Tag: corruption

George Lang has raised more than 11 Times the Amount of his Rivals: Why fundraising is important in our republic

In the end, it’s the voters who show up to vote on election day and decide who wins an election or loses. Perception can reflect reality so anything can and does happen, but in the three-way race between candidates for the 4th Ohio Senate seat in the upcoming March primary there is only one clear frontrunner and that is George Lang. Campaign donations are an important indicator as to whether or not a politician has the ability to generate money from the donor groups which is important leverage in Columbus politics when weight behind a bill or proposal is needed. The way politicians measure each other is in just such a manner because they all know how hard it is to do. Its one thing to appeal to those all important voters on election day, but even more than that, how to appeal to the type of people who write thousand dollar checks when elections are still 6 months or even a year away, and not lose their souls in the process. Of the three people running for that senate seat in the 4th District, only George Lang was able to do anything substantial raising over $200,000, 11 times more than the other two, which says a lot about the value and true potential he has to offer to that seat.

The way the news outlets like to report things, they like the idea of “democracy” where everything is a horserace of popularity and everyone has a chance to win, even the unprepared nurse who decides on a whim to run for some office. It feeds the Cinderella complex that if anybody would like to, they can just decide to run and win an office and do some good work in the name of a democratic process, and they like that belief until it doesn’t work out the way they’d like, such as in the case of President Trump. In truth, we have a republic and the representatives we put into office need to be skilled, knowledgeable, and tenacious. Candidates shouldn’t be able to buy their way into an office, but they do need to show that they can generate political interest in their platforms even when most people in the world are thinking about everything else but an election. It is one of the hardest things in the world to do is to get on the phone and ask business leaders in your community for a few thousand dollars, then go out into the community and do good work that is honest, and George Lang has shown time and time again that he can do that. People not so skilled will look at that process and say its corrupt, because essentially, they can’t do it. That’s what Ding Dong Lee Wong will say as his old West Chester trustee rival George Lang outraises him at every turn. Ding Dong Wong was only able to raise $6,300 for instance, with the largest donation being a measly $500. For the person who wrote that check that might have seemed like a lot of money, but in the way that other politicians measure the viability of a peer in Columbus, its weak and shows that the office holder does not have support of people in their community all through the year, when there aren’t elections.

Campaign donations are a kind of vote all their own, not so much for the general election, but for the reach a candidate has across their entire base, particularly business leaders who are often overlooked by the general media as part of an undemocratic process. For instance, they might poise the question of why Ginni Ragan gave George Lang a check for $13,300 in January, what does she want with the money—as if the presentation of the check was a favor of some kind that George would owe her, which supersedes the general voter. What nobody talks about is that people who are in such a financial position contribute those types of funds without a lot of expectations attached, it is their way of betting on the right representation who they think will protect their values in politics and they see it as just another form of a vote. It’s a lot of money to small minded reporters who want to keep the dialog of democracy defined in their limited vision, but it ignores the aspects of politics that are way beyond their comprehension. A politician who can raise a lot of money gives them more weight on the floor of a republic form of government because it represents a kind of mastery that many of them have not yet overcome, the hard task of asking for a campaign donation for an election nobody is thinking about when the person on the other end of the phone could think of a million other things to do with that few thousand dollars.

Yet the news outlets depend on that money, they need candidates to take out adds on their airwaves, in their newspapers—consultants, lawyers, and every kind of parasite known to mankind that lives off the crumbs that falls from politicians in the unsaid bid to show how much money they were able to raise and therefore, how strong they would be as a representative on the congressional floor. While its true that Trump nearly funded most of his campaign during the presidential run, it was the amount of money he was able to raise over the last three years for the GOP that brought the party in behind him. And in order to get that money, he had to generate a lot of excitement that filled the coffers and gave him the political leverage to use that money to continue to sell his message which people who contributed wanted to be a part of. Big donors or smaller ones see campaign donations as an investment more often than the media would report.

For instance, the media would like to poise Candice Keller as a real threat to George Lang, because she’s a woman, and that if elected her many scandals would follow her and the press could then have a field day. But in reality, she only managed to raise $12,135. Most of the other money she has been working with were donations that she gave to her own campaign. That might buy adds and billboards, along with yard signs, but the people in Columbus know the truth, that Candice doesn’t have support from her own community when she can’t get on the phone and ask for the big checks. Therefore, what pull could she hope to garner for a big new bill she wants to get passed, or use her vote for leverage to change something she doesn’t like. The power on the legislative floor comes more from just a voice and a vote, it comes from the stout presence of the ability to raise money, because that is a measure that defines worth in a republic.

Campaign donations are our way of protecting our republic from the mob rule of a democracy, which for many decades now has been the mantra of the media. They even have Republicans saying that we must protect our “democracy” which means that a majority rules by simple vote and that rules can be changed if only enough emotion is spent to sway public opinion. That is what is happening currently in Virginia over the gun rights issue there now that Democrats control all branches of government. The true measure of worth in a strong republic is how well a candidate can generate value for their platform between election cycles and that is the strength of George Lang and why its important that it’s the third highest amount of all people running for senate in Ohio. To other politicians that is real power and mastery, and the much important leverage that a real player can bring to that seat. That might run against the sentiments of some Journal News reporter or television broadcaster cheering for some socialist slide into a democracy, but it’s the true value of a political position where all aspects can be united and the politician can properly represent their platform authentically. A cheater or a low life is not going to be able to raise that kind of money with all the transparency of our modern age. George Lang is top class in every category, and that’s why he was able to outraise his rivals more than 11 times over. And why he’s the only viable candidate for the 4th Senate Seat in Ohio in 2020.

Rich Hoffman

Mark Welch is the Only Real Candidate for the 52nd House of Representatives in Ohio: It takes a lot more than just voting

Another exciting opportunity for this upcoming primary and eventual election in November is that Mark Welch is offering himself as a candidate for the 52nd State Representative seat in Ohio. With George Lang moving over to the senate his friend Mark is willing to cover that House seat and to keep a good thing going which the two of them have been doing for a long time in West Chester, only extending that same effort out into Ohio in a larger way. The tremendous success that Mark Welch has experienced as a trustee of the very successful West Chester township makes him the best pick in the primary to make the most out of that state seat and continue that good work on a larger stage. Like George, Mark has the highest grade possible from the Buckeye Firearms Association and has been endorsed by 80% of the precinct representatives in the 52nd District area, which is 80 total–19 in Fairfield Township, 25 in Liberty Township and 46 in West Chester. That’s an important thing to know because Welch’s primary opponent in this election is Jennifer Gross the retired Lieutenant Colonel from the Air Force and current nurse. She’s a well-intentioned person but has not yet developed any political clout to play at that level. When it comes to experience and a ready built network to get things done with that Representative seat, Mark Welch is the clear choice.

