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Posts Tagged ‘Dick Armey’
August 31st, 2010 at 11:10 am
Two Congressional Candidates to Watch This November

At the Freedom Works get-out-the-vote event last Friday night, several conservative luminaries inspired the audience with their speeches.  Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann (R-MN), Freedom Works chairman Dick Armey and pastor-turned-Tea Party activist C. L. Bryant delivered rousing red meat remarks.

The show stealers, though, were two congressional candidates vying to become part of the freshman class of 2010.  Charles Lollar is a Maryland businessman, Major in the Marine Corps Reserves and Republican nominee to challenge House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD).  Lollar’s easy smile and personable air are making him a rising star in GOP circles, even if he fails to unseat the multi-term incumbent.

Morgan Philpot is another candidate to watch.  A former member of the Utah legislature, Philpot is known for holding a copy of the U.S. Constitution in one hand and the Communist Manifesto in the other on the floor of the Utah House of Representatives.  Before voting on a bill he asks his colleagues to which of the two documents the proposed bill moves the Utah body politic.

CFIF will be keeping an eye on these two candidates in the run-up to the November midterm elections.  Check back for updates.

August 17th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
The Tea Party Movement’s Cliff’s Notes
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Nearly 25 years ago, Thomas Sowell wrote “A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles”, perhaps the single best volume on the fundamental philosophical differences between modern liberals and classical liberals (the progenitors of today’s libertarians and most conservatives). If your summer schedule doesn’t allow time for Sowell’s 350-page treatise (and it should), then you could do worse than turning to today’s Wall Street Journal.

Today’s edition of the Journal’s opinion section carries a piece entitled “A Tea Party Manifesto” by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey and FreedomWorks President and CEO Matt Kibbe (authors of the new book “Give us Liberty”). Contained therein is the best concise distillation of how Sowell’s conflict is playing out in Tea Party America:

The many branches of the tea party movement have created a virtual marketplace for new ideas, effective innovations and creative tactics. Best practices come from the ground up, around kitchen tables, from Facebook friends, at weekly book clubs, or on Twitter feeds. This is beautiful chaos—or, as the Nobel Prize-winning economist F.A. Hayek put it, “spontaneous order.”

Decentralization, not top-down hierarchy, is the best way to maximize the contributions of people and their personal knowledge. Let the leaders be the activists who have the best knowledge of local personalities and issues. In the real world, this is common sense. In Washington, D.C., this is considered radical.

The big-government crowd is drawn to the compulsory nature of centralized authority. They can’t imagine an undirected social order. Someone needs to be in charge—someone who knows better. Big government is audacious and conceited.

It’s a war of voluntarism and freedom on one side against coercion and statism on the other. The Tea Party crowd should prepare for battle. Armey and Kibbe will provide the ammunition (as will other Tea Party authors, like CFIF’s own Ashton Ellis). Come November, it will  be time to take to the field.

October 26th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
New Poll in NY-23
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For readers following the race in New York’s 23rd congressional district (upstate NY), the Club for Growth has released a new poll showing conservative candidate Doug Hoffman leading by four points.

Hoffman, with 31.3% in the poll, leads Democrat Bill Owens (27%) and Republican challenger Dede Scozzafava (19.7%).

This race in rural upstate New York has garnered national attention and endorsements from prominent conservatives.  Newt Gingrich has endorsed Scozzafava, while Sarah Palin and Dick Armey have endorsed Hoffman.

More info here and here.