Realpolitik

No workout today. Had to make a compromise between working out and politics. The decision was not hard.

I have been casually studying Austrian Economic Theory over the past year with information from the Mises Institute. After the TARP program and the the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act were passed, I asked myself, "Johnny, if you were broke, would you spend more money?" The answer is a resounding no, not only for me but for most anyone. Keynesian Economic Theory, says that government should and I disagree with it. Keynesian Economics is what we were taught in schools, so most folks think yea, this is a good theory. Whereas, in fact, it is not. See Where Keynes Went Wrong. Glenn Beck was all for the stimulus act and said it should be even bigger than it was. Beck is a douche bag. Around the same time, the Tea Party movement began. Which in my opinion, was basically an offshoot of the ideas about fiscal conservatism that began to become popular during Ron Paul's campaign in 2008. The Republican Party has a fissure between the old Bush Republicans, i.e. Sara Palin / Rick Perry / Mitt Romney and the Ron Paulian view for the Republican Party of classical liberalism. The outcome of this fissure and how it is resolved will ultimately make or break the Republican Party which, historically, going back to Lincoln is a party of coalitions. Ron Paul's view is essentially a Libertarian / classical liberal view grounded in the Subjective Theory of Value and a non-interventionist foreign policy.
Let me state, for the record, the Ron Paulian view is the view that I support as opposed to the Bush Republican view of big spending, neo-conservatism and compassionate conservatism. Which, in fact, is not a conservative position at all. The old Republicans and the Democrats are two sides of the same coin. So we look at Democrats with their current view on health-care. Is this really any different than the Bismark's realpolitik stance on domestic policy? Does anyone have any idea why Bismark developed state socialism? It was basically a counter-weight to the communistic movements that were sweeping across Europe with it's Marxist Labor Theory of Value which was totally invalidated by Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk. This counter-weight was implemented first and foremost to preserve the power of the Prussian King. Communism, Socialism, and Fascism are really one in the same only differing in matters of degree. This position is elegantly laid out by Jonah Goldberg's book Liberal Fascism.

With all of the above being mentioned, let me get to tonight. I found out after the polls closed for the primary elections, they have the precinct conventions for each party. My precinct is #4083 with 7xx voters registered as Republicans. All registered voters who vote in the primary elections can attend the precinct convention and select delegates to the Senatorial District Convention who in turn select delegates for the State Convention for the Republican Party. In addition to selecting delegates at each level to represent the party, resolutions can be proposed and voted upon, which help to determine the Republican Party of Texas Platform. Curiosity, got the better of me, so I decided, what the hell, I'll go check it out. I printed out quite a bit of information so I would have an idea of how the meetings are run, etc.. Also, I armed myself with resolutions to present from the campaign of Debra Medina. Well, what was merely meant as cursory overview of the process, devolved into me being the only person who showed up for my precinct. So, I did what I do naturally. I ran with it. I nominated my self precinct chairman of the precinct convention and secretary. Which basically meant that I had to fill out all the paper work, submit and vote on the resolutions I brought, and nominate myself to represent my precinct at the Senatorial District Convention on March 20th. The only bad part is that I had a 50k scheduled in Birmingham, Alabama that same day. I think i will pass on the race and cancel my plane ticket to go to the convention.
Basically, this is a way to work within the current system, hopefully to advocate the Ron Paulian views for the party at the county and state level. Who knows what will happen, but the current course of the party, the Bush Republican course is a dead end road.

The future of our country can go to ways, towards more Stateism, or we can choose to re-adopt the classical liberal values of our founders.

I choose freedom. I don't need any baby sitters.