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Challenges Arise as the People Find Their Power
By JB Williams
Like most Americans today,
frustrated by the daily D.C. assault on everything I believe in, I often wonder
how much difference I can really make and if I wouldn’t be better off to just go
fishing with my kids and wait for the fireworks to begin, once the people have
truly had enough.
Then with precision timing, just
as I’m about to let myself off the hook and find a more enjoyable way to spend
my time, a glimmer of hope shines through and I am reminded of why I research
and write, trying over and over again to reach fellow Americans and bring them
together in tangible strategies to reclaim their lost nation.
I’ve been researching and writing
for many years now, with over 2000 columns published. Is it doing any good? – I
ask myself now and then.
Back in March of 2006, long
before anyone ever thought about Tea Partying, I wrote and released a two part
series titled
The People Still Have Power,
I and
II
– intended to remind citizens that they really do still have the power to retake
control of their runaway government, if they only re-learn where that power is
and how to use it.
Four years later, I’m seeing very
strong signs that some are indeed re-learning where their power is and how to
use it, correctly. I should have re-released these two pieces once the Tea Party
arrived on the scene. We might have moved in the right direction quicker and
avoided a few political pit falls.
Calhoun County Michigan
In 2008, we learned that more
than fifty percent of Republican precinct seats sat vacant across the country.
More than thirty percent of Democrat precinct seats were vacant too. How could
this be? This is where the people’s power is in our political system. The
platform, leadership and policies of the political parties is set at the local
level, from the ground up, in the local precincts - yet those seats sat empty.
By late 2009, people were
beginning to wake up and look at those precincts for the first time in decades,
and those who understood the power in those largely ignored venues, were about
to begin the process of real change.
In early 2010, I was contacted by
Linda Garcia, a regular reader of my column who had had enough and was begging
to know what she could do to make a real difference in her community and the
nation, for sake of her four children and the future of freedom and liberty. I
told her about her precinct…
Linda researched her county
precincts in Calhoun County Michigan and learned that her county GOP precincts
were sitting seventy-three percent vacant, with only twenty-seven percent of the
delegate seats occupied and that it had been sitting that way for a very long
time.
In March of 2010, Linda Garcia
decided to take it upon herself to change that.
Like all great ideas, movements
and achievements, she started with one believer, herself. It would not be easy
to find other believers, teach them about the power of the precinct, and get
others to lay down their daily routines long enough to make a real difference.
But it was possible…
By the May deadline for precinct
applicants, Linda had single handedly recruited and trained many new GOP
delegate applicants, as local GOP insiders caught wind of her efforts.
The official application period
ended in May, however write-in candidates could be recruited up through August 3rd,
allowing more time to recruit new delegates for both Linda and GOP insiders.
Linda and her recruits simply
kept going, recruiting write-in candidates and by the August meeting of the new
Calhoun County Republican Party, Linda Garcia had 137 county delegates – the old
GOP guard had only 54…
Linda and her team had increased
Calhoun County GOP precinct occupancy from twenty-seven percent to sixty-four
percent in just a few short months, and her new conservative voting bloc now
represented seventy-two percent in Calhoun County.
Dirty Tricks from the Old Guard
It took Garcia five months of
hard work to gain a voting majority in her county GOP. But it took members of
the local old GOP guard only six hours to sabotage that achievement.
With seventy-two percent of
county delegates firmly in her voting bloc, Garcia hoped to send at least
sixteen of her new delegates to the state convention, the number representative
of her new voting majority. When the lying, shouting and manipulation of the
Roberts Rules system was over, Linda would send only eight of her new delegates
to state, herself being one.
Linda and her team had worked
hard, but it was dirty tricks from the old guard that would win the battle that
night. Despite her seventy-two percent voting majority, she ended that marathon
evening with thirty-three percent of the delegates heading to the state
convention instead of seventy-two percent. A lesson learned…
One Bad Apple
The individual responsible for
sabotaging Garcia’s otherwise complete victory was someone she had recruited and
trained. This individual was brought into the precinct and trained by Linda
Garcia. He was welcomed into her home, trusted with his part of a mission Linda
had poured her heart, energy and resources into for five months.
In the end, he was not a patriot,
a friend, or a fellow public servant seeking change. He was just another wannabe
politician seeking personal gain and willing to do anything to gain favor with
the old GOP guard, angered by Garcia’s efforts to inject new conservative values
into their private play pen.
While Garcia was out of the main
room caucusing with some of her new delegates in an effort to organize her
voting bloc, this gentleman was inside the main room dropping names, including
mine as if we were old friends, and working to undermine all of Garcia’s hard
work.
When the final votes were
tallied, Linda ended up with half of the delegates she should have had going to
the state convention. The sabotage had worked and the old GOP guard had held
onto their convention power, despite their reported ACORN-like tactics in the
county delegate race.
The Final Outcome
Did the sabotage really work? At
the end of the day, no matter which delegates go to state, they are going to
state to represent the will and official position of the County GOP, which in
Calhoun, is now controlled by Garcia’s seventy-two percent voting majority.
The sabotage only left old guard
insiders in a position of going to state with eight of Garcia’s delegates
standing watch. The delegates going to state must carry the message of Calhoun
County, which can now be set by Garcia and her 137 new delegates, her
seventy-two percent voting majority.
If that committee attempts to
carry any other message to state, delegates may have trouble holding on to those
positions upon returning to Calhoun County.
As for the saboteur…
His name is
Steven Mobley
and he is a Republican House of Representatives candidate for Michigan’s 62nd
District. This is NOT the kind of new ethical public servants we seek.
This is just another wannabe politician who is out to serve himself, proving
once again that dirty politics is not just in Washington DC or political
insiders.
Small town outsiders become
corrupt political insiders very fast, when their agenda is not that of the
people. This is a glaring example of the difference between politician and
public servant.
Obviously, Mobley won’t get much
support in Calhoun County after such a public display. Every individual in the
room watched as he played power-broker in his own self-interest.
When the rest of his district
finds out what Mobley is really all about, he won’t get conservative support
from anyone else either. No more “lesser
evil” candidates, remember?
Ethical people really do have the
power to take their nation back from unethical politicians. To use that power
properly, accountability must begin at home, in this case with Mr. Mobley.
Mobley is currently an icaucus
endorsed Tea Party candidate. But he represents everything that both groups
dislike most about politics and politicians.
Sources
http://jb-williams.com/3-19-06.htm
http://jb-williams.com/3-25-06.htm
http://thepatriotsnews.com/intentions.htm
JB Williams
www.JB-Williams.com
www.ThePatriotsNews.com
www.PatriotsUnion.org
"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is
that you end up being governed by your inferiors." - Plato