Seated is Bill O’Brien – Speaker of the NH House – signing the first bill of this session (and the first bill as Speaker). Mazel Tov!
But what was more interesting was the picture Gadsden Flag (the adopted icon of the TEA Party movement) behind him. According to Seth Cohn, the signatures are of those new folks from the Liberty & Freedom wing of the Republican Party (among others) that helped to vote him into the Speakership.
I’ve listened to the jounalist based pundits here in NH that stated that most people here in NH voted for anyone with an R after their name (as opposed to D in 2006 & 2008), yet, they admit that these "less conservative voters" certainly did vote for candidates that espoused much more conservative (and in many cases, much more libertarian) than themselves. I wondered about that statement – was it true? Or whether this was part of the TEA Party movement ramifications that has, in part, caught up the general public?
No, not in the overall fervor and sturm und drang, but more in the question of "where is this country and state headed?". Is this our heritage – what ARE our founding principles?
And a backlash NOT just against Democrats, but the overall sliding of the Dems to the Left (aka, Progressive socialism) even as many Republicans didn’t move to the Right but burrowed down to bedrock fundamentals like archeologists seeking buried truths (or miners, seeking that shiny gold and sparkling diamonds of limited govt, individual freedom, and self-reliance)?
It is a measure of honesty, and a measure of the new consciousness, that the Speaker of the NH House is framed by the Gadsden flag. Certainly, the NH House and Senate’s acts thus far are honoring the sentiments of that seemingly dusty symbolism (freshly dusted off and off to the political wars once again).
Once again, learning from history so as to not FURTHER repeat it, and bringing that past forward so as to move us forward and ready for the future.
(H/T: Belknap County Republicans)
