This is an e-mail I received from my friend, John Taylor, of Tertium Quid, Tuesday Morning Group, Virginia Institute for Public Policy, and Freedom & Prosperity Radio. Read his words and think about what you plan to do.
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Friends,
I write today to inform you that we are temporarily suspending the monthly meetings of the Tuesday Morning Group coalition. Due to the recent elections in Virginia, and other circumstances I discuss below, we are rethinking our program to ensure that we are using our resources in a way that we feel is most likely to effect change.
I have often repeated my thoughts that no matter how effectively the Virginia Institute for Public Policy (a 501(c)3 research and education organization) fulfills its mission, no matter how effectively Tertium Quids (a 501(c)4 government affairs organization) is able to develop legislative initiatives, no matter how good our guests are on Freedom & Prosperity Radio, and no matter how active the groups and individuals are who participate in the Tuesday Morning Group coalition, ultimately there must be a political solution.
I do not think the three statewide elections last month give one a lot of hope for the near-term future in Virginia. If the Republicans had won all three races, I also do not have any reason for believing that would necessarily have brought meaningful change to the Commonwealth in terms of reducing the size, intrusiveness, and cost of government; protecting not only the ownership of property, but also the use and enjoyment of that property; and improving the quality of K-12 education to be commensurate with the taxes the citizenry has paid for decades.
After all, for the last four years the Republicans have controlled everything. During the period we passed a constitutional amendment for eminent domain reform (actually a six-year effort), and a truly pathetic transportation bill.
In the near-term future in Virginia, we will have to contend with progressive statists serving as Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General, a largely dysfunctional Republican Party of Virginia, and the “opposition” legislative leadership of Bill Howell and Tommy Norment.
At the national level the scenario is almost as bleak. Once again, we have a largely dysfunctional National Republican Party still trying to determine for what it stands 150 years into its existence. And what can we say about the legislative leadership of Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, and Eric Cantor? Well, just for comparison purposes the Cabinet of President George Washington included Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, Edmond Randolph, and Alexander Hamilton. My, my.
In addition, I do not think we have been well served by outside political groups coming to Virginia, when their real interests have nothing to do with the Commonwealth, but they are only involved here for the purpose of achieving short-run, national goals.
I do not think we have been well served by outside groups who come to Virginia to influence elections due to the need for their business interests to have “access” to politicians in state capitals and in Washington.
I do not think we have been well served by GOP toadies who tell us we must have principles for primaries, but we must put those principles aside for general elections. You either have principles or you don’t and if you put them aside when they represent an inconvenience, you don’t. And no matter how many times the pattern repeats itself, these “party animals” are incapable of grasping that if you vote today for a poor-quality candidate who wins the election, once that person takes office and proves to be incompetent (i.e., corrupt, crony capitalist, gets “transportation” legislation passed, etc.), it will depress the turnout of the faithful in subsequent elections, which could result in the defeat of a good candidate, or candidates.
Friends, we are rethinking our effort in Virginia, and we are a ways yet from final decisions. I can only tell you at this time that we are not building compromise into our program. The supposed distinctions between Democrats and Republicans are meaningless to me and in the future we intend to label politicians by “F” for Founder, or “P” for Progressive. We will not support Progressives for any reason, and by that I mean we will not show a nonsensical preference for Republican Progressives over Democrat Progressives. The fact is that occasionally our interests are better served when Progressives win elections. I expect that by the end of President Obama’s term in office, he will have done more to destroy Progressivism than the Republican establishment and the conservative movement have done in the last 100 years.
In the coming months, we will, once again, go forward with clearly articulated principles, clearly articulated policy objectives, and a complete unwillingness to get mired in the muck of doing things the way they have always been done while expecting a different result, and expecting the same old faces, many of whom are responsible for where are today, to lead us toward a vision they neither share nor could even recognize.
Going forward we will never play by the political establishment’s, or the media’s, rules. We will do what it takes to effect change whether it is education, policy agendas, civil disobedience, including looking a politician or bureaucrat in the eye and telling them, “You pass any legislation or regulation you want, because we’re not making any plans to obey it anyway.” Perhaps Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute was onto something last week when he testified to the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, “If the people come to believe that the government is no longer constrained by the laws, then they will conclude that neither are they.”
I hope all of you had a Happy Thanksgiving during which you recounted the many blessings you have due to the Almighty; due to the political, economic, and constitutional order the Founder’s put in place; and due to the sacrifices made by those who were willing to lose life and limb to preserve your blessings.
I love you guys and gals, even Robert Dean, and I will miss seeing ya’ll for the next several months. But remember this, when you have to remind politicians and party apparatchiks on something as basic as, “My time, my labor, my income, and my property are not yours,” you must realize we are fighting for liberty, itself. We give that our best effort.
Merry Christmas
I hope you make this one special for you and yours, because tough times could be ahead.
I remain and will always be
Respectfully yours,
John
