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Last week at the Minnesota Republican convention, the last 13 of 40 delegates were picked to represent the State of Minnesota at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida.  The list below was circulated among the delegates at that convention to encourage them to vote for the “Conservative Unity Slate” endorsed by Mitt Romney.

This is the slate of 13 delegates that the “Old School Republicans” put before the voters at the MN Republican convention.  These are the same people that have run the Republican Party for years and years, through deficit on top of deficit, unable (or unwilling) to cut Federal Spending.  As you look at the names on the slate of 13 delegates and 13 alternate delegates, there is only one fact worth mentioning:  NONE OF THESE PEOPLE WERE SELECTED AS DELEGATES TO THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION.

The thirteen delegates that were selected were Ron Paul’s delegates.  In total, 32 of the 40 delegates to the MN National Republican Convention are Paul delegates.  This isn’t just an aberration, it is a massive shift in voter sentiment.  While the “Old Men” were circulating copies of the list (at right)  among convention delegates, the Ron Paul supporters were voting for their own list, as displayed by the “tweets” received on their cell phones.   The Old School Republicans never knew what hit them; they were out in a flash.

Even Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachman didn’t garner enough votes to attend her own National Convention.  Only through the “gift” of an elected Paul supporter, who allowed Bachman to take his place at the convention, did Bachman get a “ticket” to the convention.  Imagine; a sitting US Congressman needing alms from a Ron Paul delegate to go to her own national convention!   I think that this “gift” was a mistake on the part of the Paul delegates.  It would have been interesting to see press coverage of a US Congressman who didn’t get enough republican votes to attend the national convention of her party.

The problem for Ms. Bachman and the old republicans is that the party they used to belong to now has been reborn.  The “old republicans” haven’t cut Federal spending, never saw a war they didn’t like, can’t stand gay marriage, and want to tell a woman what to do with her uterus.  It looks like Republican politics as usual is gone, at least in Minnesota.  Young people, old people, tea party supporters, independents, and even democrats, are finally fed up with a government that is on the brink of bankruptcy and runs roughshod over personal liberties.

These “new” Republicans are more libertarian than their predecessors.  They’re SERIOUS about actual cuts in government spending (not just a reduction in the increase in government spending that satisfied the Old Republicans), but are sick of the requirements of the extreme Christian right.  These new Republicans champion both economic freedom and civil liberties.  Let’s hope they can elect some congressmen and senators before this country falls off the fiscal cliff.

Yesterday afternoon, when the temperature hovered around 90 degrees, I passed a corner and saw a couple of young ladies running their lemonade stand.  Under the distant but careful supervision of mom, they had small cups of lemonade for 50 cents and a large cup for $1.  I stopped and bought a large glass and left a $1 tip; how I love entrepreneurs!

In the above photo the girls are standing by their advertising sign.  The girl on the left is proudly displaying the cash that they have earned so far.   They keep the cash in their “little kitty” mail box.  It looks like the little entrepreneur on the right wants to be a rock star.  Selling lemonade must be her first stepping stone to fame and fortune!

Seriously, though, I got thinking about what these young ladies have learned by operating a simple lemonade stand.   Some of the things they’ve learned are:

1.  The lemonade didn’t just appear; they had to go to the store and spend their money to buy it.  In the real world there are costs, not just revenues.

2.  People won’t just come up and give you money, they must voluntarily spend it.  You can’t force them to give you their hard earned cash.  The customer must want your glass of lemonade more than they want their $1; otherwise there will be no exchange.  As a lemonade entrepreneur you must trade VALUE for VALUE.

3.  Mom wouldn’t approve if you wanted to spend $5,000 to build a nifty, cool kid’s house to serve as your lemonade stand.  The lemonade revenue would never pay off the cost.  Therefore, you go with what you can afford; a small card table and a cheap sign.

4.  Selling lemonade isn’t as fun as playing in the yard.  It is WORK!  You have to stay at your post, smile at everyone, and say please and thank you!  After a while you get tired of sitting out in the hot sun, but you’ve got to stick it out until the lemonade is sold!

I wish our politicians in Washington hadn’t forgotten what these small-scale entrepreneurs have learned.  The Government builds fancy buildings that it can’t afford.  The politicians borrow money to create programs that don’t create significant VALUE and (unlike good lemonade) the government can only “sell” these programs to us only by forcing us to pay for them.  Unlike our lemonade entrepreneurs, the government routinely spends much more money than it takes in, without the slightest regard to the debt created.  Finally, rather than encouraging people to work like our young entrepreneurs, the government has enabled millions of Americans to adopt lifestyles of leisure instead of work.

You know the old saying, “Give a fisherman a government check and he’ll never fish again!”

Last night a concert was held in a gymnasium in a medium-sized Minnesota town. The sponsors of the event were the Veterans of Foreign Wars Neville-Lien Post 1287 in Winona, Minnesota. I’m guessing that there were 1,000 seats in what was a relatively intimate atmosphere. The stage was simple; a few microphones, a keyboard and some lights. No video screen, no fireworks; just the bare necessities for the country boy raised in East Texas.

