Miscellaneous

A diamond is buried in the “cromnibus” recently passed by Congress —  potentially giving Republicans a decisive advantage with millennials.  The Obama administration, in the name of “net neutrality”, was proposing to regulate the internet as a public utility.  This legislation will prevent it.

Republican presidential candidates should make this an issue for 2016.  Millennials love the freedom of the internet, and know, after Obamacare, that the government would cock the whole thing up if they regulated it.  If Rand Paul or John Kasich don’t pick this ball up and run with it they’re not as smart as I thought they were.

In this, as in so many things, Obama and the Democrats are on the wrong side of history.  They’re the contemporary equivalent of the Catholic Church 500 years ago.  Back then Gutenberg and his printing press enabled the destruction of the religious monopoly of the Church, in the process moving from a medieval to a modern world.  Today the internet is an assault on the state itself, along with other ossified institutions such as the media and academia.  It is revolutionary.

Politically, nothing is more important than breaking the communication stranglehold of the media.  For a hundred years they have been in the vanguard of the progressive project, agitating and propagandizing.  Stories that don’t advance the narrative are killed.  Think Walter Duranty and the cover up of the Ukrainian famine.  Twenty years ago, when Matt Drudge used the internet to break the Lewinsky scandal, he was like Martin Luther posting his 95 Theses on the Wittenberg church door.

The diffusion of knowledge is the death of tyrants, and the internet is the most radical change in the transmission of knowledge in human history.  In the past, fundamental changes in the means of communication transformed the world.  When we learned to speak, we became human.  When we learned to write, we became civilized.  The printing press created the modern world.

The internet changes everything.  It bends the long arc of history toward truth, and freedom.

We’re going to win.

For the next six months, as we get to 34, each day will be longer than the last.  My timeline is the summer solstice.  That would allow the political process of Article V to culminate in a vote, on Nov. 8, 2016, to ratify a BBA.

Bill, Dave and I share a vision.  We part ways on how to get there.  To them the Task Force is stealthy, hoping to sneak its way to 34 before anyone notices.  I see the campaign for the BBA as a concrete political manifestation of a much larger phenomenon  — the drive to take back our freedom.  And I want the campaign to be seen as such.  As it will be, when it is seen.  And the sooner it is seen, the stronger it will be.  That’s why Kasich is a godsend.  His interest, and ours, are the same.  And he has the power, by virtue of who he is, to let this campaign be seen.

The way I see it, right now, we’ve got a real shot at Wyoming because of him.  If he were to pull out, for some reason, I’m very concerned that we could lose Wyoming.  That would be a severe blow, but not fatal.  If, in March of 2016, Virginia becomes our 33rd state,, I think Gov. Mead could be convinced to call a special session to make Wyoming the 34th and deciding state.  I don’t think we get Virginia until then, after the legislative elections of November, 2015.  This will be one of the few actual elections in 2015, and will hopefully feature a debate on a BBA through Article V.

Even without Virginia and Wyoming we could get to 34 by 2015. But we’d have to run the table, no mean feat.  And our two suspect Resolutions would have to hold up, contra Natelson.  What Natelson doesn’t see is the political aspect of aggregation.  The Congressmen who will vote on it aren’t judges, they’re politicians, who can be counted on to vote in their own self interest.  For Republicans in 2015, that will be to aggregate.

How far the drive to take back our freedom goes is up to us.  Who knows how far we can go?  We do know it began on a date certain.  October of 2013, the Obamacare website fiasco, the revelation of the great liberal lie.  At that point the ebb tide against freedom hit low water mark, was spent.

If we win, it will be with the flood.

Matthew Monforton in Montana, Tyler Lindholm in Wyoming.  We’ve got sponsors and bills in our top two targets.  Both young, smart, and dedicated.  And, I’m betting, easy to work with.

We’ve set sail, and like all sailors we now rely on the wind and the tide.  They’re with us, and will only grow stronger.  We’ll rig the ship the best we can, and if the Good Lord is willing we’ll make landfall.

It would be an historic voyage, into uncharted waters.  As we get closer we’ll begin to smell the land, and if we have to we’ll row to shore.

This blog is a log of the journey.  If it’s successful the entire crew, mentioned here and there, will be recognized for what they are:

Patriots.

Needs work.  Brent Mead of the Montana Policy Institute says Sen. Webb will be too busy on other issues to be our sponsor, and we don’t have anyone else nailed down.  Plus, there’s apparently some confusion between our bill and the CoS bill.  I’ll have a long talk with Brent on Thursday and get all this straightened out.  He seems to think there’s no problem.  Until we have a bill and a sponsor, there’s a problem.