Experience isn’t everything, Donald Trump did step out of his role as a real estate tycoon to run for office and win. But those were extraordinary circumstances and to be honest, these House of Representative seats are pretty tough to run and hold without losing yourself along the way. They are the ultimate middle management jobs where you get squeezed from both ends and you have to be pretty savvy to stay true to the voters, yourself, and the constitutional principles that got you involved in the first place. Mark has been a very successful trustee now for several cycles and West Chester has seen great success which he has been a major part of. It will not be difficult for him to take that experience to Columbus and work the House and network in the Senate in the same fashion. He has great passion for the job and I can say that I knew Mark in the beginning when he was just a bright eyed hopeful like Jennifer Gross is now looking to contribute something to the world around them. Before being a trustee Mark was a successful businessperson, and still is. The Republican Party is always in need of fresh new faces to fill some of these seats, but to be honest, the optimal way to get them is to get into the pool and get your feet wet, then start swimming in deeper and deeper water. The 52nd District House of Representatives seat is about a lot more than just voting yes or no, there is a lot of work that must go on that nobody sees and we want a person who can handle all that with a smile on their face and ambition for the job every morning.

For about 10 years, especially in Butler County, Ohio we have been going through a strong team building phase. We have had enormously strong Tea Party efforts at the height of that movement and many of those people are now office holders who are helping to shape the direction of the Republican Party and are natural extensions of the Trump administration coming directly out of the White House. Perhaps 10 years ago before any good groundwork was being done to reform good, honest politics in Butler County Jennifer’s jump into the deep end of the pool would be applauded. We would have wanted anybody to penetrate the castle wall and hope to unlock the door from the other side. They may have been slain in the process, but we would have thrown our support behind her in hopes that she might be a change agent for the better. But at some point, you do win the castle and now you have to switch from victim to aggressor and you have to hold the castle—because you’ve taken it. And at the same time, you must create a path for others to follow so that you can grow as an effort.

Its not enough to say that a candidate wants to change the political system for the little people, or like that Democrat woman in Butler County who wants to run against George Lang for the Senate seat of the 4th, “People over Politics,” those are clichés from the past. Going from a nurse to a powerful 52nd House Seat would be a tough step for Jennifer Gross because she hasn’t had time to do the proper networking that is involved in being successful in a seat like that. Sure, she might make it up as she goes, but the odds are, she will only be a fraction effective as she hopes to be where Mark Welch will be able to hit the ground running because he has done the work along the way. What a lot of people don’t know about these political seats is that you have to be able to raise money, do the ribbon cutting, deal with all the people who suck up to you, but you can’t lose yourself along the way, which has been a major problem for a lot of people in the past. We’ve done well with the 52nd Seat in Butler County for a long time with good solid people sitting in it, which is why Mark is the best choice in this election for it. While its true that Jennifer Gross has financial resources that make her somewhat independent, the raising money isn’t just for winning elections, its how people in Columbus measure the most valuable voice that matters in bill proposals and other voting matters, the leverage you bring to the table as a member of the House.

Raising money is the quiet capital that is valued the most in the world of politics and its how things get done. Not how the money is used, but in how much money a politician can get their hands on because it says that the people of your district trust you enough to write a check for thousands of dollars. If they’ll do that, then the weight of a vote in Columbus where everyone has their own district concerns means more than just someone who happens to win an election because they had their mortgage paid off and showed up to cast a vote. There is a big difference in such political capital and anybody who hopes to be effective in a state seat anywhere in the country has to solve that basic riddle just as someone must learn to swim if they are going to be in the part of the pool where they can’t touch the ground with their feet. A school board seat or a trustee position is the first logical step in building that network. By the time a candidate gets to a state seat, they need to have the ability to have fundraisers and to capture a significant amount because that is how Columbus measures the potency of a fellow member.

And for people who don’t know Mark Welch the way I do, as a tireless worker who is always upbeat in every setting, and is willing to do the reading and understanding that it takes to cast proper votes that are truly Republican and not some fence sitter waiting to see if conservative values are fashionable enough to cast a vote, the most valuable number to keep in mind is that Mark has 80% of the precinct vote which are the people who really count in all elections. And they are endorsing him because they have had time over the last several elections to get to know him. Jennifer hasn’t, it will take a while, but the truth is, she is untested. While she may be a good person and a nice nurse with a military record, she has to prove that she can handle the fundraisers, the ribbon cutting and all the temptations that come with a powerful office without losing herself in the process. And Mark Welch in this case is the only candidate who has proven he can handle it, and then some. And Welch is the only candidate in this election who could fill that 52nd House seat the way we have come to expect and do the good work there that we all require. I’d like to see more from Jennifer in the future, but she has some work to do before she starts swimming in a seat like this.

Rich Hoffman

The Day After: Getting along in politics was never the goal–only winning any way possible

I think for me the battle began during the 2008 election season where John McCain ripped into the WLW radio personality Bill Cunningham for disparaging his presidential rival’s name, Barack Hussain Obama. It was in fact the guy’s name, yet McCain seemed to be playing a game none of us were aware of, including Cunningham who covered politics nearly to the extent that Rush Limbaugh had for many years. It was a kind of WTF moment for me in wondering why Republicans were so weak when it came to defending themselves against potential domestic enemies, defined by those who cannot agree at least that the American flag is a symbol of freedom and prosperity to the world. Anybody who says otherwise in my view is a domestic enemy that needs defending against as we all promise to uphold by the United States Constitution. Then there was the campaign of John Kasich which again involved Bill Cunningham from WLW. They campaigned together at Voice of America Park in West Chester, Kasich sounding like a Tea Party patriot. Only two years later, both men would turn wildly to the left and become something much more progressive. Then around that same time Mitt Romney lost to Barack Obama just as McCain did because he shared with the former some “nice guy” view of politics that the other side wasn’t playing equally. So that gave us four more years of the socialist Barack Obama and I personally had enough. When Donald Trump threw his hat in the ring, I was one of the first that signed up and the two speeches Trump gave on Thursday of February 6, 2020 was precisely the reason.

I have had enough of niceties in politics, I want people who represent me and my interests. I don’t think its healthy for everyone to play nice in the sandbox, I want to see friction and debate, because that is how we determine the strength of a thought, through competition and testing in a democratic fashion. The goal was never to get along. It was to win, as a nation, things that were good for the nation. And the Democrats showed clearly in these last three years or so since a true representative had been elected what they were always about. They have from the beginning been domestic enemies, going back to Woodrow Wilson and FDR. Kennedy if you look at the evidence of his murder was killed for many of the same reasons that politicians have been trying to get rid of Trump, to control the public narrative and keep the bar within reach of the most lazy Washington bureaucrat. For anybody who would care to challenge that assertion, the Trump administration a few years ago declassified the Kennedy assassination role that our own government played in it and to nobody’s surprise, it reads like the texts between Lisa Page and her loverboy Peter Strzok. It was quite appropriate for Trump to take a victory lap by reading those texts again for everyone to remember, just for the record.

