Patriotlog

Bowling for Dollars

Holly and I were among the first to arrive at Tammy Lee’s “Bowling for
Fun(ds) and Friends”, so we got to speak directly with the candidate for a
few minutes right off the bat. She seemed to remember me from that initial
phone call, which was flattering. I loaned her a copy of the book we had
discussed “Crunchy Cons”, which I had brought along just for that purpose.

Neither Holly nor I had known what to expect, as this may have been our first
strictly campaign fundraising event. After I paid for our bowl time and drink
tickets, we conferred outside. It was a little awkward being the first couple
there, and we were both disappointed our friend Jena wasn’t able to make it,
and the top 40 radio was incessantly grating. It seemed as though it had been
a mistake to attend, with all of our other commitments.

We re-entered, thinking it would be a short stay. But the atmosphere was
completely different. They had changed the music selection, and we occupied
ourselves playing $6 worth of shoot-‘em-up video games. We finished our alien
killing spree just as the crowd began to arrive.

There was a silent auction, and I couldn’t help but bid on a few items—a
message, a marguerite kit, an in-kitchen nutritionist consult, and a few
other interesting items. I must have ended up winning something!

But the main activity was the bowling. I was okay once I got the hang of it—
and I had a very supportive team, which included a fantastic bowler named
Mike. I had never met him before, but when I realized he was none other than
the author of http://minnnesotamiddle.blogspot.com, I turned to Holly and
exclaimed, “Remember that time in Dunn Bros. Coffee when I was so happy that
someone left a comment on my blog? That’s him!!” Big laughs.

I had thought perhaps there would be more of a forum for political
discussion, for exchanges of ideas, but it was more along the lines of an all
around good time. Which was for the best, because Holly had a lot of fun, and
so did I. Still, I arranged a few back issues of “The American Conservative”
on a table, and I even loaned one out to Mike (specifically the April 10th
issue).

We only bowled one game because of my early bedtime, but we stuck around for
Tammy’s remarks. She mentioned something about wanting to provide an
independent voice in congress—and it reminded me of an article in the
September 12th issue about Tennessee’s Rep. Duncan, one of the few principled antiwar Republicans,
a potential ally of a new independent voice. When I asked her she said she
knew of Rep. Duncan, and she was very interested in reading the article, so
I’m lucky I brought that issue along! I let her have that, too!

Everything went well- I got to share my political perspective a little bit, I
got to support my favorite candidate, and Holly and I had more fun than we
have had in a long time. We’re both looking forward to the Saint’s baseball
game/ IPMN convention, I think.

IP, Lesser of 3 evils?

I haven’t been very politically active lately beyond keeping myself updated, but that will soon change. I am planning on attending IP US Rep candidate Tammy Lee’s “Bowling for Fun(ds) and Friends” at Alleygators in Maple Grove on Wednesday. Even better, I’m bringing friends. Then on Saturday is the Minnesota Independence Party State Convention. I’ll be bringing friends to that one, too.

With no other decent third party candidate, I’ll be supporting IP candidate Peter Hutchinson for Governor, but I’m not too excited about it. I feel the same blasé for IP candidate Ron Lischeid for State House Representative.

I suppose in this election cycle, I’m a strong Independence Party supporter by default. I’m supporting Constitution Party candidate Ben Powers for Senate, though, just to remind myself and others that I am an opponent of cultural Marxism. And I actually feel pretty good about the Republican candidate for State Senate, Sandy Burt. Her first priority is public safety, and she is against backroom stadium deals. Interesting. She could really break away from the pack if she were a Paleocon. Maybe I should call her up…

Otherwise, I have a plan and I’m sticking to it. I’m trying to carefully weigh every new option and opportunity against the fact that the status quo is working out just fine; everything is going according to plan.

I understand that I had hinted that I would have more time for posting now that school is out, but real life has been very intrusive. I’ve done more landscaping in the last two months than I have done in the previous nine years. I’ve been studying for college equivalency exams, and I’ve been having a fair amount of fun, too.

