Tag: Tea Party

George Lang Was Always a Leader in the Tea Party: When education and book exchanges were important

It is odd, and obviously full of politics to be a part of discussions defending George Lang’s Tea Party support during the height of the movement and for myself to be associated with the establishment because of it. But then again, so be it. As I have been saying a lot this year with President Trump going into his fourth year in office, and a much different, and better world as a result especially on the investment side, at some point those on the outside get on the inside and what they do with that opportunity will define future history. To get feedback from old friends from those times suggesting that I was never a Tea Party supporter is laughable, as I was clearly one of the leaders of the movement, and did so at a great cost to myself, which I’d do again over and over. But for me there always needs to be an end to a project, and the Tea Party movement was a project needing a resolution. And George Lang along with his wife Debbie were of the same mind. They enjoyed going to the meetings and talking to people and learning things about how our government should work. But at some point you have to evolve past the rock chucking phase, and become part of the management team that takes over, and does things right.

As much as people attempted to demonize the Tea Party movement it was never a bunch of crazy radicals and far right ideologues. Mostly they were older people who knew something was wrong and they wanted to educate themselves to learn what it was. The Tea Party in the pre-Trump days had a few rallies here and there to show they were a force to be reckoned with, and they tipped the scales in some elections toward a more Republican party more representative of their values, but what I enjoyed about it was that it was more intellectual than anything, as book sharing and discussions were the centerpiece of the movement. Books like the Thousand Year Leap, Atlas Shrugged, Common Sense and even reading the Constitution and understanding it were the focus of activity that was largely leaderless. The Tea Party didn’t need a leader, because it was really books that was guiding everyone’s interest and at Tea Party events it was a chance to get together with other like minded people and to talk about these things.

That was actually how I met George Lang and his wife, we liked the same books and enjoyed getting away from the rigors of the world to talk about smart stuff at Tea Party meetings. There was always the elements of the Tea Party meetings that had people very concerned about some big brother control of their lives who protested back then the smart meters that were being put on everyone’s homes to regulate their use of power, and those people have evolved into protestors of 5G wireless service. I was never one of those types so much, I figure the Second Amendment trumps over concerns of little bureaucrats trying to impose on my family how much laundry we can do in a day, so I don’t worry about those things much. And as to 5G, I never really got involved in that debate because I like technology. Sure all these communication waves are flying around and through our bodies at all kinds of rates blasting our atoms with constant intruders, but I expect most human beings will evolve to match the challenges of technology. And to me technology means business, and business means economic prosperity for regional need. Again, with the Second Amendment, I’m not too worried about some evesdropper using 5G to spy on me. If I catch them, I’ll deal with them in my own way. But I like the technology options that come with the changing world.

After Trump was elected there wasn’t much in the Tea Party left for people like George and me. It was actually during the Republican primaries where people were pretty upset with me for supporting Donald Trump over Ted Cruz and other Tea Party picks for president that I lost touch with all those old friends. It was a clear situation where we had all become bitter rivals during 2016 and the Tea Party pretty much dissolved in disagreement over who anybody should support for president. I have been to a few Tea Party meetings since Trump was elected, and clearly once Trump won, people united on the issue, but the educational effort wasn’t the same. The Tea Party had fallen into a status of victimhood, of below the line behavior that isn’t attractive to me, and really couldn’t justify my time any longer. The same thing looks to have happened with George Lang and many other politicians like him who used to come as long as the meetings were places where they could justify the time. But just to sit around complaining about things wasn’t why the Tea Party was good, so the effort fell apart once a lot of the things that we had wanted to see was now happening in the White House, fiscal responsibility, free markets, and an optimistic look toward the future.

However for some in the Tea Party, it was their chance to point at every boogieman on the horizon and to isolate themselves from a solution, and largely that is what it has become to my eyes, which of course happens everywhere that leadership is absent. George Lang was a member of leadership within the Tea Party movement and once he found other things to put his mind on, and many others like him across the country, the movement weakened and dissolved into what it is today. I view it as something nice that I was a part of for a while, but now its time to do all the things we talked about, and that’s what’s going on. George is part of that puzzle along with other great people who came out of the West Chester Tea Party like Mark Welch, Ann Becker and T.C. Rogers who as a commissioner for Butler County came to most every meeting from 2010 until 2015. The meetings changed from book exchanges to complaint sessions and at that point the political leaders stopped going to the meetings and now there are clear divisions which is normal in any organization that loses its focus. In the beginning, the Tea Party was about education, not activism. Now it’s about activism which is much less conducive to people’s time, especially when they are part of the solution as elected officials. People like George Lang, and myself included, are turning our eyes to fixing the problems we had been concerned about, while what’s left of the Tea Party is still looking for that rally cry to continue with. Some people find comfort in spending time with people of like mind, so the Tea Party gives them something to rally behind, even though the pendulum has swung to our side and management is now up to us. But to say that we were never Tea Party supporters, George Lang and I, is like saying there was never a sun in the sky or clouds during a rainstorm. Its just not a proper statement. It might be a wish, but its certainly not a fact. What has changed is that some coming out of the Tea Party want to actually do something about everything we learned while in it, and now is the time for that action. Complaining about everything was never what the Tea Party was, but it is what it has evolved in to.

