I’m headed to Boston for work this morning, and good fortune has given me a few extra minutes before boarding my flight. So you lucky people get the benefit of my random post-Ames GOP nomination thoughts.

First, I’m not surprised that T-Paw dropped out. He was boring and completely boorish in his very personal attacks on Michele Bachmann during last week’s FOX News debate. Second, I am NOT a Bachmann supporter, but I’m pretty pissed off about how she is being treated by the press — liberal and conservative alike. Yes, Byron York — I’m lookin’ at you.

With regard to Bachmann, I see a major flame-out coming for her campaign. That’s all I’ll say about that…

I’m still a Herman Cain fan, I’ve given his campaign some of my hard-earned money, but I just don’t see him catching on as I hoped by now. I hope I’m wrong and he turns it on soon.

I’m told I should be flocking now behind Rick Perry. Sorry, I don’t see “it” yet. Someone please educate me.

In a week from today, I’ll be a South Carolina voter. So hopefully I’ll get a firsthand chance to meet my potential future President. I’m still holding out hope that Marco Rubio & Paul Ryan hear the desperate call of their fellow Americans to defeat Barack Milhous Obama.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

I’ve been listening to Ron Chernow’s biography of George Washington in the car.  A number of things struck me about this great man who faced much adversity in the early days of the French & Indian War.  Chernow points out how although the young officer in the British army made some, well, bone-headed military decisions, like establishing Fort Necessity, a frontier outpost near French lines “poorly situated to withstand and incursion,” he, by and large, learned from those mistakes.

The current occupant of the office he would be the first to hold seems to lack that ability.  As the fetching Stephen Green observes:

Obama can’t recognize mistakes — even though the evidence is as plain as last month’s hideous jobs report. He will continue to demand that reality conform to his theories, no matter what damage he does to this country. He doesn’t doge, he doesn’t weave — he keeps pursuing failure in the face of failure.

(Via Instapundit.)  Even after the failure of his “stimulus”, with the depletion of our coffers and the diminution of our nation’s once good credit, the Democrat still calls out for more spending* and fails to recognize that the regulations his administration has increased have reduced those he identified as those “produce most of the new jobs in this country“ to hire new employees.

The president’s policies haven’t worked.  A real leader would understand that his goal was not to demonstrate the rightness of his approach, but to shift course and find an approach that did.

George Washington did that.  And because of that capacity, he won an unwinnable war and fathered a nation that offered opportunity for tens of millions, inspired others yearning to be free in distant corners of the globe and provided a level of prosperity that few had even imagined.

Our nation achieved all this in large part because George Washington learned form his mistakes.  Would it that Barack Obama could follow his predecessor’s example.

* (more…)

The Statue of Liberty

Stride Toward Freedom

Battle Cry of Freedom

“. . . land of the free. . . ”

“God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?”

“. . . the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. ”

“ . . . secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity . . . ”

” . . . with liberty’s lamp guiding your way . . .”

“. . .  a new nation, conceived in liberty . . .”

“. . . one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

“Let us swear allegiance to a land that’s free,”

“A thoroughfare for freedom beat“

While it was the force of arms (under the shrewd guidance of George Washington that secure the independence we celebrate today, it is the force of ideas preserved in the document declaring that independence that endures, ideas which remain as potent today as they were 235 years ago on a humid summer’s day in Philadelphia, PA.

As we remember those powerful words which served to sever us from a King (and Parliament) who denied his American subjects the rights those inhabiting his sceptered isle had been acquiring piecemeal for centuries, we recall also how hesitant was Mr. Jefferson to write them.  He had little idea then that his words would come to define a nation and inspire men and women suffering under the lash of tyranny around the world for centuries after he was all but dragooned into writing them.

At the time, writes Joseph J. Ellis in his insightful study of the Virginian, American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, ”no one . . . regarded the drafting of the Declaration as a major responsibility or honor.  [John] Adams, like [Richard Henry] Lee, would be needed to lead the debate on the floor.  That was considered the crucial arena.”  In that arena, Adams excelled, delivering a three-hour address that exceeded all expectations and moved many of his colleagues.

But, because Adams spoke extemporaneously in an era without recording equipment, his address, powerful at the time has been lost to the ages.  Without his words, Congress may never have ratified Mr. Jefferson’s.  The Virginian even called his Massachusetts colleague “the Colossus of Independence.”

(more…)

I remember this footage like it was yesterday. It is vintage Reagan, vintage 80s, and vintage America.

Happy Birthday USA!

-Bruce (GayPatriot)>

I’m sorry to interrupt WeinerGate… but I wanted to say hello from I-40 West near Knoxville, TN. I’m on our 3rd annual Nashville road trip for the CMA MusicFest this week.

To keep track of my escapades, please follow me on Twitter!

The awesome week of Country Music starts tonight with the Grand Ole Opry show. The lineup is amazing: Darius Rucker, Martina McBride, Oak Ridge Boys, Lady Antebellum and Carrie Underwood. I know! Awesome, right.

