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Night of the Rising Stars: The Good, The Strange, and The Future

Night of the Rising Stars: The Good, The Strange, and The Future

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If you did not know freshmen Kentucky Senator Rand Paul prior, and you attended Saturday night’s Iowa Republican Party event “Night of the Rising Stars” . . . then you certainly know him now.

I will get to Senator Paul, the evenings keynote speaker, momentarily but first let us briefly deal with the atmosphere and the purpose of the night’s event—recognizing the up and comers in the Iowa Republican Party. The crowd of 300-400 took to their seats in the warm, ornate theatre of the Hoyt Sherman Place largely to celebrate the impressive and hard won gains by Iowa Republicans in the last election cycle. The program included very short remarks from Senate Leader Paul McKinley, House Majority Leader Linda Upmeyer, Secretary of State Matt Schultz, Party Chairman Matt Strawn, and Governor Terry Branstad. Following Governor Branstad, Senator Chuck Grassley was brought up to introduce Senator Paul. I will spare you of the particulars, as the real story lay in the last two speakers, but will apprise you of a few things of note that did happen during the body of the program.

Believe it or not a quasi-disco atmosphere was attempted to be created, which was odd due to the advanced mean age of those in attendance. Thanks to a mirror ball hung from the ceiling, each speaker took to the stage under a shower of colored lights as the venue’s sound system blasted a song of their choosing. The “Rising Stars,” though some were in attendance, were mainly celebrated through videos which showed clips of them at the Statehouse telling the camera what they do for a living and why they chose to run for office. The crowd largely sat silent for the videos, with the exception of small outbursts of cheering at the appearances of Kim Pearson, Kent Sorenson, and Jack Whitver.

Thirty-one year old Secretary of State Matt Schultz provided the evenings first shot of energy with a robust presentation that included a fiery defense of his signature issue, requiring a photo ID be shown before voting. Party Chair Matt Strawn followed, in a warm and charismatic style, with a few words about [...]

Night of the Rising Stars: The Good, The Strange, and The Future

Doctor Feelgood

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Leave it to Mötley Crüe to be the prophets of the age. In 1989 they recorded their high-test Doctor Feelgood disc that contained the lead single by the same name. Besides being a musical treat, the song foretells (or retells) a very old story. Living amongst us, in the pit of our deepest worries, is the man that can make it all go away. We aren’t necessarily certain as to how he actually does it, but we really want to believe that he can do it. Even if it’s a hoax, that is just fine. We need a visit, every once-in-awhile, from the good Doctor Feelgood. It is the messianic story. And he is the agent in Joseph Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand Faces. The chorus of the tune goes like this:

Let him soothe your soul, just take his hand
Some people call him an evil man
Let him introduce himself real good
He's the only one they call ‘Feelgood’

So, what does Dr. Feelgood’s tell us? Please, pull up a chair.

  1. All of our overwrought fears are completely unwarranted, senseless and harmful.
  2. We can all lock arms and work in a symphonic fashion to solve for any issues we might face.
  3. The data is “on his side” and that he (Dr. Feelgood) has a Gnostic understanding of its meaning.
  4. Everyone’s interests are
Night of the Rising Stars: The Good, The Strange, and The Future

How To Fix Our Schools

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I'm not one to spend time commenting on something as innocuous as a movie, but I just finished watching something that was both compelling and surprising. Davis Guggenheim's documentary "Waiting For Superman" had my attention for the entire 111 minutes, and I learned some important things about the successes of some alternative charter schools, the bureaucratic nightmares that have impeded some schools from succeeding, and most importantly the devastating stranglehold that the teacher's unions exert in ensuring that teachers are as demotivated as possible.  The story of the attempts by the District of Columbia school district to partner with the teacher's union to create a pathway to success is scandalous, and clearly ensures that failing teachers never have to be held accountable. I get why unions came to exist, and I get the fact that some unions may actually still create value in some situations. However, I think we are far past seeing any value in government and education unions.  Watching the president of the American Federation of Teachers extoll [...]
Night of the Rising Stars: The Good, The Strange, and The Future

Measure the Cost

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March 19th marked an unusual anniversary for me.

Eighteen years ago on that very day, I drank my last drop of alcohol.

Yes, it’s true.  I am a tee-totaller.  But before you declare me intolerant of those who drink, please hear my full story and how I came to the conviction of no longer drinking.

I never was a big drinker.  I really didn’t like to put any substances in my body which would have inhibited my intellect or athletic abilities.  I never tried any illegal drugs, and I especially abstained from alcohol when I was playing football.  (I played high school and college ball.)

However, in the off-season, even when it was not legal for me to do so, I would drink a beer or two.  Gin and tonics were my drink of choice in college.  As an adult, I acquired a taste for cheap champagne.  When I got married, I learned about the refreshing taste of Long Island Iced Tea, a mixed drink with five different shots of alcohol.  I “celebrated” my successful defense of my doctoral thesis by drinking two of these concoctions, but I don’t remember much of the “celebration.”