Rich Hoffman

Kathy Wyenandt the Democrat Lakota Tax Supporter: Apparently they want a rematch

I think its very interesting that Kathy Wyenandt is still celebrating the passage of the Lakota levy of 2013 as her calling card to get into the Ohio Senate. At a recent debate some of the things I heard her say about her role in passing that levy stirred me the wrong way. In ways that I’ve written plenty on, that levy was personal and had evolved well beyond just a healthy debate between opposing sides. When she talks about No Lakota Levy as the organized resistance to the tax increases that were proposed three other times prior and went down to defeat, it was my face that was in the front of it, and it was my reputation that they attacked when they couldn’t win any other way, so I disagree with Kathy Wyenandt who became the fourth campaign attempt at passing that ridiculous tax increase at Lakota schools. After listening to her I think we need to set the record straight because there was some really bad action going on with that effort for which Kathy was in the middle of and we need to talk about it.

Kathy Wyenandt is taking credit for her role in passing that tax increase so let’s review what happened. After three levy attempts for which I was the spokesman of the No Lakota Levy group the school board targeted me personally to get me out of the way of their opposition for another attempt which they were talking about doing in the following spring. I had two problems with that, the voters had spoken on three previous attempts, a resounding no, and Lakota wasn’t listening. Instead they made it personal and went after my character directly, siding with the Cincinnati Enquirer in bringing great harm to my reputation in an effort to smoke out all the No Lakota Levy supporters whom I represented often on WLW radio. The organized labor efforts of the teacher’s union and the levy supporting moms of Lakota went on quite a campaign against me, because they couldn’t beat the arguments I poised at them in live debates on the radio, on stage at various forums, and anywhere else they wanted to fight. Because their premise on the whole thing was wrong. So they lobbied WLW to stop supporting the No Lakota Levy campaign, which led to the firing of my radio friend Doc Thompson while on his honeymoon, which was a very low blow to him.  He and I talked about the situation and he spilled the beans to me as to what went on behind the scenes at WLW in conjunction with Lakota lobbyists, all which occurred at the same time in a coordinated fashion.  No school system should have that kind of power against the tax payers who pay their bills and hire them to manage their district. There were other elements, but the Lakota position was certainly a corporate decision on behalf of Clear Channel that wasn’t there in the 2013 election.

I had my much publicized fight with the core levy supporters when I called them all “latte sipping prostitutes” essentially as I was outraged that those people did not respect the previous 3 elections and kept scheming and plotting until they got their property tax increase, and it caused a separation of No Lakota Levy from my representation. I wanted out in a lot of ways because I was sick of talking about education issues. I wanted to publish a book I had been working on that wasn’t related at all to public education, yet my actions with the Lakota levy was setting me up on all kinds of television, radio, and other public formats that wanted me to be their education spokesman, so the longer the Lakota levy issue went on, the more trapped in it I became. I was hoping that after that third attempt they would stop and listen. But they didn’t, instead they spent more tax money on more consensus building efforts and showed they intended to try for a fourth wasting more of my time, so I blew up and the rest is history. We agreed to a cease fire, I moved on to other things and Lakota started plotting for that fourth attempt a year and a half later for which Kathy Wyenandt was brought in to help. And even with all that, they only won by 1% of the vote, not at all a stout and convincing victory. No Lakota Levy was there to organize a resistance but in looking back, I think we all agree we should have stuck together and if we had, there is no way that Lakota would have won. If Lakota tries again, we are talking about getting the band back together again.

