www.allenwestforcongress.com
Posted on 07/01/2008 3:06:37 PM PDT by MKAP001
Lt. Col. Allen West and Michelle Obama
By James Lewis
I just sent my first political contribution to the Congressional campaign of former Army Lt. Colonel Allan West, who is running on the "R" ticket in Florida House District 22 --- that's in Broward County. Colonel West is a man who has proved himself, not just in the rigors of combat, not just in leadership, not just in the technical craft of military tactics and strategy, but in the most difficult life-and-death dilemma a human being can face. He made an agonizing moral decision to save his men from a likely ambush. To do so, he shot off a pistol next to the head of a suspect, forcing him to confess vital lifesaving intelligence. Col. West didn't do that to punish the man, but to save lives. It worked.
When Col. West reported his own actions to superiors, he must have known that his decision would cost him his military career. He might have ended up in prison for years. He knew it would lead to months and months of personal agony. But he made the right decision in the face of a life-and-death moral dilemma.
I think I know what kind of a human being Colonel West must be, and I'm deeply pleased to support him. We need many more like him in the US Congress, because he is an adult who can make a moral decision under immense pressure. Far too many of our politicians just slip around real moral decisions; those are the people we don't need as leaders.
Consider the contrast with other people in the news.
Michelle Obama, the wife of the Senator, is a bright and talented woman. Perhaps she was unlucky to go to Princeton University and Harvard Law School, because she has now become deeply cynical about this country. That's not surprising, because our top universities teach their students to be cynical. They think it's terribly, terribly sophisticated. All their friends are cynical. Worse than that, they think their cynicism is true.
So Mrs. Obama can say things like ""for the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country." She means it. She believes it. But she utterly lacks a mature perspective on that question.
Here's what a Staff Sergeant who served with Colonel West has to say.
SSG Josh Turner
Nov 29, 2007 SIR, YOU MAY NOT REMEMBER ME, MY NAME IS JOSHUA TURNER. I WAS IN 2/20 WHEN YOU WERE IN COMMAND AND DEPLOYED WITH YOU IN 2003. I WAS A SPC AT THE TIME, I JUST WANTED TO SAY THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT YOU DID IN IRAQ TO SECURE THE SAFETY FOR US AND TO STAND UP FOR US SOLDIERS. SIR, I DON'T KNOW WHAT ELSE I CAN SAY TO RELAY THE DEEP FEELING OF GRATITUDE I HAVE FOR YOU AND YOUR ACTIONS. I HOLD YOU EXTREMELY HIGH IN REGARDS TO ALL THE COMMANDERS THAT I HAVE SERVED WITH. SIR, YOU ARE WITHOUT A DOUBT THE MOST REALISTIC, DOWN TO EARTH, CARING, PASSIONATE COMMANDER THAT I HAVE EVER HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO SERVE WITH. THANK YOU AGAIN FOR THE SACRIFICE THAT YOU MADE FOR US. SSG TURNER, JOSH "YOU DO NOT NEED TO EXCERT FORCE TO SHOW POWER"
What's the difference between these individuals? Age, education, income, race? My guess is that it comes down to the culture of victimization versus the culture of earned pride. Mrs. Obama's high-priced education has persuaded her that she is a victim; or if she personally happened to luck out, she has been told that millions of others are helpless victims. They cannot be trusted to survive as self-sufficient adults.
Well, victimization is a self-fulfilling prophecy. So is honest pride and self-confidence. (This is not news to anybody but our professors on the Left.)
For some mad reason our best universities now teach self-victimization, especially to Blacks and minorities. They thereby handicap and undermine the very people they claim to help. It's bizarre beyond belief, but not for our perverse Left. Fortunately some of our institutions, like our military, still inculcate pride based on real achievements. The colonel didn't get his chestful of ribbons for being a victim.
It's the Hurricane Katrina story all over again, pitting New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin against United States Army Lt. General Russell Honoré. Mayor Nagin panicked when Katrina hit, and thousands of his constituents ended up miserably stuck in the flood, waiting for somebody to help them. In General Honoré 's immortal phrase, City Hall was "stuck on stupid," along with the rest of the political class.
"Don't Be Stuck on Stupid" is a phrase that should be emblazoned in every single schoolroom in the country. Forget giving out gold stars for self-esteem. Just tell our kids not to get stuck on stupid. To drown in the culture of victimization in the land of opportunity is really being stuck on stupid. It is teaching people how to starve in the midst of plenty.
Electing Lt. Col. Alan West to Congress sounds like a good way to start getting our political class off being stuck on stupid. When he gets to Washington, D.C., he may have find new depths of toleration and patience with the idiocies of the political system. But the more people like him we can send to Congress, the healthier we will be as a country.
