I had the privilege of speaking at the Candidate Debate 2010 last Tuesday night in Colorado Springs. Local liberal “Steve” attended, and the next morning called a local radio talk show to share his insights.
He said my words were “hateful,” “very dangerous,” and “not good for America”… that my speech reminded him of a book where fascism takes over America.
Steve, my “dangerous” words should threaten your vision of America. You can’t stop an avalanche for freedom.
Check out my speech for yourself, full video at the end of this post. But first…
Here, a transcription of Steve’s conversation with the talkshow host Richard Randall (from 3/10/2010). Steve’s words in red:
Host: I left a ticket yesterday just like I said I would for THE steve I said you’re welcome to stop by I think you’re gonna find out that you’re gonna see a lot more of just average Coloradans there at the debate 2010 last night. It was sold out, standing room only, about a hundred people there in the back. Steve did you show up?
Steve: Yeah I was there.
Host: What’d you think?
Steve: At first on the Rush Limbaugh thing as you just said Costa Rica does have socialized medicine, and it’s recently been revealed that Sarah Palin said that she took her family over to Canada to get medical treatment. So… ya’know, it’s good enough for some people, maybe not good enough for most Americans, however.
Host: Well it’s good enough for Canadian premieres to come here for healthcare. I guess we could debate that around and around but what were your impressions ‘cause I am dead serious… to take somebody as liberal and progressive as you, to put you in an event like the one last night, I’m curious as to your observations and your thoughts.
Steve: My initial thought was that Michelle Morin led off the event, and listening to her speech reminded me of Sinclair Lewis’s book “It Can’t Happen Here,” it was written in 1935, and it talked about how fascism takes over America because during her speech she continually uh said that the left was the evil part of America. And that the left hates America, and that only the right loves the constitution or freedom. That is very dangerous for her to say that. Fortunately the rest of the thing was not even close to as hateful as her speech, and all the candidates were fairly moderate, but just listening to her and it was streamed and so hopefully it’s gonna be available where people can podcast it or something. But it was not good for America the type of thing she was saying.
Host: Well I’ll tell you that’s interesting, I mean that’s fascinating to me, because I am listening to her speech and sitting behind her and trying to ya know prepare my questions and get focused and that kind of stuff, and I’m listening to her speech and I’ve never known Michelle to be hateful. I’ve known her to be passionate. I’ve known her to love this country. I’ve known her to be somebody who is extremely passionate about the Constitution and getting this country back on track… I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll see if we can either get a copy of that, we’ll have it streamed and we’ll play it for people and they can find out themselves whether it’s hateful or not, or if not I’ll just have her come in here and give the speech. It’s as simple as that one way or another I’d like people to hear what she has to say. If her point… if what she offended you about that is that, her point is that the problem here are people on the left and that they don’t seem to get this government or understand the Constitution and love this country the way that most of us do.. I guess I’d have to agree with her. I don’t think it’s hateful. I don’t hate you Steve, but I disagree with you on practically everything. And I think you’re wrong on practically everything but that doesn’t mean I hate you.
Steve: Well what she said is that the left does not love the Constitution; the left does not love freedom.
Host: Well they don’t, I mean that’s what I see in Washington. I mean this is where the divide between a lot of this comes from. I can honestly tell you that in my heart I believe that people on the left don’t understand the Constitution, and they don’t really understand how well it protects their rights. And to them it’s kind of this thing that they can run to if they want to, but absent that it’s an obstacle – it gets in the way of things, and it needs to be manipulated, and that’s not what the Constitution is about.
Steve: I sat next to a gentleman and had a long conversation with him, and we pretty much agreed that the problem in America is not the Americans it’s the corporations who are running this country, and who are buying the politicians and the politicians – both democrats and republicans – really don’t care about what’s good for Americans, they care about what’s good for the people who are lining their pockets which are the corporations.