The big turn in the vote was Sheriff Jones, the popular Republican who thought it was time to support Lakota because they had promised to use some of the money for increased security. Many of the No Lakota Levy people were willing to join with Jones to give Lakota a chance and some voters followed, enough to give Lakota a very small victory. After the win, Lakota did with the money exactly what I said they would do, they gave raises to the teachers even though they should have been laying off due to declining enrollment. They had been operating as a surplus for several years due to that declining enrollment but now they find themselves in the same trajectory of surplus spending and are talking about yet another levy. I just had a talk with several No Lakota Levy people the other day and we are seriously considering to meet that levy attempt in the same way we did on the previous three attempts that defeated the tax increase. Playing nice like many of them wanted to in that 2013 attempt stung in the end and the taste has been bad for everyone because many feel like they were lied to by Lakota. We have all been focused in getting a third conservative vote on the school board, but that has been not nearly as effective as just voting no on school levies. But the status quo of just passing more property tax increases every so many years is just not an acceptable option. If Kathy Wyenandt wants to take credit for that tax increase, which she clearly does, then have at it. But the truth of the matter was that Sheriff Jones changed the numbers, and we had split our efforts within No Lakota Levy. Only by dividing and conquering did the levy pass. It wasn’t that Kathy reached across the aisle to Republicans and Democrats to build a coalition. It was simply that Jones and his followers wanted to give Lakota a chance, which they have squandered.

I have spoken to Kathy on several occasions now and everyone seems surprised that I am not some raving lunatic on that matter. In fact during the three previous levy attempts I was very friendly with everyone, including the pro levy people. I was always happy to argue the facts. But I have a very bad temper, I can handle it just fine, but when someone punches at me or even thinks to, it doesn’t go well for the perpetrator.  I have never taken an attack on me lightly and when Joan Powell and Julie Shaffer on the school board decided to attack me personally, that was the end of the cordial activity. It was they who weren’t listening to what the voters said, and insisted on continuing to make levy attempts until they wore voters out into just saying yes. It was one of the most crooked schemes I have ever seen and it ruined my thoughts on public education forever. I don’t think those people should be anywhere near educating the next generation and I could tell stories all day for the record, and if this extortion scheme wasn’t so wide spread in virtually every government school, there would be serious legal issues.  I have not told all the stories I know about these people because honestly, I have wanted Lakota to improve its image, for or community’s sake.  But since its government, it gets overlooked and we are all supposed to take it smiling.  It was with each levy attempt that Lakota made that caused me to think that the John Dewey system of education was a ridiculous failure that needed to be completely reinvented, which is where I am on all education topics these days. Most of the No Lakota Levy supporters do not feel as strongly as I do on the matter, they just don’t want to get ripped off by the school that harms their projects. I however think public education as a concept needs a complete re-invention, so I don’t want to spend a further dime on any of it until we have that discussion. If not for my experiences with the Lakota levy attempts, I might not feel that way, but the more I learned, the more I despised the process.

It certainly helped that when Kathy Wyenandt came along, she didn’t look like the bottom of someone’s shoe the way previous pro school advocates presented themselves. That certainly helped take the edge off all the hatred that had been brewing between the various groups in the process. But that hatred was created by Lakota not listening to the voters and insisting that they just keep going to the voters until an election went their way. They cut busing as an extortion tactic, they took away sports programs, they played lots of games when the real meat of their problem was their excessive payroll. Kathy made it easy for Sheriff Jones and some other local leaders to give Lakota a chance, which they have blown, of course. And if Kathy wants a rematch, let’s have it. I bet Lakota wouldn’t get 1% of the vote today. And I think she knows that which is why she wants this senate job, because everyone knows Lakota is going to try for another tax increase because they do not have control of their budget. And when that happens, Kathy wants to be in Columbus so she doesn’t have to face the fact that the levy win in 2013 was a falsehood of smoke and mirrors, and once people realize that, she won’t be able to use it for an opportunity for higher office.

I am always happy to have a professional debate and discussion about everything. I am used to dealing with people who do not agree 100% with my view of the world and I can talk to a person like Kathy and many of these other pro tax advocates without getting mad at them. But when they take a shot at me and make it personal, then my policy is worse than Donald Trump’s policy of hitting back twice as hard. I tend to hit back until there is nothing left of the other side and I do that in everything in my life. So any past that we have had where Lakota used people like Kathy Wyenandt to advance a tax position they shouldn’t even have been asking for is on them, and all the anger that came from that attempt which is still as strong today, if not stronger, than it was prior to 2013. The problem was and always has been that after the first levy attempt that was defeated way back in 2010, Lakota should have managed their labor contracts differently. But instead they chose to pass their mismanagement off onto the community to cover the insane expenses of their collective bargaining agreements to the taxpayer, most of which do not have children in the school system. And today there are more of those people voting than there were in 2010, so a rematch to set the record straight would be a welcomed occasion. Whether or not its No Lakota Levy or some update of that concept, I’ll be there to meet it with those also interested, and the truth will be obvious.

