Detroit Lions Fans or Republicans?

Our once proud … well fifty years ago once proud … National Football League franchise known as the Detroit Lie Downs (formerly the Detroit Lions) continued their traditional ways today by losing for the ninth straight time this season ... keeping them on pace to become the only team, in the history of the NFL, to go for an entire sixteen game schedule, without a victory.

Far worse, the Lions have managed to win just one playoff game in over a half of century. Believe me, you don’t have to look it up, it’s true. Fifty years and only one playoff victory. No one could make this stuff up. Since their last winning season in 2000 (posting a stunning 9 and 7 mark), the Lions have gone 31 and 90.

So you see … as a Lion fan, you are totally justified to wear that sack over your head. Which in essence, I guess, makes them a lyin’ fan.

However, as a Republican, there is absolutely no reason to hide your head in shame. Even though we took a couple of big hits in 2006 and 2008, there is so much to be proud of and so much to stand tall for, when your life is based upon conservative principles and beliefs.

In regards to last week’s election: When things go wrong, you must first look inward. You must ask, "What did we do wrong? What could we have done better? What mistakes did we make?" It would be foolish at this stage to start assigning blame either to the media or to liberals or Democrats or the voters or the American people. I'm not going to fall into the trap that the liberals and Democrats fall into every time they lose an election and start blaming everybody else. Republicans lost last week but conservatism did not, and that is to me, one of the fundamental elements of last week's results. Conservatism did not lose; Republicans lost last week. In fact, Republicanism, being a political party first rather than an ideological movement, is what lost. The Democrats beat something last week with nothing. They advanced no agenda other than their usual anti-war position, class envy and Robin Hood rhetoric. They have no contract. They really did not get specific. Their message was one of "Vote for us … because the other guys has been in power too long," There was no dominating conservative theory nationally, and, oh by the way, these were nationalized elections. There was no dominating conservative message that came from the top and filtered down throughout this campaign. It was nowhere to be found.

It’s not the Acorn folks, nor even those that come back from the dead to vote … The latest example of election fraud is actually what the Democrats did from within. They nominated a bunch of moderate and conservative Democrats for the express purpose of electing a far-left Democrat leadership. If you're looking for a good side, Democrats could not win this election being liberals. They could not have won the House being liberals. Maybe in some parts of the country, but all the Democrats flexing their muscles and feeling good about this have to admit here that liberalism didn't win anything last week.

It’s silly to blame the media. It is silly to blame the Democrats. It is silly to go out and try to find all these excuses. We have proven we can beat them. We've proven we can beat Democrats. We have proven we can withstand whatever we get from the Media. Conservatism does that. Conservatism … when properly applied, proudly, eagerly, with vigor and honesty … will triumph nine times out of ten in the current political environment and social environment of this country.

True Conservatism just wasn't utilized in this campaign, and there are many reasons for it, but the primary reason is fear of criticism from those in the so-called establishment, and nobody wants to be criticized and nobody wants to go through life in fear, so a lot of people go out of their way to make our opponents think, "Well, I'm not that bad a guy. I'm not really one of those extreme kooks. I'm reasonable." So the whole ideology of conservatism gets watered down within the threat of fear and the desire to be liked and all of this, and the Democrats now get to tell themselves whatever they want to tell themselves why they won. Did they think they won because they're liberals? Will they be honest with themselves and tell themselves they won because they had the opportunity to run against nothing? Anything can beat nothing, and that’s precisely what happened last week.

My whole point in saying this is: Don't turn over your life to government. Whether you're a conservative or a liberal, don't expect that only good things can happen to you or you can only succeed if the right things are happening with government. That is not true. There is no reason to put your arms up in despair and think your life is over or your future is bleak simply because of this. We've been here too many times.

I'm not saying, "Forget what happens. Get out of the game." Some of you probably want to do that, but there are too many defeats in life; there are too many losses in life that are outside your own life to let them have an effect on you, a profound effect for a long time. Sure there's disappointment ... so allow yourself to feel it. Go ahead and experience it. It will motivate you to not want to go through it again and see what you can do. All these things have the opportunity for good in them, and they all have the opportunity for learning.

