By Steve Thompson, Chairman of the Butte County Republican Party
“This might be the last election to turn things around before we go down the road
to socialism.”

Those were Michelle Bachman’s words as she gracefully exited the Presidential race on January 4th, 2012.It’s an ominous statement, leaving room for plenty of debate on just how bad things have become in our great nation and whether or not there is time to turn things around.
There’s a typical list of liberal responses that pop up whenever conservatives start discussing the evils of socialism. First comes denial that socialism is their goal, then insults to our intelligence (you’re confusing socialism with communism!), and by the end of their argument comes a rationalization of socialism and why it would be great for our country (or already is), even though they deny promoting it.
What cannot be denied is that Barrack Obama, a liberal democrat, has brought America closer to the brink of socialism, with the ensuing economic ruin, than it has ever been before. He was not alone in this effort. There are countless liberals in Washington and throughout the country who would like to bring this country down to its knees California style. To my own shame there have been numerous Republicans who helped them along the way for the promises of district pork and warm fuzzies from the leftists press. But in the end the buck stops at the White House, and there can be no greater argument than this that America needs a new President.
Here we are in 2012 and we have a chance to elect a new President. Incumbents traditionally have the advantage (Bush 2004, Clinton1996), but not always (Carter, Bush Sr.). Barrack Obama’s performance has certainly mirrored more of Jimmy Carter’s than Bill Clinton’s. The question now is who will Republicans put forth to challenge him?

It has currently come down to a choice between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney. I’ll be the first to say that neither of them were my first choice, although both would be a stellar improvement over Barrack Obama. There is much to like and dislike in both of them.
Mitt Romney is an American success story. He didn’t inherit or marry into his money; he earned it. He’s a charming, warm personality with a strong belief in family and experience in job creation. Unfortunately, he’s also a bit too moderate for my tastes. I’m afraid his campaign will look more like Bob Dole or John McCain’s than Ronald Reagan’s, as Romney will pull his punches in futile attempts to be liked by everyone.
Newt Gingrich is also a story of success, for political conservatives. He led the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994 (I participated then as a college republican), ending 40 years of stagnant democrat domination. For his success, Newt has been demonized by the left more than perhaps any conservative in our history barring Sarah Palin. Newt is also a fighter, hitting some of the biggest home runs in the debates (his response to Juan Williams was inspirational) as he champions getting poor people off welfare, into jobs, and out of poverty for good.
But Newt has troubles of his own. I will admit to being given pause when I consider his poor choices as a husband. I am not a big fan of divorce and neither are a lot of conservatives. Still, half of married Americans have been divorced now, and there are few people left who honestly can cast stones at someone else’s marital difficulties.
When you consider the damage the Obamaconomy has done to millions of American families, Newt Gingrich’s economic policies might be just the boost a lot of married people need.
Ultimately, I think that conservatives now have to go with Gingrich. He is the present unification of our efforts, and our best chance of unseating Barrack Obama. At the very least, there will be no debate in which Obama will not have his bell rung multiple times.
While Gingrich can win debates, this does not always equate with winning elections. He needs a vice presidential candidate with the ability to cover the south and raise a lot of money (Rick Perry?). He needs the help of a unified conservative base who will set aside the smaller debates and stay focused on the greater good.

Newt Gingrich will both need a newly invigorated TEA Party, and his candidacy will help create it.

I for one am starting to be excited again. Our country may have hope beyond 2012 after all.