Rich Hoffman

Candice Keller, Locked in a Vault, Yet Nobody can Find Her: A campaign doomed from beginning to end

I had hoped that the rumors were not true and that Candice Keller would in fact be at the Butler County Chamber Coalition debate for the 4th Ohio Senate District at the Benison Event Center in downtown Hamilton. But like the giant bank vault of that old building that has stories to tell going back to the gangsters of prohibition, not even Candice was inside. All of her that made it was her name tag at a table where she should have been if ever she hoped to be a real candidate for the upcoming primary election on March 17th. I had hoped to talk to her, to salvage her political career somewhat by getting behind George Lang and living for another day, but she didn’t even show up to have that conversation. Instead, it appears that her phobia of public speaking was true and that her weak speeches at the State House were more than just a rookie learning her way in a new office, Candice has a real problem getting her thoughts across to the public in events like this one, which is crucial to any viable candidate.

A lot of people have such phobias of public speaking and being judged by so many people, but anybody running for a big office must understand that these expectations come with the territory. In her case she managed to offer something fresh to her district and people gave her a chance largely through church networks and Facebook. But people expect their political representatives to learn as they go and events like the one at the Benison Event Center are part of the job, and winning those debates are expected. The job for the 4th District Senate Seat is bigger than a Facebook campaign, these types of things are how politicians communicate to their constituents, not just through quips to the media, but in presenting herself to a crowd that isn’t always happy to see her and to win them over. That’s part of the game. Instead, Candice had an empty chair with her name on it, and her son showed up to video the other candidates to see how the professionals did it. But her empty seat was quite a statement, it said a lot more than if she had come and made a fool of herself. At least if she had, people might sympathize, but instead all she gave the audience was the impression that she didn’t even care enough to arrive.

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The Vault in Hamilton Ohio. #travel #life #family

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What her son was able to record was a very polished George Lang who is the obvious front runner deliver very well on all the questions that were asked of him. George is the real deal at every level, he is good with people, honest, understands the needs of donors, and he can reach across the aisle to work with anybody on anything. Candice’s son also saw a very sharp Kathy Wyenandt who will be the Democrat nominee after the primary. All evening she and George spoke well together in a polite way without surrendering their integrity, but in the manner that both of them could go to Columbus and get bills passed by members of the various influencers. Even if Candice did luck out and Moses came to separate the Red Sea for a freakish win at the Republican primary, for which the entire GOP is asking her to resign due to her reckless commentary about Nazis and gay people, Candice doesn’t have the horsepower to beat Kathy Wyenandt in a head to head race. Currently, the way things are, Kathy has a numbers problem, she’s running as a Democrat so no matter how good she is, she’s on the wrong side. But with the GOP not behind Candice, and Keller looking to be terrified of public debates, she would have no hope of winning a major election against Wyenandt.

That is why I wanted to talk to Candice, to help her see the light before it was too late. Instead, she is off on a fantasy that she can avoid these kinds of things and still win with a Tea Party like activism. Only I was there when the Tea Party was young, and so was George Lang. Many of the best conservatives today in the GOP are from that movement. What Candice and what’s left of the Tea Party are those who have not found an identity in the new focus of leadership that has emerged under President Trump. They haven’t made the transition from rock chucker to leader. George Lang certainly has; he is very much the Trump Republican in the race. When Trump comes to town, its George that he would seek, certainly never Candice, especially in the wake of her media troubles. She’s toxic poison right now with no future in sight once she steps out of her House seat and that would be a real tragedy to the election that she did win.

Keller’s son was also able to record the bumbling lunacy of Ding Dong Lee Wong who had a terrible debate. An absolute disaster. I would say about it, at least he had the guts to come. However, afterwards when everyone was talking during a social hour Lee disappeared rather quickly. The group I was talking to figured that it was because East Avenue was nearby, and he was likely going on shopping visits for his old friend Robin McDaniel—the “working girl.” Of course, before going Ding Dong Lee Wong said that the solution to the employment challenges were to just let in more Chinese people, or something to that effect, which left the audience baffled and looking for more to come. But at least Lee was there to make a statement, which was more than Candice. All jokes aside about the brevity of Lee’s post-debate networking, the obvious front runner of the debate was George Lang as expected, and Lee looked to understand that after this season of debates, this one in Hamilton being likely one of the last before the primary. Any hopes Lee had of landing a blow against Lang that could damage his frontrunner status was gone and so was Lee’s spirit. I almost felt sorry for Ding Dong Lee, but because I know the history of how much he hates George Lang, I won’t go so far to reach out an olive branch. He can wallow in it for plenty as far as I’m concerned.