The Republican Party is going to do far better when it is openly proud and willing to define in every speech it makes what conservatism is, leading people to that movement, making them feel like there's a future, making them feel proud of themselves, making them happy to be Americans.

We all know that there are very positive things happening out there, but it was not trumpeted by the people who should have been shouting it from the rooftops because they were proud of it … instead of hiding under some bag.

However, if you’re a Detroit Lion loyalist, you may just want to hold onto that bag for another half century.

Granholm To Advise Obama On What?

Jennifer Granholm (Michigan Governor since January 2003) has been personally chosen by President Elect Barack Obama, as one of a dozen nationally appointed, to help advise him on the economy during his transition period to power.

Excuse me! Come again!

All reports analyzing Michigan’s economic performance show that Michigan’s job losses from July 2003 to July 2008 (percentage-wise) are worse than U.S. job losses suffered during the U.S. Great Depression (1929-1936). It also showed that Michigan has had worse gross domestic production (GDP) growth from 2003 to 2007 than did the United States during the Great Depression era.

Officials in Lansing, Michigan’s state capital, reported this month that the state faces a revenue shortfall between $350 and $550 million next budget year. This is a major embarrassment for Governor Jennifer Granholm, the second-term Democrat who shut down the state government last year until the Legislature approved Michigan’s biggest tax hike in a generation. Her tax plan raised the state income tax rate to 4.35% from 3.9%, and increased the state’s tax on gross business receipts by 22%. Gov. Granholm argued that these new taxes would raise some $1.3 billion in new revenue that could be “invested” in social spending, new businesses, and lead to a Michigan renaissance.

Not quite! In just under a year, one-third of the expected revenues have vanished as the state’s economy continues to struggle. Income tax collections are falling behind estimates, as are property tax receipts and those from the state’s transaction tax on home sales.

It’s not too hard to connect the dots between failed social “progressive” policies and an ever increasing burden on taxpayers. There should be no surprise as to the ultimate response … People will move away, or at the very least, invest less, and shrink their spending to what is only necessary for survival.

The fight in the legislature and executive branch of this great state began when Granholm was sworn in as Governor of Michigan. The ultimate test of socialist resolve rests on the shoulders of liberal ideology implemented through planned economy and government manipulation of resources. The great works of those on the left are pitiful in their results when compared to real market based solutions … which arrive from an actual need for a service or product.

Granholm has on many occasions talked about “Cool Cities,” a utopia of modern society where life is good, where we kind of “hang out” and be one great big loving community once again. How exactly does government know what constitutes cool when it anoints cities like Detroit, Flint, Pontiac and Ypsilanti (oh sorry … “Hipsilanti”) as cool cities and gives them grants or other favors? Moreover, how do they know young, hip, creative people won’t think a city is un-cool once so designated by the mother of all authority figures … the state.

The point is this … “change,” and “hope,” and “cool,” have simply become code words for “tax,” and “spend,” and “confiscation.” While we all want a paradise, we cannot create it out of thin air by destroying the incentive to create it.

Let me put it all into perspective: Governor Granhom advising President Elect Barack Obama on the economy … would be like John Hinckley advising him on Secret Service strategies.

30 Meters Down

Even after Barack Obama’s stunning victory Tuesday night, I am convinced that 75% of Americans still live, breathe, and believe in Republican Conservative values.

So why is it, you ask, that the Democrats now control both the Executive and Legislative Branches of the U.S. Government? Plain and simple … and starting at the top … the Republican Party has been abandoning conservatism. They have continued to abandon the very principles and people that made it victorious.

The Bush presidency has made a shambles of real conservatism. Let's leave aside the issues on which liberals and conservatives can be expected to disagree, like his tax cuts for the rich, expansion of Medicare or his position on immigration, and focus solely on ones that should be above partisan rancor … ones involving the Constitution and all-American values. On issue after the ‘Mom and Apple Pie’ issue, Bush has done incalculable damage to conservative principles, and he has been supported every step of the way by Republicans in Congress, who have voted in lockstep for his questionable policies.

The Bush presidency has damaged American civil society in many ways, but one of the most lasting may be its destructive effect on conservatism. The 75% number includes those Americans, who do not call themselves conservatives, but acknowledge the power and enduring value of core conservative beliefs. That is belief in individual agency and responsibility, respect for American institutions and traditions, a resolute commitment to freedom, a willingness to take principled moral stands. It is a movement that draws its inspiration from towering figures such as Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, Edmund Burke … as well as the greatest conservative of all … Ronald Reagan.

