OK Fine, I’m a Radical!

The left wing media wants you to believe that anyone who believes in the Constitution and states’ rights is a radical. They want you to believe Tea Partiers are radical. As if distrust of the federal government is suddenly an extremist position. Fine then, so be it, I’m a radical extremist! I do agree with Barack Obama on one thing – we do need fundamental change here in the US. But not the kind of change he’s talking about. We need to fundamentally change back to the founding principles of our republic.

I was listening to Mark Levin for a few minutes on my way to the store this evening, and he was talking about those “radicals for liberty” – the Founding Fathers. He said he’s becoming more radical and mentioned how today’s government is far worse to us than King George was to the colonists. It’s so true!

Do you own a home? If so, what do you pay in property taxes? What happens if you fail to pay your property taxes? You lose your home. What happens if you fail to pay federal or state income taxes? You go to jail or pay stiff penalties. Do you drink or smoke? How much are you paying in taxes? Just yesterday I paid our auto insurance bill and there was a $20.00 surcharge tacked on. Guess who it goes to? New York State! I was taxed $20.00 by the State of New York for paying for something they compel me to purchase! And today it was announced that Governor Paterson wants to hold back New Yorkers’ tax refunds to pay the state’s bills. The only reason the federal government isn’t floating a similar proposal is because they can print money and states can’t.

Stop and think about all the taxes you pay. Even if you’re one of those Americans who thinks they’re getting more from the government than you’re giving. Have you ever stayed at a hotel? Do you have a home phone or a cell phone? Do you pay sales tax? Do you pay sin taxes? Do you buy gasoline? Do you pay for electricity? Check your bills and receipts and add up just how much you pay in taxes? And it’s only going to get worse. There aren’t enough rich folks in America to cover the $14 trillion we all owe.

It’s pure insanity. The entitlement society is insanity. The public employee unions are insanity. I wonder how many public sector workers from states like New York move to low tax states when they retire? There ought to be a law, if they want their retirement funded by New York State taxpayers they should be required to stay in New York and pay the taxes along with the rest of us. Then again, if Obama and the Democrats have their way there won’t be any low tax states left to flee to.

So yeah, I’m opposed to all of that. I work hard. I’m responsible. I take care of my kids. I pay my bills on time and I’ve had it. I’ve had it with a government that refuses to be as responsible with my money as I am. So call me a radical. What do I care?

It looks like Mark Levin and I aren’t the only radicals out there. A group of conservatives has gotten together and tomorrow will ratify what they call the Mount Vernon Statement. I love it, radicals for liberty in the twenty first century!

The American Spectator reported:

On Wednesday, more than 80 conservative thinkers and organization heads will come together to ratify a joint manifesto ahead of the 2010 elections. Dubbed the Mount Vernon Statement, its goal is to unite the right — economic, social, and national security conservatives — under a set of shared principles. The idea is to make different conservative groups feel part of the same team and also to bind them in a common intellectual enterprise.

Participants read like a virtual who’s who of conservative movement heavyweights: former Attorney General Edwin Meese, American Conservative Union Chairman David Keene, Heritage Foundation President Edwin Feulner, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, among many others. But the final product will be short on policy wonkery.

Unlike the Contract With America, the Mount Vernon Statement is not a detailed legislative agenda. Instead, it intended as a set of philosophical principles that can serve as the foundation for policy formulation later. It is less Frank Luntz than Frank Meyer.

In fact, parts read like Meyer’s “fusionist” conception of conservatism. The document reminds “economic conservatives that morality is essential to limited government, social conservatives that unlimited government is a threat to moral self-government, and national security conservatives that energetic but responsible government is the key to Americas safety and leadership role in the world.”

The Mount Vernon Statement specifically calls for a new “fusion provided by American principles” through “constitutional conservatism.” “In recent decades, America’s principles have been undermined and redefined in our culture, our universities and our politics,” the document reads. “The self-evident truths of 1776 have been supplanted by the notion that no such truths exist. The federal government today ignores the limits of the Constitution, which is increasingly dismissed as obsolete and irrelevant.”

“Some insist that America must change, cast off the old and put on the new,” the statement continues. “But where would this lead — forward or backward, up or down? Isn’t this idea of change an empty promise or even a dangerous deception?” The Mount Vernon conservatives assert “we need a restatement of Constitutional conservatism grounded in the priceless principle of ordered liberty articulated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.”

Welcome to the “radical” club, Mount Vernon Conservatives!

What great timing. The Mount Vernon Statement will be ratified just before CPAC kicks off.

I hope the media keeps calling conservatives radical. It makes us sound cool. What’s more hip? Collectivism or rugged individualism? I’ll go with the latter. Apparently, quite a few college students feel the same way. And hey, conservatives must be doing something right if major publishing houses are paying liberals to put out hit pieces on them.

Tune in later this week and this weekend. Thursday and Friday this radical little mommy blogger will be linking to the other CPAC Bloggers, and I’ll be blogging live from CPAC all day Saturday.

Find out what others are saying at memeorandum.