Author: Fritz Pettyjohn

Whatever will be, will be.  The future’s not ours to see.

Richard Fernandez at PJ Media counsels patience, and he makes sense.  Let’s sit back and see how this plays out.

It looks to be Clinton, Trump and a Libertarian, and it’s very difficult to see how it all ends well.  There’s no way to know, but what does seem clear is that while the status quo is being destroyed, no real solutions are being offered.  We’ve got very serious problems, and only an irrational optimist can say we’ve got a handle on a fix.  You get the feeling, and that’s all it is, that the Year of the Totally Pissed Off Voter has more surprises in store.

The unknown unknowns  — the things we don’t know that we don’t know  — are always out there.  These are also called black swans.  But it seems to me we have a hell of a lot of known unknowns right now.  And many of these known unknowns have the potential to blow things all to hell.

First, of course, are all the smoldering conflicts around the world that could blow up at any time.  This is over my head, but if I’m Vladimir Putin, or the Ayatollah, or ISIS, or the leaders of China, or Saudi Arabia or a lot of other people who have the capacity to make mischief, I may want to do it this summer or fall, with a weak and timid lame duck in the White House.

Then there’s another Ferguson and Baltimore to worry about.  The Ferguson effect is real, and black urban violence is on the rise.  Black Lives Matter, and other protest groups funded by George Soros, look to raise hell all summer, and major urban riots wouldn’t be a  big surprise.

And then there’s the big one  — anti-Trump violence, and his belligerent reaction to it.  That’s a time bomb.  A lot of the good old boys at his rallies don’t like being pushed around, and they’re going to push back.  He seems to encourage it.  When he had to cancel an event in Chicago, it helped him.  When violence erupted on his trip to California at the end of April it helped him win Indiana, surge to a huge lead in the California polls, and lock up the nomination.  So far, anti-Trump violence has helped him, but there’s no way to know what the future holds here.  It’s not under his control.

Why in the name of God does a man like George Soros fund all these anti-American groups?  There’s only one possible answer.  Deep in his guts, he hates the United States, and what it stands for, and who we are.  Where that hate comes from is beyond me.  He is one sick man.

Part of my plan to replace Ted Stevens in the U. S. Senate was to have him term limited out, so back in ’84 when I saw the Article V Resolution that Lew Uhler was circulating for a BBA, I knew what to do: adopt Congressional term limits using Article V.  I did all I could to promote the idea, but US Term Limits, the group with all the money and organization, wanted to go a different route.  They wanted each state to term limit its own delegation.  When enough states had adopted this approach, a Constitutional Amendment could be proposed to make it mandatory on every state.

There was risk in their plan, it might not pass constitutional muster.  But they threw the dice, put in an enormous amount of time and money, and after years and years of effort and some success, had the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 vote, throw the whole thing out.  It was all a waste, and the idea of term limits died with that decision.

Until now.   US Term Limits is back, except this time they want to use Article V, which is what I told them 30 years ago.  I wish people would listen.

The Reagan Project was started to promote Article V, and that’s my main goal.  What I want, more than anything, is for another state legislature or two to flip Republican.  It should definitely happen in Kentucky, and there are other possibilities as well.  My greatest concern is that turmoil at the top of the ticket not hurt our state legislative candidates.

But, like the man said  — patience.

As much as I despise Donald Trump, the man, I will acknowledge a bold stroke when I see it.  He’s going where no one without real chutzpah can go, and I’ve got to admire it, especially because the target of his attack is one of the few American politicians I loathe more than Trump, himself.

I despise them both for pretty much the same reason.  In the real world, where you don’t have a security detail or the Secret Service, you don’t get away with the things these guys do.  Babbie and I saw a terrible movie, “The Nice Guys”, last night, where Russell Crowe plays a street level enforcer.  The only part of the movie that I enjoyed was the opening scene, where Crowe breaks a sex pervert’s jaw with his brass knuckles.  That’s the kind of thing that would happen to a man like Clinton or Trump if they didn’t have security.  Trump acts like a tough guy, but it’s all show.  He’s a pussy, and so is Clinton.  There are guys that can handle themselves in a physical altercation, and there are guys that can’t.  These two get to play the Big Man role from behind a security line.  They’re punks, both of them.