By Steve Thompson, Chairman of the Butte County Republican Party

Recently on Post Scripts, Jack gave a good review of a great action movie called Battle Los Angeles. It’s a movie about some marines from Camp Pendleton defending a small area of Los Angeles from evil space aliens. Lots of action, shooting, explosions take place along with some good chest thumping bravado scenes. And of course the Americans save the day. It was a good movie and it made a lot of money at the box office.
It also made a lot of money for the location it was filmed. But it wasn’t filmed in Los Angeles.
You can read about it here in the Los Angeles Times.
That’s right, Battle Los Angeles was actually filmed in Louisiana! Baton Rouge to be exact. The people of Louisiana got a nice economic bump, as the movie production hired a crew of 200 people, 3,000 extras, and spent about $46.5 million on the local economy.
Does this seem strange to anyone? Why would a movie about Los Angeles not be filmed there? Isn’t LA the home of Hollywood, where movies are made? Isn’t Hollywood filled with liberals who hate capitalism and should be proud to pay more to film in their home state? I guess not.
It turns out that Louisiana offers a huge tax break for movie productions. The kind of tax break we don’t like to give the “rich” in this state because it’s wrong. But are tax breaks wrong, or just competitive for business?
Louisiana offers a 35 percent tax break for production costs of major films. California only goes up to 25 percent and they cut that off if the production goes over $75 million (which means most movies you see on the silver screen these days).
What it boils down to is that tax breaks work, especially for states that are competing for business. California is losing that competition, along with a lot of jobs, because we are no longer competitive. As businesses and jobs leave our state, you can watch the revenue to pay for teachers and police plummet. At least we can feel superior that we’re not cutting any breaks to the evil capitalists, I guess. Unemployment anyone?

 
By Steve Thompson, Chairman of the Butte County Republican Party

In the last twenty years or so, American politics have seemed to become more divisive. There are a lot of theories out there on why this is, which range from the cultural (Bowling Alone) technological (internet) and ultra-political (right-left takeovers). My own theory incorporates some of all of these, but I believe that politics pre-Reagan was less combative because Republicans before Reagan had very few principles that differentiated them from the democrats. They also were unable to get elected outside of country club circles. It wasn’t until Republicans started to actually stand for real American values and won Congress that democrats went totally ballistic and threw fits like the demon-possessed getting holy water thrown on them. That’s my humble observation at least.

Whatever the case of national political turmoil, it’s funny to watch pundits after each election declaring the end to any given political movement or party. After the election of Barrack Hussein Obama in 2008, there were a lot of statements made about the death of conservatism, for example. After 1994 I’m sure a lot of Republicans also thought the democrats wouldn’t be coming back either. Right now a lot California political pundits are asking if Republicans can ever get elected in this state again. While California is certainly a difficult state for Republicans, I would wager the fight’s not over here. Why do I say that? Because I have patience friends.

All I have to do is wait for the democrats, who now completely run this shipwreck-bound state, to be themselves.

California is already in deep deficits. Put bluntly, we spend more than we make in tax revenue. We also have over 12% unemployment, with no real hope of it getting better. The majority of job growth in the U.S. right now is in states like Texas, and our policies are the exact opposite of theirs. High unemployment means more people who need money from the system. Our state is borrowing money from the feds just to pay people on unemployment. This doesn’t account for our welfare spending either, where people have moved to California for our higher than average welfare payments and we now carry a third of the national welfare caseload.

So while Jerry Brown actually campaigned on being a miser with our money, he was voted in by those who are expecting him to pay their bills (not unlike Obama). While Republicans have lost the albatross of Arnold Schwarzenegger hanging around our necks, the dems have made one of our state’s worst past governors the new face of their party. It’s telling that, in his election night acceptance speech, Jerry Brown actually used the pathetic phrase “good enough for government work.” Way to set your standards high, Governor.

I would love to be hopeful that California is going to recover soon, but I can’t see how that is possible. Democrats pay lip service to jobs but their policies are destroying jobs in the private sector. Without a private sector, you cannot support government jobs for very long. Jerry Brown’s father actually did build dams and create infrastructure, but today’s democrat party only wants to tear dams down. The worst is far from over as democrat legislation such as AB32, which we were unable to suspend this year, will come back and destroy a million more jobs in this state.

Seriously, does anyone who disagrees with me have any real hope or reason that our state can improve with the left at the helm? Can they really make an argument that killing the private sector will be good for our economy over the long haul? Democrats may have won, but I doubt the smart ones in their ranks are celebrating.

Over the next two years democrats will create a perfect storm, Obama style, that will give Republicans another shot at taking back California. Like the national battle that saw us take back Congress, it will not be easy. We must give California voters something to vote for and not just be the lesser of two evils. We must continue to remind voters that we are the party of jobs, while democrats are the party of higher taxes and economic misery. Democrats will help us by proving to voters they are the party of epic failure. Will we stand strong and convey our message that we are the party of success? Time will tell, but for California’s sake, I hope so.