Great news

Whenever I have gone out to speak, one of the most common questions we get is, "When are you going to write a "Junior Patriot's History of the United States?" Well, it's under way. Mike Allen and I have contracted with writer Tony Williams to produce a 7th-8th grade level version of PHUSA. It will be self-published and we will have it out within the year. It will contain teacher questions, maps, and sources.

Also, My most recent book, American Entrepreneur, which is a history of American business, is now available from Amacom Press: . This is an update and revision of my 2000 book, The Entrepreneurial Adventure but in a trade version. (EA was a textbook and as such was very expensive and was not available in bookstores).

Finally, 48 Liberal Lies is now out in paperback with a bonus lie about Alger Hiss.


All in all, a pretty good week.

Maybe Rudeness Has Its Place

The buzz over SC Congressman Joe Wilson's outburst during a speech to a joint session of Congress ("You lie," when Obama said that illegals wouldn't be covered in the health non-care bill) has even some on the "right" saying, "well, he's rude, but right."

I had a wonderful lunch and discussion with a local entrepreneur and Republican who said he "cringed" when Wilson spoke up. "They'll just have more to attack us with," he said. I noted that they don't need anything to "hit us with," they lie all the time anyway. Moreover, as I now preach to every Republican audience I can find, the GOP has played nice for far too long. I'm sick to death of McCain-type reach-across-the-aisle politics. I'm ready for political combat.

Now, I understand this is really tough for some of you. For some Christians, this seems to violate the "turn the other cheek" commandment; and shouldn't we just love our enemies? Well, a) we dun turned both cheeks and then some, and b) that love is to be extended on a personal basis. But this is politics, and Jesus kept them separate. Would Jesus have shouted "You lie!" if one of the Chief Priests had stated something blatantly false? Absolutely. He called them vipers.

Our model for how to proceed in politics needs to be Saul Alinsky, not the Christ. Alinsky got it. So did Abbie Hoffman. Hoffman said when they occupied a college building, they'd issue a list of demands. When the administration met the demands, they'd just issue a new list. It wasn't about the demands! It was about demonstrating political power toward breaking down the entire structure. As I suggested a week ago, we need to get radical in terms of deconstructing the entire government bureaucracy. It needs to be a multi-front assault.

Those like my friend who abhor "bare knuckle" politics would do well to look at the Founders. Oh, they tried to reach across the aisle for almost a decade. They appealed to the King. (No go). Then they appealed to Parliament (sound of crickets chirping). Finally they went straight to the British people. (No dice). At that point, Tom Paine said "tis time to separate," and Patrick Henry said it was either liberty or death. One of the most even-tempered and concessionary of the Founders, George Washington, grimly and reluctantly---but with murderous effectiveness---took up command of the Continental Army. John Adams, no stranger to a musket, took up his pen. Hamilton and Madison strapped on their sabers. Even the Reverend Witherspoon took off his collar and brought out his musket.

When the opposition ceases to listen to you, and imposes unpopular and dangerous laws that threaten your purse and your life, Jefferson said, you have a duty to resist. We need more Joe Wilsons. ALL OF THE GOP MEMBERS SHOULD HAVE WALKED OUT OF THAT SPEECH. Because if the Republicans soon don't pay attention to the people, they will end up like the Tories after Lexington and Concord. Oh, and Jesus said, I think, that you were either with Him or against Him. We are rapidly getting that point with our elected plutocrats.

The New Media Triumphant

For those who remember the heady days of the Clinton scandal, when a single, virtually unknown internet site, www.drudgereport.com, pried open the Lewinsky affair and with it, Clinton's obstruction of justice, a replay has just been put up on the big screen in the endzone.

FOX News, and specifically Glenn Beck, has almost single-handedly exposed "Green jobs czar" Van Jones as the radical communist America-hater he is, and forced his resignation. Even the Huffington-Puffington Post admitted Beck had his "first scalp on the wall." If Drudge was the "300 pound gorilla" in the mid-1990s with his ability to break news no one else could get, Beck has become the exposer-in-chief of the conservative movement in exile.

Two facts are shocking about this Jones debacle:
*Number of words dedicated to Van Jones, last week, according to Byron York of the Washington Examiner (as of 9/5):
Total words about the Van Jones controversy in the New York Times: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy in the Washington Post: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy on NBC Nightly News: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy on ABC World News: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy on CBS Evening News: 0.
*Number of calls for Van Jones to resign by major Republican officials:
John McCain: 0
Mitt Romney: 0
Mike Huckabee: 0 (that I know of---perhaps he said something on his TV show, but I can't find a headline)
John Boehner: 0
Orin Hatch: 0 (but he had time to write a song honoring Ted Kennedy)
Michael Steele: 0
David Brooks: 0

(Perhaps I'm wrong here, also, but I can't find that Sarah Palin issued a statement saying he needed to resign. On facebook, she urged her fans to watch Glenn Beck's show, but made no official comment last week on Jones).

Now, these are stunning numbers. In my recent memory, it's the first time ever that a major official in any administration has been forced to resign from a grass-roots movement, with no coverage or support at all in the national press except FOX; and without the slightest pressure from the so-called opposition party. Rush was away last week, and guest-host Mark Steyn hit this pretty hard, though certainly not like Glenn Beck did. Beck is emerging as public enemy number one for the Left.

What does this mean for the Tea Parties/Townhalls? MUCHO! (Little Spanish lingo there for all you illegal aliens). It means that increasingly, the grass roots is making a Gulf-War-type flanking maneuver around the entrenched obsolete Saddam line of the media and Washington elites. I can't emphasize that enough: no major Republican officials, elected or wanna-be office holders, were out front on this guy. The people, through their media, are increasingly shaping policy.

The upcoming "march on Washington" may, or may not, be a Martin Luther King-type moment, but the reality is that even among activist conservatives, they still have to work and raise families and cannot just hop off to any protest they choose to attend. My guess is that whatever the numbers on September 12, they will wildly understate the real support that is growing out here for change, and not the "hopey" stuff promised by the occupant of the Oval Office. Even John McCain, a little slow on the trigger these days, said there is a "revolution" brewing; yet even McCain continues to ignore its concerns as he announces he wants to revive amnesty.

If I have to guess, as of 9/6/09, whether we get a "health care" bill, my guess is yes. I don't know, yet, if it contains the "public option," but I do know that it will spark an even greater resentment among the tea parties, while eating into more of Obama's support among those who wanted to "just give him a chance." Well, they are seeing what happens when they give him a chance: he appoints America-hating radicals to give away their money!