A Hand-Hewn Letter to Citizens of the Free World

Thank you! Thank you! Chapters, members and friends of the California Congress of Republicans (“CCR”), thank you! We could end our message here, because really, our primary message is to reiterate our unbridled appreciation.

Now, if you are familiar with our noble work, you know that CCR is a guardian at the gates of Western Civilization. We are a 501(c)(4), a non-profit organization which operates exclusively to promote social welfare.

Before we begin, we could ask you a question. What is the biggest difference between Republicans and Democrats? Republicans sign their checks on the front, and democrats sign on the back. We are the payers. Democrats are the takers.

And, if you are wondering, how do you confuse a Liberal, you do not. They are born that way. Our primary goal is to bring common sense to the ignorant, so that as they grow older and wiser, they will realize with assurance who is their friend and who is their enemy.

The words herein are board and batten of a barn still under construction; as such, it is a barn constructed with rough but reliable wood. It is unfinished carpentry, and it may leave you with a few splinters. But know that the timbers are solid. The joists are square, and the trusses are true. The clerestory windows invite the light.

For those who hate Trump, we have a simple truth: if you hate Trump, you are really going to hate Communism. As Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. acknowledges, today’s Democrat party is not the party of his famous uncle, John F. Kennedy. It is not the party of Harry Truman. It is a party placing a dark shadow over the First Amendment. It is a party looking to silence and intimidate.

We understand the nuance of what being “unburdened by the past” really means. It is code-speak for Marxism. Communism is an indelible stain upon the history of humanity; it is a scourge responsible for killing more than 100 million people. How ironic that Leftists cloak themselves in the assurance that they are the saviors of democracy.

George Orwell warned us of such propaganda which replaces up with down and good with vile. As Ayn Rand illuminates,

“There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism – by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide.”

How is it that an entire generation seems to have gone mad? Perhaps we can turn to the philosopher Eric Hoffer who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Ronald Reagan. In The True Believer, Hoffer states,

“The permanent misfits can find salvation only in a complete separation from the self; and they usually find it by losing themselves in the compact collectivity of a mass movement.”

This is the generational delusion and consequence of the American Dream being foreclosed upon due to draconian regulations, global outsourcing, and massive federal and state debt.

As Sen. John Neely Kennedy explains, Kamala Harris is “…a wolf promising to be a vegan if the sheep will vote for her.” He describes Harris as “AOC without the bartending experience” and reminds us that “cars don’t run on fairy dust and unicorn urine.” He also explains what Bidenomics is all about: we “pay more to live worse.” He chides the Harris plan as appearing as if it was put together “with vodka and darts.”

Now, all of you are a vital part of a statewide organization, and my role, as its past president, and advocate for what is right, and good, and true as the Chair of a County Central Committee, is to give you thanks for your invaluable participation and support. Thank you, illustrious officers, thank you illustrious members, thank you illustrious guests.

Thank you for being a part of the California Congress of Republicans, for believing in personal liberty, a strong national defense, limiting governmental overreach, and for the unparalleled benefits of free enterprise and small business; for, together we stand; for apart, we fall.

So thank you, on this typical, beautiful day in Northern California, in the high seventies with some gusts of wind. I grew up at the base of the Mount Hamilton range, with its oak trees, bays, sycamore, and buckbrush; with its Columbian black tail deer, redtail hawks, hidden wellsprings, and shaded vistas; with its golden hills covered by wild oat and needle grasses and cattle; I grew up on a cattle ranch in this state.

And, as a fifth generation California native, who rode these ridges on horseback, I confess to feeling very much at home here. Yet, at the same time, with our state’s chronic mismanagement, like many of you, I am estranged from her, as we witness a self-inflicted decline. Businesses, such as Tesla, Oracle, Hewlett Packard Enterprises, Charles Schwab, as well as the middle class, have been exiting our state in droves for Nevada, Utah, Texas, Idaho, Florida, and elsewhere.[i] At a national level, if Harris wins, a record number of centimillionaires are considering leaving the USA itself.[ii]

By day, I am a part owner of a successful money management firm and a Certified Financial Planner®. As such, I admire states which demonstrate financial prudence, states which do not burden their constituents with exorbitant income taxes, states which are not ladened with over a trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities, states with safe cities. Living elsewhere would save all us a great deal of money. Yet, here we are. In California. You, like our party’s 2024 Presidential candidate, are fighters!

Your presence here means that you are anything but retired, anything but disengaged; you have elected to stay vibrant, to stay vital, to stay relevant. And, you’re making a large investment to listen to me; even if we take the lowest metric, minimum wage, and multiply it times fifty individuals, collectively, you’re paying a five figure investment of your time. You’re spending the equivalent of thousands of dollars’ listening to me today. So, let’s do our best to spend it wisely.

As Abraham Lincoln advises, “Every word is so closely noted that it will not do to make trivial ones.”

Now, at the beginning, I’m mentioned thankfulness. My thanks to all of you, on behalf of the California Congress of Republicans. Thanksgiving, that’s what I’ve set my eyes upon, rather than Halloween, and some crazed witch’s cackle, as we lean into the Fall. Cicero reminds us, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.” Giving thanks is more than mashed potatoes and turkey, more than football games and cranberry sauce. It’s also about family.

You are an important part of a larger family, a commonsense family comprised of California Congress of Republicans which are located up and down our state. You are not alone! Families at their best have our back when we need help.