Yes, we have been dealing with bad, evil people and the responsibility to do something about it falls on all of us. I am just thankful that the Trump family has been willing to do the job, because what has happened to President Trump since his election has been nothing short of an actual assassination. If we were living in less public times, like it was when television was new in 1962, an actual killing would have been the preferred method of eradicating a political rival. In fact Kennedy was a Democrat believe it or not, but he was the kind I might even support. The way he stood up to communism in Cuba and Russia was important, even if it did get communist supporters working in our own government to the blueprint table to plan his assassination as a byproduct. Then of course there was that ridiculous notion of going to space when the government of America wanted young people wallowing in the mud at Woodstock naked and afraid—and drugged into voting for a more socialist kind of Democrat—ones like Bernie Sanders who would continue to function in the House and Senate for decades before finally pulling their masks off in 2016. They did kill Kennedy by setting up the circumstances that would produce his brutal murder in front of a crowd and terrify onlookers into cleaving for government into the known future. A hostile act that would otherwise be viewed as a declaration of war, only who would we fight? The enemy was unseen in the publishing houses of New York, in the chambers of congress itself, and in the many academic institutions across our country committed to brainwashing young people into the spread of communism as it was viewed globally during the 30s, 40s, 50s then climaxing in the 60s.

The obvious anger Trump expressed on the day after his acquittal was more than justified. I had been thinking much the same thing and it was very nice to hear him articulate those emotions properly. I keep hearing from people that the nation is divided, and that politics has become so divisive as if there were some rule against aggression. That good ideas should be shelved if they hurt the feelings of other people, and that just isn’t the way things work or should ever work. Conflict leads to honesty and understanding. It is good to be respectful, but when we hear that someone wants to play nice, watch out, they are up to no good. There is always a trick to the method, an attempt to lower our defenses so that some enemy of ideas can sneak in and destroy their target unmolested, just as Obama did with John McCain in 2008. McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin, a woman that the left should have embraced was attacked in every way conceivable, viciously just because she was attached to a Republican ticket. That should have told everyone what kind of game was going on in a day when people weren’t so divisive because the expectation back then was that the political right would just take it while the political left had their way with everything.

So, the speeches yesterday by Trump were a long time and coming. I’ve waited a long time to hear them and was actually relieved that our system of government, as a republic, had lasted a serious attack by domestic enemies who obviously dislike what America was and intends to be. It is better to fight them legally than in the streets and door to door, but make no mistake about it, that continues to be on the table. Getting rid of Trump will not allow them to roll across America and take it over with some socialist view of the world. The niceties are over, the gullible John McCain types with John Kasich and Mitt Romney, those days are over and have been for around a decade now. Trump is the future and fighting back whether its them, or some of us who might have to step up but playing nice is not in the card deck. Winning is. The goal in politics is not to get along, its to represent the people who voted for you. And if that means punching people in the face metaphorically, or otherwise, then so be it.

Rich Hoffman

The Buckeye Firearms Association Endorses George Lang: Getting HB 178 passed

The best hope for a continuation of House Bill 178 getting passed in the Senate is to have George Lang there to help convince Mike DeWine to sign the bill, which modifies weapons law, permitting concealed carry without a license, and many other positive reforms. While many are still in debate about to what extent the Second Amendment can or should be regulated, the crazy leftist who shot up a night spot in Dayton has many conservatives weak-kneed and in need of some hand holding in the aftermath. Of the people running for the 4th District Senate Seat in the upcoming primary between George Lang, Candice Keller and Ding Dong Lee Wong, only George Lang has the clout and ability to help Mike DeWine get off the fence and back to the table to sign such a bill as HB 178. As we get closer to the primary in March, its important that voters understand the strategy and best options for the issues they are most passionate about, and in Ohio the gun rights concerns are a big topic, so a bit of context is worth our time and consideration.

Candice Keller has been asked by the GOP to step down for her comments made in August in reaction to mass shootings in general. I think many people who are logical understood that much of what she said is true, about fatherless homes, and drug users being the cause of many mass shootings, but what hurt her is that she brought up Nazi language and tousled into the gay rights debate in a way that was completely unnecessary, and it hurt the GOP brand, and her stance on Second Amendment rights, which she has been a strong supporter. But she also walked right into the poo poo by giving opponents of bills like HB 178 a face to throw darts at, and therefor a great excuse for Mike DeWine to move away from signing it. So long as Candice was a face of Second Amendment rights in Columbus then she is hurting all the politicians who support the bill but had the political skill to stay out of trouble when pressed by the media for reaction to such catastrophes like the shooting in Dayton last year. This is another reason that the media has given Candice so much prominent coverage—most of it negative, because it has forced this issue underground again and made her look like a front runner in the 4th Seat Senate race. But there is a better option, a much better one in George Lang who is every bit as much of a Second Amendment supporter, I think more so, however, he has the political skill to unite people around the bill in the Senate to the Governor that Candice just doesn’t have. And even if she did, it will take her years to rebuild her political clout within the GOP to be effective in those types of discussions.

The media would like to make the race for that senate seat look much tighter ahead of the primary with its secret hopes that enough people might vote for Candice so that she can be elected to that seat only to waste it on more political scandal, which would then effectively kill HB 178 for many years. However, running for a big office seat like those in the senate takes politicians who can raise money, advertise, and then not step in it when pushed by the media for comments, who can stay on target literally with their message under great stress. And to that point only George Lang has any remote possibility of being an effective senator in the 4th District. In the financial reports for the candidates that were due on Friday of last week, George Lang had cash reserves of well over $200,000 where Candice only had $12,000. So that leaves her only strategy to hope to stay relevant is to be a rock chucker and hope that she can get some headlines and free coverage to get her message out. But the problem is, the GOP wants her to resign, so any coverage she gets is always going to be negative.

Meanwhile the Buckeye Firearms Association has endorsed George Lang for Ohio’s 4th Senate district and by mid-February the NRA is going to give its support as well. George’s record and ability has the recognized strength to advance gun rights as a senator and that momentum should not be wasted by anybody who wants to see bills like HB 178 become law without becoming so watered down by passage that it would be virtually worthless. I would encourage Candice whom I think genuinely cares about gun rights to get behind George as the best option to represent the 4th District in this great debate. But more than that, George has the ability to put that needed arm around Governor DeWine’s neck to get the signature needed to make HB 178 a reality. Those are the kinds of political skills that go well beyond a simple vote in the chamber and how things really happen in any political body.

