PO Box 130
West Shokan, NY 12494

June 12, 2010

Lazio 2010, Inc.
P.O. Box 4818
New York, NY 10185

Dear Mr. Lazio:

I am writing as a registered Republican and a member of my Town’s Republican Committee.

Your opponent, Carl Paladino, has publicly stated that during your tenure as a full-time employee and lobbyist for JP Morgan Chase you lobbied for and arranged a payment of $25 billion from the US Treasury to your employer. In other words, Mr. Paldino has publicly alleged that you participated in the “bailout.”  In return you received a $1.3 million bonus.

If Mr. Paldino’s allegations are inaccurate, please respond to this inquiry publicly.

If Mr. Paladino’s allegations are accurate you are morally unfit to serve in public office.  I am posting this letter on my blog and stating explicitly that if Mr. Paladino’s allegations are accurate you are morally equivalent to a common criminal and belong in jail.  Consequently, I would urge you to step down from the gubernatorial candidacy and allow the better man to run.

Sincerely,

Mitchell Langbert, Ph.D.

Taking the lead for the rest of the RLC to follow, the Northeast Florida chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus launched a radio ad campaign on WOKV talk radio in Jacksonville to let listeners know that the cause of liberty is alive and well in Northeast Florida. Here is the text of the ad:

“Hi! Have you had enough of government bailouts, housing bubbles, rising unemployment, taxes and a political class and media who refuse to address YOUR concerns?

Do you feel like the Republican Party has lost its way and that third parties and tea parties are not making enough of a difference.

Well – you are not alone. Discover The RLC! – The Republican Liberty Caucus of Northeast Florida. A group of patriots with a plan to Take Back our City, our State and our Republic. If you are ready to answer the call go to www.RLCNEF.org – that is RLC NEF dot org.

The Republican Liberty Caucus of Northeast Florida – It’s all About Liberty – Take it Back!”

To listen to the ad paired with several other ads which it shares a slot with click below:

RLCNEF and Four Points by Sheraton

RLCNEF and Paul Woods Realty

RLCNEF and Tee The People

This is a smart move by the RLC of Northeast Florida.  Radio advertising is cost-effective and talk radio is an ideal market. Their ad will be appearing on the Neal Boortz show which is probably an ideal audience for the RLC message.  Other libertarian hosts like Herman Cain and Michael Smirkonish and even the less reliable Glenn Beck have good target audiences as well.

Any chapter ought to be able to raise the money to do this, and the results in attracting new members and backers ought to more than justify the expense.

Since this is an election year, another way to approach this sort of advertising would be to have local RLC candidates pool their resources and put on an ad which mentions their campaign and also the RLC.  This could be an important part of a local branding campaign to establish clearly in the minds of voters the “Liberty Republican” brand and identify candidates with it.

Many Ron Paul supporters find themselves at odds with the Republican Party over the issue of American involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Like Ron Paul they believe that wars of occupation and nation building are unconstitutional and they cannot understand why Republicans who claim to share their belief in the Constitution support those wars.

They make the same mistake that Ron Paul himself did when he attacked Rudy Giuliani over this issue in the first presidential debate of 2008. They make themselves look anti-Republican and even anti-American because they do not understand the perspective of many traditional Republicans or the basis on which those Republicans find themselves supporting these wars.

Then the battle-lines are drawn up and both sides become entrenched in their ideology without trying to understand each others' perspective. The Ron Paul supporters become convinced that traditional Republicans are a bunch of pro-war "neocons" and more mainstream Republicans get the idea that Ron Paul supporters are radical, anti-American peaceniks, when the truth is that neither perception is even close to accurate.

While there are a small number of Stalinistic, pro-war expansionists in the GOP, their viewpoint is alien to the party and is not shared by most Republicans. Most Republicans who support our current wars do not do so because they are in favor of war or of imperialism, but because they are unquestioningly pro-America. They may believe in a strong national defense, but they do not believe in wars of conquest and occupation. They oppose the anti-war position, not because they like war, but because they dislike those who take issue with the actions of America as a nation no matter what the reason.