I view the Bush Administration as having been the captain of the U.S. Naval Submarine “The Conservative” (SSN Class 2004). The captain, in essence, kept The Conservative submerged far too long. At nearly every moment when the Captain should have surfaced the sub, he instead chose to dive a little further.

For a good part of the past eight years, The Conservative drifted in waters at a depth of 30 meters down. It is at this depth that red light is quickly absorbed, and since there is no red light to reflect anything that is red, it thus absorbs all light that hits it and red will appear a blueish black.

For the past year, The Conservative continued to teeter between a depth of 29 and 30 meters. It is precisely this analogy, when applied to Tuesday night’s Electoral Map, that should help explain why most of the red states simply disappeared.

Remember Remember ...

Waking up this morning, the 5th of November 2008, following the election of Barack Obama as this nation’s 44th President, I couldn’t help but remember the story of Guy Fawkes.

The words of "Remember Remember" are spoken throughout the United Kingdom every year on this date, the Fifth of November. The Nursery Rhyme, created from 17th century English history, refers to the exploits of Guy Fawkes and his fellow members of an early 1600 group known as the English Roman Catholic Terrorists.

On the 5th November 1605, Fawkes was caught in the cellars of the Houses of Parliament with several dozen barrels of gunpowder, preparing the most dastardly of deeds that only a Bill Ayers or an Al-Qaida terrorist could truly appreciate. Guy Fawkes was subsequently tried as a traitor with his co-conspirators for plotting against the government. Fawkes was sentenced to death, and the form of the execution was one of the most horrendous ever practiced, by being hung, drawn and quartered which reflected the serious nature of the crime of treason.

The tradition, which is still carried on this very day, began the following year 1606. It became an annual custom for the King and Parliament to commission a sermon to commemorate the event. Lancelot Andrewes delivered the first of many Gunpowder Plot Sermons. Each year, on this very night, celebrations of bonfires and fireworks can be seen on distant hills all across England and Scotland. This practice, together with the nursery rhyme, ensured that this crime would never be forgotten! Hence the words: “Remember Remember the 5th of November."

In today's society, Guy Fawkes would have been let off on a technicality and eventually become good friends with the future Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Congratulations to President Elect Obama

May God's light shine upon Barack Obama ... a light so powerful and true so as to eclipse the shadowy past of Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers, as well as, radicals and terrorists everywhere.

May the damage caused by his administration be minimal and easily repaired in four years by the next Republican Administration.

Until that time ... may we remain one nation under God and dedicated to continue the fight against terror both home and abroad.

God Bless The U.S.A.

Democracy In Action (Pennsylvania Intimidation)

Today, in Philadelphia, PA ... Registered voters were greeted at their local polling places by the following:

Fear - Uncertainty - Doubt

According to final polling, here in Michigan, John McCain goes into today's Presidential election trailing Barack Obama by 18 points. Nationally, in an average of over a dozen polls, Obama is enjoying a 7% cushion and appears to have all but locked up this election.

Plain and simply ... John McCain ran an awful campaign. It's quite commendable to run one of honor and truth, a campaign that mimics the character of the man. However, McCain's decision to hold off going on the attack until the final weeks, is in essence, what cost him this election. And the sad thing in all of this is the fact that what he would be attacking is the truth. Not to mention the fact that it is impossible to run an honorable campaign when the mainstream media is going out of their way to discredit your every move.

In my 30 years of selling products and solutions to Corporate America, my greatest success was achieved while applying these three valuable lessons, simultaneously throughout the sales cycle:

1. Sell yourself. If you can't be trusted, it's a good bet your company can not, let alone your product.
2. Focus on your "solution" and how it best fits the needs analysis and requirements of your customer. Never focus on just the product and never get too technical.
3. And most important of all, in regards to your competition, continue to plant the seeds of "Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt!"
4. See Step Three.

Should these final poll numbers hold true, barring an incredible miracle, I fear that this nation over these next four years will be filled with much uncertainty.

No Doubt About It ...