Candice due to her lack of political skill, not necessarily her fault—time will fix a lot of that—but she’s had to take some of these extreme positions on her Facebook page to try to cover her lack of connections to secure funding for a campaign. It’s a page out of the Trump playbook, but he was rich and didn’t need to raise money for advertising in the traditional way. New media can take a creative politician far, but not that far, and her lack of ability to gather a crowd that will give her thousands of dollars in donations is something that can’t be overcome with political theater alone. There needs to be other layers to the reach of a senator in any district and that range and donation ability is the kind of leverage that gets you a lunch date with the governor to even pitch the ideas outside of chamber protocol. Everything is about political clout and that is how after this 2020 election cycle HB 178 has the best chance to get back out into the voting cycle.

The NRA knows George is the best chance and so does the Buckeye Firearms Association, and others who are sure to follow. If the true goal is to get pro firearm legislation solidified in Ohio then George is the best option. If the goal is simply to get elected into the senate by any means possible and Candice has to be forced to show all these extreme cards to get the free publicity, then she can’t truly say that she wants HB 178 to pass, because she has no ability to help advance it as a senator or as a member of the House. The GOP is distancing themselves from her and I would say to Candice that her political future isn’t over, it needs repaired. Helping to get HP 178 to a senator who can help on the other side and secure sentiment with the governor would go a long way to repairing that relationship. And that would take more guts for all the right reasons than destroying everything from the inside out just to get a political win for the short run.

Rich Hoffman

The Problem with Candice Keller: It takes more than throwing rocks to be a good senator

In a bizarre way, everything about Candice Keller comes across as presented by Ganga Tarot in the below video—victimized, always on the outside looking in, and that conspiracy is the only answer to the future. It’s not that what Keller says about things is the problem. Everyone understands how freedom of speech these days is used to control thought and belief, so I’d be the last to say she shouldn’t have said this, or she shouldn’t have said that, and perhaps about many things she is right. But there is a difference between being a one trick pony and someone like Trump who can say similar things and escape the scrutiny of judgment untouched by scandal, and that difference follows Candice around like a ball and chain. She hopes that in the end she can use her woman status to separate herself from her rivals for the Senate in Ohio’s 4th seat, but at a time just ahead of the primary vote in March, her party has rebuked her at every level. And her response has been to resort to something more akin to the #metoo movement where her only way forward is to present herself as an undercard with a victimized status of womanhood.

The Republican Party has gathered behind the trusted leadership of George Lang for that very important seat. Looking at the Trump election for reference, the fighting among the party was vicious right up to the convention so its not uncommon for people who should be working together within the party to still be fighting this close to an important election as this primary in March. But Candice should see how the stars are lining up and be thinking of the day after instead of just trying to get a few votes by appealing to voter’s own sense of victimization. There is nothing more pathetic than such a one trick pony throwing rocks with nothing else to contribute who fails to understand that the nature of the game is to get the Party behind you, not asking you to resign. Trump’s campaign which Candice is trying to appeal to, understood that he had to unite the party by the convention, and in relation to her campaign that deadline has already passed. As a senator Candice would be completely ineffective when all she’s known for is a rock thrower screaming victimization. That makes her good points in standing for Second Amendment rights, and on abortion worthless because she has shown that she has no other means to bring people behind her legislation than to retreat behind victimization status.

I’ll be the last to say that punching back and hitting hard is beneath the needs of Party politics. However, there need to be other weapons in the holster, such as charm, team building experience, and the ability to rally people behind your cause. You have to understand the name of the game, and in politics, the reason there is a two party system, like it or not, is to force representatives to work with people of many different beliefs and get them to back an idea you propose. It doesn’t mean you have to compromise on everything, but you do have to have the skill to bend people to your will through many other methods besides just insulting them. There is a time and a place for fighting, but you have to know better when and where those times are, and just a few weeks ahead of the primary with Republicans refusing to get behind her in an established way, she is doing more damage to herself and the future she could be a part of by digging a deeper hole. My friendly advice to her would be to not resign, but to step aside quietly in this senate race and get behind George. Then live to fight another day because I see a lot of use for her contributions. But not right now after some of the devastating public relations she has had. If she continues to attack the GOP as unfair, how can she ever rally them behind her in the future, or on some new bill she proposes in the House? She must think of the long game, not the immediate need she has to save some face amidst controversy.

I make no mistake about it, that I’m for George Lang, and I am for many, many reasons. Mostly that I know him very well and for a long time, and I know he has all the skills I just mentioned. He has the needed political range and he can do well in the world by keeping things mostly above the line, and positive, which is a key for the position of senate. But more than that, even under intense pressure he has never found himself in a situation that Candace has. He’s been a frontrunner for most of his political career so its not a matter of playing it safe and not saying the wrong things at the wrong times, its just political skill. You must be savvy enough to raise money, be true to your base, and find ways to get people to work with you and not lose your soul along the way. George has done all that and more and he has had Party support. My worry is that Candice has things to offer the Republican Party and I don’t want to see her ruined after this primary election. I’d like to see her live another day and to develop her abilities beyond the one trick pony status.

It’s not enough to be a Trump supporter in Ohio and to appeal to the base. There are few politicians in Ohio, especially someone like George Lang who is considered to be a mainstream politician who is more for Trump. I remember when the entire Republican Party was supporting John Kasich and thought of Trump as a joke. George was with Trump from the very early moments. When Trump came to the Savannah Center in West Chester in the spring of 2016, well ahead of the Republican Convention in Cleveland, it was not yet popular to support Trump but George Lang was sitting right next to me in the VIP section and next to him was Margaret Conditt of the then 52nd district House seat. Sheriff Jones was there too, but not many others. Many of the VIP seats were empty and we let some lucky people come up out of the line to get a prime seat in that tight venue. I didn’t see Candice there, maybe she was in line somewhere, but the point is George has been with Trump from the beginning, and to have such a supporter in the Senate would be a great thing for Trump in Ohio and his supporters which Lang is an unquestionable advocate of the White House’s policies.

Personally, I’d like to see Candice get back into the good graces of the Republican Party as a contributor that people aren’t running from. The party could use her help, and she could use some advice in developing more tricks than just attaching herself to the Trump agenda. She needs to do more than throw rocks. She needs to do all that and a whole lot more. She needs to build bridges and get endorsements because that is attached directly to fundraising, and nobody wants a senator in the Ohio statehouse that is just a radical nobody will line up to hear speak. We had an event in West Chester and people did line up to see George Lang, a lot of people, and again, Candice wasn’t there, and she should have been. Even the liberal Lee Wong was there, although I think he thought it was the back door to Sushi Monk and was hoping for a free meal. Candice can’t hope to win an important seat in Ohio without having the Party with her, especially this close to the election. It’s the day after the primary that I’m worried about for Candice. Her place in the Republican Party needs to be much healthier not just for the benefit of all Republicans in Ohio, but for the people who need her to make good votes, put forth good bills that the governor can sign because Party unity is behind the effort, and people are willing to donate to the expensive act of campaign management. I want a future for Candice Keller, not a bottomless pit. But ultimately, its up to her to listen.