But Trump, as far as I know, didn’t try to take advantage of women the way Clinton did.  If you’re not familiar with all the details of the Paula Jones story, you don’t realize what sort of sordid behavior Clinton routinely engaged in.   The articles that David Brock wrote for the American Spectator back in the 90’s were amazing.  He talked to the Arkansas State Troopers who were Clinton’s bodyguards.  It wasn’t just Paula Jones.  It was what he just did.  It was who he was.  He’s a sick son of a bitch, whose jaw I would have broken with pleasure if the opportunity arose.

So, hell yes talk about Bill Clinton’s sex scandals.  Bring the damn things up every day.  Politically, it’s genius.  And all it takes is guts, which Trump has.   Because when you really understand what Clinton was up to, you realize that Hillary is as bad as he is.  She knew what he was doing to these women.  She could care less.  They were trailer trash, to hell with them.  She hated Bill for it, but she covered for him anyway, because he was her ticket to power.  Disgusting.

And their response was telling.  If this is the best they can do, they are in serious trouble.  They talk about Trump profiting from a real estate bust?  That’s so weak it’s a tell.  They don’t know what to do.  It’s amazing.  This scandal has been around for 25 years, and they still don’t have an answer for it?  You’ve got to be kidding.  And all it took was Donald Trump tweeting and talking.  Fortune favors the brave, but this is ridiculous.

I think I’ve finally figured Trump out.  It took an appearance by Donnie Deutsch on WADR to make me see it.  Trump is Donnie Deutsch.  He’s a PR guy, a brand guy, a marketing guy.  He just markets himself.  And he’s very, very good at it.  No one has ever done what he’s done.  It’s absolutely brilliant.

Sen. Barrasso of Wyoming will chair Platform.  I now am quite confident we’ll get both Article V and the Transfer of Public Lands into the Platform.  Barrasso knows all about TPL, and we have Bill Cowsert of Georgia and others carrying the Article V torch.   This means I don’t need to do anything more promoting either one of them.

There were quite a few Italians in the early days of the Far West, and the fact that Wyoming has two Italian American Senators is a small coincidence.  The greatest historian of the Far West was Bernard Devoto, from Utah.  If you want to learn the history of the Far West, it’s all in his books.  My favorite was 1846: The Year of Decision.  Devoto was an absolutely wonderful writer, and I’ve read and reread everything he’s written.  A lot of people don’t realize it, but when you’re on Highway 80 in Nevada, you’re on the California Trail.  If you ever drive it, imagine walking across it, with worn out stock hauling a wagon.

They were our ancestors.

I must follow him, follow him wherever he may go.  He is my destiny.

Lindsey Graham wet his finger, held it high, found which way the wind was blowing, and manfully follows its lead.  Another soldier in the Trump Brigade.  Another politician of iron rectitude, so long as his donors approve.  A realist, Graham follows the money, wherever it goes.  His hero, John McCain, had already fallen in line with the man who mocked his sacrifices in the Hanoi Hilton.  It just comes down to money.

I had a post ready to go on the Libertarian Moment, and decided to submit it to American Thinker instead.  If there ever was a time for the Libertarians to make a difference, this is the year.

The Alaskan Libertarian leaders I’ve been in touch with seem pretty savvy.  U. S. Senate candidate Cean Stevens and Chairman Michael Chambers seem pretty level headed.  If their colleagues gathering in Orlando this weekend are of like minds, they could do some serious damage this year to the elephant/donkey duopoly.  But you never know with these Libertarians.  They could all collectively go on a wild goose chase.  It will be fun to watch.  Hey, it beats golf.

The thing is, the Libertarian Presidential candidate needs to go where the potential votes are.  They’re mainly in the Far West, starting with Alaska.  I served with Rep. Andre Marrou, who later was the 1992 Libertarian candidate for President.  He had been preceded by two other Libertarian House members from Fairbanks.  In 1982 one of them, Dick Randolph, ran a strong campaign for Governor.  Alaska is just fertile ground for Libertarians, as much as any place in the country.  In 2016 the issue of the Transfer of Public Lands could win Alaska’s three electoral votes.  If the Libertarian had won those three EV’s in 2000, the election would have been thrown to the House of Representatives.  Anything can happen, because nobody knows anything.

