In his acceptance speech, he set forth a new agenda for the RNC.  The new goal is to be less sedentary and be active in its outreach and message.  Take the word to the people, friend and foe alike.  With this new spirit, I would like to propose a unifying platform upon which the RNC should stand.

“That government is best which governs least,” which is attributed to Thomas Jefferson (although some say it was Thomas Paine), is the call to arms to invigorate the party. This new challenge should be a summons to the Senators, Congressmen, Governors, State Governments, Councilmen and even the citizens to constantly strive to find ways of governing smarter.  In a sense, the accomplishment of a set goal needs to be met with the least interaction possible.

Shakespeare’s line from Hamlet, “Brevity is the soul of wit” goes hand in hand with the former point.  Not only should the idea be expressed, but it should be expressed in a way that is clear and to the point.  When an idea is expressed clear and concisely, the power of the message runs through it.

A lofty goal with a solid, unified and clear message would do wonders in appealing to those that are holding the status quo.  Give the American people a towering and worthy goal, but don’t be surprised when they attain it.

Alabama A&M University presidential hopeful Dr. Lawrence Davenport told a campus meeting today he will implement a 90-day plan to make sure the university gets its “fair share” of $7 billion coming from Washington in an economic stimulus bill.

“That’s who has the budget right now,” Davenport said. “It’s not going to come from your own.”

It’s always disappointing, from a conservative perspective, to hear a leader (potential) be so naive about how the government works as to claim that the money the Federal Government’s possesses is not your money.  In fact, they make it out to be quite the opposite of your money.  They act as if it’s free money.

On one hand, if the government is going to be doling out the cash, it’s hard to argue that you should pass up on trying to get a part of it.  If you don’t, it potentially puts you at a competitive disadvantage to those organizations that do.  But doing what is right is sometimes the harder decision and we should always strive to stand on principle.  That would lead me to say that the money, if offered, should not be accepted.  And if you must take it, put it straight into a scholarship.

Every opportunity should be taken to educate the public about how our government works.  Even though you would expect people to know the simple things, such as: “The government does not make money, it takes it from the citizens”, it still needs to be hammered home.  It’s necessary to understand the basics, which are usually simple, in order to move on to more complex issues.

Now, the whole idea of a stimulus bill is to allow for the creation of jobs.  As an aside, the only justifiable allocation of monies by the Fed in this case is for US roads and the like.  Here, the administration’s hopes are that a nice looking park will attract more patrons and in turn, the surrounding businesses will have more people visiting their shops.  The basic premise is reasonable, attract more people and you will most likely increase business opportunities.  The power is with the people.

However, going to the contrary, they don’t want to give tax breaks (any more than they are already giving).  These welfare handouts … I mean tax breaks appear only to be marginally important to the administration and congress.  If they really wanted an impact, they would focus on the taxpayers themselves rather than institutions.  The easiest way to do that would be to reduce the taxes levied.  No need for more bureaucracy to determine/dole out/monitor the money and where it goes.  But then again, that would actually accomplish something.

For example, lets say you have only one kid.  Let’s say that he likes to play baseball, soccer, basketball, football, and tennis.  Since you can devote all of your time to him, it’s relatively easy to let him participate in each of those.  Of course, since he’s not old enough to drive, you have to be able to take him to each function.

Now, imagine instead of one kid, you had four.  Things have become a lot more constrained.  If each kid likes the same sport, it’s easier to be able to take them to the same place.  Let’s say it’s basketball.  From there, you have to limit the participation in the other sports.  As the parent with limited time, you tell your kids that they only get to play one other sport.  This gives each kid two sports to play all year, with one of those being the same for everybody (basketball).  This one sport is the lowest common denominator. However, if you wanted to make it most efficient, you would only allow them to all play the same sport.

Rolling this analogy into governing …
Government should rule on the lowest common denominator.  Once it starts getting specialized, it starts spending more time and money than it needs to in efforts to get limited returns.
The main job is to make sure everyone is playing nice (upholding the constitutional freedom of personal property).  From there, everything else flows.  Free trade (sharing your crayons with whomever you would like for whatever reason you choose), free lifestyle (as long as you don’t kick the other kids), etc.

There are many things that I could list like that, but you get the idea.  As it stands today, the government is trying to take on more and more when it should be doing the opposite.  Just like a parent should do.  Sadly, the government is unlike most parents who know when they’ve reached the limit of their ability.

Living in Alabama, most talk is about football.  Who won, who lost, what the projection for next year might be, etc.  You get the idea.  Knowing my audience is of this persuasion, (as is much of the SouthEast) creating a metaphor between football and politics would be a fantastic method.

