Sunday, January 27, 2008

Welcome to Precinct 15!

Hello Republican neighbors!

I am your new Precinct Chairman for Asheville precinct 15 (technically 15.1). This blog will serve as a way to keep our precinct informed about interesting events, upcoming elections, or ways you can get involved. You can also leave questions or suggestions for me in the comments section.

I am excited to be doing my small part for the Republican party here in West Asheville and hope to meet all of my precinct members as time goes by!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

No social conservative allowed!!!

This is only for libertine, hash smoking libertarians, masquerading as conservative Republicans. Though the two are not necessarily the same.

Precinct 15 Chair, you should fit right in with the many liberal Republicans in this area.

They will sell their soul, all their values, principles and convictions for the crumbs of power they think they can get from any source. Regardless of whether it's Democrats or libertarians.

Bon Appetit BCGOP. Gorge at the trough of expediency to your hearts content, as you lose your conservative principles. If you ever had any!

Diana said...

Hi conservative to the bone,

It's true that I joined the Republican Party as a fiscal conservative and not a social conservative, but I don't think the "libertine, hash smoking libertarian" label applies to me. :)

I know that the GOP attracts people for a variety of reasons and I look forward to working with different types of people and learning from that wide range of viewpoints.

I'm new to the Republican Party and to partisan politics in general, so I have a lot to learn. But I'm a Republican now for the long haul, so I'll have plenty of time to catch up with the rest of the party!

Anonymous said...

Diana:

I do like to hear that you are a Republican for the Long Haul. The GOP is bigger than any one faction or element.

Anonymous said...

Sorry if I'm skeptical concerning your motives. And if they are genuine, then I offer my sincere apologies.

My only concern with this sudden affiliation to the Republican Party
is whether this is genuine, or an attempt at subterfuge, and deceptive manipulation for purposes other than to further conservative principles and philosophies. The Republican Party is suppose to the be the Party of the Conservative movement.

The whole Ron Paul thing smacks of disingenuous deception. And of course, that's exactly what it is.

Usually a person that joins a political party likes and agrees with the party platform. Do you agree with the planks of the party platform?

And I wonder if you were even asked about that before you were given a precinct position.

And if you were asked hard questions, then in my frustration, I was no doubt to hard on the BCGOP. They do difficult unappreciated and thankless work. As was seen in my frustrated, opinionated, and no doubt undeserving remarks.

But then, I'm a conservative, in the vain of Edmund Burk, Russel Kirk and Ronald Reagan, and not necessarily a Republican. In fact, I'm thinking of becoming unaffiliated because of liberal policies of the Republican establishment. Exemplified by George W. Bush.

Russell Kirk is a good place to start, concerning conservative principles.
Conservative Principles.
Russell Kirk: conservatism's ten principles
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/alba/070517
The Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal
http://www.kirkcenter.org/kirk/ten-principles.html

Freedomnomics
by John R. Lott, Jr., Ph.D.
Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Don't

Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism
Robert P. Murphy

Here are some well known books on conservatism and the free market you might wish to look into.
The "Law - by Frederick Bastiat is online.
http://www.constitution.org/law/bastiat.htm


Free to Choose, Friedman
Economics in one Lesson, Hazlitt
The Anti-Capitalist Mentality,Mises
The Road to Serfdom, Hayek
Wealth of Nations, Smith
Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, Rand
Our Enemy The State, Nock

For a larger list of great books on liberty, go online http://www.lfb.org.

So welcome aboard if you're a legitimate conservative, interested in furthering the conservative cause, and the Republican platform, in conjunction with constitutional principles. Which largely coincides with Conservatism. Libertarians and Conservatives do have much in common. And a few things, not so much.

But above all, we should all adhere to Constitutional principles and demand that our elected officials abide by those principles as well. I always point people to the 28 fundamental beliefs of the Founding Fathers at the The National Center for Constitutional Studies -. http://www.nccs.net/ftyl.html -- Scroll down to see the 28 principles. I also recommend the book "5000 Year Leap."

Diana said...

Thank you, conservative to the bone, for the suggested reading. You have clearly been thinking about politics and political philosophy for a long time.

I don't know that many people would describe me as a "conservative" and I don't exactly think of myself that way. If I had to label myself, I think "recovering liberal" might be a better phrase.

I was raised in a Democratic household and have lived in very liberal cities my whole adult life. Even though I disagreed with the Democrat politicians and my liberal friends on many things related to the role of gov't, I took for granted the idea (drilled into me since birth) that the Democrats were the the force for the good of the people, and that the Republicans were the party of wealthy men and greedy corporations. I never even thought to question this.

When I watched a Ron Paul interview last July, that whole paradigm was shattered for me. Here was a man, talking about ideas that I believed in - core American principles of limited gov't, fiscal responsibility, lower taxes, personal responsibility rather than a nanny state, individual liberties, and adherence to the Consititution - and associating those values with the Republican party.

I spent a while looking into different Republican websites, reading their platform, and lo and behold, they all talked about these ideas. I registered Republican right away. (For the record, I was aware that I could have remained "unaffiliated" and still vote for Ron Paul in the primary, but opted to register Republican.)

Over the next few months, I reflected on this and about what I'd been ignorantly voting for all my life - more programs, more spending, higher taxes, infinite ways for the federal gov't to "help" me, and more federal control over what should be state and local issues. It made me just frustrated enough to want to contact the local GOP and ask what I could do to help. I've helped perpetual a lie that has turned this country into something closer to the Soviet Union than to what the American founders, in their genius, set up for us in the Constitution and I would like to do what I can to untell that lie.

On a more personal note, I am a shy and reclusive person, which is something I would like to change, and I thought getting involved with something that required me to speak to living breathing humans rather than computers would be good for me. So far, so good.

I hope this helps clarify some things about who I am and why I decided to get involved. For the record, I was asked questions about my political philosophy before being assigned a Precinct Chair position, although at the time I thought he was just making interesting conversation. :)