You can listen to the show at 10:30 Eastern on Opry.com.

I’ll try to tweet or post some pics tonight.

More from Nashville later!!

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

I am underwhelmed with the GOP Presidential Candidates so far. Except for one… The Herminator.

Check out this interview with ABC News on their web program “Topline”.

And here is the Herman Cain Train video put out by his campaign.  How can you NOT like this guy?!?

I met Herman Cain at CPAC and I continue to be impressed every time I see or hear him.  I’m not endorsing anyone yet… but at least Herman Cain has a lot of Americans EXCITED about a potential leader for our great nation.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

I’m enjoying a cup of coffee on my porch this morning as I prepare for the workday. And I can’t stop reading and thinking about those in America’s heart and soul lands where horrific weather has struck this year. Please stop today and say a prayer with me for those we’ve lost and families still suffering across the Midwest and South from floods and tornadoes.

We will get through this. Americans are never better than when we are under challenge and join behind a common purpose.

God Bless America.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Back when I was living in Paris, trying to write a novel, I supported myself by teaching English to young French professionals.  Working late one evening, I decided to share some pastries I had bought with my fellow teachers and staff members at the language school.  When I offered some to the janitorial staff, then cleaning the classrooms, they looked at me as if I had come from Mars.  My offer was unexpected.  They didn’t know how to respond.  They turned away and continued cleaning.

One of my fellow teachers, an American woman who had lived in France far longer than I had, explained that French professionals and intellectuals treat workers with disdain, seeing the class difference as a barrier to interaction.  The attitudes of the French aristocrats which precipitated the Revolution of 1789 persist today among the educated élite.

I contrasted this Gallic class consciousness with something I observed one summer in high school when my father gave me a job working at one of the apartment complexes he owned.  I swept parking lots, trimmed bushes, transported building supplies and hauled trash.  My c0-workers, none of whom had gone to college, treated me as an equal, once even chastised me for slacking off.  One of them who later distinguished himself by grasping the ins and outs of building management later would rise to manage first that complex, then another before taking a job in my father’s front office.

In the middle of that summer, when we needed to strengthen the upper floor of a parking garage, my father helped out on the day we hauled and poured the concrete, a somewhat daunting task because the engineers didn’t think the ramp could support the weight of the cement mixer.  During the day, not only did he push wheelbarrows full of cement, but he also joked with his employees and asked them about their families.  Some called him by his first name.  One who did so, a World War II veteran who had fought on D-Day, knew all of his kids by our first names, always asking us about our lives and shared our stories whenever we toured a construction site with our father.

These stories came to mind when I read this post yesterday on Instapundit about why Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the recently resigned managing director of the International Monetary Fund, thought he could have his way with a hotel maid: (more…)

As we celebrate the greatest domestic policy president of the last century, we know that our words cannot improve on his own, so let’s give a listen to his defining speech, “A Time for Choosing,” where, in making the case for Barry Goldwater’s quixotic bid of the White House, he outlined a series of principles which would define his subsequent political career:

It’s time we asked ourselves if we still know the freedoms intended for us by the Founding Fathers. James Madison said, “We base all our experiments on the capacity of mankind for self government.”

This idea? that government was beholden to the people, that it had no other source of power is still the newest, most unique idea in all the long history of man’s relation to man. This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.

As we celebrate  the centennial of a great man who was both graceful and gallant, I’ve been watching some of the memorial tributes offered on the DVD, Ronald Reagan: An American President, I had the chance to watch once again former Vice President Cheney’s tribute to the Gipper.

That fine man truly got the essence of the nation’s fortieth president:

“From my mother,” said President Reagan, “I learned the value of prayer. My mother told me that everything in life happened for a purpose. She said all things were part of God’s plan, even the most disheartening setbacks. And, in the end, everything worked out for the best.”

This was the Ronald Reagan who had faith, not just in his own gifts and his own future, but in the possibilities of every life. The cheerful spirit that carried him forward was more than a disposition; it was the optimism of a faithful soul who trusted in God’s purposes and knew those purposes to be right and true.

He once said “There’s no question, I am an idealist,” which is another way of saying, “I am an American.”

We usually associate that quality with youth, and yet one of the most idealistic men ever to become president was also the oldest. He excelled in professions that have left many others jaded and self- satisfied, and yet somehow remained untouched by the worst influences of fame or power. (more…)

“I wasn’t a great communicator, but I communicated great things, and they didn’t spring full-bloom from my brow — they came from the heart of a great nation.”

–Ronald Wilson Reagan

Like many fans of the greatest domestic policy president of the last century, I’ve been trying to find an appropriate way to remember/honor this great man on the centennial of his birth.

Many have written eloquently about his nature, his background, his political philosophy and his accomplishments.  Others are planning magnificent celebrations.  We here at GayPatriot are putting together a small event in Los Angeles.  E-mail me for details.