Once the room had cleared and everyone went home, I did ask the caretakers of the place if I could look in the vault to see if Candice was back there somewhere. To humor me, they actually looked with me holding that name tag to identify Candice.  Nobody was in the vault, but it was impressive to look at such an antiquated structure from the years long gone. It reminded me a lot of the campaign of Candice Keller, confined, locked up, and even looted beyond comprehension. Her perceived path to victory was to lock herself in such a vault to the outside world and hope that some miracle might happen to get her elected into a high office by just throwing rocks outside those confines at a genuinely good person in George Lang. She should know with all her supposed Christian values that lying about people as she has been disparaging the character of Lang to such a degree won’t get her any keys to heaven. I’d love to help her with her problem, but all she gave me to work with was a nametag and an empty seat and the perception of an audience that already thought of her as a loser.

Rich Hoffman

Why Nancy Nix of Butler County is one of the Best: EdChoice and how Ohio needs a better funding model

I just want to say after seeing her at a number of political events recently, especially at places where George Lang and Mark Welch are present that Butler County is very lucky to have such a great treasurer in Nancy Nix on her third term. She is so good at what she does that I’d like to see her on her 100th term in the future. It is always wonderful to meet competent people who understand the details and Nancy Nix does. She is part of the puzzle that has come together so nicely in Butler County Ohio politics where a really good management team has risen to the occasion of our times to bring residents the best services possible that government could hope ever to provide. She has been on my mind a lot lately not just because she is a supporter of George Lang and Mark Welch, but because of something she said a few years ago about public school levies that are very relevant to the current challenge of EdChoice forcing local school systems to change the way they look at their funding.

Let’s face it, the whole progressive concept of attaching state money to a school located in a physical real estate concept was dumb from the beginning. It was just another brick in the road that has led to a pathway to hell. A lot of older people, like Bill Cunningham on WLW radio are struggling with this whole EdChoice concept because they only know of school systems being attached as the center of a community complete with sports programs and sentiments of school days long ago ended. These are the types of people where class reunions mean something, so it is painful for them to even consider that a child might want to pick up and move to another school across town and to take their state funding with them if that school isn’t very good. So far the focus of the argument is that the state report cards are unfair, but the bottom line is really in consumer confidence, do parents want to send their children to that particular school and how can the school market themselves in a way to make whatever the state report card says be the destination of hope for a parent and their child. In the future of education, it will take more than winning football programs, kids will actually have to learn things and be places that are good. A good school should not be determined by good real estate, it should be because the school managed itself well, spent their money wisely, and produced a superior product in a free market fashion.

Nancy has experience both at US Bank and as a Plant Controller so she gets money and how it’s a measure of value. I have worked with a lot of controllers and they are normally very boring personally, but beautiful people because their minds are very mathematical. Nancy has all the traits of the best of controllers, but she isn’t boring. She has a real passion for accounting and it radiates from her in such positive ways, so it surprised me when she came out publicly taking a position against several local government schools on their attempts to pass another school levy for what they were saying were, “safety needs.” Nancy stated, “Our homeowners are already heavily taxed, and its very difficult for many residents to make ends meet. My office receives handwritten letters daily from taxpayers needing help keeping up with their real estate taxes. Those who get too far behind can lose their home. Our county has passed 40 or so levies in the last 10 years and I’d argue some were for far more than they needed.” I found that very refreshing coming from a county treasurer who was looking at the big picture for a change and I’ve loved her ever since.