They operate from the perspective that our government is good, not because government is good, but because our government is American and America is good. They therefore assume that the actions of our government, including making war, must be good and right actions because they are the actions of an American government.

Despite its inherently irrational nature, this would be an understandable and even excusable position for them to take if the government of the United States were, in fact, the government which we are supposed to have under the Constitution and if the government still followed the principles of the Constitution and the founding fathers. If that were the case and the government entered into a war, then it would be impossible for that war not to be undertaken justly and it would be traitorous to oppose it.

Most Republicans act on the assumption that we still live under a government which operates legitimately and constitutionally and that is the basis for their outrage with those who oppose the government's actions. They are not awakened to how far we have drifted from legitimate, American-style, constitutional government and they are still acting on the mistaken assumption that we have the government which we ought to have and that its actions are legitimate on that basis.

So if you are a Ron Paul style constitutionalist, don't make the mistake of calling other Republicans "neocons" or warmongers just because they defend the nation's actions even when you believe those actions are wrong. From their perspective that makes you a traitor and an enemy of the Constitution, because all they see is that you are attacking the Republic, not the reasoning behind your actions.

You can't change the perception that the government is good by attacking the government because those who still believe the government is good will turn against you. It's kind of a catch-22 situation.

You need to convince them not that our government is bad, but that the government we have is effectively not our government at all. You can do this by laying out for them what government ought to be under the Constitution and then let them see for themselves the shortcomings of government as it is compared to government as it should be.

The fact that the Democrats are in power also presents a valuable opportunity, because Republicans of all varieties are willing to believe that Democrats and their policies are evil. So if you go after big government and its excesses as products of Democrat policy you can get your foot in the door very easily.

It's a short trip from condemning the actions of Obama and the Democrats to realizing that those actions are wrong even when they are the actions of Republicans. Patriotic Republicans who would never question the actions of their government under other circumstances will quickly change their tune when they are perceived to be the actions of Democrats or even of Republicans who are acting like Democrats.

Before you can even begin to discuss the war with them you need to lay this sort of groundwork and make them aware that our government is no longer operating on Constitutional principles. That is where you really disagree and once you resolve that disagreement by educating them, then the secondary issues of war and nation building and the tyranny of the security state will become ones on which you will soon find common ground.

When they understand that you are defending the Republic as it ought to be rather than attacking the Republic as it is they will understand that you are allies, not enemies.

Brian Miller is an outstanding candidate running for the House of Representatives from Arizona’s 8th District. He is a strict fiscal conservative, a strong believer in individual liberty and an activist for limited government. He is doing well in a crowded primary and if he wins he will face Democrat incumbent Gabrielle Giffords in the general election. She has only been in office for two terms and barely won her two elections with considerable help from President Obama and MoveOn.org. In this year of change she is very vulnerable.

Miller has Democrats running scared and they are targeting him because of his support of the Tea Party movement, opposition to Obamacare and stand against bailouts. He’s a true Liberty Republican who believes in limited government, free enterprise and individual liberty.

Miller could play a big role in restoring liberty in our nation, but he needs all the help he can get. His campaign is doing well, but is running low on money and there are still months to go until the Arizona primary. He needs all the help he can get. Please spread the word about his candidacy and consider contributing to his campaign.

“As your Congressman I will work to restrain government overreach, expose political corruption, and put the brakes on outrageous wasteful spending. Special interests in search of special treatment will get none from me. I care about you – Arizonans and your families. I will work tirelessly to secure your rights and keep politicians from overstepping the Constitutional bounds of their authority.” — Brian Miller

The Republican Liberty Caucus is proud to have endorsed Miller and hopes to see him fighting for liberty in Congress next year.

In his historical tour de force, On Power, Bertrand de Jouvenal traces the process of centralization of power in Europe from the fall of Rome. He paints a picture of an unstoppable centripetal force, power, whose ever tightening grip on humanity was hastened first by the increasing power of monarchs and then by the rise of democracy.   Prior to mass rule that began with the French revolution and Napoleon, war was limited by the resources of local feudal rulers.  Total war became possible with the rise of democracy and nationalistic centralization. The great wars of the twentieth century which saw unprecedented numbers killed were the product of nationalism, mass rule and socialism, indeed, of national socialism and socialism in one country.  These last are the ideologies of both the Democratic and Republican parties today.

