As some of my readers may know, this is an election year here in the Commonwealth of Virginia. This morning there was a fundraising breakfast for Barbara Comstock. She is running for delegate in the Virginia 34th. A big part of her campaign is discussing issues of transportation and of course jobs. Transportation is a very big issue in Northern Virginia. The only place in the country that has worse traffic than us is Los Angeles. So while it may not seem all that sexy or important to you; it is very important to me and my neighbors.
Barbara had many guests, most of which are involved in the Republican Party in Virginia. But there were also some more recognizable names as well. Newt Gingrich and Jerri Thompson were also in attendance. Barbara was working in the house at the time of the “Contract with America”, so she has had a working relationship with the speaker in the past. It was a very nice event held at the home of a former treasury department employee.
We heard some stories from Barbara herself about her adventures of going door to door in her district. She told a funny one about approaching the door of a family who considers themselves independents and when they answered the door, she was told “No democrats, we don’t want any democrats here”. This is funny because this part of Virginia is very liberal. We were also introduced to a man who is from Romania originally. He told his story of growing up in a communist country and this is why he is a republican. A very moving tale of his believe in capitalism, freedom, and the how important the freedoms we have in this country are.
Newt gave a short speech. He wanted us to understand the importance of being involved with politics at the local level. If we can get good solid candidates at the local level it will be only a matter of time before we get them at the national level. He also talked about with this seat being very competitive we are going to see the left-winged 527’s such as moveon.org moving into Virginia to try and take the seat away. With both money and volunteers that will be coming from out of state. We have even had the left wing bloggers talking about how this seat is looking like it is going to be lost. This is coming as a big shock. As Mark Levin has said recently “Conservatism is on the ascendency”. I believe that he is correct.
A very nice surprise at this breakfast this morning was not only the sheer volume of people who showed up at 8AM on a Monday morning, but the youth that showed up as well. I met some college and high school students who have spent their summer helping with the campaign. So the Young Republican groups are alive and well in Northern Virginia; which is a very promising sign of things to come.
Barbara had many guests, most of which are involved in the Republican Party in Virginia. But there were also some more recognizable names as well. Newt Gingrich and Jerri Thompson were also in attendance. Barbara was working in the house at the time of the “Contract with America”, so she has had a working relationship with the speaker in the past. It was a very nice event held at the home of a former treasury department employee.
We heard some stories from Barbara herself about her adventures of going door to door in her district. She told a funny one about approaching the door of a family who considers themselves independents and when they answered the door, she was told “No democrats, we don’t want any democrats here”. This is funny because this part of Virginia is very liberal. We were also introduced to a man who is from Romania originally. He told his story of growing up in a communist country and this is why he is a republican. A very moving tale of his believe in capitalism, freedom, and the how important the freedoms we have in this country are.
Newt gave a short speech. He wanted us to understand the importance of being involved with politics at the local level. If we can get good solid candidates at the local level it will be only a matter of time before we get them at the national level. He also talked about with this seat being very competitive we are going to see the left-winged 527’s such as moveon.org moving into Virginia to try and take the seat away. With both money and volunteers that will be coming from out of state. We have even had the left wing bloggers talking about how this seat is looking like it is going to be lost. This is coming as a big shock. As Mark Levin has said recently “Conservatism is on the ascendency”. I believe that he is correct.
A very nice surprise at this breakfast this morning was not only the sheer volume of people who showed up at 8AM on a Monday morning, but the youth that showed up as well. I met some college and high school students who have spent their summer helping with the campaign. So the Young Republican groups are alive and well in Northern Virginia; which is a very promising sign of things to come.
10 comments:
Is that you, honey? You look great! But too well-dressed. Must be an astroturf protester. ;-)
This is what every concerned citizen should do. Become involved.
Yes, that is me. I am still trying to figure out how to dress for my upcoming townhall. Someone on my facebook page told me to go barefoot and overalls. Not really my style, but at least I won't be called to well dressed!!
love to see any and all conservative bloggers giving them hell. thanks.
i think the reason conservative protesters get the astroturf label is because they don't actually seem interested in a conversation about the issue, but rather in group chants and disruption ("giving em hell?". if the goal is to shut down the town meeting, then no meaningful discussion will take place. judging by the more elevated level of discourse on this blog, i would assume that your intent in attending will be to engage in a meaningful discourse about policy.
They get the astro-turf label because the left is unaccustomed to seeing us do this. This is something straight out of the left's playbook.
Conservatives generally don't protest; exception being life issues. You can get a good crowd for anti-abortion, but besides that it just doesn't happen too often. I never went to one until April. Never thought in my wildest dreams I would do these things.