Rich Hoffman

Why EdChoice is so Beneficial: Removing Parkinson’s Law from the public education debate in Ohio

I’ve been watching and listening to the whole debate about EdChoice in Ohio with great interest. Of course, the Ohio Senate had to vote to delay the implementation of Ed Choice which was scheduled to take effect the day of this writing, until April 1st 2020. The public schools in particular have responded terribly to it, including the school in my own district which I’ve written a lot about, Lakota. It has been nothing short of embarrassing to listen to Lakota’s superintendent complain about the funding model that is coming whether they like it or not and move the entire district into a victimized status so quickly on the issue. The report back from some financial news from Lakota has not been good and they are floating the idea for another levy which would be a terrible, anti-growth tax increase just to supplement their mismanaged spending habits, so the news was bad enough. This EdChoice debate has only made things worse. Dealing with professional educators to me is the worst experience that there is in professional politics because they are so entitled and unrealistic about what they think their financial requirements should be, so we’ll deal with some of that here, and in the coming months. Listening to politicians attempt to put their minds around what to do about EdChoice, which is simply a grading system that inspires the financial contributions of the state to follow the student of that failing school to the school of their choice. This of course leaves variability in public school budgets for money they have been used to getting now going to an unpredictable number of students who may decide to go somewhere else with that precious state money.

I listened to Bill Cunningham and Representative Bill Seitz talk about this EdChoice problem on WLW and every word made me cringe. Here were two people who call themselves rock ribbed Republicans missing the whole point of the public education debate. Now, my history with these two is that they are on the wrong side of many issues. They mean well like a lot of people do, but their perspective has been tainted by years of acceptance of a system initiated by people like John Dewey during an experimentation of many things during the progressive era at the turn of the last century and like many have accepted that that’s just the way things are and the way they will always be. Money goes to the school from the state to teach children living in that district not just skills for a future job, but to turn them into democratic citizens with an emphasis on social change. In hindsight this has been a complete disaster, look at the products of the schools, which many of us are. People aren’t very smart, and they don’t set their sights very high in life. Dewey’s mistake was in attempting to steer society away from republic representation and more toward democratic majority rule, which we all know now is a disaster at the epistemological level.

For the two Bills talking on WLW about EdChoice, they are both people in their 60s and 70s now, to them public school is about sports programs, learning to follow orders so that kids learn to live in a civil society, and in establishing much needed social connections with peers. Way back, many decades ago when my wife and I pulled our kids out of public schools for a year to teach them at home because the results were just so disappointing we had family members literally melt under the news because they were afraid my kids would turn into complete social outcasts, because they believed after so many years of this Dewey philosophy that the goal of public schools was to establish these mental applications. Of course, those sentiments were completely fear based, just as about everything in public education is. We have learned to just accept the failure that is evident because that’s always the way we have done things. People like the “Bills” on WLW enjoy the idea that their public school is the holder of real-estate value, and that Friday Night Lights football in the fall months of every year make for great conversation. But it was flawed from the beginning and never was poised to do what Dewey wanted because his fundamental problem was in thinking that the state as a central authority should be in charge. It was a progressive experiment, but not a very “Republican” thing to do.

Schools like Lakota and many others who are complaining about the insecurity in their funding model should be looking at the situation like any business would instead of some free-loader sitting in a bird nest of a rich district and opening their mouths for tax money to flow in. They should be working to be the best school with the best options in a free market society. No matter what the report card states in giving families the choice of a school they’d like to go to, Lakota should feel confident that kids would want to go to their school for all the reasons that anybody would, to get a good education, be near a good sports program, or just to be around other students who aren’t problems coming from broken families. Students should have a choice and if Lakota wants those students, they should have to work to attract them.

The most tragic thing I have noticed, looking at the situation professionally, is that all public schools have become addicted to the natural state of Parkinson’s Law that has contaminated their budgeting structures. Everyone who has been involved professionally in process improvements understands that Parkinson’s Law is an adage that states “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion,” meaning that a work schedule blankly stated will allow a worker to fill that time allotment from beginning to end by the nature of human interaction. If you give someone an hour to do a 5-minute job, they’ll take the whole hour. Process improvement demands to understand how long it actually takes to do a job, and to work out the tendencies of Parkinson’s Law to misstate labor needs. Well, that same tendency is at the center of the public education debate all across the country, and is why the EdChoice trend is so badly needed. Budgets have been filled to their maximum to accommodate whatever the state provides and to what extent local school district tax payers will put up with in increased levies driven by labor unions looking to use Parkinson’s Law to attach need to student performance by using the chaos of money going to the schools, not the student, to keep the process centrally controlled and with a false understanding of what education per student should cost, leaving the real state funding model perpetually broken, which is just how the labor unions and lazy superintendents like it.

Clearly what we have had hasn’t worked. Education needs reformed and the centralized aspects of it need to be removed. Free market solutions are the only way to improve schools and the students that come from them. People should have the option to vote with their feet putting schools into the same competitive situation that every restaurant, shopping complex and entertainment destination must do, compete for the dollars available. Education is not so sacred to not be attached to competitive market conditions, end of story. A quick look at our students declares that trying something new wouldn’t hurt, because we couldn’t do worse. And ultimately that is the direction of education anyway, just as the trends of the world are declaring. People want more choices in life, not less, and it’s a matter of time anyway where money for education shouldn’t even come from the state. But while it does, it should go to the students so they can vote with their feet. Not to hold them to a school that doesn’t feel it has to earn their business. If Lakota is such a great school, or any government school for that matter, don’t tell us how good you are. Make yourself one of those schools that people want to go to. Make it so that you are so crowded that you must turn people away, which only increases the value of the product. Sure, it makes the current way that schools do business chaotic, it forces them to understand how much Parkinson’s Law is in their processes. It forces the teacher unions to think differently for sure. But that is their problem, not ours. And the state will never know how much it should spend on students so long as Parkinson’s Law is contaminating their assumptions. That is the key to this whole discussion and we’re going to have it now or in a few years, but the way things have been are not the way things are going to be. The old Dewey model was poised from the outset to fail. But these days, life happens too fast and there is just too much to learn to attempt to squeeze everything into the traditional classroom setting that we have been attempting to do. The times and this new economy are forcing us to change, so let’s get at it and solve this problem once and for all by looking at the entire concept differently.

Rich Hoffman

The Outsider Don Lemon: This is what winning looks like

It has probably been noticed that much of what I have been writing has took a turn in tone from an outsider view of the world, to more to the insider. That is because Trump, whom I have supported from the very beginning, and the Tea Party movement which I was also a part of from the very first moments, are now in charge. When you win and capture the other players chess pieces you must accept that victory and not continue to act as a victim in throwing rocks at the castle walls. Once you enter and take over the occupants of that castle, and you sit on the throne, you must acknowledge that your role has changed, and you are now responsible for what happens next. So, my direction has been to prepare those victors for a proper philosophy to help them grasp that victory and not to lose it back to the heathens who have been cast out. And that is precisely what happened on CNN when Don Lemon had on a panel of people who openly mocked the intelligence of Trump supporters, they were speaking very ungraciously about their newly found view of the world outside of the castle walls—out of power and still yet unwilling to acknowledge their loss of privilege and respect in the world.

