Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Panel Discussion in St. PaulThis morning my friend and I attended a Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Panel Discussion in St. Paul.  Richard Haass and Henry Kissinger discussed whether it was feasible for the United States to manage democracies around the world.  The panel also discussed why Russia and China don’t subscribe to this democracy management ideology.  Uhhmmm… I chuckled and thought to myself, why even have this discussion with all of the issues facing this country?  But then I realized that this is the organization that plays a big role in our foreign policy and both Republican and Democratic leaders are members of this organization.  Accordingly, there are many organizations and corporations that influence our foreign and economic decisions.  When considering our policies, unfortunately, we also have to look to the United Nations and NATO.       

We later scooted over to an upper scale Hotel for lunch with the Virginia Delegation.  Once again, I enjoyed good food and conversation.  The conversation centered on Sarah Palin and the media.  I could only speak about the little I had learned in the small period of time, as Senator McCain had selected her during my travel preparations.  In addition to her being a Mayor and Governor of Alaska, I heard her make some pretty positive comments in a MTV interview.  I shared my experience with PBS’s distasteful questions about Palin’s daughter.  I explained to PBS that I didn’t know about the story in which they referred and that I wouldn’t comment anyway.  I think I handled the media well!       

Later we heard that the Paul delegates wanted to take group pictures at the RNC so we headed over there.  This was frightening…

There must have been a little over a 100 of us who took pictures together when a security person confiscated a banner with delegate signatures used in the photo.  I think this experience along with all of the protesting and police state security outside of the building was disturbing.  The banner was a small piece of cloth that only contained signatures of all of those who were in the picture.  Fortunately, we did get one picture taken with this banner.  I decided not to return to the RNC that night.  I instead observed some of Senator McCain’s acceptance speech from outside of a peaceful Ralph Nader rally venue on a large television screen.  The night fresh air did me some good. 

I got to talk to Minnesotans on the street and get a feel for what they were thinking.  All I can say is that people were all over the place; some preferred McCain, some Obama and others preferred third parties as a protest to the options.  But most seemed to agree that pressing issues were barely addressed and specifics were out of the question.   

Soon it would be time to head back to Virginia.  Although I didn’t get to vote as a delegate, I learned a lot about the delegation process.  The vote for Senator McCain was a vote by acclimation.  The RNC is more like a huge well choreographed pep rally for the likely presidential nominee.  It’s also a time to reinforce the themes of the future President’s administration, and is more symbolic than anything else.  Substance isn’t found here; it’s all fluff and glitter.  Here everyone who is on board feels good regardless of the critical issues nagging the country.

In retrospect, I observed two themes in the twin cities:  The themes of the RNC appeared to be 1) national pride, 2) continued fight against Muslim Extremism throughout the world, 3) drilling in Alaska as one form of energy independence and 4) cutting government waste.  This is what I got out of the speeches.  The Campaign for Liberty themes for its state leaders were 1) promotion and defense of individual liberty, 2) constitutional government, 3) sound money, 4) free markets and 5) noninterventionist foreign policy by means of educational and political activity.   

If Senator McCain or Obama is elected President of these United States, they will need the assistance of citizens working at the congressional level to keep them in line with the Constitution.  The Virginian members of the Campaign for Liberty can use this opportunity to get more conservative and liberty minded candidates elected to congress.  This would make it difficult for unconstitutional legislation to be passed.  The members can also stop any unconstitutional legislation such as Dangerous IDs (i.e Real ID) and write legislation that assures that the sovereignty of the United States is never compromised when elected officials are tempted to sell major infrastructure to countries who don’t share our philosophy.  But people with these concerns must get elected, even if it’s one at a time.

One thing that I have learned in politics is that it is easy to be swayed from your principles once the peer pressure of the political machine, lobbyists, big corporations and other organizations pressure you.  Just even at the delegation level, I had to catch myself when I almost began agreeing with things in which I didn’t agree.  It’s a rare person that won’t forsake their principles.  I did this in previous elections where I voted for whom I thought was the lesser of two evils.  Well, I realize now that this is one reason why we are in the current state.  I got so caught up in the commentary of the media, symbols and political slogans.  This coupled with my apathy and ignorance of the issues is why I supported elected officials who have been complicit in selling out our job industry and some main infrastructure, increasing our debt and keeping us bogged down in wars and conflicts all over the world that we can’t afford.  I must say though that I never fell in the category of party loyalty as this year is my first year to be a member of a political party.  I at least could keep an open mind but even now that I am a registered Republican, it is even more important that I vote in the following order:  1) Principles, 2) Country and then 3) Party.  The bells and whistles are personality, religious affiliation, political slogans, gender, race, media popularity, etc.  Media personalities like Dobbs, Matthews, Hannity, Limbaugh and O’Reilly offer bias reporting of the candidates.  They are just as influenced by the right/left paradigm which dominates the majority of thinking in my opinion.