Iowa Defense Alliance

Reports have been coming out about the unprecedented amount of absentee ballots and early voters in Iowa coming heavily from the Democratic side.  This news coincides with the final chapter of my unprecedented journey in this years election cycle.  Eight years ago I had really no idea why I was a Republican until my boss and I sat down over drinks the night of the 2000 Iowa Caucus.  Funny part of this story is that I had no idea it was caucus night, but she did……..and she lived in Nebraska.  I asked her, “What is the main difference between a Republican and Democrat?”  She replied, “It depends on if you believe you have to take care of yourself or if the government is supposed to take care of you.”  I knew right then and there that I was a Republican.

One year ago I had no idea what a socon or a ficon was, I didn’t know about the three legged stool or the Reagan Coalition, but I did know that the society and schools of today were not the same that I grew up in during the 70s and 80s and I saw a slow and steady decline into something that I did not want my children to be a part of.  A society where nobody seemed to take personal responsibility for any of their choices and a society eager for the next hand out instead of relying on hard work to get them where they want to be.  Because I believe in this so strongly I got involved with Governor Mike Huckabee’s campaign, and once he wasn’t our nominee I got involved with other like-minded people from Iowa to keep fighting for these values at the state level.  You see, it wasn’t about the man, it was about his message.  A message that resonated with many people and awoke a sleeping giant.  The message of the importance of social issues in order to have fiscal conservatism.  We are all on the same team here.

In the past year the message that resonated with so many voters was trampled on by Republican elite, Christian leaders, and conservative media.  It happened in the presidential primary campaign and it happened here in Iowa with the snubbing of candidates Christopher Reed, David Hartsuch, and Kent Sorenson by our own nominee.  In the past year I have noticed a lot of Republicans not giving voters something to vote for, but instead something to vote against.  Republicans are campaigning on the message of fear instead of on the message that we could give real hope and real change.  I witnessed the biggest Republican sellout with the bailout bill that, to me, was like a domestic September 11th.  The end of our society as we know it, and it was self inflicted by our own elected officials.  I cringe when Republicans campaign on the threat of Obama’s socialism when a lot of them signed their name to the biggest form of socialism in history to date, and our money went to the rich and not the needy.  I weep at the the sight of the stock market plummeting and Obama’s poll number’s rising because I realize what this is all leading up to.  We are going to get what we deserve.  The GOP  has strayed so much off course that we don’t even know how to fight the other side anymore.  Maybe that’s because we have become too much like them. 

I have spent the last eight months of this election cycle buried in Iowa candidate information, blogging, commenting, and occasionally knocking on some doors.  There are wonderful, solid conservative candidates who embody the traditional Republican values in Iowa this year and I and others have worked their butts off for them and I know those candidates have worked one hundred times harder.  Even though the number of registered Democrats in Iowa is daunting this year I will still fight the good fight, because these Iowa candidates are worth it and so are their futures, and so are my children’s futures.  I am not looking for a clean sweep of victory for all of our candidates on November 4th because I am realistic, but I am looking for a few battles to be won in this war.  We will rebuild piece by piece, candidate by candidate, seat by seat, caucus by caucus.  Even if things do not turn out as we hope, 2008 is just the beginning for us.  Like the legendary Phoenix we will rise from our own ashes and begin a new battle.  We are the grassroots and we are the future of the party.