I have been writing material for those of us getting used to our winning positions so that when the other side tries to recapture their positions, these newfound winners will know how to maintain their positions and increase their winnings, and to not allow the pendulum to swing back in the other direction as it has for a few centuries now in American politics. When you gain power, you keep it, and you use it to improve the lives of people looking to you for support and leadership. And in that way of thinking I have been making the arguments that conservative views of the world are a superior philosophic vantage point concluded through experience and wisdom, quite the opposite kind of sentiment that Don Lemon was applying to Trump voters. I would argue the opposite, that Trump voters have the higher moral high ground and superior intelligence state of mind, and that is why victories are coming easily to them these days.

The political left had captured intelligentsia over a century ago and they maintained a stingy grip on it for all of our lives, to the point where they have attempted to lay claim to intelligence itself. The Progressive era as it made a political crawl for power in 1912, and ended up putting the extreme racist Woodrow Wilson into the White House with Franklin D. Roosevelt in place just over a decade later for four terms of White House occupation, claimed our education perspective with a very Marx like view of the world that people like Don Lemon still think exists. But they have not yet accepted that they lost that position not just in the 2016 election, but essentially during the entire decade that came before. The political left pushed George W. Bush further and further to the left, then gave us Obama after an embarrassing decade of Bill Clinton. People were tired of watching their republic continue to turn so far to the left on the political spectrum, so I clarified what that measurement has been in an article dedicated to the effort.

In 2008 and 2009 I was doing work with many contacts in Hollywood and was enjoying being a growing insider in entertainment media. My bullwhip act was catching on and I was getting a lot of invites to a career trajectory that was shaping up to lead to millions and millions of dollars. The networking connections that I was establishing with my talents was shaping up to be very lucrative. And it was on a film set in Glendale, California that I made a decision to lend my talents to this new conservative trend toward the Tea Party which many at that time thought was crazy—because of all the money that was on the table. I was engaged in a philosophic talk about politics with many popular stars at a lunch break while we were in line at the catering truck and I decided that I was going to have to use my abilities to help change the direction of the country. So, I became involved in the Tea Party movement helping where I could on issues local and national. I became heavily involved in talk radio and put my name next to many controversial issues because from the very beginning, I understood the political spectrum that I have now been conveying recently. What good is millions of dollars if liberalism was allowed to steal it all eventually anyway and we lose our society? In that way, I put off my insider status for a choice on the outside so that the right political philosophy could retake powers of position in our nation, so that we could all have a better society along that political spectrum.

Believe me, I felt the pain of going from an insider to an outsider. It was not a happy place, so I get the need to ridicule their betters that Don Lemon and his friends at CNN feel is necessary. And they should know that they are only digging their own hole deeper. Because unlike what I experienced in the early days of the Tea Party leading up to the Trump election of 2016, and everything that has happened since, I understood where the political spectrum was and why people started America to begin with. That the entire progressive era was a well-meaning swing way to the left of it, but that the heart of every American rested well to the right of that center and would under the needs of freedom, to continue moving to the right every chance it had. So, for Don Lemon and his supporters, and all those on the left politically, they do not have philosophy on their side. They will not be able to retake powers of position easily, unless we hand it back to them with unlocked doors and sheer neglect. That knowledge is terrifying to them, and they should be scared for how they behaved when they did have power. It is our task to give them many nightmares in the aftermath of their fall from power just as a warning to their further encroachments.

However, winning should always be the goal and we have won. Now the challenge is to stay hungry for more wins and to maintain a winning culture. To not relax and become ourselves corrupt, but to be vigilant and hungry for that winning culture at every opportunity. It is a new day and we don’t need to worry so much about being victims to the Don Lemons of the world. We have beaten them. Its ok to piss over the castle walls upon their spiteful faces, but we must never again give them political leverage over us. And that is the lesson of the day. When you get power, keep it and understand that our position is historic, and that the philosophy of mankind is on our side, and so long as we preserve the natural tendency of all human beings to function under freedom, that their movement to the political right will always guard that castle, and keep us all in the winning column for many centuries to come. We’ve all made sacrifices to get here, all battles are about such decisions. Now however that we have power, we need to keep it for the hopes of all who dream well into the history books that have not yet been written. And additionally, now that we have power, its time that we use it to do good, and bring justice to those hungry for it.

Rich Hoffman

The John Bolton Isssue Doesn’t Matter: What Democrats want is the “Minority Report”

First let me say that this leak coming out of John Bolton’s book is likely done by the publisher and may not have any hook into reality. Bolton himself may not even know about it. With the pre-orders for Bolton’s new book going up on Amazon on the same day, the coincidence is less than mysterious. Even more than that, the leaker is likely a political operative using impeachment to hide their own connections to the crimes of the Democrat Party attached to the Bidens and the Obama White House. They saw how well the Trump lawyers massacred the impeachment case on Saturday and Monday, and they needed some way to stall things out in the Senate to delay the eventual acquittal as long as they can, because in essence, they have no plan for beating President Trump in the fall. The longer the impeachment trial goes on, perhaps the more Rino Republicans they can get to at least play ball at preserving their last hope of getting some news coverage favorable to their party. A media culture bored out of their minds with the impeachment scandal jumped on this story like a drowning person grabs at a life raft, but the essence of the case didn’t change. Its not about the facts of anything related to the impeachment case, but rather a hopeful stall tactic to keep their last attempts as a Democrat Party alive with their “Hail Mary” pass for a hopeless touchdown.

The real humor in Bolton’s so-called leak is that it is so hopeless. Think about what they are suggesting that President Trump said to withhold money from Ukraine unless they investigate the crimes of the Biden family. First of all, the crimes were committed by the Bidens. Second, who says that Ukraine deserved any money from the American taxpayer to begin with. And third, in negotiations it is quite common to bolster a position to see how entrenched the other side is, or in Bolton’s case, how much you can trust them. There is a vast difference between saying something and doing something. This isn’t the “Minority Report” where we prosecute crimes without evidence just based on speculation or intentions to commit crimes as suggested by some third party. Trump can say anything he wants, especially among his confidants. If we might say, “I will kill that person” we might utter it to express our anger. Its not against the law to express yourself. It is against the law to actually do it, and in cases like this, we must always keep that in perspective. President Trump is the victim of a crime, not the advocate of one.

