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Another speaker was the NH State Senate Republican Incumbency Protection and Racketeering Act that will make it even harder and more convoluted  for the ordinary citizen(s) to speak their minds politically without The State smashing down upon them).  Certainly, he tried to make the case that the NH State Republicans upheld the best and greatest traditions of Republicanism.  Well, I hate to rain down upon the parade (gee, finally get to flip circumstances as it usually is politicians raining down upon us ordinary schlubs and the color ain’t transparent) but I’ve already listed the TWO (not one but TWO!) obvious actions that are the exact opposite of those Planks in the Platform.  That also contravene both the letter and the spirit of the NH Constitution.  This is not just me being a TEA Party, Constitutional loving extremist – it is being an ordinary citizen, reading our Foundational Law’s plain language and going WTF??  To remind you, here’s his speech and I’ve done a full transcript after the jump (of course, with commentary):

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“…end wars…”. Gee, and I thought the whole idea was to WIN wars.  Anything else is just “first loser” and in a two-way battle, just loser.  Americans were known for WINing wars, not just giving up which is exactly what Obama is doing.  We beat both Japan and Germany militarily – and then stayed for decades until the “end” WAS the “end”.

“…end wars…”.  That is what President Obama said today in relationship to the Afghanistan theater of war.  Essentially, he is doing what Nixon did in 1968:  “I pledge to you that we shall have an honorable end to the war in Vietnam.”  Yeah, that worked out EVAH so well for the South Vietnamese, Cambodians,  and Laotians, eh?  Buttery smooth words, a bit of smoke and mirrors, and then we all understood what honorable meant: we retreat, we give up and two million people lost their lives.

“…end wars…”.  General Giap knew what the winning prescription was: break the will of the American people to wage war.  He knew that North Vietnam could never do that on its own (even with Russian and Chinese help) so he did it with an information / PR war.  He (along with Putin comrades) instigated the peace movement, agitated the college aged, got the protests going, influenced the media – and PRESTO! 

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Tactics vs policy – a meme that has been floating around this primary season as various politicos and talking heads try to rationalize the difference between the Establishment and the TEA Party wings of the Republican Party.  It is their attempt to try to soften or blur what is a rather sharp edge between the two.  After all, now that the primaries are over (in some states), we hear the upper echelon of the Party already trying to do the smooch up of the grass roots and play that old Beatles song “(“Come together – RIGHT NOW!“, emphasis on the last two) over and over and over again.  Exhibit one here for a NH example (with more coming).  We all have to be UNITED!  We all have to be TOGETHER!  We all have to STAND together!  United we are stronger!  We must be an ARMY!  How Collectivist is that?  I dunno if I’m in a Right side organization or a union meeting.

Ben Domenech has a newsletter (note to self: get signed up!) that talks about that it is NOT TACTICS that separates the Establishment from the base – funny, but with a sharp knife to it.   First up, the Establishment:

 “Let’s do immigration reform, we should be honest about addressing climate change, (pick your entitlement) mend it don’t end it, let’s find state level solutions to make (Obamacare’s) Medicaid (expansion) work for working families, let’s show we love the poor by giving them something (but don’t worry not your something), let’s not be so lockstep on gun violence, premium support, capital gains, let’s protect our critical Pentagon budget, let’s invest in our future with Common Core, you know TARP made sense at the time, let’s build needed infrastructure we can be proud of, compassion, even Ronald Reagan…”

Now the TEA Party: 

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We are a 1% family – but for a different reason other than the current (and stupid) “financial inequality” Progressive debate roiling political discourse.  No, we are not part of that 1% (and not the 10% either – keep sliding downscale, folks).  No, we are the 1% because the Eldest and the Youngest have served in our armed forces (US Marines and US Army, respectively).  We are one of the relatively small number of families who have had an immediate family member serve, and we have two (three, if one wishes to count the Eldest’s girlfriend – she served in the US Navy).

I sit here on the couch, in the still quiet of the morning and by myself (with one of our two dogs cuddled up next to me) and think, once again, “I am the lucky one”.  Both came home (Iraq and Afghanistan) and in both cases, TMEW and I had the pleasure and excitement of greeting them after hours long flights in Bangor, ME where many of the overseas flights stopped for refueling.  Sure, they had to get back on and head to their bases, but we got to see them – and some of the changes that the theater of war had wrought.

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Steve Duprey is the NH GOP Committeeman from NH.  Pretty much he was short (as he promised) as most of what he had to say was “newsy”.   But there was one thing that caught my ear:

…we are the Party of good ideas, of Limited Government, of Liberty and great solutions. Let’s never lose sight of that, and if we don’t…we’ll be able to come together and we will take back everything we lost in the past.

Once again (pattern, right), we hear the hint of “fall in line, you all out there”. He has a point; primaries oft are raucous and acrimonious events – some feelings and attitudes never heal and any sense of Kumbyahness is sometimes just the sound of lips moving.  But he does have the assumption that primary hatchets will be turned into general election door knockers.  The other assumption is that of “Limited Government, of Liberty and great solutions“.

The question is “Does the general electorate

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