Posted by Jeff Pedigo on 11/06/10

I wrote some of my friends that I am starting a chapter of the Tennessee Libertarian Party in Williamson and Maury counties.
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One of them responded:

I really wish you wouldn't.

We can take over the Republican Party much easier than we can gain success with a 3rd party who doesn't even have ballot access.

I was a member of the LP for a while, and if they were viable then I would still be there. But they are not and being involved with them is a tremendous waste of resources.

Besides Ron Paul is running again in 2011 as a Republican and we need to be placed IN the GOP to be able to help get him the nomination. Being associated with the LP is the kiss of death for anyone who ever does anything in the GOP. Look at how they used to treat Ron and look at how they treated me.

You don't want to go there, I promise you that.

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Here is my response to my friend:

You know that I admire and respect you and your opinion.

What I saw with the mid-term election was a lot of centrists forced out of office in both parties, this is actually a good thing as they are only a belief or two away from the opposite of libertarian.  Left are extreme liberals and extreme conservatives, at least you know what you are dealing with.  However, I have never identified with extreme conservatism nor extreme liberalism. 

Ideologically, I am very libertarian.  I actually like to call my beliefs natural law but that is a discussion for another day.  I tried to work within the Williamson County Republican party but it really felt like a sell out to me, like I was doing something deceitful and dirty.  I also didn't like the way it operated.  Hell, I think Williamson County Republican party had chosen their nominee for governor as early as January 2009 they just had to wait for the process to reveal this.

I fell in love with politics and the current movement when I found a Ron Paul, a person that stands up for what the belief in and governs from his principles.  He is rare.

I want to take a page from his playbook and stand on my principles and that means I cannot support the R's or D's and I will have to join the fight for third party ballot access.  I will do this with the L's because their platform is much closer aligned with my belief system.

As far as a waste of time and resources, I think Ron Paul would disagree with you.   He would never call any of the hundreds of times he was the only NO vote a waste of time or resources.  He would respect me for fighting for my beliefs.

If Ron Paul does run, I really hope he wins.  I think the country needs a Ron Paul right now.

I'll leave you with a question, did Ron Paul ever act or vote based on how 'they' were going to treat him?

"l"ibertarian by heritage, "L"ibertarian by choice

Jeff Pedigo

Posted by Jeff Pedigo on 11/04/10

Cont'd from November 3^rd blog about President Obama's Press Conference regarding mid-term elections:

One of the comments that made me actually decide to blog on this press conference was this, "one of the things that I think has not been managed by me as well as it needed to be was finding the right balance in making sure that businesses have rules of the road and are treating customers fairly and -- whether it's their credit cards or insurance or their mortgages..."  He wants to manage your business by making sure you treat your customers fair!  What?  He wants special attention paid to insurance, credit and mortagages.  Wow, how about portion sizes and quality of taste, too?

Then he goes on to answer another question about his policies for getting the economy going again and he says this, "You're right that I made these proposals two months ago, but -- or three months ago -- but it was in the midst of a campaign season where it was doubtful that they were going to get a full hearing, just because there was so much political noise going on."

He uses the fact that he and others have been campaigning as an excuse that nothing is getting done, for 2 or 3 months.  That more than 10 percent of the time he has been in office.  We need a leader that doesn't make excuses, especially lame excuses.  The fact he has been campaigning is not a legitmate excuse for the economy to not be fixed.  I have an idea.  Term limits, that will limit the amount of campaign-as-excuse in the future.  Also how about a president that is committed to fixing the country rather than engaging in partisan politics. 

Where is that guy?  I'll campaign for and vote for him!

Jeff Pedigo

"l"ibertarian by heritage, "L"ibertarian by choice.

Posted by Jeff Pedigo on 11/03/10

I began my fiftieth year as a U.S. Citizen today.  I woke up proud of my country and looked forward to what my President would say in the wake of such an historic election.

The President, Barack Obama, started by acknowledging that, in our democracy, "power rests not with those ... in elected office, but with the people."

He acknowledged that people are concerned their voices are being "drowned out by a sea of lobbyists and special interests and partisan bickering." 

He also blames himself: "too many Americans haven't felt that progress yet, and they told us that yesterday. And as President, I take responsibility for that."  I hope it is so.

