Challenging The Establishment

Challenging the Establishment

Written by Scott Cooper

December 3, 2011

The sad reality is, by the time the grassroots leaders that are studying and are rising up to bring our country back from the brink have turned this country around, most of the political leaders who led our country to the fiscal ruin we currently are in will have passed away from old age, likely having enjoyed luxurious retirements at the expense of taxpayers. 

The political leaders of the last two decades have allowed pork-barrel, earmark laden bills to go through congress, knowing full well they were purchasing re-elections on borrowed money.  While they would personally benefit greatly, others would be left to clean up the mess – likely after they retired or were gone from the earth.

Today, those who have been called to clean up the mess are getting educated.  The grassroots leaders that are rising up now are like our founders, are sacrificing and risking everything to fight a system that is completely out of control. 

In order to reclaim our system we will face fierce opposition from those who have been purchased through government largesse.  That is a battle worth fighting, because ultimately I believe the American people will understand the gravity of the situation and will buy into doing whatever it takes to keep America strong.  That is what makes America great – the American public always rises to the occasion to do the hard thing. 

What distresses me, is not the battle ahead to convince normal American’s of our perilous situation.  No, what creates great trepidation is the battle ahead that these newly rising grassroots leaders will face with establishment politicians who have for decades claimed to be conservative, yet bought into the earmark and pork laden legislation and fiscal irresponsibility that they should have fought against.  Rather than leading on the fiscal issues that are causing this crisis, the played along to get along.  Now they have been caught – and a storm is brewing against them.  Like King George, they will fight to stay in power.

The war ahead to bring true conservatives to power will be long and hard.  We certainly will not win every battle (election).  However when we put up a great fight in the first skirmish (primary/convention), it will yield results none the less, for it will create an elected official who will be more cautious as he/she votes, for they now know we are watching.  Yes – we are watching like hawks, and we will be back to fight the next skirmish (primary/convention) should you give us good cause.

Today, our battle is fought at the ballot box – and the skirmish must begin at the primary (or in Virginia, Convention).  The key is to ensure we engage in the primary when the establishment politician does not rank at least a 90 % favorability rating on our conservative issues.  For far too long our elected officials and career politicians have gone unchecked and unchallenged.  Those days must cease, if we are to return to fiscal sanity. 

We each must find those who have stepped up to challenge the career politician in a primary and lend them our support.  This task of challenging someone in a primary is daunting, and those who are engaged in this process need the support of countless citizens – they cannot fight the battle alone. 

If you are not yet engaged in this process yet – new recruits are needed.  Enlist today!

www.VirginiaTeaPartyPatriots.com

www.TeaPartyPatriots.org

In the end, like the American Patriots of the late 18^th century eventually took power from the out of control government of their day, the Patriots of the early 21^st century will also win back control from our out of control government, and the Republicans who abandoned conservative fiscal responsibility.  There may be trepidation, and distress among those who are fighting this battle, but in the end we know we are on the right side of history, and with Providential help, we will prevail!

It's Time to Stop Yelling At The TV!

It's Time to Stop Yelling At The TV!
Written by Scott Cooper
December 2, 2011

To my friends sitting at home screaming at the T.V. set, while they watch the news each night, I feel your pain.  To those who have pulled the plug and are no longer watching, I feel your pain.  When you are ready to stop screaming or put the plug back in and actually get engaged in the battle – please give me a call.  I can put you in contact with people that are working to restore our country. 

Watching the TV is great to educate – but it does not win the battle.  Help us, and get engaged!

www.VirginiaTeaPartyPatriots.com

www.TeaPartyPatriots.org

Conservative Grassroots Activists – Build One Another Up!

Conservative Grassroots Activists – Build One Another Up!

Written by Scott Cooper
December 1, 2011
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To those who are working full time hours in this UNPAID work called conservative grassroots activism – let us encourage one another.  Let us help each other build on our individual strengths.  Let us NOT tear down or discourage when we fail – but come along side in positive fashion to pick up the slack or help find someone else who can.

We are all human.  We are all growing in a calling that most of us don’t want to be doing – but we feel we must. 

To tear someone down who is working tirelessly in a cause we honestly need MORE people to get engaged in is short sighted. 

If we are ideologically and philosophically on the exact same page – we must build one another up.  Let us focus on the big picture – the long range plan.  We need each other.  Together we win.  Divided we will fail.

Primaries (Conventions in Virginia) - A Significant Segment of the War At Hand

Primaries (Conventions in Virginia) – A Significant Segment of the War At Hand!

Written by Scott Cooper

November 22, 2011

Establishment Republicans across our republic are beginning to learn the word Primary.  They will be facing a lot of them in the future.