There is a project I feel is quite important. If I start working with candidates, I’ll have opportunities to present Paleocon ideas—to help people see the big picture. I should prepare and rehearse presentations of Paleocon ideas—and if I can recapture the vigor with which I delivered my monologues onstage those long years ago, so much the better!

Flying the Flag

My girlfriend and I were discussing how the CPMN has but one statewide candidate this year. They’ve lost the “major party” status they won in 1998 when Patricia Becker, the CPMN candidate for state auditor, received more than 5% of the vote. She won 116,624 votes, totaling 5.9%. But that was a fluke. That was the year Jesse Ventura won as a Reform candidate, and I suspect when some of those pissed off independent voters didn’t see a Reformer in the auditor race, they figured anybody was better than a Republicrat.

For comparison, two years later, CPMN candidate David Swan won 8,915 votes, or 0.37%, in his race for governor. Two years after that, the CPMN ran two statewide candidates: former Croatian Statesman Miro Drago Kovatchevich received 2254 votes (0.1%) and Lawrence Aeshliman did slightly better with 2437 votes for governor (and 0.11%).

Even the combined 2000 presidential Minnesota vote totals of Pat Buchanan from the Reform Party (22,166) and Howard Phillips from the Constitution Party (3,272) total only, err, 25,438 votes!!! One percent!!!

Wikipedia was right; Paleoconservatism is an intellectual movement, not a political one. The CPMN isn’t even paleocon, to be precise.

Running a single statewide candidate with an Angelfire campaign website and a meandering list of issues isn’t exactly a roadmap for success. The lesson of Bill Clinton’s campaign was “stay on message.” In his case it was the economy. In our case it could be immigration, or the conservative case against the war, or even “fair trade” issues. I thought any idiot could figure that out.

And the opposite side of the coin is saying nothing at all. Taking the brave position of strongly favoring good things happening to people is almost as bad. I think the Independence Party’s “centrist” strategy of deliberately not taking any position on anything divisive is not the way forward.

No, the day belongs to the party that can contradict the Democrats and Republicans on the issues where the two major parties agree. Immigration, the war, and trade. That would be a real alternative. Perhaps those 5 percent numbers could be reached again, perhaps not. But winning isn’t everything in electoral politics, is it?

The Five Minute Con

Earlier today I poked my head into the Constitution Party of Minnesota's State Convention. My schedule didn't permit me to spend much time there, but I did briefly say a few words to Leo Heinze, the long-time Party Treasurer and editor of the monthly newsletter. He's a quiet, unassuming gentleman who stays in the background, and took me a year or two to figure out that he is the driving force behind the party. I'd like to get to know him better.

He was Minnesota's representative to the National Committee's Party Platform Convention in Tampa last month. As Austin Cassidy has been reporting, this is where a major party dispute concerning the Nevada State Chairman's position on abortion developed (the Chairman is not against the right to abort a rapist's baby).

There was a failed resolution to disaffiliate the whole NV organization, and it nearly carried. Consequently, some of the state parties have picked up their marbles and disaffiliated themselves. It reminds me of the America First Party split.

Actually, it’s a bit deeper than that. Behind the splintering is a reversion unto primary loyalties. In this case it’s Evangelicals vs. Mormons. Just a small preview of what will happen to the Republican Party when the Bible belt notices Mitt Romney. Further splintering means sooner or later every religious and ethnic group will have their own political party, and armed militias, I suppose.

I am somewhat disillusioned in political parties. As I read in the latest issue of Chronicles, "politics has devolved into a team sport, many of the conservative rank-and-file are happy just to be 'winning'."

