Something to Hope For....

March 23, 2009.

It was the day a great evil was forced on the American people.

Socialist Democrats in congress were trying to implement a government takeover of the American health care system. In so doing, they wanted to make of the citizen a common serf.

On that day, I stood in Bobby Etheridge’s DC office and spoke directly to his chief aid. Among other things, (I was on a roll) I told his aid that if Bobby cast his vote in favor of health care, then I would do whatever I could to ensure that he was not re-elected. I was not the only one in his office telling him the same thing. But, Bobby wasn’t listening. He has not been listening for a long time. He voted for the government takeover of health care.

The moment he did, my wife and I began to get more involved. We started writing and, more importantly, reading. I researched everything I could about the health care bill, along with many other topics (Cap and Trade, Illegal Immigration, The Constitution). We started looking at candidates and going to rallies. We participated in the Tea Party, and Americans for Prosperity, and Freedom Watch. We went to Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor rally in DC. In fact, I have been to DC more times since Bobby cast the evil vote than I ever have before. But, I had studied the Health Care bills with great intensity, and I knew the damage they would do. I also became more convinced, the more I watched members of congress treat opposition to this bill as tea-baggers, or enemies, or unpatriotic, or Nazis, or the old fallback for Democrats-racists, that the people who passed this bill knew what damage it would do. And they liked it. And that included Bobby Etheridge.

So arrogant was he that he gave conservatives a gift. He showed us the true Bobby when he was caught on video physically assaulting 2 young men on the streets of DC. They had dared ask him a question about whether or not he supported the president’s agenda. The horror!

I have written letters to the editor. My wife had been blogging on a local site, and then launched her own. I began to write on her blog on occasion. I talked to friends. At work, I had people asking me questions about the health care bill. I would tell them what I knew, and then back that up with documents I had collected that supported what I knew. One co-worker, a Canadian transplant and a self-described liberal, asked me how it could be constitutional to force an American citizen to purchase health insurance. I knew when he asked that question that this was an issue with teeth.

When states started filing lawsuits to defend their citizens against the evil bill, I launched an avalanched of calls and emails along with my friends to encourage the N.C. Attorney General, Roy Cooper, to join the fight. But, alas, he is a democrat, and declined to participate. He would rather fight cases that negatively affect 10 North Carolina citizens than to fight a case that negatively affects all North Carolina citizens. I urge all of you: do not forget this when it comes time to cast your vote for the Attorney General. I won’t.

Suffice it to say that I wanted Bobby gone. But, that wasn’t enough. To do anything out of negativity is not proper. One has to have something to fight for, not just against. So I started talking to the candidates in the primary. Then I met Renee Ellmers. She is not a politician. She is a nurse and her husband a doctor. She knew what I knew. The health care bill was a disaster and had to be repealed. She is a mom. And she understood, like I do, that America is at a crossroads. If we don’t right the ship, my grandson and her son will live in an America that leaves them wanting. That is unacceptable. And she understood that.

So I had someone to vote for. She handily won the primary and the fight was on. I went to rallies for her when I could. I gave her money (I don’t have much, but I had never given to any candidate before). I put out signs. In fact, I put out about 75 of them over the course of 4 weekends. I covered western Lee County with Renee Ellmers signs. It was okay, though. I was a participant, not a watcher.

I saw Renee on Monday night at a rally for her in downtown Sanford at Depot Park and congratulated her. I felt she was going to win and that she would do so fairly handily.

Last night was a long night. When the numbers started coming in, it didn’t look good. But, throughout the night, Renee caught up with Bobby, and then passed him. It became, and turned out to be, a very close race. In the end, Renee was declared the winner with a lead of only 2095 votes. WRAL and the AP declared her the winner and she spoke to a crowd gathered in her hometown of Dunn and declared victory.

It’s not over, though. Bobby, true to form, has not conceded, at least at the time of this writing. Be that as it may, I have contributed to his defeat, just like I promised I would on March 23, 2009. I hope his aid is reading this. But, I helped do more than that. I helped elect a genuine good person to congress. Not a politician, but a citizen. She is one of us, the people, going to serve us in the People’s House. It is as it should be. The Founders would be proud. I am. In fact, Renee won Lee County by around 2,000 votes. That was the approximate difference in the whole campaign.

Did I do this? No. We did; the citizens of Lee County. But, I helped by talking about her and putting signs out. I participated. And it feels great.

I am proud of Renee. She is volunteering to enter the Devil’s Den and put her soul at risk. After all, Bobby lost his soul there, as many others have. Could it happen to Renee? I hope not. She ensures me that she understands this risk and will fight against it. If she needs, me I’ve got her back. But, as I told her, I’ve also got both eyes open and will be watching. I don’t think I have to worry in the short term, though. She has given me something to hope for.

Thanks, Renee. And good luck. Now the real work begins.

Addendum (after draft was ready):

Bobby Etheridge, being true to his Socialist/Marxist Democrat roots, has called for a recount. He cites (hold your breath, you won’t believe it) irregularities in voting in some counties. The state board of elections, run by (hold your breath, you won’t believe it) democrat and senate hopeful loser Elaine Marshall, states that Renee leads by 1646 votes.

This flies in the face of published accounts that Renee leads by 2095 votes. And, get this, (hold your breath, you won’t believe it) state law requires that a recount is mandatory if the election results in less than 1% difference from all the votes tallied. This means that the threshold is 1800 votes in the Ellmers/Etheridge race. So why does the state BOE say that the lead is only 1646 votes when all published reports state the lead to be 2095 votes.

Can anybody say Al Franken? Bobby Etheridge is proving himself to be a power hungry coward who will lie, cheat and steal in order to retain power. As stated in the post above, he lost his soul in DC.

Does his family farm require his congressional salary in order to survive? Is he so poor a businessman that he cannot run his business without the congressional salary? I doubt it. He seeks authority over others. He seeks to shove his socialist agenda down the throats of his constituents whether they want him to or not. Bobby has become evil. He is not a man. A man would go home and tend to his family and business. A man would accept the results and go home. Many have done that before him. But Bobby Boom Boom Etheridge is not a man. He is a coward.

Renee, I hope you have good lawyers. You are about to get un-elected by an evil, power hungry Democratic Socialist who doesn’t care about his constituents. He only cares about himself and his never-ending desire for power.
Disgusting.