For a century the United States showed that in the absence of centralization economic progress would come quicker, the public made better off, and war limited to local expansionism.  But the Civil War began a process of Progressive centralization, and elite Americans of the Gilded Age after the Civil War, envious of the status of German universities, sent their sons to graduate school in Germany and were surprised when they returned advocating ideas that would forestall freedom and progress.  Not having access to the ideas of von Mises, Hayek and Schumpeter, elite Americans adopted German historicism, according to which they, as an expert elite, deserved power and that power ought to be centralized to that end. They chose to remake America in Germany’s image fifty years before the rise of Hitler.

We live with the heritage of their nationalist and now internationalist Progressivism.  Progress has slowed; retirement savings are insufficient to cover the needs of the largest cohort of retirees in the history of the world; the Progressive health care system has faltered and  been redesigned to  restrict care; and for the past forty years Americans have seen the”promise of American life”, an ever increasing standard of living, betrayed and slowed to a halt as the Federal Reserve Bank and the federal government  have transferred ever more resources to banks and speculators.

De Jouvenal saw the rise of Franklin D. Roosevelt as the ultimate success of “power” in the United States.  But the process has taken longer and become more intense as the centralizers’ ideas, one after the next, have failed and destroyed sections of America’s freedom and affluence.  The nation retains its preeminent role because of  the nineteenth century’s gains and because its diminishing sphere of private initiative remains larger than under the rigid socialism that dominates Europe and the rest of the world.

No one can calculate the damage that power has done to the nation.  It is probable that, based on the absence of real wage growth since the gold standard was abolished in 1971 and the 2% compounded growth of real wages between 1800 and 1971,  the real hourly wage today is but 40% of what it might have been without the depredations of the federal and state governments.  But Americans are relatively worse off than that because of increases in taxes at the state and federal levels.

Both parties, Republican and Democratic, have participated in the relentless expansion of power.  The Republican is the more likely of the two to be transformed from a socialistic, elitist party, to one that represents freedom and decentralization. Hence, there is no more important task in politics today than that which the Republican Liberty Caucus has set before itself: to reform the GOP and transform it into a party of freedom and decentralization; to overturn the process of centralization of power; and to reestablish America as a land of freedom.

Given the low quality of public debate and the domination of the public media, this is a difficult task. Struggle we must.

Let’s say you’re a fan of a Superbowl 43 football team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and that the name of the Steelers’ coach is Mike Tomlin. Let’s say the other team’s, the Arizona Cardinals’, coach’s name is Ken Whisenhunt. Let’s also say that the month before Superbowl 43, the Arizona media ran repeated headlines saying what a great coach Mike Tomlin of Pittsburgh is and how lucky America is that Mike Tomlin and Ken Whisenhunt are the two teams’ coaches. If you were an Arizona fan, might you wonder why?

In recent months the nation’s leading Democratic Party newspaper, the New York Times, whose editorial views are well within the Democratic Party’s socialist wing, has had nothing but positive things to say about the New York State Republican Committee’s new chair, Edward F. Cox. Might Republicans have cause to wonder about this?

Why on earth would a socialist Democratic propaganda source be saying that it likes Edward F. Cox?

Dear reader, I propose to you that Republicans and Democrats are like two superbowl teams that compete every year. On one end of the field are the Democratic Party socialists, ham-handed medieval reactionaries, advocates of mid-twentieth century style “planning” whose only solution to the problems of the world is to tax the productive out of existence and reward the welfare cheats on Wall and Broad.

On the other end of the field are the Republicans, supporters of progressive, market-based innovation and spontaneous order. The advocates of ideas that work, not of feudalistic ideas that deceive.

But if the coach of the socialist Democrats praises the Republican coach to the heavens, might we conclude that the teams are not really independent, that something is crooked?

I urge you to determine whether the Democratic Party press and electronic media in your town is supporting Republicans. If so, you might ask yourself, “Why?” “Why are the Democrats supporting Republicans?”