All you have to do is tune into the news to know that there is much at stake, including a continued effort to quell conservative voices. Billionaires, including Melinda Gates, Netflix founder Reed Hastings, and George Soros, are allocating tens of millions of dollars to elect the most radically Left president in our history. Harris reportedly supports:

- - Gun Buybacks: advocates for mandatory gun buy-backs in contravention of our Second Amendment rights;[iii]
  - Zero-Dollar Bail: supports zero-bail initiatives which releases hardened criminals back out on the streets;[iv]
  - Price Controls: believes in price controls against retailers with already thin margins despite strong evidence that price controls do not work and lead to shortages;[v]
  - Wealth Tax: wants to open the door to tax unrealized capital gains, otherwise known as a “wealth tax.”
  - Porous Borders: “10 million illegal and unvetted border crossers who have entered the United States since Harris took office”[vi]
  - Puerto Rico and DC Statehood: adding Puerto Rico and DC as states would help Democrats ensure that the US would be controlled by a single party[vii]
  - Pack the US Supreme Court with more Leftist Justices: SCOTUS is reportedly under siege by the Left which seeks to increase the number of justices under their rule[viii]

Speaking of billionaire George Soros, we know his money has underwritten the ironically named “California Justice & Public Safety PAC,” which helped fund the campaigns scores of soft-on-crime district attorneys. But now, is he looking to take over one of the last vestiges of conservativism: talk radio?

As you know from recent news stories, Soros is seeking to gain control of over 200 Audacy radio stations across America, despite the warnings of Republicans and the FTC Commissioner, Nathan Simington.[ix] The long and the short of this is that conservative talk radio, just like conservative, tough on crime DAs, is in Soros’ crosshairs.

In conclusion, a reminder: we know what Ms. Harris’ quintessential mantra about being “unburdened by the past” is all about; it strongly harmonizes (albeit less eloquently) with: “The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.” (Karl Marx) Some might argue that our choice in November is binary: between the Imperial and the Communal.

But, Richard Pipes (author of Property and Freedom: The Story of How Through the Centuries Private Ownership Has Promoted Liberty and the Rule of Law) warns us about the profoundly negative consequences of an enforced eutopia such as Communism. Hedge fund manager, Ray Dalio posits that we are simply witnessing the sunset of our own empire’s super-cycle with unbridled debt, hyperinflation, civil war, and wide-scale asset confiscation to follow.

While our entropy may be embarrassingly predictable, our country’s history has been one of remarkable adaptability and resilience. I will warm my hands by this fire. I will celebrate our unique history, rather than erase it. Rather than be “unburdened” by it. By standing fast, you’ aligning with chapters throughout the state.

As Reagan said when dealing with the Soviets:

“I know of no leader of the Soviet Union since the revolution, and including the present leadership, that has not more than once repeated in the various Communist congresses they hold their determination that their goal must be the promotion of world revolution and a one- world Socialist or Communist state. . . . They have openly and publicly declared that the only morality they recognize is what will further their cause, meaning they reserve unto themselves the right to commit any crime, to lie, to cheat, in order to attain that, and that is moral, not immoral, and we operate on a different set of standards. I think when you do business with them, even at a detente, you keep that in mind.”

Perhaps we should be wise to remember this advice as we deal with our Socialists. With sedition within our own country. With those who seek to undermine the mores of Western Civilization. With those who seek to tear down Reagan’s “City on a Hill.”

In closing, we observe that our governor has placed his hands on the throat of free speech by restricting parody and political speech in our state. Throttling freedom of expression is the all-too familiar strategy of a tyrant. As the adage goes, “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Nonetheless, we make a pilgrim’s progress in fighting this trend and responding, no different than the Federalists who sought freedom from the bonds of subjugation, no different than Polish freedom fighters who mimeographed their stream of counterpoints to Communism.

Reinforcing our seasonal theme of thanksgiving, we can give a tip of the hat to the wisdom of our founders who designed a system of checks and balances to blunt power grabs over fundamental rights now enjoyed by the People, rather than monarchs, or theocrats, or oligarchs. We can give thanks to a majority of Justices presiding over our Supreme Court, who can examine this and other political expediencies with a cold eye and in the context of our Constitution. We can give thanks to the unending durability of the human spirit.

We can give thanks to the seen and unseen grace of the Divine which guides us to a better future.

[i] https://www.hoover.org/research/californias-businesses-stop-hiring#:~:text=Businesses%20are%20leaving%20because%20it,it%20is%20relocating%20to%20Texas.

[ii]

[iii] https://www.nraila.org/articles/20240916/kamala-for-gun-confiscation-in-her-own-words

[iv] https://nypost.com/2024/08/25/opinion/kamala-harris-support-for-bail-fund-that-freed-violent-criminals-shows-how-tough-on-crime-she-really-is/

[v] https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2024/08/26/how-kamala-harriss-support-for-price-controls-could-impact-inflation/

[vi] https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/daily-memo/3118293/no-kamala-harris-cannot-flip-the-script-on-the-border/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Pmax_USA_Magazine_21-June-Intent-Audience-Signals&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwu-63BhC9ARIsAMMTLXRCmqVByDaYnH3d9RsIX_FVc1Huq_urKZPfUnCFXqMOolylc4CeUaUaAiQrEALw_wcB

[vii] https://www.newsweek.com/mitch-mcconnell-kamala-harris-presidency-fears-1939051

[viii] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/democrats-introduce-bill-expand-supreme-court-9-13-justices-n1264132

[ix] https://www.foxnews.com/media/george-soros-closer-controlling-200-radio-despite-objection-trump-nominated-fcc-commissioner