What is being missed in much of the coverage is the fact that many of the people showing up at these things aren't just conservatives. The tea parties that I have attended had many who were independents and democrats. All races are represented.
Pelosi would better serve herself if she actually realized that. Then again, she doesn't care about people like me. I don't agree with her world view so I am crazy as far as she is concerned. She believes that the government knows what is better for my family than I do.
The question that I intend on asking is how dare they use the retarded in our laws? It is on page 289. That is a disgrace. The democrats, the party of the week and the disenfranchised. I think not. It is shameful, and they need to be called on it.
ANY politician that says something stupid or tries to write into law something that repugnant need to be called on it, and that is what I am going to do. Regardless of party.
I doubt my rep even knows that word is in there. I actually took the time to read the bill. It took four days and I didn't understand much of it, but what I did understand I don't like.
Healthcare is a very personal issue. People have relationships with doctors that span many years. They want to keep that. They are scared. We want explanations, not platitudes and condensention. If they actually answered the questions honestly the tempers would go down.
The constitution is being shredded by both parties. It has to stop.
Great job! It's exciting to see so much activity on our side!
This seems a little 'fishy'....you might get reported. (In case you haven't been already.)
i take your points about the right not usually protesting and about pelosi, i think those are pretty legit.
i also agree with you about the word 'retarded.' i think they should change that. however, i would never say that our country doesn't need comprehensive health care reform because the word 'retarded' appears in an early version of one of the bills.
i think we all wish politicians of every persuasion would answr our questions truthfully and without condescension, on that we can agree!
but let me ask you, as someone who has read the bills that are out there, how can you bring up the strawman of people losing their relationship with their doctor? or people losing coverage they already have? it's pretty explicitly spelled out in black and white in the bills that that won't be the case.
I truly believe that this is nothing but a step towards single payer. The president is on records saying he wants it. Barney Frank said it last week. This is what they want.
The fines that they are going to dole out are not big enough to stop some companies from dropping insurance.
They may very well say to there employees hey I'll increase your pay by 10% and you go into the public system.
Above and beyond that; you can't possibly believe that we are going to insure that many more people and have costs go down. The math is just not there. When something is free, people will use more. It is human nature.
They are doing nothing in this bill to reduce the costs of malpractice insurance. Who do you think pays for the costs of that insurance? You and me.
I of all people know what it is like to have a serious health problem without good insurance. I have had cancer three times. The first two times while I had insurance, my prescription coverage wasn't very good and I had to come up with the money myself every month. It took me almost a decade to pay it all off. Even after that experience, I don't want single payer. I am ALIVE because I made choices about the type of treatment I received. I changed dr's because I didn't like the orignal doctor. In a single payer system that is not possible.
I don't want to see anyone go broke to pay for healthcare. We need reform, it just needs to be done in the private sector. If you think that government healthcare is a good thing, go spend some time at Indian reservation. They will tell you a very different story.
Hi,
Terrific photos. As far as what to wear to the town hall...how about that little wedding cake number FLOTUS wore in London? You certainly won't be overdressed in that rag.
i appreciate your first-hand experience and i commend you for your strength fighting against cancer not once but THREE times. that's a testament to your perseverance and i'm happy you're here to have this conversation with.
however, your argument is the very definition of a strawman - you're against having a single-payer system, so you're protesting against a healthcare plan that does NOT call for a single-payer system.
just because obama and barney frank have said they are in favor of single-payer, that doesn't mean it will ever happen, or at least not until there's widespread public support for it. there just isn't the political will in the country for that right now (clearly), and politicians DO still care about getting re-elected.
if there IS a public option (which is not even a done deal), ALL of the current proposals say that they will have to compete with the private options for people's insurance dollars. therefore, if something about the public option is unappealing, you can go with private insurer A, B, C, D, E, F, G... etc. perhaps most people will find the programs run by the private sector to be better values. i would imagine the insurance companies would want to stay in business and be competitive, so they might not be able to make the record profits they have over the last bunch of years, but they will still be able to make a profit.
i agree the cost of malpractice insurance should be addressed, but i bet a lot of people would agree that one area of government interference at a time is preferable to an everything-at-once approach.
finally, here are two indisputable facts:
1. if you don't like the actions taken by a goverment official, you can (and should) vote them out of office.
2. if you don't like the actions of your private health insurance company, you can do nothing. no vote, no say, no protest, nothing.
one party is (more or less) answerable to the people, the other one has no such mandate.
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