My big question is, how do we get General Honoré to run for office?
Oh yes, and all four of these folks are African Americans: Col. West, General Honoré, Mrs. Obama and Mayor Ray Nagin.
So what? Victimhood and earned pride are human universals.
James Lewis blogs at dangeroustimes.wordpress.com/
Lt Col. West is a TRUE patriot. A real American hero and man that America needs more of in political office.
BUMP
Does Col. West have a good chance of winning the election? I certainly hope so. If I were in the District I would have no trouble pulling the lever for him.
www.allenwestforcongress.com
The Weekly Standard’s Noemie Emery disputes the media’s facile, predictable racial interpretation of Obama’s poor showing in Appalachia. It’s not because of race, but rather reflects a deep national divide between action-oriented Jacksonians versus clerical, paper-pushing Brahmins:
Let us call this rival approach the Barone Manifesto, after its author, political analyst Michael Barone, who crunched the poll numbers for Obama’s primary battles with Hillary Clinton and discovered that while the former did exceedingly well with white voters in university towns and state capitals, he did poorly almost everywhere else. From this, Barone broke the electorate down into two large divisions–academics and state employees who live in these places, whom he calls Academicians, and Jacksonians, who live elsewhere, especially in the regions close to the Appalachian mountains.
Yep, that’s it. Academicians eat arugula, and worry about its price at Whole Foods. Jacksonians don’t.
There’s nothing wrong with being an academician or eating arugula (hey, I do), you’re just going to have a hard time selling yourself to Jacksonian America as the kind of bold leader they’re looking for. Even if you were the bestest “community activist” in all of Chicago.
Emery’s last paragraph is interesting:
Now let us imagine a different candidate, one who looks like Barack Obama, with the same mixed-race, international background, even the same middle name. But this time, he is Colonel Obama, a veteran of the war in Iraq, a kick-ass Marine with a “take no prisoners” attitude, who vows to follow Osama bin Laden to the outskirts of Hell. He comes from the culture of the military (the most color blind and merit-based in the country), and not the rarefied air of Hyde Park. He goes to a church with a mixed-race congregation and a rational preacher. He has never met Bill Ayers, and if he did he would flatten him. He thinks arugula is a town near Bogota and has Toby Keith on his favorites list. Would he strike no chords at all in Jacksonian country? Does anyone think he would lose 90 to 9 in Buchanan County? Or lose West Virginia by 41 points? For those Jacksonians who would be fine with a black man in the White House (not as tiny a group as Newsweek thinks), Colonel Obama is the one we are waiting for. When we will get him is anyone’s guess.
I don’t know about Colonel Obama, but there’s one politician on the scene this year running for Congress in Florida who completes Emery’s List (heh) pretty nicely: Lt. Col. Allen West. What an amazing biography– and he’s even against amnesty:
In my time spent in Afghanistan I saw first-hand how an unprotected border can destabilize an entire country. All you hear coming out of Washington is foolish rhetoric about writing new laws and creating new government programs that sound good on paper but do nothing to solve the problem. Our border patrol officers put their lives on the line every day protecting our borders and engaging in high-powered gun battles. The duties they perform go beyond those of an immigration official. They are defending our borders and it is time we equip them with the tools they need to secure our border. As your congressman, I will push to move the Border Patrol out of the INS and into the Department of Defense. This is not a social issue; this is a national security issue.
Furthermore, something tells me LTC West isn’t going to be very patient with the Supreme Court’s handwringing on interrogation.
LTC West’s feelings about arugula remain unknown, although I think we would be willing to overlook a few youthful indiscretions of that nature.
UPDATE: via Robert Stacy McCain, here’s a sample of LTC West speaking:
Not too shabby. (I think he’s wrong about American weapons going to bin Laden through our assistance to the mujahideen in the 80’s; OBL was in a separate group funded by the Saudis.) But seriously, good speech.
Note the part where West says his opponent has more money than he does. Hint, hint.
Come on, what do you want, a video of Allen West chewing out CAIR as unindicted co-conspirators and “an insurgency in our country” and taking up for FISA?
MORE: Back on Jacksonians v. Arugulaticians, here’s Cuffy with a pretty good photoshop.
Col. West’s democrat opponent has a huge war chest of $3 Million. But Allen West has a huge grassroots army of support. It is going to be a very interesting race to watch.
FReepers have been donating to the Go West campaign like crazy this past month. If all FReepers donated $10 bucks to the Go West campaign, Allen will wipe the floor with the DemoRAT Ronald Klein!