For example, I explain my thoughts on affirmative action to my friends in this way.  What is the main goal of a professional football team?  To win.  Everything is secondary to that goal.  Much like a business’s main goal is to make money.  The football team hires the best players to achieve this vision. They are not constrained to hire a certain percentage of blacks, whites, asians, hispanics, native americans.  They hire those that get the job done.  Why should a business be any different.  Being forced to hire someone takes away that choice and limits the choices for that team or business.  Fans or consumers would show their approval of the choices made by watching their games or buying products from their store.

See how effective this is?  It almost comes second nature to explain it in this fashion.  Think of how many people actually know about the game of football and how that relationship could allow you to allow people to understand/think about more important and complicated situations.

Dr. Martin Eppler explains this perfectly on one of his pages:

The old Confucian adage “I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand” goes together well with the concept of knowledge communication. Knowledge communications refers to conveying complex issues to multiple stakeholders in a way that allows people to reconstruct the information in a familiar and understandable form. Knowledge communication is always interactive and can be mediated, for example, by visuals. By calling attention to participation and interaction, in other words “doing,” people will be more apt to understand complex issues.

– You cannot communicate knowledge – you can only communicate information, Eppler said.

– The more about an issue you know, the less you’re able to communicate it precisely. You start to take what you know for granted and can no longer relate to people who don’t share your insights.

There were two key takeaways that Professor Eppler pointed out. First, don’t think communication, think communicating to emphasize interactivity and avoid the one-way information trap. Second, use visuals such as pictures, diagrams, metaphors, and maps to enable people to activate their prior knowledge and use something they already know to understand something new.

More can be found on Dr. Martin here.

As a conservative, I believe my message is better than any other out there.  Making sure others understand it like I do is where the work comes in.  Using the methods listed here by Dr. Martin would go a long way in the efforts to communicate better to a wider audience.

Back on February 1 of this year, Decatur, AL passed an ordinance that impounds the car of anyone driving without a license.  Want to get your car back after getting caught?  It’ll  cost you $100, and don’t forget to break out your proof of liability insurance.

In the 11 months this ordinance has been in effect, the police have impounded over 1.600 autos.  With a quick slide on the abacus, that averages about 6 a day. Whether those cars stay there or get claimed is not said.  But … during this same time police will have answered about 430 less wrecks than last year (36/month). One less wreck is a fantastic improvement.

There are so many pluses to this.  Enforcement takes uninsured off the road (if you don’t have a license you sure as heck don’t have insurance). That has the potential to lower insurance rates.  Maybe, biggest of all, it gives more of a peace of mind.

Spreading this to other cities and states would be a great benefit to all.  Apparently enforcing the law works, who knew?

We need to be able to say this in about 30 seconds, so it needs to be shortened.  Let the axes/scalpels be unsheathed.

The #dontgo movement is a supporter of free market, low-tax, low-regulation, pro-personal freedom ideals.  We have chosen to create our own structure and set our own priorities. Operating independently of any party, we will be able to allocate our resources efficiently with maximum impact. We will work directly and be in constant communication with our rank and file, which will allow the will of the people to be heard more effectively.

This movement started when a small number of activists started using the social media service Twitter to broadcast updates about the protests on the floor of the House from members opposed to the leadership’s decision to go into the ‘08 Summer recess before passing an energy bill. Our name comes from the Twitter tag, #dontgo, which was inserted into each update to enable supporters of the protest to more easily follow the debate’s progress. By entering the #dontgo identifier into Twitter’s search function, conserned citizens could easily follow minute-by-minute updates from people in the thick of the action, which in many cases included House members and their staff.  Also, by using this tag, activists from across the country were able to communicate quickly with the people on the scene and provide feedback from the grassroots, which now stands at over 30,000 subscribers and is set to grow as we mobilize to set up a 50-state organization on the Web to facilitate action at the grassroots level.

This is just the beginning of an overall strategy to use the latest online technology to reach voters and bring them into the process of forming an anti-tax, pro-growth, pro-individual liberty agenda. The ultimate goal is to completely reform the way agendas are shaped.

Set to begin in January 2009, we will be establishing a citizens’ corps of investigative journalists. Each state will be a bureau unto itself, with state-wide coordinators and editors monitoring and managing contributors, potentially down to the precinct level. State editors will be responsible for aggregating and promoting content to highlight reporting that is most likely to have an impact on advancing #dontgo’s principles. By exposing corruption, mobilizing public sentiment against initiatives that limit individual liberties, combating government intrusion into free markets, and working as an advocate for taxpayers, the #dontgo movement will send a message to the political establishment, regardless of party affiliation, that the American people have had enough.