I just spent some time reviewing the number of primary challenges that establishment Republicans have faced in the last 20 - 30 years, and the number is remarkably – no extremely – no pathetically low. 

We the people have allowed our Republican leaders to go with the status quo.  We have allowed them to go along to get along.  We have allowed them to “Manage” vs. “Lead.”  We the people are to blame that we have not paid attention or cared that they did not hold true to the stated core values of the Republican Party.  That being said, we hold Republicans who have held elected office during these last two decades responsible for the mess we are in – because they could have prevented this financial mess, and did not – especially those who held power when the Senate, House and Executive branches were all held by Republicans and nothing was done to even slow the pace of our fiscal crisis.

The radical left is what aroused the sleeping giant known as The Tea Party, but it is NOT the radical left that has our attention right now.  During the course of the last two years we have studied how we got in the financial predicament we are in and we have discovered that the core elements of the party most closely aligned with our philosophical view has allowed their own stated core values to be betrayed.  We have been betrayed by those who have claimed to be conservative, but do not vote or lead in the conservative fashion.  Our initial focus may have been at the left – but that has changed.

Primary(Convention in Virginia) is not a word that incumbents of either party have really been worried about in recent years – but it is a word that will become very well used in the coming decades, especially in the Republican Party.

People often ask, when will the next Ronald Reagan emerge?  Based on the 1976 Primary between Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, my guess is that the next Ronald Reagan is currently preparing for or is currently engaged in a primary battle against either an incumbent or establishment Republican!

President Obama's Philosophy Leads to Covetousness and Contempt

President Obama's Philosophy Leads to Covetousness and Contempt
Written by Scott Cooper
October 14, 2011

When I was a child, under The Reagan Administration, I was inspired to become an entrepreneur – someone who would use my gifts and talents to become all I could be and to earn as much as I possibly could, not only for self interest, but because wealth was also the source of doing good for others.  That value had a lot to do with my upbringing of course, but it was also reinforced by our president.

Today we have a President who attacks the wealthy, despite the fact they are the source of great good in our republic.  He does not commend the work they do – but criticizes them for not doing more.  He does not inspire youth to become great, because they see that leads to others coveting what everything the successful have achieved.

I could write more – but I just want to say I am thankful I grew up in the era of Ronald Reagan, for if I was a youth today – and I studied the covetous attitude of our leadership in the Whitehouse I would be greatly troubled and have a hard time moving into my future.

My prayer is that this covetous president who does not inspire success, but breeds contempt for it will be a one term president – and we will elect leaders who will encourage us to use our gifts and talents to become all God created us to be.

It Is Time To Be Bold and Courageous

It Is Time To Be Bold and Courageous
Written by Scott Cooper
October 10, 2011

Those that got on boats to come to this great land, regardless of the century, did not do so for security – they did so for freedom.  Many of them did so for religious freedom.  Those that established this republic did not do so for security.  They established this republic for freedom.  Those who have fought and died for this republic these last 235 years did not do so for security – they did so to protect our freedoms.

Those that are protesting for the right to a job, the right to healthcare, the right to free education, the right, the right, the right…..  These folks are not fighting for what made our republic great – they are fighting for an ideology that has yet to succeed on any continent, in any country at any point in the history of the world.

Are we going to allow them to succeed?  We currently see this fight being fought in the streets of multiple cities in our republic, through national museums being closed/occupied in Washington, DC, and state capitals being occupied like we saw in Wisconsin this year.  More importantly, this is an ideological war that is being fought in the electoral process which begins long before election-day.  It begins in the identification of leaders – the training of leaders and the financial and sweat equity support of leaders who will choose to represent you at School Board, City Council’s, County Supervisor’s, and a whole host of constitutional offices. 

The left has a belief that no office is to small.  They have strategically infiltrated every level of our government and every avenue of our society, while many of us were completely disengaged from this process, living our lives.  We had the freedom to live our lives, the freedom to be disengaged and the freedom to ignore this process.  Today, we continue to be free to live our lives, the freedom to be disengaged and the freedom to ignore this process.  That being said, we are rapidly approaching the time where we will no longer have that freedom to simply ignore and continue to enjoy freedom – our republic will be lost.

Unfortunately, there are many in the faith community who believe that our focus should not be on temporal government at all, but solely on the Great Commission as laid out in Matthew 28:19 + 20.  To those, I have two thoughts: 

First, why should we make it a choice, and not be engaged in both?  I do not understand why it should be a choice, yet I hear within the Christian Community voices that say focus on civil governance is misplaced and we should exclusively be focused on winning souls.  I think that is a false choice, and ultimately when I study our culture, I think we are losing both efforts.  I choose to be engaged in both.