I heard, "The power rests with the people whose voices are being drowned out and he takes responsibility for that."

Then he went on to state a fact without supporting it, "There's a reason we have two parties in this country."   Well that fact alone is true but what is the reason?  It was not part of the Declaration of Indpendence, the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.  In fact, we don't even have an amendment that establish the two party system.  I believe that most if not all of the founding fathers cautioned against political parties.

Seventeen times the President said Democrats and Republicans or Republicans and Democrats as if that is all that there is.  I am not admonishing him for forgetting Libertarians, Greens, Constitutionals or any other party.  I am, however, concerned with his tone that only the elite "D"s or "R"s can solve the country's problems.  If he believes that then he really has missed the most important single point that November 2^nd election tried to make--The people are the power!

I am also cynical that this might be an unintentional oversight.  In fact, he started the speech with an early remark where he admits this fact, then he spends the rest of the speech ignoring his own statement.

When one reporter asked the President if voter could conclude that, "You're still not getting it?" He responded with this, We " . . . have made a series of very tough decisions, ... decisions that were right ... people started [feeling].. government was getting much more intrusive into people's lives than they were accustomed to."  Were accustomed to?  Does that mean we will grow accustomed to this?  This is scarey.

He continues this answer with, "The reason was it was an emergency situation.  But I think it's understandable that folks said to themselves, you know, maybe this is the agenda, as opposed to a response to an emergency.  We thought it was necessary, but I'm sympathetic to folks who looked at it and said this is looking like potential overreach. "  Potential overreach?  Isn't this the same White House that said, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste?"

Later when asked about Republican opposition to health care law the President said, "Health Care Law... was the right thing to do."

I have already said a lot about the speech and I still have many of his remarks to review.  So in summary, Republicans rebuked the President by gaining 60 or more seats in the House of Representatives to gain a majority, they won dozens of Governorships and gained at least half-a-dozen Senate seats.  Many state legislatures have had power change hands to Republicans.  And the Presidents response, "There's a reason we have two parties in this country, to drown out the voices of the people, because it is the right thing to do."

Jeff Pedigo, Born November 3rd

libertarian by heritage, Libertarian by choice.

Posted 11/03/10 Jeff Pedigo Spring Hill, TN

The link to the President's speech is at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/11/03/press-conference-pres ident

Posted by Jeff Pedigo on 02/21/10
Last updated 11/07/10

February 21, 2010

TO: Michael Steele, Chairman, Republican National Committee

Dear Mr. Steele,

I read with interest today many mainstream media articles about Congressman Ron Paul and his victory in the February 20, 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference's annual straw poll, Ron Paul won with 31 percent of the votes followed by Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney who garnered 22% and was the only other person with double-digits.

The conservative news channel Fox News repeatedly called it an "unscientific poll."  One internet news site FoxNews.com said it was, "not binding" and "not necessarily a good forecaster."  The site WashingtonPost.com said, "Be careful not to read too much -- or much at all -- into these results."

Mr. Steele, these results are significant.  This marks a passing of the torch from the big-government neo-conservatives of the George W. Bush era to the more constitutional conservatives of the Ron Paul rEVOLution era.  It is time that the core leadership of the Republican Party embrace Ron Paul's ideas and his supporters and throw off the shackles of the military-industrial complex.

This is the wake-up call.  Wake up Mr. Steele, embrace the rEVOLution or sit on the sidelines while the radicals that are currently in power send our country spiraling toward socialism and ultimately fascism.

Embrace the rEVOLution now and in November 2012 we can say Ron Paul won and the Republic won!

In liberty,

Jeff Pedigo

Finally proud to be a Republican!

Posted 02/28/10 olivia1353 nashville, TN

Amen!

Posted 03/27/10 Zoo Kid Covington, TN

Mr. Steel should resign if he does not start turning the Republican platform to a Constitutionalists platform. And let a true believer of The Constitution lead the Party. Just maybe Ron Paul is the better leader.

Posted 05/20/11 davidalanh Oak Ridge, TN

This is just the first of many polls yet to come that will reflect the will of the people rather than the propaganda of those who claim the title of mainstream. WE are the MAINstream! Now it's time to tell your friends to tell their friends and register Republican so we can carry our voice to the primaries.