More than anything, this movement provides an opportunity for all advocates of personal liberty, government accountability and free markets to rally around ideals.  Our mission is to create a network and support structure to help place representatives of our strong held beliefes in positions where they can make them realities.

UPDATE:
Refined the wording a bit.  Tried to focus on the main ideas of the movement.  If people want to know more based on the pitch, they should be pointed to the #dontgo Movement website.

The #dontgo movement is for anyone who supports free markets, low-taxes, low-regulation and personal freedoms. The initiative to use the latest online technology will allow resources to be used efficiently and with maximum impact. This will provide a direct and constant communication infrastructure with and for all supporters.  The ultimate goal is to completely reform the way agendas are shaped by not just mobilizing citizens supporters but to include elected officials as well.

In January 2009, a citizens’ corps of investigative journalists will be established which is a vital part of the #dontgo movement. Each state will be a bureau unto itself, with state-wide coordinators and editors monitoring and managing contributors, potentially down to the precinct level. State editors will be responsible for aggregating and promoting content to highlight reporting that is most likely to have an impact on advancing #dontgo’s principles. By exposing corruption, mobilizing public sentiment against initiatives that limit individual liberties, combating government intrusion into free markets, and working as an advocate for taxpayers, the #dontgo movement will send a message to the political establishment, regardless of party affiliation, that the American people have had enough.

More than anything, this movement provides an opportunity for all advocates of personal liberty, government accountability and free markets to rally around ideals.  Our mission is to create a network and support structure to help place representatives of our strong held beliefs in positions where they can make them realities.

Sweet!  “Most” is good, right?  I wonder if I’m included in that “most” category, too.  Oh, wait a minute.  Dang, it looks like my joint income puts me in a different bracket.  Maybe that’s not a bad thing … or is it?  Let’s dig in.

(Disclaimer: When it comes to government, I think everyone should be treated equally.  Having said that, I support the FairTax over the current tax system.  But then again, almost anything is better than the current system.  If “most” is a good thing, wouldn’t all be even better?)

This chart pits the number of tax payers against the amount they pay.  Using the magic of spreadsheets, I get a cool looking graph.

Let me break it down for you like a bad rap.  The more money that you earn, the more you have to fork over.  Seems logical.  The catch?  As you work more to earn more, you become part of a smaller group but you also have the privilege of forking over an even higher percentage of your money than the group below you.  It looks a little something like this.

As you see, the total amount of taxes collected shoots up exponentially the higher up in tax brackets you go.  So, if you make over $61,300, you are part of the fourth of the country (orange + brown + blue + olive) that pays over half of all income taxes.
The other %62 (green + purple) of wage earners make up the rest.

If fairness were a concern, then we would have constant tax rate.  Let’s stop and think.  Get a cup of java.  Okay, now that we’re up and hopping we can see that %10 of $1,000 is $100 and %10 of $100,000 is $1,000.  Now, as you’re saying to yourself “Holy crap!  At a constant tax rate, if you make more you pay more.  Why on Earth would we want to punish people for working harder and smarter?”

Now you have stepped through the same thought process as I did a few years ago.

When politicians talk about socking it to the rich, they are playing class warfare and pitting 2/3 of the country against 1/3.  Seems fair to me. Riiiiight.

While I was waiting in line at Walmart to return an extra item from my Halloween costume, I overheard a conversation.  Behind me were a younger black man and woman talking about how they would raise kids.  In a twisted way, it made sense.

They basically said that they would let their kid do anything they wanted but would tell them they would have to live with the consequences.  No offense is meant to them, but their maturity level wasn’t as high as I thought it should be but it proved something to me.

Always the eternal optimist, I try and learn something from everything.  What I learned in this situation is that people can surprise you.  Seeing as they weren’t the philosophical type, they still were forward looking enough to talk about family values and responsibility.  I’m kindly looking over the fact that at one point the woman said that she would rather have a baby than HIV and that she’d give the baby up for adoption in a heartbeat.

It seems that we all have more in common than we think, it just takes the right language to communicate the similarities.

There is a conservative movement gaining steam.  What’s the name of this movement you ask?  It’s the #dontgo movement and it’s taking off like gangbusters.

If you like the idea of politicians being responsible with the money you and I give them, then #dontgo is for you.
If you want transparency in all aspects of government, then #dontgo is for you.
If you favor more control over your everyday lives, then #dontgo is for you.

I’m starting this blog solely because of #dontgo because it has inspired me to do so.  My vision is to become a good enough blogger to contribute to the community of bloggers that will compose the #dontgo movement.  More importantly, I see myself as more of a ideas guy and one of the boots on the ground.

If you don’t have a Twitter account, do so now, because that is how this began and it will continue to be a major part.

I’ll refine my writing and mad blogging skills as I go.