Still, I was not given to drunkenness very often when I was still drinking alcohol.  There were periodic lapses in judgment, in that regard, but I generally maintained my self-discipline.

I maintained such [...]

Night of the Rising Stars: The Good, The Strange, and The Future

Reducing The Cost Of Health Care – For Real

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That title is not out of a fiction novel. It could happen right here in our time. A few weeks ago, both the Obama Administration and the US House made major moves to begin limiting the outlandish awards being handed out by some juries in medical malpractice cases. This area has long been a trial lawyers’ playground and each of us is paying the price. We may be making the right kind of progress now. The President included $250 million in his budget so that the Department of Justice could work with states to rewrite their medical malpractice laws and see real, effective change on this issue. The proposal provides some specific areas of relief by using judges with expertise in this area to decide cases instead of allowing juries to dole out unreasonable awards. Additional proposals might include creating reliable standards for doctors to operate under that would allow them to prove they were not negligent [...]
Night of the Rising Stars: The Good, The Strange, and The Future

The Lost Art of Governing

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The world of modern American politics has often been described as “Hollywood for the ugly.” While this may or may not be true, politicians are indeed asking us to do what film directors do when we attend the movies—suspend disbelief. Removing reality and practicality certainly facilitates a good story and makes for fantastic special effects, but when these principles are used in running a government the results are, predictably, disastrous. Though you wouldn’t think you would have to inform our elected officials of such things, the sad truth is that every non-creative discipline is subject to cumbersome, but necessary confines. In other words—reality. This is true not only in the fields of engineering, architecture, aviation, music, and chemistry, but also in governing. The skill in any of these endeavors lies in achieving a desired result within the confines of a given discipline, and skill is precisely what is lacking in the vast majority of our Legislators. If you are an engineer or an architect you are constrained in your designs by pesky things such as physics, load bearing, and torque. In aviation you are constrained [...]

Wisconsin: Not Just Cheeseheads After All

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Who would have thought that the state with the first Socialist governor and subsequent Socialist Party candidate for President, Robert LaFollette, would be the first state to actively attempt to bring the public employee unions under control?  What’s next? ...
Night of the Rising Stars: The Good, The Strange, and The Future

Time to Sow the Seeds of Competition

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The following is a guest piece by Stephen DeMaura, President of Americans for Job Security, a national conservative issue advocacy organization. For more than 10 years AJS has advocated for pro-growth, pro-jobs public policy to strengthen the American economy. -ed.

Make Room in the Market, Monsanto Monopoly

There’s a battle in agriculture that deserves a greater focus: The Seed Trait Wars. What our families, our nation and the world will eat in the future depends in large part on the future of a robust, competitive biotech seed sector. Farmers and independent seed companies will need seeds with the genetic traits to deliver higher yields from the same land no matter the conditions. To do that we’ll need more competition. It’s competition that drives innovation, better prices, and more choices, and competition that gives farmers the right seeds to grow what they need, where they need to grow it. WORLDWIDE NEED IS MOUNTING The world will need 70 percent more food in 2050 than it does today, according to the UN. Farmers will need the best seeds to grow the crops that will feed the increasing number of people that will populate this planet. And they’ll need [...]
Night of the Rising Stars: The Good, The Strange, and The Future

The One That Got Away: The Story of the $8.2 Trillion Vote

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A study of the National debt over the last thirty years proves that our Representatives are not responsible enough to continuing governing without the rules of the game being changed. Though much belabored, it bears repeating that the National Debt did not break the one trillion dollar threshold until the year 1982 and not until the fiscal year 2002 did it break six trillion. From 2002 to 2010 it more than doubled from $6.25 trillion to over $13 trillion dollars. Changing the rules of the game in this case means the passing of some form of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. This is far from a new idea and most people, especially newcomers to the world of politics, would be shocked at how close we have come, even recently, to achieving it. In the 90s alone constitutional amendments involving balancing the budget came to serious Congressional votes at least once in six different years—1990, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, and 1997. In ‘92, ‘94, and ‘97 the Balanced Budget Amendment came up only a handful of votes short of achieving the two-thirds majority needed in both Houses. Without getting too much into the weeds it is significant to note that the amendment in 1992 was sponsored by a Democrat—Charles Stenholm of Texas. In the House it [...]
Night of the Rising Stars: The Good, The Strange, and The Future

Expanded Coverage On TCR

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If you've followed The Conservative Reader at all over the past few years, you've undoubtedly noticed that 2009 and 2010 were a bit light in content.  Although we had started ramping up in 2009, we also got engaged in work with the Polk County Republican Party in Iowa.  That work, along with other priorities, made it very difficult to provide timely commentary and updates on key topics.  Since my term of office has concluded with the party, there is time to provide more frequent updates. 2011 will likely include a number of changes, all for the better I hope.  The first change you should notice right away, especially if you are interested in Iowa politics.  We've added a few new sections, and have links to those sections in our sidebar.  They are: As we receive updates in these [...]
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