It really is a shame that Mitt Romney, for all that Trump did to support his Senate run would even consider pushing for John Bolton’s testimony. Not that President Trump would even need to evoke executive privilege the way that Obama and many others have over time, but such a move would surely keep the impeachment trial alive longer which feeds into the Democrat play book. He knows better and has clearly put his own political ambitions higher than the oath of the office he swore to protect. The actions by the Democrats are so vile that Romney should clearly understand what he’s suggesting. But then again, maybe he does. Maybe there are a lot of Senators in that chamber who did just as Biden did, sell access to corrupt governments for their personal enrichment, and perhaps that’s the strategy and has been from the outset. They don’t want to hear how good the Trump attorneys are at defending the President, they want to make sure that the focus stays on the Executive Branch, not on the crimes committed by their friends and partners in Congress.

But obviously nobody has thought past this case at the future case law they are all proposing, where just for what you say, or even think, could get you removed from office, and destroy you forever. Their vision is incredibly short-sighted, but what should we expect from such a group of low thinking animals. We are not talking about deep, intellectual thinkers here, but very didactic villains, Romney included who will do anything for a taste of power. Even if it goes against logic in every way, shape, and form. To suggest that Trump should be removed from office for even saying something, even though what happened in reality was not even close, is to ignite a very dangerous tomorrow. But when the real crime is that the perpetrators would otherwise be on trial and face jail time by Trump’s DOJ, what do they have to lose by trying to place their own guilt on an innocent party just because the behavior might indicate some shared guilt and diffuse attention from the true matter at hand—that Joe Biden was selling access to the White House and was getting rich off his office. And a few years ago, it was another Democrat presidential candidate doing that very same thing in Hillary Clinton. And that right now in that very Senate chamber many others are committing the very same crime in both parties. Let’s not forget that John McCain was at the center of the Russian Dossier and hand carried it to the FBI himself. So, we are not dealing with people who want to see the swamp drained, rather they are angry and willing to do anything to deflect guilt from them to the Trump administration using any rumor possible to conduct their task.

And the desperation is so great that they will stop at nothing, to Hell with what tomorrow brings. If just a rumor, or a leak from some disenchanted political activist can paint guilt on anybody, then so be it—that is the message here. The facts of the matter are in what Trump did, Ukraine got their money whether they deserved it or not, and any bolstering that was done for positioning wasn’t followed through, which is the end of the Bolton story. But in this case, maybe he sells a few books only to find out later that there is nothing to it, would not be a first in the business of marketing. Its quite common, only so much for one political party usually isn’t on the line. For the Democrats, their very existence is at stake, so to some extent we can sympathize with their frustration. They have no case, all they can hope to do at this point is run down the clock as close to the election as possible and hope that some Senators lose their footing from now until then and vote their way to keep scandal alive and focused on Trump instead of the true destination, the Bidens. At the end of all this it’s not just about politics but rather their own freedom from jail time that we are really talking about so that makes these people very desperate. And desperate people will do just about anything, and they have. They don’t care that Trump is an innocent man, let alone a president elected by Americans to solve a problem. They are part of that problem so of course they hate the American people and their representative in the White House. But even so, they can’t prosecute for crimes that never happened or that were just talked about. If that is the case, just about everyone everyday would be guilty of some life sentence in prison. And that is the door that Democrats are willing to open in hopes of saving themselves, which is why they are so dangerous.

Rich Hoffman

President Trump, Warren Davidson, and George Lang: ‘Nobody Does it Better’

It was good to hear my congressman’s name come up during President Trump’s March for Life speech on Friday. Warren Davidson has been doing such a great job representing me in Washington D.C. that it gave me a great moment of pride in hearing his name mentioned so prominently by the greatest president in American history. But that wasn’t all that Trump was up to that day, additionally he had a meeting of the nation’s mayors at the White House so to inspire them into better things. Also he released on Twitter the new logo for the sixth branch of military service, the Space Force which has come to be under his presidency. For most people any one of those things would have been the climax of their week, even for former presidents. They would have needed a nap after just the mayor’s event. But for Donald J. Trump and those rising to great success under his influence leadership, like Warren Davidson, its just another day at the office. Few people would have known it, even though every network had committed most all of their broadcasting effort toward the effort, but an impeachment trial was going on at Capital Hill by those seeking any way possible to slow this president down. And this coming on the heels of new trade deals with China, Mexico and Canada, and a very successful trip to the Davos economic forum of world leaders. This president is too big of a thinker to be encumbered by the small minded, and after a week of impeachment coverage, it was quite clear that President Trump had more of a personality of a James Bond theme song than the scandalous acceptance of political diatribes that brought down Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon. Trump is a winner and everything he touches improves just by his influence, leaving attempts to paint him as a lesser person weak and affectless.

This isn’t a new idea to me, that is why actually I have named this site for more than a decade now, Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom. As an individual I live my own life in such a way, something that is bigger than just the meager exploits of common human ambitions. That’s where the “overman” comes from, expecting more of yourself than just the primitive attempts at basic living, but to do everything in your life as if it were a legendary status. So it is great to see that those types of people are finding success these days instead of being held down by some pretense of social construct. Those cracks have been forming in every field of endeavor for well over 100 years, and it is very exciting to see what having one finally live and work in the White House can do for people, and that wonderful new politicians like Warren Davidson on the national level and George Lang at the Ohio level, are emerging under a flag of winning that people just haven’t experienced before.

A lot of people over the weekend tried to put their finger on the issue, really of what happened during the third week of January 2020 in America with a president who has a personality that is bigger than the news cycles and the top stars of Hollywood and within the networks. It obviously bothers them that they can’t match his efforts, but I would say that the fault is entirely theirs. They have simply set the goals for themselves too low, and their lives have been too meek to compete with President Trump, that even with all the vast resources of the federal government to utilize, they have not been able to hurt him at all politically. They may have kept his influence from spreading to those who have already voted otherwise. If not for their efforts, President Trump may have 90% of the country behind him currently. He may actually be the first president in American history who is truly a president to all people no matter what their political backgrounds. There were some bad mayors in the White House at that meeting, and Trump treats them all very fairly and always above the line, which is consistent with his business background. I think most successful business people are good at finding what’s best about people, even if those people don’t yet see it in themselves. Its not a bad thing to call them out and to try to push them into greatness, even if they insist on being sticks in the mud. Optimism is good for business, and now its also good for politics and the effects are now exploding onto the scene.

And to think how much President Trump has endured and yet stock prices on the Dow are hovering at 29,000. Trump was the first president in American history to speak at the famous March for Life that occurs every year. I mean how could anybody not be for life? Certainly, a positive person like President Trump wants to see every life have a chance at something great for themselves, especially those being born. How could any politician put their name next to a death cult of abortion and try to sell it to women as a right to be a murderer? Yet that is how it has been, and presidents were so terrified to be pushed under on the media cycle to even appear to challenge Roe v. Wade that they fear women may not vote for them in an upcoming election. President Trump however didn’t just make himself that first president to so publicly speak in favor of such a pro-life position, but its just one of the big things he did that day, and that is pretty much every day in his administration. He is an amazing character of significant achievement and like any overmanwarrior, he is not content with those efforts, but is always looking for the next win. Lesser people who don’t have such high goals for themselves simply can’t touch him. Look at how pathetic Adam Schiff was in the senate trying to use 24 hours of legal banter to make a case for impeachment only to look like a loser who farted in a corner and then tried to blame it on everyone else.