So I wasn't too upset at missing the body of the convention. The main thrust of the convention seemed to the endorsement of this election cycle's only statewide CPMN candidate-- Benjamin Powers for Senate. In past years, non-partisan yet conservative political clubs (like Minnesotans for Immigration Reform and the John Birch Society) had set up display booths at CPMN conventions, and I was primarily interested in them. Unfortunately, the only booth I saw this year was Chronicles contributor Sean Scallon selling his latest book. I picked up campaign literature, the convention agenda, and a few other promotional materials. Then I headed off to do some yard work while the morning was still cool.

Conversation with Tammy Lee

Anything worth doing is worth doing badly. That’s what my papa always told
me, and so far it has held true. Instead of passively waiting inspiration to
craft a good letter, I acted and called up a candidate on the telephone. I chose
Tammy Lee, the Independence Party candidate for U.S. House District 5. The
phone rang three times, more than enough time for a second thought, but on the
fourth ring and the third thought, someone picked up:

"This is Tammy!", she said.

I hadn’t exactly come up with a plan beyond that point—I was kind of
hoping for an answering service. I did the best I could and just asked some
honest questions.

I introduced myself as a resident of District 5 and told her that though I had
looked at her website I hadn’t gotten a good sense about how
she felt about the war.

She was happy to answer my questions, and she asked a few of her own.
She was opposed to the war from the beginning, but she doesn’t believe in
an immediately withdrawal. She briefly summarized for me Rep. Murtha’s ideas.

I asked about a war in Iran, and she was certainly of the opinion that a
nuclear Iran is a grave threat (I don’t agree), but she didn’t seem to be
out looking for a fight.

I asked about immigration, and she said that she found McCain’s
proposals the most reasonable. She spoke about different enforcement
aspects of his proposals, but I’ve always heard McCain was, at the end of
the day, an amnesty supporter. He was even booed at a recent labor event. We differed on the feasibility of
building a border wall. I think she is uncomfortable with the general idea,
but at the same time, I think she would give me and other “wall supporters”
a respectful hearing. I certainly got one.

This felt more like a casual telephone conversation than some kind of
amateur interview—and I think I liked it better that way.

She asked me a few questions. I mentioned my brief history with the
Independence Party, and we talked a little about the book I’m reading
(you’ll notice the link and picture to the right). We talked about how I,
as a paleocon, feel unrepresented in the political climate today. I
certainly got to present some of my perspectives, and overall I was greatly
encouraged. I feel somewhat inclined to support her candidacy, whereas when
I called I wasn’t in her camp at all.

I had time for one more question, so I asked about free/fair trade
issues. She started talking about agricultural issues, and I could tell a
lot of it was about to go over my head. She spoke intelligently on the
subject, but I was looking for a short answer. I interjected:

“Would you have voted for CAFTA?”
“No.”

Her ability to be that clear and direct was my favorite part.

I think I’ll make a call to a Senate candidate tonight.

One month and seven credits later.....

Yesterday I finished my last final exam of the semester and I am now seven credits closer to a college degree. Ultimately, my goal is to become the best asset I can to any future political projects in which I take part. Though that is the very reason I created this blog, pursuing an education certainly has a higher priority. Lacking a formal education (or, more accurately, lacking the proper documentation of a formal education) is a substantial liability in most serious endeavors, I've found.

I won't be taking it easy this summer, but I think I will be able to devote at least a minimal amount of energy to patriotlog. Besides, the next two years will be an exciting time to be involved in politics.

As usual, there are no candidates I can fully support. Presently, Paleoconservatism is an intellectual movement moreso than a political one. Candidates rarely support immigration reform, environmentalism, non-interventionism, and fair trade policies all at the same time!

Hopefully I can help change that. There are like minded individuals out there, and we are starting to try to ally with more (or less, depending on how you look at things)traditional blocs on specific issues. This has already been happening, as a matter of fact. William Lind wrote about left-right anti-war alliance in his very interestingMay 2nd column . PETA awarded Buchanan an award for "Strongest Backbone" in 2005 for his efforts in animal rights issues. Justin Raimando endorsed Nader in the 2004 election issue of "The American Conservative."

