WHO'S CRYIN NOW?

“Who’s cryin now?”

I think President Lincoln would if he were here, so would John Rusby and Joe Rusby.

Not because we lost the election, oh no! The sadness is for the wasted opportunity!

Let me explain.
About 115 years ago John joined a group with his friends, neighbors and patrons of his small store in what is now Nutley, NJ. That grass roots group was part of a huge group who started a new political party and directed it to do one thing. That one thing was to stop slavery. His grand son, Joe became active in that party, the Republican Party and he worked as a party official organizing and helping wherever he could. I followed and served in elected offices and many volunteer projects.

There have been a number of Republican presidents since Lincoln, actually more than Democrats. But in most cases there was not the control of both houses of congress with the presidency as existed with President Bush.

This was an opportunity that Abe, John, Joe and many other active party members and elected officials would have like to have been a part of. Well, Lincoln did have both houses, so did Teddy Roosevelt and McKinley. Ike had it 25% of his time. Several Democrats had control but Ike was the only Republican in modern times and that was for a short period of his time in office. Gingrich recognized the opportunity and tried to reform the system but he was chastised.

Sure, the president pushed through policies that improved our economy and that is very beneficial. But our congress has missed a wonderful opportunity.
They inserted many special projects into the budget to please their constituency to help get re-elected. Pork barrel.
They continued to negotiate special tax deductions for special groups and accepted campaign assistance and special benefits.
Campaign finance activities continued even though reforms had been introduced. Everyone looked for loopholes.

We have held them in contempt and abandoned them at the polls.

But we stood by and let them do this. Do we have to take some of the blame? We the citizens must insist on a better way to finance campaigns.

Republicans had the chance to make changes. They could have reduced the pork barrel dipping and campaign finance abuses. They could even have done some investigations and started a new way to finance campaigns. They could have even pushed a grass roots program for meaningful tax reform with a bill that was on their desk.

Greed prevented progress. We stood by and did not demand excellence. We let them plod along and satisfy their greed.

It was an opportunity that we trashed. I am sad, I am sure Joe and John and Abe would be disgusted at us for allowing such a rare opportunity to do so much good was wasted.

Totally wasted.

Talking to the Republican Base

CONNECTING WITH THE REPUBLICAN BASE.

In the past few years I have had the opportunity to communicate with our Congressman John Mica regarding about 3 projects I have been involved in. Congressman Mica is a very sincere person and a representative we can be proud of. He is always involved with his community and district and is thanked many times by his constituents from both parties for his dedicated service.

I am sorry to say we gave Mica a tough challenge with the redistricting that gave his an area from Jacksonville down the coast to Daytona and across the state almost to Orlando. It is a district equivalent to the distance from New York City to Philadelphia, and it is through this huge district he must campaign for reelection every 2 years and manage many offices in all the population centers he represents.
Mica does not complain and forges ahead with projects that make us all wonder how he manages to overcome all the handicaps in his way and still maintain his pleasant and friendly composure when always willing to listen to a new problem.

With great appreciation I had volunteered to help his staff with whatever I could do to help although handicapped with an aging body. This led to an assignment to make phone calls to the local Republicans from the Republican club office in Palm Coast. I was not able to work too long but in the time I was there I learned many things.

Our Republican base is strong and dedicated.
On call after call I was told they were ready to vote or had already voted in the Florida early voting program and had voted the entire Republican slate of candidates. This revelation was very encouraging after hearing our base was not going to vote. Somewhere I had heard that many independents are switching to Republican voting but I could not confirm this anywhere. However, the comment was that this increase would be offset by the Republican base that was discouraged and would not vote. I did not experience that type of response so I want to encourage everyone to keep working to get out the vote because the pollsters might have a big surprise.

It is also exciting to see the dedicated people who volunteer or work at the offices and keep the party active. I met some great people, was very impressed with the activity and dedication of the staff and I look forward to the Tuesday election with a new, hopeful spirit.
If we could all get one more person out to the polls it would be a great contribution and we are going to surprise each other.