Host: Well then I’ll tell you what. I’ve got great news for you. Steve and your friends and the people that you work with on anything, and that last night should have made you sleep better last night. When you went home last night you should have been saying the power is in the people. It is not in money, it is not in big corporations, it’s not in PACS – it’s in the people who understand how important their vote is, and that’s what you saw last night. I appreciate you taking a couple hours to come down there and give us your thoughts on it, and hopefully you have a better understanding of just who these people are.
Here’s my hateful, dangerous speech in its entirety:
Links to the speech here:
Steve the socialist strikes again – this guy discredit himself by simply opening his mouth.
I’m not sure how people like Steve can be so angry at corporations and not be angry at the government politicians who benefit from corporate money. And it’s astounding that these people can say the truly love freedom and liberty and then advocate for regulation after regulation, law after law, placed on the citizenry by a government that has no Constitutional basis for passing such laws.
People like Steve blame corporations for doing what they, themselves, would do if put in that position; that’s the dirty little secret about all of this. Corporations make money because they find an avenue to exploit to make that money – and it doesn’t matter if its left or right, Democrat or Republican.
The reason for this is because people like Steve look at corporations and resent them for making money, like somehow, there is a line on how much money a person or company is allowed to make. We can tell individuals that they can make $100k, $200k, but when they reach $250k, they’ve earned enough money.
We would say that a company that makes a profit margin of about 6% above their revenue is not making enough to remain truly viable and competitive. But when that company just happens to be Exxon and their revenue is about $450B per year, suddenly they make obscenely too much.
Steve would consider when I say, “I don’t particularly care if anyone else has health insurance because, quite frankly, everyone else doesn’t care that I have it.”, as hate speech, but really, aside from God in heaven, is anyone really looking out for me these days? Does anyone really care about anyone else outside of their immediate circle?
Perhaps it does Steve’s conscience well to blame corporations because these corporations aren’t going to come back on little insignificant Steve and his spurrious and vicarious comments.
But Steve is barking up the wrong tree. If the problem is that people are really focused on themselves (which is completely natural and appropriate – I take care of my back yard, you take care of yours), why shouldn’t we become angry and hate to hear when government wants to force us to care about things outside of our immediate priority.
Charity is not charity when it is mandated and forced. And that’s what the entire health care debate is about – as well as the government plan in general.
Steve,Steve,Steve, when will you wake up and ackowledge that people who disagree with the left are not being hateful.
That Michelle chooses to be passionette about her desire to see that nothing or no one will stop her from standing up to the left and their continuing efforts to diminish our Constitution is both laudible and heroic. It is not hateful.
To point out that something like a federal mandate to buy medical insurance or be subject to a fine and possible imprisonment is not allowed by the Constitution is not hateful. It is a fact. The powers granted under the Constitution to the Federal Government are limited. Those powers not granted to the Federal government are reserved to the several states. Also a fact. If the Colorado State Legislature and the Governor agree that Coloradans should be required to buy medical insurance then that is THEIR right under the Constitution. Massachusetts did this.
To go down this path in Colorado would be political suicide while in Massachusetts that appears not to be the case. At least for now.
If you want to hear hatefulness, tune in to MSNBC or AM 760 out of Denver. They are expressing juvenile hatred daily for anyone who disagrees with them.
The following is another fact.
The administration and the Democratic Party now own the entire outcome stemming from this new healthcare law. Beware of the unintended consequences that will result from this law. Think ahead and start fixing the problems now, if you can.
One example that comes to mind is the distortion in the hospitality industry due to their young adult customers being forced to pay for medical insurance. These customers will have to give up their vacations or spending the night out in order to pay for health insurance. Look for layoffs everywhere from bars, restaurants, motels, hotels, car rental agencies, destination resorts, airlines, ski resorts, and the municipalities that are supported by the tax revenue drawn from all these enterprises. The only industry to see growth in jobs will be the healthcare industry.
When money is forced from one pot into another, there WILL BE CONSEQUENCES. This is unavoidable.