Andre was an engineer from Homer, a graduate of MIT.  Originally from Texas, he told me the guys on the MIT football team (yes, they actually had one) weren’t used to playing football, Texas style.  I liked giving Andre a hard time, and said the only way he got in to MIT was on a football scholarship.  I was in the House Minority at the time, and we decided to let Andre be a participant in our Minority Caucus meetings.  The only thing about him that rankled me was the hundreds of bills he introduced, none of which would even get a hearing.  But old Andre wanted to abolish pretty much the entire state government of Alaska, and he put the bills in to do it.

Libertarians, of course, are all for the decriminalization of marijuana, and that might help them this year in places like Alaska, Colorado and Washington, where initiatives doing just that have recently passed.  California is a bridge too far for Libertarians, but marijuana is supposed to be on the ballot here in November, and it will help Libertarians in places like Oregon.

According to the polls, everybody hates and fears the federal government, but no one will vote to do anything about it.  Why not go on a blind date with a Libertarian, just once?  At least it would be different.

Voting Libertarian in 2016 doesn’t mean becoming one.  You don’t have to buy in to their whole program, or have much love for their candidate.  It’s a tactical, not a strategic, move.  Whatever defects can be found in any individual Libertarian candidate are dwarfed by the flaws in Clinton and Trump.  It’s time to disenthrall ourselves, as far as I’m concerned.

As Everett Dirksen used to say, I’m a man of principle, and one of my principles is flexibility.  One of my fondest memories is seeing old Ev give the nominating speech for Barry Goldwater at the Cow Palace 52 years ago.  He called it “The Peddler’s Grandson”, and he told the story of Barry’s immigrant German Jewish grandfather, who got his start in America  by peddling goods to the Natives of Arizona in the 19th century.  Now his grandson was the Republican nominee for President.  What a country.

Worth fighting for.

 

 

 

My first vote was in 1966 for the Republican nominee for Governor of California, Ronald Reagan.  I’ve never voted for any other party’s candidate.  I’ve voted for Birchers, RINO’s, and everything in between.  But this year I’m voting Libertarian.

I was 19 when I was elected Chairman of the UC Berkeley Young Republicans, and was active in the Party until 2001, when Babbie and I moved back to California.  Politically, I’m libertarian, but was never interested in the Libertarian Party.  We have a two party system in this country, and the Republican Party and Democrat Party, working as a team, have made third parties a pipe dream, and that’s not going to change.  I was always a libertarian working within the GOP to attain my political goals, and expect to do so again in 2020. But this is the year to vote, just once, for the Libertarian, as a matter of principle.  It may help elect Clinton, but I won’t feel one whit of responsibility.  The Republican Party left me, I didn’t leave it.

If you like long shots, here’s one for you.  The Libertarian makes the central emphasis of his campaign in the Far West the Transfer of Public Lands (TPL), and wins their electoral votes.  That’s all he talks about.  He explains the issue.  Most people, even those who live in urban areas of the Far West, don’t know a thing about it.  And the case, especially when made to the people who live there, is overwhelming.  Politically, it’s a no brainer.

Generally speaking, voters in the Far West don’t like Clinton, at all.  And this was Trump’s weakest part of the country.  Cruz absolutely crushed him in some of these states.  And the issue of TPL was barely raised.

The thing is, a vote for the Libertarian in Alaska, or Utah, or Oregon, isn’t just some protest vote.  You’re voting for something  — your land.  You want your state’s electoral votes to be awarded to the candidate who campaigned on a promise to transfer it to you.  That’s not a protest, that’s a demand.  If you want these electoral votes in a Presidential election, tell us we get our land.  We’ll prove it to you in 2016, and we’ll do it again in 2020 unless we’re told we get our land.

This is a form of secession, Electoral College Secession.  And if enough electoral votes are won by the Libertarian, and the election is thrown into the House, the people of the Far West will demand that their state’s representatives in the House vote only for a candidate who promises to give them their land.

This choice between Clinton and Trump is unacceptable.  But let’s at least try to make an omelet of this dog’s breakfast.  And that’s what’s involved in throwing an election into the House.  It’s only happened once, and the outcome was unexpected.  Anything can happen.  If Clinton wins Wisconsin, what does the five member Republican  majority of the Wisconsin House membership do?  They’re Republicans, but their state voted for Clinton.  Maybe they vote for who they think ought to be President.  Who knows?

It would a fitting finale to a tumultuous year.