Her statements on that levy issue have come back to me now that all these lazy superintendents of some of the major government schools in the area, like Mason and Lakota have been complaining about losing their state funding due to EdChoice. What do they think is going to happen, that they are going to ask for more levies to cover their ridiculously bad management? Every controller I’ve ever dealt with would look at the way ANY public school is ran and demand an instant layoff to balance the books because the income is not conducive to proper balancing of the books. In fact, if Lakota had a proper accounting “controller” they’d have a shit fit on their hands due to the insane perception of what value is for the scope of the product, the education of the students based on state and local tax revenue chained to them like some masochist in a bondage chamber. The relationship with the community is about as dysfunctional financially as is conceivably possible and whenever it gets questioned the school hides behind the children imprisoned there due to their lack of choice in the matter—because the system gives money to the school, not the student. Government schools as Nancy pointed out, ask for too much too often. And I would add that they do it not because they need the money but because they know they are so inefficient that they take more money from people to manage their inefficiencies. Nancy has seen the backend of that problem when people write her to say their taxes are too high, and in too many cases, they lose their homes because the taxes are so terrible.

At the center of the problem is the perception of what the state should be giving to students, which is why Bill Cunningham’s troubles over the EdChoice issue is so comedic. The value of the education is just assumed as it has been set by the chaos of the government schools joined together by their collective bargaining agreements and the state is supposed to come up with a model that just rubber stamps that sum—whether its $6000 per student or $12,000. The numbers are inflated by these school districts to cover the high cost of their government employees and not the needs of the child. This is because of Parkinsen’s Law which states that the sum of needed money fills to the supply of funds. If a school levy passes and there is a cash infusion, then the union contracts will fill to consume the entire amount. Yet the kids are still coming out as bad as if they went to a third rate school, they can’t read, they can’t think, and they take on too many social beliefs rooted in liberalism. That’s not what we should be paying for. I would argue that if the state supplied only $2000 and schools had to compete for business that is in the marketplace, that the price to educate children would go down dramatically. That is when the state could provide a proper, constitutional, funding model.

Its just good to know that there are people like Nancy out there supporting other good Republicans like George Lang and Mark Welch, and many, many others. Good people tend to gravitate toward each other and she is one of the great ones. I appreciate that she is the treasurer of my county, and that our finances are in as good of hands as they could be. Most accounting types are alike in that they see beauty in numbers and can utilize that talent where needed. But Nancy has a different gear where she doesn’t just get lost behind some wire rimmed glasses and a big desk separating her from the world. She is connected and approachable, but more than anything, she does her work for all the right reasons and I’m glad she’s around.

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

George Lang: The Magnificent future Senator of Ohio

While the President of the United States was in Iowa getting in front of the Democrat primaries there, there was a rally in West Chester that had more people at it than the averages of all the Democrat presidential candidates have at any of their rallies. Joe Biden would have considered himself lucky to have so many people gather anywhere he is at, let alone people coming to gather in his honor even though he wasn’t even there. Yet that was what happened with Trump, the supporters of Butler County were willing to wait in line and give respect to the President even when he’s 500 miles away in a completely different state. And that includes politicians like George Lang who is currently a member of the Ohio House of Representatives running for the senate. George Lang has supported Donald Trump well before the Republican primaries of 2016 even had their first vote, so he certainly wasn’t going to miss a rally for the President taking place in his home district even while the House was locked in a procedural stalemate. Lang persuaded leadership to let him leave the chamber and drive from Columbus to West Chester in time to give this very energized speech. After the event was over, George headed back to Columbus to conclude his work with the House and it is people like this who have emerged in such a positive way in American politics with Trump leading the way in the White House.

George Lang has always been magnificent and full of abundant energy. However, he has never had the opportunity to be so effective as he has since Donald Trump has been elected. In the speech he gave at the Trump rally he was able to distinguish a bit why he was elected to the House and is such a front runner in the Senate, he used to be a trustee in West Chester which thrived under his leadership. West Chester under Lang’s pro-business policies has thrived into a wonderland of business, entertainment, and a residential paradise, one of the truly best places to live in all of America, and therefor the world. Given the energy he has for whatever job he plunges himself into, George Lang excels and everyone he touches benefits. In that way he is truly magnificent. He understands that its not government that gives people opportunity, but that it’s the job of the politician to get government out of the way of progress as much as possible so that the individual can think, create, and bring forth the wonders of their imaginations.

During Lang’s speech he spoke about the timeline of progress stating that society might have had many new inventions much sooner in life than with government always standing in the way. Of course he’s speaking about the very important journey from Aristotle to the Founding Fathers and how human intelligence had evolved away from kingship to the wonders of a Thomas Edison inventing new things every couple of days at the end of the 19th century. Not everyone is so inclined to be such a contributor, but any productive society wants to set up the conditions for uniqueness to spring forward and to thrive under the protection of a stable society. If government has a job it is to create that stability, but certainly not to micromanage people into bureaucratic compliance to out of touch politicians. George Lang has always understood what the true role of government should be and West Chester has thrived under his leadership and divine energy.

