racist, sexist, bigoted homophobes, smack them back! Why on Earth do we not attempt to correct this Liberal moon bat jackassery at every turn?! Why do we give them a pass when they attempt to paint millions of Americans who want nothing but a return to basic Constitutional principles and values in this light? We have our own media now, time for them to actively pursue dominance over dinosaur media right now.
  Finally, we have to be the ones to hold Conservative Lawmakers accountable. We have to be the ones to find stories, uncover scandal, publish the underground newspapers, blogs, websites, host internet radio shows, do what ever we must to counter the fundamental transformation of America that fewer and fewer seem to know or care is taking place. Most of us were not in a good mood today, but today is over, and the fight begins anew tomorrow. Our nation is too precious a place to let go down without fighting for it until our last breath is gone.
  We....are the resistance.
            

Go Time

  Americans have elected a President in trying times before. During World Wars, during the Cold War, during times of dire economic uncertainty. It is during these times that these elections were called "the most important in our life time." This time around however, nothing could be more true.
  Tomorrow, Americans will go to the polls not just to decide the next occupant of the White House, or to decide between Republicans and Democrats, we will  be deciding on the very idea of America.
  At the risk of being overly dramatic, so much rides on this election. So much is at stake. Do we want to be a place a hopes and dreams? Where people come from all over the world because they want to escape the boot of tyrannical government on their necks, and enjoy the freedom to succeed, or to fail, depending on their own will, their own strength, their own hard work and determination? Do we want to be a place where government creeps into every corner of our lives, or where we have the freedom to live our lives, and raise our children the way we see fit?
  America simply will not survive a second Obama term. We cannot survive another four years of a President who does not believe that this nation is an exceptional place, that does not need to be apologized for. We cannot survive four more years of 23 million people unemployed, 47 million people on food stamps, and a government that seems to be willing to stop at nothing to keep small businesses from succeeding. America cannot survive another four years of it's Military not having the training, the equipment, the readiness, and the respect that makes it unmatched. They deserve a Commander In Chief who does not look at that title as simply a necessary evil, one that just happens to come with the job.
  Will America remain what the Lady in the harbor represents? The land of freedom and liberty? Or will we allow those freedoms to be chipped away at one by one? Will those of opposing viewpoints become increasingly targeted the more they continue to speak out? And we will continue to speak out.
  How much longer before we no longer recognize our country? How much longer before we are unable to save it?
  It's go time people. Make it count.