The Power of Persuasion, or the Persuasion of Power?

I use that heading in homage to the resignation of Andy Stern, the head of ACORN’s labor-relations alter-ego, SEIU. He advocated opting for the latter.

We, my friends, must choose one or the other. They cannot both exist simultaneously within a single ideology.

The brushfires of Liberty spoken of so long ago by Samuel Adams have again been kindled in our great nation. The message of Liberty is alive and well, and just as capable of persuading the public in 2010 as it was in 1775. Naturally, believing this, I am vocally supporting using the power of persuasion.

The story I am about to relate comes from very close to my home, but I am not getting into the weeds here. There is a larger (and extremely important) overall point to this, so please bear with me for a few paragraphs.

Here in the 5^th Congressional District of Virginia, the revolution has begun, and it is not a pretty sight to behold. I am speaking of a series of elections that are currently taking place to select unit chairs, on the county, large city, and district levels, in the Republican Party.

One such election took place in Campbell County last week, and the sitting Republican chairman was rejected, by a small margin, in favor of fresh blood. The new chairman happens to be aligned with the TeaParty Movement, while the GOP establishment and even the current Virginia Lieutenant Governor endorsed the outgoing chair.

The same exact scenario unfolded in Bedford this past Monday, except that the margin of victory was not even close. The new chairman won 220-105.

This same outcome has, so far, played out in 12 local units. And you can expect encore performances, all across the country, as TeaParty groups become more active on their local political battlefields.

However, the fallout will be just as similar. I witnessed an event Monday night that sent cold chills to my bones. As the new unit chair took to the podium to thank the voters and accept his post, two entire rows of people (about 35, in all), stood up, as a block, and filed out of the auditorium.

Whatever your alignment, TeaParty or party-line, this is an egregious display of bad form.

But it should surprise no one.

The sad fact is this: power does corrupt. And when power is stripped from those who have proven (over and over) that they cannot be trusted with it, they will lash out. Whether it is the controlling party in a governing body, or an unpaid volunteer leading a small local unit, they have gone to great lengths to secure and maintain their modicum of power, and their sphere of influence is jealously guarded.

Just as the local party elites have shown their true colors when faced with their own mortality (in terms of influence), so, too, will the power-brokers inside the 495 beltway jealously guard the power they have amassed, as we the people assert our own authority under the banner of the 10^th Amendment. And they will lash out, savagely, at all who oppose.

But we must be prepared for this, and these battles must be waged, for our success or failure there will ultimately predict the outcome of the revolution as a whole.

In short, we must take bold and decisive action to curb the confiscation of our liberty and financial security, but we must recognize that it is the usurpation of our power that has allowed it. And our complacence, by and large, has allowed our power to be taken from us and amassed in a Federal stockpile.

I am an advocate of redistribution, but not in the way our current Federal Feudalists mean it. I believe we need the sort of redistribution that our founders would support: the redistribution of power.

In my next post, I will delve into the strategies that are being used to achieve this goal, and whether they will work. Until then, thanks for reading, and keep up the fight.