#ABT: THE rule for Tuesday

That’s it:  A-B-T.  Anybody But Tillis.  

It’s an election year.  Ruling class politicians — and their drive by media lapdogs — are trying to tell us everything is FINE. They are playing games with the workforce population in order to tweak the unemployment number down to a less painful-sounding percentage.  (I still know way too many people who have kids who have moved back home — thanks to layoffs and business failures.) 

Spending on ObamaCare was the only thing that kept the US economy from showing negative growth in the first quarter of 2014.  China is on track to — very soon — replace us as the world’s economic power.  In the private sector, if you perform this poorly — you get sacked.  In government — far too often — we reward this kind of mischief and incompetence with a 2, 4, or 6 year employment extension.  

The ruling class folks who have plunged our state and nation into unmanageable debt — and put our kids’ futures at risk — are telling us we need to send Thom Tillis to the US Senate and reelect all incumbents with Rs (except Walter Jones, apparently) to their congressional seats.  We’re told to focus on this mysterious, mythical term of “electability,” instead of demanding specifics, an agenda or anything remotely resembling lifting the repressive yoke of the welfare state from our necks.

Pull up a chair and get comfortable while we point out the fallacies of the Ruling Class propaganda regarding Tuesday’s vote.

Conservative Leadership.  That’s what they tell us  Thom Tillis has been exhibiting in Raleigh. Did all that start before or AFTER he sided with Democrats in saddling us with renewable energy mandates that regularly knock our utility bills deep into outrageous & unreasonable territory?   I followed the action on Jones Street over the last few years pretty closely — and noticed a familiar pattern.  Conservative legislation would originate in the state Senate, pass that body, and then get hung up in the House.  Leaks from House higher-ups (read: Theam Tillis) would express “concern” about the legislation and push the idea of watering the Senate stuff down.  It happened with repealing the horrible Racial Justice Act and our outrageously high gas tax.  Folks would try to push conservative measures in the House — like repealing those oppressive alternative energy mandates and expanding the concealed carry law — only to see them slapped down by Theam Tillis.  

We got a lot of teeth-gnashing from the left and their media lapdogs about allegedly oppressive state budget cuts under the Tillis speakership.  Actually, money in the budget’s general fund section went down — but overall spending exploded during the “conservative revolution.”

Any conservative gains we got out of the legislature were achieved thanks to the persistence of Lt. Gov. Dan Forest and the Republicans in the General Assembly’s upper chamber. 

We’ve heard a lot of fawning from the media and the chattering classes in Raleigh about Tillis’ ability to “adjust” his positions further right.  Given the dire situation our country is in, can we really afford one more politician in the US Senate whose positions on the issues shift like the wind?

Most Electable? How are they arriving at this? The polls aren’t saying that.  Actually, they show Ted Alexander and Mark Harris performing the best against Kay Hagan in the general election.  Tillis is the only one shown by publicly-available polling to be unable to beat Hagan in November.   Is it the fundraising success?  Granted, Karl Rove has done a great job of loading up the Tillis treasury with moolah from Bush family connections.  Theam Tillis has done well shaking loose dinero from interests with business before the state legislature.  Why do you think he’s held on to the speaker position through the primary?  In 2010, Bob Etheridge out-raised and out-spent Renee Ellmers.  In 2008, Elizabeth Dole outraised and outspent Kay Hagan.  How well did all that fundraising and spending help out in those two instances? (Never forget former Texas governor John Connally who spent $11 million running in the 1980 GOP presidential primary — only to win ONE delegate.) 

Now, about Tuesday.   You’ve got two choices.  You can do what the Ruling Class tells you to: (1) Promote Speaker Thom to DC, and (2) re-elect the whole cast of characters who have steered our state and nation toward the iceberg.   Or you can send a message to the powers-that-be that THINGS HAVE GOT TO CHANGE.  Knocking some of these charlatans off of the public gravy train will get the whole crowd’s attention QUICK. 

I know of one woman in Lee County who is fighting tooth-and-nail to get Thom Tillis elected US senator because he was nice to her kids. That is an incredibly low bar to set for a prospective leader.  At a bare minimum, these people ought to be nice to your kids.

A lot of people have fought, bled and died for us to have the right to vote.  Don’t waste it for a silly reason like this woman in Lee County.  Don’t vote FOR someone because they came to your Rotary meeting, or said ‘hi’ to you at church.  Or because John Hood or Rob Christensen told you ‘everybody knows’ they are the most electable.  

Look at their record.  Demand specifics from them.  Hold them accountable.  Make it crystal clear you are issuing a contract that comes up for renewal in 2,4, or 6 years — depending on the race. 

Do we need more people the crowd in DC is cheering for? Or do we need to break up their smorgasbord-on-our-dime with real people from The Real World who will call BS when it needs to be called? 

In the US Senate race, Tillis fits the former category.  All of the other seven in the GOP field appear to fit the latter category.  If you think things are JUST FINE in Raleigh and DC — pull the lever for ol’ Thom.  If you think we can do better, you’ve got seven other choices.  (Greg Brannon and Mark Harris appear to offer the most realistic, competitive, principled alternatives.)  

A vote for Thom Tillis is one more for business-as-usual, and sends a signal to Boehner and McConnell to stay on their current course. (Again, ABT.)