Just the same, I'd enjoy directly supporting at least one candidate-- political participation is the solemn duty of every good citizen. Perhaps my search for a good candidate can in itself be a useful political tool. Simple exploratory letters and/or emails to a few campaigns might in itself disseminate Paleoconservative ideals. Tonight I'll draw up a list of interesting candidates, and write up a few emails.

CP or IP? or no p?

I don’t have much personal news to report. I haven’t done any networking lately; and I’m not any closer to my goal of helping to found a political action group of crunchy cons. I haven’t even called Ryan Law, the chairman of the defunct America First Party of Minnesota. His old telephone number doesn’t work, and there are two Ryan Laws in the phonebook. I’ll eeney meeney it when this semester is over, I suppose.

This is campaign season, and the opportunities for networking are out there. The National America First Party sent me a mailing the other day, and a request for donations. I am impressed with what a handful of people and a few thousand dollars a year can accomplish. All the minutes of the various committee meetings are duly posted on the America First Party webpage.Transparency is a sign of professionalism, in my opinion.

But they chose to implode the party rather than allow Col. Bo Gritz to speak at the 2002 convention, and implode it did. If they thought Bo Gritz was too extreme, they should have countered him with ideas. Instead they canceled the convention, burdening the party with a large hotel debt for nothing and driving out half the membership.

No, they won’t be getting any money from me.

The Independence Party has a 5Th Congressional District convention on Tuesday, May 9th. It looks like a worthwhile event. Peter Hutchinson will probably make an appearance, and I’ve heard they will be nominating a surprise US House candidate. That is good, because I won’t be supporting any of the candidates who have declared themselves so far. But alas, I have a final exam that night. Oh, well—business before politics.

The IPMN statewide convention is June 24th, and is being held at a baseball stadium after a Saint Paul Saints minor league baseball game. What a great way to hit your target market of underdog lovers, eh?

The Constitution Party doesn’t have much of a presence in CD 5. I think they just got a district chairman, but I don’t know of any upcoming convention. My girlfriend’s district, CD 6 on the other hand, has always been dynamic for a third party—thanks to present chairman Melvin Niska, and the previous chairman John Robillard (who has since become State Chairman). They hold events regularly, and publish a newsletter called the CD6 “Standard Bearer”. I subscribe even though I’m not in the district because it’s quite good. CD6 has a convention coming up on April 22. I may convince my girl to take me to that.

The CPMN convention is May 20. The speaker is John Lofton, a columnist for the Washington Post. I’m not familiar with him, but I’ve heard he’s an entertaining fellow. So far I’ve only heard of one statewide candidate- U.S. Senate Candidate Benjamin Powers, from Austin, MN. He has an interesting website up http://www.powers2006.info/. I imagine I’ll be endorsing him, after I learn more about him. I imagine he would consent to a quick interview here.

I haven’t paid dues to the CPMN for a couple of years, so I imagine I’m not a dues paying member anymore. I suppose I have to decide between attending the IPMN state convention and the CPMN state convention fairly soon. I can’t attend both, right? If all other things come to weigh with me equally, one fact will then tip the balance- the food at a CPMN convention is always delicious.

Another interview I think I could procure is one with my friend and State Senate Candidate Soren Sorensen. He was mentioned yesterday in his local city paper, The Bemidji Pioneer, because he lodged a formal complaint to the State DFL about the way the Beltrami County DFL caucus was held. The State DFL found error with the county’s delegate selection process, and ordered a new caucus. Beltrami has said it will defy the order.

And that wasn’t the only controversy in Bemidji that night. A staffer from a Gubernatorial campaign devised an anonymous blog under the aegis of writing about the convention but really to smear a rival candidate.

That would make a good interview, I should think.