Brent did connect me with the exec.dir. of the Montana Republican Party, Chris Shipp.  I’ll use Chris to get to Speaker Knudsen and the Senate President to make them aware of Kasich’s planned visit.  A lot of the media think of Kasich as a second tier candidate, but people with political smarts know better.  Word of his visit will be big news in Helena, Montana.

Brent’s former roommate is Sen.-elect Daines’ chief of staff, so we’re hoping for support there.  He thinks Daines may be addressing the MT legislature the same week Kasich’s set to be in Helena.  With no R governor, Daines is the leader of the Republican Party in Montana.  Having him at the presser, endorsing Kasich’s initiative, would be a nice touch.

Jeb Bush is forming an exploratory committee, which means he’s the first to informally declare.  In Phoenix Kasich said something very interesting.  When he left Congress, and the Budget Committee, in 2000 he says there trillions of dollars the federal government had in reserves (I assume he means all the money that was in the Social Security Trust Fund, and other such trusts).  He expressed amazement, exasperation, that it’s all gone.  What’s interesting, of course, is that this didn’t all happen under Obama.  A president named Bush, Jeb’s brother, as a matter of fact, got the ball rolling.  If Kasich runs, I bet he goes after the spending practices in D.C. for the last 15 years.  He’ll criticize Bush for his spending, as well as Obama.  Does Jeb throw his brother under the bus?  He may have to.  And what about the moronic nation building in Iraq that cost us so many lives, and so much treasure?  Does Jeb throw W under the bus for that, too?

The tide is at ebb, the flood has not begun.  But there are signs.  Uber is mobilizing its loyal customer base to fight off the regulators.  These are millennials, mainly.  And Uber’s winning.  These kids are learning that the state is not their friend.  It’s so twentieth century.  There’s a libertarian impulse in these kids.  Rand Paul hits a nerve when he says nobody has a right to get into my cellphone  –the whole NSA thing.

They went for Obama because it was the cool thing to do.  Biracial, cool dude, fresh face.  It was all bullshit, and they’re starting to figure it out.  We can get these kids.   Kasich could get them, so could Paul.  Maybe a couple others.  But Bush?

NFW.

Because of NFIB’s Suzie Budge, we’ve got a shot at Idaho this year.  We cc’d this morning, and she agreed to figure out who we want as a sponsor in the House.  We’ll start there. She says it’s more fertile ground than the Senate.  Senator Hagedorn will concentrate on his work with the Mt. Vernon Project, setting the table for the Amendment Convention’s procedures.  She’ll use Hagedorn’s office to get a new, updated version of our bill drafted.  She’ll also see if she can find any potential Birch/Eagle opposition in the legislature.  They haven’t been a force to be reckoned with in Idaho, which is welcome news, and contrary to my expectations.

The main reason for optimism in Idaho is the nature of our opposition.  It’s not the rabid right, it’s the more moderate, establishment types.  Speaker Bedke, Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, and Gov.Butch Otter all fall in this category.  These are not RINO’s, by any stretch.  They’re conservative Republicans who think the new wave Tea Party types are wild eyed ideologues.  We should be able to get these guys.  Kasich is the perfect guy to make the pitch.  Absolutely perfect.  Following him up will be Natelson  — the mild mannered, perfectly reasonable Professor who knows more about Article V than anybody.

Suzie was a little skeptical about bringing Palin in, afraid she’d run off the moderates.  I think she’s open to it, though.  It will be Kasich’s call, anyway.

We’re all tickled pink to have Kasich in on this.  If we don’t get 34 in ’15, which you’d have to bet on, we should get pretty close.  I’m counting on MT, WY, UT, SD, ND, WI, SC and WV.  That’s 32, and we’ll get there by late spring.  Quite a feather in a potential Presidential candidate’s hat.  Big mo going into 2016.  Meanwhile what will Christie or Bush have accomplished?  For the country, not for themselves.

I don’t take Christie seriously.  Bush will be Kasich’s competitor for the “moderate” alternative.  Signs point to a Bush run.  He’s got a lot going for him.  He’s a lot smarter than his brother, but that’s not saying much.  I’ve been wrong plenty of times, but I can’t see this country going for a third Bush.  Especially when there is a perfectly acceptable alternative in Kasich.  Bush won’t be able to buy it.  He’ll probably have the most money, but plenty of others will be able to compete.

Being smart, like Kasich, is always an advantage.  I think it’s even more important in a crowded field.  You gotta be nimble, you gotta be quick.  I’ve been into Presidential politics since 1964.  50 years.  Reagan, in ’80, was of course the best.  This will be a wild one.  The odds on Kasich are 40-1.

Want to make a bet?