That same energy was on full display at the Trump rally with the events of his very busy day, starting out early with House business and an important vote to end at the Trump rally, only to finish off back in Columbus to resume business without complaint or any measure of apathy. George Lang is a tireless warrior for the innovative, the creative, and the diligent business leaders not just wanting to make money for their companies and employees, but to extend their personal risk into operations of a chance that wouldn’t be possible under any other form of government but the supporter who seeks to remove regulation and barriers giving more time and investment to new business creation. With that kind of approach West Chester has created a climate where new business investment has been willing to give new birth to strip malls like the ones that Kroger moves out of to make new, magnificent Marketplace stores only to leave behind shells of smaller buildings now vacant, like a crab leaving behind a smaller shell only to take on the form of a larger creature. In West Chester most of the time new business concepts move into those smaller shells to take advantage of the very friendly business climate, such as The Web near Lakota East, and The Antique Mall that moved into the old Biggs location. Other communities struggle to keep their real estate fresh and exciting, but due to Lang’s very friendly pro-business environment and his ability to help build the next generation of trustees in West Chester, this land of economic paradise continues to grow in positive ways, under the invisible hand of innovation and sheer creativity free of too much government intervention.

Many of us aren’t trained to think in such a way, that better results come from less government. Our education institutions teach us the opposite, but history has shown that the true path is the one that George Lang understands, less is more and unbridled energy is contagious. That is what separates Lang from the pack of ankle biters who constantly are trying to peck at him into slowing down long enough for them to catch up. But Lang is a tireless warrior of intellect and passion. The candidates running against him for the upcoming primary are either rock throwers who have no other pages in their playbook or they are social butterflies who think they can shake hands with enough people to get a free lunch. They are not at the caliber of George Lang and they are well aware of it. You didn’t see them speaking at a Trump rally, and you certainly don’t see them with backstage pictures with President Trump, essentially because like minds gravitate toward each other and George Lang and Donald Trump are essentially likeminded personalities who occasionally find each other in the chaos of government driven conformity as change agents seeking to reverse that trend. Trump has now been doing on a national scale what George Lang has been doing for decades in West Chester, promoting a pro-business climate, going against the bureaucrat class who simply want to tie everyone’s hands with more unthoughtful regulation, and inspiring individuals to take leadership positions in their own lives instead of waiting for someone who never comes to provide it for them. Empowerment is the theme of this new age of politics and like Donald Trump, George Lang is one of the original creators.

So for more reasons than just to give a speech, George Lang rushed to West Chester to be with fellow Trump supporters to rally for tomorrow’s new opportunities and to cast a wide net of optimism on the future itself. With all the hope for what’s best about people, George Lang enjoys empowering people to do what’s best for them, which then becomes what’s best for their community decided by market need, not some stuffy regulator afraid of their own shadows and in essence, that is a remarkable opportunity we all have, to have people like George Lang as options on a voter card, and Donald Trump who with such boyish optimism can put the world on their backs and carry them over mountains of red tape to a land of opportunity that was always there, only we could not see it for the mess presented to us. That is why George is so magnificent, its because he has never learned to fail, never accepted less than his dreams, and is in spite of many barriers given to him in his own life never yielded to them. And the result is this fantastic man who is willing to give to everyone who can vote for him the opportunities for unlimited fulfilment if only they would dare enough to say yes to 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

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

President Trump is a Lifelong NRA Member: Understanding the nature and history of Genius and the relationship to guns

This attempt to paint National Rifle Association members as some fringe group, especially leading up to the big protest this week that occurred in Virginia is just as insulting as the Democrats attempting to impeach President Trump, spending literally millions of dollars of tax payer money over the simple issue that they are not prepared for the 2020 election with a proper, electable philosophy, or a platform that reflects America in a modern sense. I’m not big on memberships but my NRA membership is something I take great pride in, and yes, it’s very much mainstream. It shouldn’t be surprising for anybody to know but President Trump is a life member of the NRA, and he has joined Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Richard Nixon as presidents who all had NRA memberships. Then of course there was Ronald Reagan who embodied great respect for his membership as a shared value with the American people. The fringe element of gun control rather has been the exception all this time, not the mainstream, yet the attempts to overthrow this assumption has made things look quite the opposite.