I know how hard Warren Davidson works in my district and I feel privileged to have him as an option for representation. Not that competency should be unjustly rewarded, its expected, but all too often we end up with hacks like Adam Schiff in federal positions, and those people are really struggling with the influence leadership of President Trump because they can’t keep up. All they can do is yell at the bus that has come and gone leaving them on a street corner of philosophy with all the rest of the garbage that has refused the call to be better than they were yesterday. In Trump’s America, everyone should strive to be more than they were even five minutes ago. He has lived his life that way and now as a President, he is showing what such a person looks like. Most of us, a majority, love it and will continue to support it well into the future. And that is unique to our times and is a growing movement that I relish. I have never enjoyed watching the news so much than I have from the day that this president was voted into office in November of 2016. He is simply too big to stop and the world knows it. And that big concept thinking is now giving a voice to other big thinkers, like Warren Davidson, and George Lang to become more than they ever could before, which is probably the most exciting thing that nobody is talking about. For a change its not the nobody’s who are shaping our lives. It’s the winners, and this is what it feels like, which is a great and welcomed condition. These times are for winners, and President Trump is the embodiment of the Carly Simon song, “Nobody Does it Better.” And we are all benefiting from it. Trump is the best, and the world is coming to understand it, even his enemies.

Rich Hoffman

George Lang: One of the Hardest Workers in the Business of Politics

I really can’t say enough about how good George Lang is. Yes, I’ve known him for a long time and watched him navigate through the kind of political waters that would sink most people, but his raw optimism and hope in everyday people has really put him into a category all his own. He’s in full campaign mode now for his 4th District Senate run in Ohio as the primary is coming up in March and I just have to say that I don’t know anybody who works harder and is more honest at it than him. I tend to judge people based on how hard they work and even though his personality and beliefs are not new to me, which is why I always support George Lang in anything he does, it really has been his work ethic for this senate seat that has impressed me most recently. He has been astonishing in the work he has been willing to put into the effort, even though he is the clear front runner. He’s already in the House of Representatives representing the same essential district, so his workload is spoken for, but seeing the crowd he was able to draw at a fundraiser this past week, and the quality of his supporters would impress anybody, even those not so inclined to political tides and concerns.

The fundraiser was held at a very nice home in Liberty Township complete with its own bowling alley, which everyone seems to have these days in such a wonderful land of opportunity that has evolved in that area. The crowd that George was able to muster would impress even the most rigorous national politician, and it takes that kind of ability to play the game at that level. While most media would cover such an event with the obvious hatred toward businesspeople and the money they tend to make—purely out of jealousy—George’s pro-business platform and track record already at the state level would impress anybody. What a lot of people who don’t have bowling alleys in their basement don’t know is that business owners and investors have had a tough road to run for many decades as the political class could have cast themselves straight out of the villains of an Ayn Rand novel, and they have had to tip toe around government in all sorts of ways just to make a decent living always with a weary eye toward some government imposed audit, or regulatory tyranny. If they treat themselves to a bowling alley in their basement or a nice car nobody should begrudge them, because most of the time, those types of people work 12 to 15 hour days and worry constantly 24 hours a day to provide jobs for people and to always stay ahead in tough, competitive business markets. They need someone they can trust, and George Lang has provided them with that option, so its good to see they see that and have shown up to support him when needed.

Most politicians have to pander to the business class type of donors to some extent or another, but they don’t often openly embrace business leaders the way that George does because of the media stigma that has existed for well over a century, created by the Karl Marx types that are so openly bred in our colleges and public education institutions these days. By the way intelligentsia treats business owners and leaders its amazing that anybody even wants to try to be anything but a paycheck puncher and nothing more. For even the most ambitious people find the lack of respect that is cast against any business owner a barrier to the kind of risks and personal dedication that it takes to be a job provider. If not for those who want some trappings of wealth to enjoy as a result of the massive amount of work and worry that it takes, nobody may attempt it. Luckily in America, and especially in the 4th District of Ohio there are plenty of people still willing to do such work and George has positioned himself to represent them, as well as all the people who enjoy jobs from such an endeavor. Because if not for people like the hosts of that fundraiser for George, with the nice bowling alley serving as a podium for the ever enthusiastic Lang, Liberty Township wouldn’t be such a paradise of unemployment and wealth generation that makes even the least ambitious person living in the area one of the luckiest people on earth due to the opportunities afforded to them by the hard working and industrious.

I’ve been to these kinds of things a lot, and to be honest, the efforts usually look phony to me. Politicians are forced to play both sides of the fence, they pander to the business owner for money, then boot lick the “worker” as termed by the Marx movement that has so infected several generations of people for over a century, as if they were polar opposites. What very few politicians have ever successfully made a proper connection to is that one makes the other, not the other way around, and that George through his own hard work represents them all authentically, not in the way of the phony that other politicians have managed. Authenticity of purpose is one of the rarest commodities and its wonderful to see that so many people recognize that trait in George and have been willing to put their money where their mouth is. They can see as I do the hard work that George Lang has been willing to put into everything he does, and they see him as a good investment. Not in the way that politics has been known to purchase power and prestige by selling away access, but in getting yield and support from a representative who actually does the work and is tireless in the effort.

When businesses thrive, everything that cascades off those wonderful industries improves the lives of everyone connected. For many people waking up in the morning knowing that there is a job out there with their name on it is one of the most treasured items in their lives. That is how they raise their families, pay their mortgages, their car payments, it funds all the things they want to be and hope to achieve. But the efforts to run a business and to own a business often is one of the most overlooked elements of our culture with old prejudices well established by other elements that permeate the thoughts of even the most logical. And its so refreshing to see that George Lang sees beyond all that to the truth, and in the manner of his extremely hard work, optimistic spirit, and sheer honesty, that he is unlike most any other politician that has ever ran for office. The speeches might sound similar at times as many politicians are gifted orators, but they aren’t like George Lang who expects to be more of a representative to everyone in his district than even comes from his presentations of himself. He’s as hard of a worker as the hardest worker in any position, and he offers himself as a friend to the start of all economic activity, the business owners and industrialists who need representation to work their magic, which of course benefits everyone. In that way, George Lang’s campaign is unusually honest, and is something that even those not very interested in politics could be proud of and feel some connection to due to the authenticity and stamina of its candidate. George Lang is impressive, but that’s because what’s underneath is even better than the package.

Rich Hoffman