In the case of New York, questions need to be raised about why the new chair of the Republican Committee is being praised by the socialist Democrats, and whether Mr. Cox has been on the receiving end of socialist largesse while an attorney.

Liberty Republicans have a communication challenge. That is, the concepts of limited government, freedom and liberalism are difficult for most people to understand. It is easier to understand the claim that you are helping someone by handing them money than the claim that by limiting government you unleash entrepreneurial energy. Add to that the socialists’ habit of co opting phraseology that characterizes the advocates of freedom, for instance, socialists’  purloining of the word “liberal”.

Nowhere is the challenge facing liberty Republicans greater than with respect to money and banking. The systemic lying about the role of the Federal Reserve Bank in the media and the misleading way in which the topic is taught in basic college courses in economics contribute to the problem. But the reality is that the subject is too abstract for Americans brought up to believe in “experts” and in the word of the federal government. Thus, a malaise of contradictions, confusion and just plain dumbing down makes it difficult for liberty Republicans to discuss economic and monetary issues.

The bailout was a major blow to freedom. Supported as it was by the media, university academics and most Republicrat socialists, it would take someone committed to freedom to say that they opposed. it.

Moreover, because the pro-banker socialist establishment from George W. Bush to Barack Obama favored the bailout, while the general public opposed it, it is a handy campaign issue. A candidate who can say they opposed the bailout and that there will be no more trillion dollar welfare plans for wealthy bankers can win.

Thus, we of the liberty Republican philosophy have a handy litmus test. We can oppose any candidate who favored the bailout, and favor candidates who opposed it.  This simplifies communication and offers a galvanizing campaign issue.  Moreover, the public is likely to be susceptible to our message. The likes of Karl Rove and Newt Gingrich have revealed their socialist core.

And we can stop them.

President Obama is giving his first State of the Union address on Wednesday at 9pm EST. We’re going to be covering it live with special guest bloggers and commenters as well as open participation for our readers. Watch this space for the live chat starting when the president takes the podium.

Attention all RLC members, liberty activists, bloggers and anyone else on the cutting edge of the liberty movement.

In the first in a series of teleconference events, the Republican Liberty Caucus presents:

Former Governor

Gary E. Johnson

of New Mexico

January 26th at 9pm EST

Dial-in Number: 1-219-509-8222

Participant Access Code: 618486

Just call in, enter your code and follow along.

The teleconference will feature 20-30 minutes of remarks by Governor Johnson followed by an hour for questions and answers from participants.

The teleconference series brings together pro-liberty newsmakers and RLC members, friendly media and liberty-oriented bloggers to increase awareness of the RLC candidates, issue initiatives, allied organizations and important events.

Governor Johnson served two very successful terms as Governor of New Mexico and has been a champion of individual liberties and fiscally responsible government, often compared favorably with Ron Paul.  Although there has been speculation about a possilbe 2012 GOP presidential run, Governor Johnson is now working hard on hiis Our America Initiative which is promoting popular awareness of civil liberties, free enterprise, limited government, and traditional American values.

For more information see Mitchell Langbert’s recent interview with Governor Johnson.

Don’t miss the teleconference. Space is limited, so call in on time.

The RLC National Board has now gone through our first two rounds of candidate endorsements, as covered in a previous article.  We’re developing an excellent slate of pro-liberty Senators and Representatives.  They’re great  great liberty candidates with professional campaigns and a good shot at victory with your support.

For those of you who are bloggers or run websites, we’re making it easier than ever to promote these great candidates, by adding a simple sidebar widget which will help your users find out more about these candidates, donate to their campaigns and donate to the RLC PAC which will support these and other candidates.

Here’s what it looks like:

And you can add it to your site by downloading the simple text and inserting it in your sidebar code or in a text widget. Very easy to do. Just download the code and copy and paste it into your site. If you want a somewhat narrower version, download this version.

Keep an eye out for widget updates as we endorse more candidates throughout the primary season.  As it gets longer you may want to use the compressed version or you can edit it down.  Each candidate is on a separate line in the code, so you could edit it down to those who are in your region or who you particularly support, though we think they are all worthy.

Dave