As readers here know I have been working on a philosophy/business book called The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business for a while now. It’s not the writing that has been the problem, but rather the scope of the work. I see gun ownership as a fundamental philosophy to the success of American life—which of course extends into business. So, getting the themes down for this work has been interesting. To take complicated sentiments and paint them with words into a mainstream read that reflects life during one of America’s greatest defining moments, the period of 1870 to 1890 has pushed me into many re-writes which has been enjoyable. But the theme has been largely unexplored, and it really paints a value on the NRA as an organization and national treasure. Without the NRA, the domestic enemies that want to change the nature of American life would have long ago succeeded. And they are still at it which is why the NRA has been under so much attack. But in the scheme of things, most of our best presidents have found a lot of value in the NRA including our current one.

Many people just don’t know their history very well, and I have pointed to this wild west period as a point of great significance for a reason. It is clear that the ability of settlers to cross the western frontier with a gun at their hip gave way for the greatest expansion not just of human settlement, but of intellectual monstrosity. It was this very culture that produced Thomas Edison, one of the greatest inventors of any age. It was during this period that Henry Ford came to be, and aviation first flew from a couple of bicycle manufactures in Dayton, Ohio. When we think of the wild west, we think of gunfighters, and I would argue that it was they who carved a path to great intellectual expansion by what professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi the great psychologists would term “flow.” For one of the first times in all of human history government was small enough not to get in the way of intellectual genius, and the rapidly expanding market needs of a growing nation with three major wars behind it, The Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Civil War finally was coming into its own philosophically, and industrially. There would have been no time prior in history where a Thomas Alva Edison could have lived without being killed by the churches of Europe, or crushed by intelligentsia seeking to make aristocrats of themselves by holding society under their “in the box” thinking. It was in the wake of the gunfighters and the stories on the wild frontiers that Edison was able to live in something of a vacuum that gave light and radio waves to the world—and many other things that essentially built the world we live in today.

Its not that Thomas Edison was a huge supporter of guns, but he was of the philosopher Thomas Paine, who would be the figure who essentially launched the “American” idea and started the Revolution. But Edison much like Benjamin Franklin was a spirit that was born from the freedoms that came from being an American. It may take millions of tobacco spitting cowboys fighting it out in the dust and rain on an open plain to make one Thomas Edison, but the work was worth it. And without gun ownership, such figures would never find their way into the world. That is clear in my research and has emerged as the primary theme of my new book. The understanding of what makes genius is very much at the core of the issue and how we understand such things to come to be. I would point to the work Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi as one of the greatest breakthroughs, which has been very recent, as the primary cause of genius that we find in people like Thomas Edison, or even modern day examples such as Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Bill Gates. What makes genius is proper intellectual flow, not the stale embodiments of social conformity glued together by authoritarian rules and regulation. But rather the freedom to think and have a gun in the home to keep away those who might seek to bring chaos to your doorstep and interrupt the flow of thoughts by a mind on fire with its own passions.

Edison was a unique personality who was able to match his tireless energy and intellect to the needs of a rapidly expanding market due to western expansion and a government that hadn’t figured out how to stick their noses into everyone’s life yet. It was a perfect storm that created a genius that still is giving us gifts today. Although the world has shrunk since then and government has now figured out how to stick their noses into our business in every aspect. It is no wonder that we don’t have more people like Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein emerging today. Regulation and too much interdependence does not produce genius, it repels it. Guns give genius a barrier from the idiot to the budding intellect and is a key part of American success that no other culture on the face of the earth has duplicated. The reason is complicated and elusive and is the subject of my new book. But the key is clearly something that the NRA understands of itself, and very smart people who have been presidents of the United States at least could sense about the importance. Guns aren’t so much for shooting people, but in preventing natural, intellectual looters so wonderfully displayed in Ayn Rand’s classic American novels, from taking over the efforts of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s “flow.” Some people find their flow in life, some people struggle with it always. But for those who do, we occasionally get a Thomas Edison, and from there great things happen.

I see a world where we could unleash many Thomas Edisons and the way to make them is not with our university system, but rather with NRA memberships who keep the looters away and free minds to think and be creative based on their own inertia. Not to force a mind to comply with inferior intellects, but to free them to the possibilities of tomorrow by asking the right questions and not being afraid of those who don’t want the answers revealed, because there is power for them in the ignorance of mankind. To get flow out of our society we need guns to serve as the barrier to allow genius to flourish. Politicians may join the NRA because they have an understanding that its important even though they may not know why. But I think we are coming to a time where we can define those needs better. And that could pave the way for a very exciting future.

Rich Hoffman