Collin Raye is a bona fide star and still a heck of a performer. A romantic with a soft heart for children, he’s racked up nine number one singles on the country charts and has been nominated five times for Country Music’s male vocalist of the year award. Last night he sang most of his hits, to the approval of an enthusiastic crowd. He also expressed on several occasions his appreciation and love for the country’s veterans, past and present.

Toward the end of the evening he borrowed Lee Greenwood’s song “Proud to Be an American” and sang it as well as it can be performed. One of the lines in that song goes like this “And I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free……”

Oh, how I wish that just BEING an American would make us free.  Alas, freedom is a rare and delicate condition that is never guaranteed….ever. Freedom requires constant vigilance and the guts to stand up to those (even our fellow Americans) that want to erode our liberties. While Americans have more freedom than most people on this earth, it is the erosion of our freedom that should concern us.

Abraham Lincoln knew this well when he addressed the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois on January 27, 1838. Concerning the perpetuation of Liberty in the United States, Lincoln said:

“At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never!–All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”

November elections are coming, my friends. Love Liberty!

In March of 1975 I went to a large convention in Chicago. Planning to receive my Ph.D. in Economics in just two months, I was anxious to start my college teaching career. The long and short of it is that I was interviewed by Winona State University in Winona, MN. They liked me and I liked them. We bought a house right across the street from the campus. That was 37 years ago.

People often ask me about college students. I can’t speak about college students on other campuses, but I can speak with some confidence about the College Students at Winona State University. The vast majority of students at my University are good kids from the upper Midwest. The rest of them are good kids from China, Nepal, Malaysia, and other countries. They have, for the most part, been raised by loving parents who say silent prayers every day when their children are away at college.

For eighteen years my students have lived at home with their families. I get to watch them grow up for the next four years. They’re not perfect. I’ve had lawn ornaments and snow shovels mysteriously disappear from the front porch. I’ve been awakened many nights by loud shouts from someone who consumed too much alcohol. I’ve successfully advised them to break up keg parties right before the cops arrived to serve under-age drinking citations. However, these incidents are rare.

The real story of this blog rests on the quality of young people we have at Winona State University. They’re good kids; REALLY GOOD KIDS! They hold fund raisers to finance charitable missions in Africa and Asia. They volunteer their time for community activities. Many of them overcome tremendous emotional obstacles, such as the death of a sibling or divorce of their parents. Some have successfully battled and beaten cancer by the time they are eighteen years old. Some students break the “poverty cycle” by becoming the first person in their family to receive a collegiate degree.

Freshman college students are inexperienced and naïve about many aspects of life, yet they are extremely kind and helpful. As I interact with them every day I don’t have to deal with old, cynical, burned-out people. Every year nature refreshes my life with a new bunch of eternally optimistic, positive 18 year-olds. Some day they will have to pay taxes, deal with that unreasonable city building inspector, worry about retirement, and undergo the financial and personal stress of raising children. But for now they want to do right by the world and right by themselves. They immerse their lives in useful, meaningful activities. They feel justifiably satisfied with their place on the planet. These are decent, caring, incredible young people!

When people ask you what college students are like, please refer them to this blog. For my part, I’m younger-thinking, more enthusiastic, and much happier because they are in my life. The next time you’re reincarnated, I’ve got a recommendation for you.  Come back as a College Professor!

A little over three years ago millions of Americans heralded the inauguration of Barack Obama, who had offered them a legacy of hope and change. The reality, it turns out, has been drastically different. I could spend this blog listing the failures of Obama; the degradation of the United States as neither exceptional nor Christian; Obamacare, another unaffordable entitlement as government slips into default; a failed energy policy which has made the United States more dependent on our enemies when we have enough coal and natural gas to be completely independent within a decade; we could go on and on about the shortsightedness of the Obama administration.

However, Obama’s biggest failure, perhaps the one that damages the future of our country more than any other, remains pent-up in the background, receiving little notice. Barack Obama had the opportunity to enthusiastically lead an agenda that would have truly improved America’s future; the use of parental vouchers for all of America’s public and private schools.

On the same south side of Chicago where Obama worked as a community organizer he has witnessed and wiped his hands clean of the horrible public schools that cast aside tens of thousands of black kids every year. These are bad schools overseen by overpaid administrators and unionized public school teachers who enroll their own children in private schools or in wealthy suburban public schools. The sums spent per child in America’s urban public schools are enormous, yet there is no progress. Economists and political thinkers know that the problem of America’s public schools is a lack of competition that only parental vouchers would provide.

It is no mystery why Obama has decided not to make the “voucherization” of public schools a priority; he is beholding to the teacher unions, who will come out in big numbers this November to reward him with a second term.