Get out of Dodge

My plan was to get a degree and move to my dream house in the Pacific Northwest before Gotterdammerung. I have a double lot very close to the University of Minnesota, and I’ve been working toward legally parceling the lot in two and building a second house while adding on to the first. A tall order, I know, and at a meeting with the city planner I learned that to divide the lot involves a thousand dollars in city fees. I paid that much already for a boundary and topographical survey I needed before the planner would even meet with me.

But Minneapolis is descending into savagery a lot faster than even I expected. This is the Age of Information ®, and I no longer have to be tranquilized by the local paper and its cartoonish view of mankind. Local newsblogs have been covering the various assaults, murders, and kidnappings much more realistically. Particularly useful have been Anti-strib and Rambix.

The Neocons are also being uncooperative. War seems inevitable, but you probably don’t think about it and the implications if you don’t read the daily war news-- http://www.antiwar.com/. That’s where you’ll find the real conservatives like Pat Buchanan, Justin Raimondo, and William Lind.

My small house in the heart of Minneapolis simply won’t be tenable during the sorts of civil unrest I’m expecting. In point of fact, I’ve already been burgled, so technically it is untenable now.

So I think I’m altering the plan. I think I’m going to get out RFN. I can move northwest of the Twin Cities, close enough to work in the suburbs, and close to my family both the ones in western Minnesota, and the ones up north.

I need to finish the semester, of course, but after that the remaining eleven courses I need can all be taken on-line. I also need to do some minor improvements in order to get an acceptable offer on my house—landscaping mostly, but I won’t want to dilly-dally, I need to be ahead of the herd on this one.

Personal Day

   I haven’t had the time to post in over a week…. not a very successful blog building strategy, I know. My apologies to the six or seven people who regularly check in. I’m finding it difficult to filter out the personal content I would have normally posted in my old blog. Incidentally I also find it hard not to provide a “we have moved to: ___” message on my old blog, in order to instantly attract an ample assembly. I may yet so do.

   Maybe it is so hard to avoid personal content because maybe personal content actually belongs here. I am a personable fellow, if I do say so myself. But seriously, I’m an ordinary private citizen, and I don’t have a lot more to offer than my personal experience. Maybe that’s all any of us can really do, compare notes honestly.

   I've had a personal week.

   In the troubled times ahead, I believe that people will revert back to their primary loyalties- clan, tribe, religion, neighborhood gang, etc. John Robb has an elaborate post about this idea, and you should be reading his work everyday if you want a glimpse of the future. With this in mind, for the past two years I've been trying to rebuild connections to my own family network, with rather mixed success.

   Before Saturday, it had been twelve years since I'd seen my mother. Shocking, I know, but she was quite unfair to my father, and much beyond that. I moved out shortly after I turned eighteen and never looked back (at her side of my family that is).

   Around summer of 2004, I realized why it is important to reestablish contact. It is better to strengthen familial bonds sooner rather than later. I started calling and visiting with my half-siblings and my aunt and grandmother. I soon understood that if I wanted a normal relationship with them, I needed to have some sort of minimal relationship with my mother.

   I felt I was emotionally prepared for the inevitable reunion at my Grandmother's surprise 90th birthday party. I was nervous, naturally, but when my girlfriend asked "What's the worst that can happen?” I knew the answer was "nothing!”

   Until my old roommate replied, "You could get drunk and make an ass out of your self!"

   I didn't, but I got my first jab in early. The event was just outside Brainerd, MN, in the private banquet room of a small but reasonably fancy resort restaurant. There were about forty attendees, mostly those anonymous distant relations that were probably at your last family event, and might have been at the one before, and "I haven't seen you since you were THIS tall" types.

    My girlfriend and I walked in after collecting my courage, in both psychological and liquid form. My brother, my mother, and her new fiancé intercepted us right away.

"How have you been? It's been positively ages! Hooby dooby doo!", she said, or very near.

  "I've been fine", I replied, mostly interested in the slideshow of my Grandmother's life projected on the wall. The conversation seemed terribly awkward; I suppose it couldn't have been any other way. "You work for the Catholic Church, I've heard?", I offered.