You can make a contribution here: https://www.completecampaigns.com/public.asp?name=West&page=1
Heck, West will wipe the floor with the Dem anyway — he’s exactly what the GOP needs and the district was held by the GOP for 26 consecutive years (until 2006, with the Blue Wave).
Check out Allen speaking (here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNcQD_vA-X8)
GO WEST!
+1
Who says? I've seen nothing beyond garden variety mediocrity tinged a "chip on the shoulder" attitude.
“Just tell our kids not to get stuck on stupid. To drown in the culture of victimization in the land of opportunity is really being stuck on stupid. It is teaching people how to starve in the midst of plenty.”
Great words....
Thank you so very much for posting this article.
Lt Col. West seems to be a very great man. We need more leaders and thinkers like him.
I have been getting very upset, and at times going off the deep end over the racist stuff, but this kind of post, and the example of such a great man, is like a slap in the face with a cold towel for THIS white guy. I would like to see Col. West achieve even higher ground in politics....I could vote for such a man.
He is running against an incumbent but ‘Rat-weasel Ron Klein only won his first term in 2006 in close (51-48%) race, so he may be vulnerable? (I don’t really know)
Ron Klein votes with the ‘Rat majority in Congress 96.7% of the time (according to WaPo tally), so he is a consistent Pelosi leftist.
The district had a Republican incumbent for many years until Foleygate helped bring down the GOP in 2006 (Foley’s district is next door).
I would think Col. West should have a great shot at defeating a smug leftist like Ron Klein but I’m not in Florida and don’t claim to know.
1 minute satirical Obama video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR6b-kWncI4
Hurry before some diversity loving (RIGHT!) Obamaniac at YouTube pulls it.
Some years ago I read a line and I cannot remember the source but I think it came from a company selling stock market advice. They made some predictions about the future of this country and they were right on a number of them. One that sticks in my mind is this,”IF this country is to be saved it will be saved by BLACK MEN because they are the only ones who can do it”. I know they were not anticipating Obama with that statement but they may have been anticipating someone like West.
(disclaimer - I'm half-n-half, just like the magic mulatto himself, yet I never gave that fact, or race itself, a thought until his candidacy made such a big stink about it. In my opinion, a BO presidency would bring class antagonism and race antagonism into the White House with shameful results.)
Thanks for the Info. Go West!
I think the idea was based on the premise that BLACK men can stand up and denounce certain facets of the culture that white men cannot address without being denounced as racist. I know that I can hardly breath without being called a racist. For instance I made a comment at my part-time job to the effect that Obama would have to be crazy to name Hillary as his VP candidate because (if they won) he probably wouldn’t live long after the election. Wouldn’t you know it, that was taken as a racist comment. Actually I can’t see where race has anything to do with it, it simply reflects my extreme distrust of the Clintons.
Ping guys!
GO WEST!!!!!!!
Race is an issue that shouldn’t be an issue.
The day black Americans wake up and realize that they are American first and foremost is the day that our country will finally have the race “issue” behind us.
Race hustlers are desperately trying to prevent this from happening, and Obama is a part of the problem, not the solution.
Allen West is the solution. And I can’t wait to see him in Congress, leading our country.
Thanx for the ping Miss :-D
I can’t see a conservative winning Broward except in Davie.
Finally I get to ping you first. *L*
Seems like things are starting to pick up attention wise.
What a great tool Free Republic is!
I certainly hope that the radio hosts are listening (HINT HINT to Limbaugh and Levin).
Allen’s congressional district is a district that had a Republican Congressman for 26 consecutive years. He can win it back for the GOP.
GO WEST!
Yeah, they’ll “discover” Allen, just a matter of time!
And I can’t wait to see him in Congress, leading our country.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
He is vastly more qualified for the Presidency already than Obama is and judging by what I have heard him say so far I probably would pick him over McCain in November if I had the chance.
Broward and Palm Beach will be reliably blue in 2008, as they have been in every election since the late 1980s. There will not be enough defections from the Jewish community to bring those counties over to us in '08. Lets also not forget the huge influx of blacks, both from the Caribbean and the northeast, into places like Sunrise, Lauderhill, North Lauderdale, etc. over the past ten years.
what u said.....the 50% non hispanic white demographic is deceptive
it’s like the 7th highest percentage Jewish county in the nation...not ‘xactly fertile ground for anything remotely conservative
What’s also deceptive is that although Broward is now around 50% non-Hispanic white, the voting population is more like 68%, with Jewish Americans being the largest voting block. When I was living in South Florida from 99-02, all but two of the county commissioners on the Broward County Board (at that time elected at large) were Jewish.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.