So the TPL Electoral College Secession campaign is underway.  I will try to sell this to the Libertarian candidate for Senate in Alaska, who I began a Facebook conversation with today.  I don’t do Facebook a lot, but I guess it’s as good as email.  She seems like a very well informed woman, who thoroughly understands TPL.  The campaign is on!

I remember hearing about these Libertarian Party Conventions, which were crazy.  These people love standing on principle, but only on their principle.  They take a real strong stand on a lot of things, and fight over the least thing.  I think some of them enjoy it all, the arguing  and standing on principle.  It’s a way to get things out of your system, I guess.

After I got elected chairman of the YR’s at Cal, I used to go to the quarterly meetings of the California Young Republican College Federation.  Talk about a mouthful.  We had meetings all over the state.  We all drank more beer than we stood on principle.  We all got together and had a picture taken of us standing behind a big banner that read “Fuck Communism”.

I had a lot of fun in the YR’s.

The next President will fail, spectacularly, and bring their political party down with them.  Neither Clinton nor Trump will be able to persuade Congress, and the American people, that drastic reforms are called for.  It may be that neither of them feels such reforms are even necessary.  Regardless of what they might want, Congress is such a cesspool of corruption that the best they’ll be able to do is continue kicking the can down the road.

Congress can’t do major legislation any more, or when they do they just cock everything up.  Obamacare never made any sense, but in order to get it through Congress it became a Rube Goldberg joke.  Fixing our entitlement programs is beyond the capacity of Congress.  It’s too hard, politically.  Some people would be pissed off at reform, and your typical Congressman is deathly afraid of angering his constituents.  It might hurt his reelection chances, so it’s off the table.  It’s been twenty years since Congress reformed anything.  The dysfunction of the federal government is merely a reflection of the Congress that is responsible for it.

Some Congressman wants to insert a provision in a spending bill that will block Obama from forcing transgenderism on America’s school children.  If Congress was an actual functioning institution, this would be adopted without much problem.  But Congress is dysfunctional, so good luck with that.

Of all the reasons to vote Libertarian for President, this is the one that persuades me.  If elected, Donald Trump would be a second Herbert Hoover, a big time businessman who was used to getting big things done.  He was over his head, screwed the pooch both substantively and politically, and had the Republican Party wandering in the desert for 20 years after he lost reelection in an historic landslide.  With Trump, it could be worse, and conservatism  and the GOP could go the way of the Whigs.

Since Congress is the real problem, the only solution is Article V.  It can be used to not only get Congress in line, but the Supreme Court and the entire federal government as well.  A Clinton election would galvanize the Article V movement, while President Trump would kill or cripple it.

The Tuolumne County Republican Party is having its 10th annual Reagan dinner tonight, featuring Rep. Tom McClintock, one of the 30 or so Congressmen worth keeping.  It will be held just a few miles from the 900,000 acre Stanislaus National Forest.  If I get a chance, I’ll ask McClintock about the Transfer of Public Lands, and the American Lands Council.

I made a mistake in 1988, and ran for reelection to the House.  I was the Minority Leader, and I thought we might get in the majority, and I could be Speaker.  With that as a platform, I’d be able to take Ted Stevens on in the Republican Senate primary of 1990.  But we didn’t win a majority, so I handed the Minority Leader job to my friend Robin Taylor of Wrangell, and spent as little time at the Capitol as I could get away with.  I’d written a novel, Brinkman, about a Cold War incident in which my hero, a part Native U. S. Senator named Herman Merculieff from Alaska, saved the day.  I had a New York literary agent named Jay Garon who thought he could get it published.  He told me I reminded of a writer he was working with from Mississippi, named John Grisham, who was also a former state legislator.  I spent most of my time in Juneau working on finishing up the book, and only showed up for votes.

Then the Berlin Wall came down, and my novel was obsolete.  I remember watching it all happen on TV with my buddy Bob Clarke, who I was staying with.  It was fun to watch, but bittersweet to me.   I explained to Bob the role that Pope John Paul II had played in making it all happen, and he convinced me to write a book about it, which I did, called Triumph of Faith.  Jay Garon went and died on me, and I never could get it published.

I’ve decided to e-publish it, and look forward to putting it out.  It’s a great story, and one which very few millennials are familiar with.

Karol Wojtyla was the greatest man of the 20th Century, and a saint.  God bless him.