Second, the often quoted verse “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” makes a nice plaque to hang on a wall or be placed on a bumper sticker – but how is that verse quantified?  Two thoughts:  First, it is quantified by those we have with us on the other side of the veil, who have arrived there at least in part due to our influence.  Second, it is quantified by how we influence culture and the civil arena.  This verse, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord,” is at the end of the biography of Joshua – a temporal leader who God had anointed to lead – in civil governance.  That is the end of his life.  The beginning of the book should also be a focus, where God charged him to go in and claim the promised-land. 

Joshua 1:6-9 “Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.  Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go.  This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.  Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and courageous!  Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

God has granted us, the American church the opportunity to be strong and courageous.  He has granted us an unprecedented opportunity in history to be engaged in the process by which we select our leadership, and place men and women of character who will heed the admonition given to Joshua into positions of authority.  This unprecedented opportunity is at all levels, but especially local – not just high office.  By and large we have abdicated that God granted responsibility.  Studies show that roughly 50 % of evangelicals are registered to vote, and that only 2/3’s of those registered actually turn out to vote. 

These statistics show a lack of strength and courage.  Indeed, if our country is lost to a minority held worldview, I believe that these statistics indicate that we will be able to lay the blame of our demise at the feet of the American church. 

I reflect on the German church in the 1930’s, who in exchange for a savior, in exchange for comfort and in exchange for security allowed outrageous atrocities to take place.  I am not suggesting that such atrocities are in the works at this point in history – I am not – I am simply using a modern day example of how people of faith so disengaged from civil governance that they were allowed to be co-opted by a minority held view of the world.

Let us be bold and courageous.  Let us engage in the process of civil governance and influence not only civil governance, but our culture and ultimately win the right to share with others the great commission.  We must be engaged in both.  We must be engaged at all levels.  Finally, if we are not engaged yet, the time to get engaged is now – and use your sphere of influence to get other non-participants engaged.  In the end, the results are in God’s hands.  Our duty is not the result, but to be faithful in our action. 

My Rant For The Day - I Don't Know What Else To Call It.

Written by Scott Cooper
September 21, 2011

So the front page of today’s WSJ says “Home Forecast calls for PAIN - Prices to stumble to 2015.”  Further into the article, “consumer spending stifled and more pushed into foreclosure.”

Hmmm.  Wasn’t it three years ago President Bush “Abandoned the free market in order to ‘save’ the free market?”  Here we are three years later, and we are considering more spending and more bailout – and we continue to push recovery into the future.

This weekend I had the pleasure of speaking with a woman who escaped Romania during the height of communism in that country.  The stories she told were gut wrenching – and can be read first hand in her book Echo’s of Communisim – Lessons from an American by Choice written by Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh.  Today – Romania is freer than we are.  How sad is that?

Here are a couple thoughts:

1. Let’s never again try loaning money to people who can’t afford it. (pushed by the government since implantation of CRA and expansion of Freddie and Fannie).
2. Let’s encourage our citizens to spend only what they have money for – and stop using the equity of the roofs over our heads to purchase cars, boats and consumer merchandise that does not ever appreciate in value.  (Encouraged by President Bush after 9/11/01).
3. Let’s stop borrowing money from China and the Fed to give to states – to fund projects that should be paid for by the states to begin with.
4. Let’s elect local and state leaders who are tired of and will DEFEAT career politicians who see Federal Grants, not as a way for our republic get deeper in debt – but rather as a way to make them look good by brining money to our localities.  Money that is borrowed money that will end up enslaving us.
5. Let’s elect leaders who inspire us to be self-reliant and independent citizens – who encourage us to use our God given talents and abilities to take us as far as those talents and abilities can take us – vs. creating a dependency on Government and a fear of becoming “too successful” due to constant class warfare rhetoric. 
6. Let’s elect leaders who see private charity as the most cost effective, well run and compassionate charity that exists.  Individuals who are tired of government programs where bureaucrats earn 6 figure incomes implementing programs that fail – while private groups are accomplishing great things on shoe string budgets.  Private charities that employ people because they feel called to use their gifts and talents in those capacities – rather than occupy a desk simply for the six figure income, retirement and outrageously non-competitive compensation packages compared to private and non-profit workers. 
7. Let us pray for people within the bureaucracy to be bold and courageous – to stand up and say “enough is enough.”  Individuals who will say, “I am not going to purchase another thing – simply because it is the end of the fiscal year – and I am more concerned about my budget increase next year than I am about the well being of our republic.  I am not going to push a program that is failing simply because I am concerned about my retirement and benefits.  I won’t sit idly by any longer and watch my country go down the tubes – because I am primarily motivated by my self-interest.”

Our founders risked everything – their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor – because they believed in individual rights – not collective rights.  They believed in Freedom.  It is time for a new generation of Founders to rise up and say enough is enough. 

Inaction in this battle is indeed action.  It is action by default.  What action are you taking?