  "Oh yes, I'm Director of such-and-so, and it's soooo interesting. Hoobey Dooby Doo!!!", She said, if I remember accurately. Unfortunately for her, it was a deliberate ambush. You see, my mom spent decades as a “channeller”, thinking herself a medium of spirit guides. She had a side income for a while duping other housewives into paying for her sessions. She wrote a few unpublished manuscripts on the subject, and she put her B.A. in Asian immigration history to good use when she self-published a whole channeled book as a samurai warrior. Now as a bureaucrat in the Catholic Church, I hoped to force her hand and make her denounce and maybe even burn all her work.

   "I suppose you haven't been channelling much lately then?” It was a shot across the bow, but there is plenty of room in the Catholic Church for heresy these days. She made a weak joke and that was that. My girlfriend was shocked by the crudeness of it all, and I would have felt bad myself, if it hadn't have felt so good.

   We weren't seated at her table, so we didn't have much more interaction with her after that. On the way out her fiancé, an old Special Forces vet, shook my hand and said it was an honor to meet me. He seemed nice enough, but then they all do until they shoot your dad. I was sufficiently non-committal in my reply--"maybe we'll see each other again some time."

   My sisters weren't there, and getting their respective addresses was one of my biggest hopes for the evening. I've already re-established a good relationship with my brother.

   Most importantly, my grandmother had a great time, and so it was all well worthwhile.

There goes the Neighborhood

Now that U.S. Representative Martin Olav Sabo has decided 27 years is enough, there has been a mad scramble for his seat. Whoever gets the endorsement at the Minnesota DFL convention May 6^th will also win the primary, because the major candidates have been declaring they will step aside and support the party’s pick. It makes sense, because the ‘Crats don’t want to waste resources fighting amongst themselves.

    Whoever wins the primary, will the general election of course. The Fifth Congressional District in MN is basically

Minneapolis

and a few suburbs. My PoliSci 1001 teacher went so far as to say the Republicans could run Jesus the Resurrected Christ and Sabo would still get his usual 70% election returns.

    But even more interestingly, a local ‘Crat blogger pointed out that whoever wins the Democratic primary effectively becomes the de facto leader of the Minnesota DFL. It is a safe seat, and so whoever wins has a national position for life.

     I’ve met one of the stronger candidates. Minneapolis City Council President Paul Ostrow always came to my neighborhood homeowner’s association meetings when I was a member of the board. He sat next to me a few times, and he was chatty and a likable enough guy.  It was his first term as a Councilman. It just reinforces my notion that a person doesn’t have to go too far out of the way to effect change. If I had been more interested then—almost ten years ago—maybe I’d be better placed and more influential now.

    But I wasn’t very interested. I just thought it would be fun to play neighborhood activist. When I moved into my current home on Halloween of 1997, I was quite young for a home owner- 23 years old. I started going to the community meetings at the local park building, and before I knew it I was elected to a two-year term on the board. For the first year I took my duties very seriously. I attended all the meetings, and I even helped organize a dedication for the new sculpture at the local park.

    But my attention waned, especially after I wasn’t considered for the full time “Neighborhood Organizer” position. Eventually I started attending the neighborhood meetings at the local park building less and less, and the just-as-lively neighborhood meetings local pub building more and more. I stopped showing up altogether, and worse, I stopped returning phone calls. And worse.

    One board member who had been particularly kind, albeit in a pedagogic way, even left a note on my door. Something about “THIS IS AN URGENT ATTEMPT TO CONTACT BJORN. WE’RE WORRIED. AND HOW’S YOUR DOG?” I ignored that too, and when I ran into her a few years later, I apologized. She was upset, and I don’t think she ever forgave me.

   I just had a meeting with the Minneapolis City Planner earlier this week because I want to split my double lot into two parcels. It turns out I’ll have to go hat in hand to my former colleagues. I sure hope the rest of the board has forgiven me, or even better, forgotten me.