Declaring his support for vouchers nation-wide could have really changed America and her future. Obama was the one President who had the mix of racial and practical experience that could have reformed the nation’s public schools. Barack Obama, a black man, decided that his political career was more important than the future of thousands of black and minority kids. Had Obama the courage to cast away the teacher unions and do right by young minority school children he could have gone down in history as more than a President. What a crying shame Obama couldn’t or wouldn’t rise to the level of Statesman.

February 7, 2012 was Republican Caucus night in Minnesota.  The non-binding straw poll was won by Rick Santorum with 21,988 votes.  Ron Paul finished second with 13,282 followed by Mitt Romney with 8,240 votes.  However, the caucus results are not binding.  Minnesota has 40 delegates to the Republican National Convention.  Three of these delegates are unpledged RNC delegates.  Twenty-four delegates are decided at eight separate district conventions held throughout Minnesota.  The other, 13 delegates are decided at the state Republican convention on May 5th.

The result of the delegate selection from the 8 district conventions, all of which were concluded by yesterday, April 21, 2012 are as follows:

2012 MINNESOTA REPUBLICAN DISTRICT CONVENTIONS
DELEGATE ELECTION RESULTS

Candidate    1st    2nd    3rd    4th    5th    6th    7th    8th    TOTAL
Romney         0       0       0        0        0        0       0       0          0
Santorum      0       0       0        0        0        0       2        0          2
Paul                2       3       3         3        3        3       1        2         20
Unknown       1       0      0         0        0        0      0        1            2

At this juncture, Ron Paul has 20 of 24 of the elected delegates to the Republican national convention.   Thirteen more delegates are to be elected at the state convention in two weeks.  It is not at all unreasonable for Paul to walk away with 30 or more of Minnesota’s 40 delegates to the National Republican Convention.

An attendee at one of the district conventions tells me that this is a fight for the heart and soul of the Republican Party, a party that has strayed far to the “left” in the past 50 years.  The younger folks in the room are Paul supporters, normally 25-40 years of age.  The old men in the room represent the Republican establishment, which has been responsible for the excessive government that now burdens us.  Unlike their elders, the young Paul supporters are much more “libertarian” in their views; wanting the federal government to stay out of their pocketbooks and out of their bedrooms.

These young Minnesota delegates to the Republican National Convention aren’t going to accept “business as usual” from Mitt Romney or any establishment Republicans.  They’re not going to compromise on their insistence for truly smaller government.  If enough of these young folks are elected Republican delegates from other caucus states, we could see a deadlocked Republican convention.

Editor Note:

As a “classical liberal” I find it refreshing to see these results from Minnesota.  While this story won’t make the main stream media, it could foretell a wonderful new future for the United States of America.

The web site confirmation of this information is at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Republican_caucuses,_2012

Webster’s dictionary has two excellent definitions of coercion:  (1) “To restrain or dominate by nullifying individual will.”  (2) “To enforce by force or threat.”  It is my view, and the view of modern day libertarians, that except for defensive functions, coercion is evil in every instance of its application.

Most people agree that government, financed through taxation, should establish a local police force, a court system to handle contract disputes, and a military to defend the borders of the country.  The courts uphold the rights of all citizens equally, the police arrest murderers, thieves, con men, and anyone that physically assaults or steals from other human beings. The military protects the country from foreign attack.  Other than these basic functions, it is the libertarian position that government has no business in restricting the individual will of the citizens.

Unfortunately, federal, state, and local governments have dealt a serious blow to individual freedom over the years.  In my case, the feds extract thousands and thousands of dollars from me and spend it on “social engineering”, forcing me to help fund everything from flat screen televisions in ghettos to subsidies for phony businesses like Solyndra.  The State of Minnesota extracts a special sales tax to support art projects in which I have no interest along with lousy public schools.  Local governments dictate what setback I need for a new garage and on what streets I can ride my bicycle.

When the government tries to micro-manage industry, the environment, what goes on in our bedrooms, and what we can eat, drink and smoke, this is an insult to individual freedom.  In fact, government is little more than some people telling other people what to do.  If you’re a democrat you think it is fine to coerce hard working men and women to give more of their money as part of governments’ huge “Robin Hood” scheme.  If you’re a republican you want to coerce gays not to marry and young women not to get an abortion.  Either way, you’re an agent of coercion.

Moreover, the cloak of big government, this terrible result of both Democratic and Republican rule, assumes that people are inherently evil; that we need government to steer us in the right direction.  I’ve got news for you.  Most people are inherently good.  They are inherently charitable, responsible, caring, and industrious.  They don’t deserve to be coerced at every turn.  This causes them to despise their government and makes it much harder for them to reap the rewards that individual freedom naturally provides for individuals and for society as a whole.

At every election we get to choose who will coerce us.  This upcoming election, like most in the latter 20^th century, offers little hope for freedom.  The talk is cheap, but few politicians are willing to act in freedom and risk their political careers.  Where, pray tell, is Galt’s Gulch? *

If you want to know where Galt’s Gulch is, read Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand
Or you could just “google” it like my students!