Yet, as I remember this marvelous man, two things stand one, first, his love for Nancy.  He was born good, but she made him great.  And the second thing perhaps stands out because of the times we’re in and the solutions his successor (in the White House) has proposed.  In contrast to the incumbent chief executive, Ronald Reagan knew in his heart that Americans didn’t need the heavy hand of the state to get them out of an economic mess.  Indeed, he believed that it was the heavy hand of the state which got them into that mess — and which was preventing them from finding a means of egress.

“Government,” he reminded us in his first inaugural address, ” is not the solution to the problem.  Government is the problem”:

Seems that the ideals which define the Tea Party parallel nearly perfectly those put forward so eloquently by the Great Communicator.

Ronald Reagan had great faith in his fellow Americans.  He didn’t believe in seeking solutions in Washington, D.C., but in the ingenuity of the American people, in factories in Ohio, farms in Iowa, labs in North Carolina and yes, even in garages in California.

The Gipper had confidence in the American ideal, belief in American exceptionalism and was convinced that America’s best days were ahead.  Oh, and, he had a deep and enduring love for Loyal Davis‘s little girl.

It is very hard for me to believe that it was 25 years ago this morning when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded after liftoff.  It was a snow day for me in my senior year of high school on January 28, 1986.  I was home and bored and flipping channels.  I had completely forgotten about the “Teacher In Space” on the Shuttle that day until I came upon the live NASA feed being simulcast on the then-called “Learning Channel”.

So I stuck with it.  One problem, there were no commentators… just the NASA flight announcer.  After the explosion, I just stared at the TV.  When the NASA guy said “Obviously a major malfunction….”, I switched to CNN.

That day is etched into my memory and was a day I’ll never forget for the rest of my life.  It was raw, visual, scary, sad and very emotional to watch the TV coverage.

But then the President addressed the nation in the early evening.

This was one of Ronald Reagan’s finest moments as our President. Remember, this was the man who had steered us out of the greatest economic downturn since WWII (until 2008), restored America’s national defenses, and was on the verge of bringing down the Soviet Union and Eastern European Communism. America was back — until the Challenger explosion rocked our world that day.

This was also probably one of Reagan’s last great moments in office. Within the year, the Iran-Contra scandal would cripple his administration up until nearly the day he left office in 1989. Only his farewell speech would bring back the vintage Reagan that we saw 25 years ago tonight.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

(h/t – Instapundit)

Just realize how much of the movement to wealth & health of the world from 1948 to 2009 is in large measure thanks to the influence of the United States of America.

Coincidence?  Hardly.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

I joined the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation as a charter member of some kind a few months ago.  I wanted to be involved during the year of Reagan’s Centennial Birthday Celebration (Feb 6, 2011).

Anyway, as part of the membership I receive various publications throughout the year.  The most recent was a schedule of upcoming events at the Reagan Library related to The President’s 100th Birthday.  On the flip side of the newsletter was this quote, which I thought was appropriate to post today, given the times we live in.

Our Government has no power except that granted by the people.  It is time to check and reverse the growth of government, which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed.

It is my intention to curb the size and influence of the federal establishment and to demand recognition of the distinction between the powers granted to the federal government and those reserved to the states or to the people.  All of us need to be reminded that the federal government did not create the states.  The states created the federal government.

Reagan’s First Inaugural Address – Jan 20, 1981

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

It speaks for itself.  I’m honored that John Schwarzman, the artist, emailed me to make me aware of his work!

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Un-effin-believeable.  THIS is the “most educated” President evah?

Some may say it was an accident that he left out “Creator”.  But… and this is important, people… by ignoring that our unalienable rights come from Our Creator, he completely misses the mark on what makes America great!  Before 1776, rights were seen to have been granted by Man (Kings, Queens, etc.)  Our Founding Fathers’ brilliance was that they put a new stake in the ground of mankind. 

Obama, our President, is a complete dope.  I guess they forgot to teach the Declaration of Independence to him in his prep schools in Indonesia and at Harvard.

Let’s help him out a bit. 

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Good heavens.  Can’t everyone but the utmost Bush-haters now see what a complete buffoon America has in the Oval Office? 

So is he just stupid, or is he removing God from the DofI because his political philosophy is that rights come from the State, not the Creator?  If we had a responsible media — we’d have known the answer to that question…. in 2007.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Wow…. two weeks in a row, baby!  Tonight I’ll be talking with Ben Howe — a conservative activist and host of BTR’s “Renewing America”.  Ben attended the “Restoring Honor” rally in DC on Saturday and has some on-the-scene commentary to share. 

(Photo courtesy of Jon Ward from The Daily Caller)

Oh yeah… and I’m broadcasting tonight live from our nation’s capital — Washington, DC.  I couldn’t make it for the 8/28 rally, but I’m here this week for my “real” job.

And I’m just a few blocks from The White House.  Maybe I’ll hop on over to 1600 Penn Ave and ask Michelle for a crumpet.

Tune in tonight at 8:30PM for GayPatriot’s America.  We have a great chat room too!

-Bruce (GayPatriot)