Hear the Call to Freedom
columnist: Wandering Weasel

Topic: Presidential Campaign 2008
Alan West - Congress hopeful

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A first-hand look at one of the Congressional hopefuls running on the Republican ticket

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by Wandering Weasel
(Libertarian)
Thursday, December 13, 2007

Republican Executive Committee meeting, West Palm Beach, Florida
12/12/07

Who is Alan West?  He comes from a military family (father in WWII, family at Ft. Bragg, etc.).  A Colonel in the Army, his main claim to fame is the 26 months he spent in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban (and, presumably, looking for OBL).  As you would expect from an Army Staff Officer, he speaks well, going 9-1/2 minutes without visible notes.  His speech was well organized and the main points were clearly defined.  Overall I liked listening to him orate.

I was struck by his mostly generic stance - lower taxes, smaller government, etc., typical openers for a centrist republican hopeful.  Well schooled in the basics, I thought. He did not dwell on these things, opting to press his military service as his strength and (typically) admonishing his listeners with the need to 'know the enemy'.  He feels that he is uniquely qualified in this because of his foreign service "with the AK47 bullets chasing you" as he puts it.  Interestingly, he didn't directly address the talking points for attacking Iran, preferring to skirt around the weapons of mass destruction debate thingy and landing in the sure fire arena of how Saudi Arabia is building Mosques all over the world and paying the various clerics to staff them with our almighty US dollars.  The enemy is expanding his territory, a sure sign of an offensive stance.  He got a rise when he mentioned the existing and proposed mosques built (or to be built) in prominent places both here in America and in Europe using (what else?) money from oil.  I wondered if he had somehow made a private connection between religion and terrorism but didn't want to say it.

His foreign policy mostly follows established party lines, weaning us from our dependency on foreign oil will ultimately bring about the demise of our enemies by dollar starvation (he put it so well, I could almost see them scratching at the door in the middle of the night).  I didn't bother to remind him that 90% of the American people have been surviving on iron dollar rations for years (who IS the IRS?) and we're still here.  He advocates instead a solid dependency on Brazilian sugar to fuel our economy. To be sure, it is laudable that he advocates a renewable energy source to base our economy on, and we do produce a fair amount of the white crystal gold (I'm talking about sugar, get your mind out of the gutter) right here in his home State of Florida; but how long before Brazil becomes another Saudi Arabia, I mused?  Just remember, the Saudis and Persians were little more than wandering peasants before they met Rockerfeller.  His point that sugar is more efficient for ethanol production than corn was well taken, though, and being a Floridian, I enjoyed the notion that our State might be at the center of the American economic world (after Brazil, of course).  Do modern-day expanding empires still annex foreign countries?

Questions were short in delivery and followed the main theme - War, and plenty of it.  He did not promise to help bring our troops home, nor did he explicitly mention any plans to expand our already extensive attempts at empire building (sorry, I mean nation building, I forget myself sometimes).

I went to hear all of this because there is a larger cause to consider.  Ron Paul is my President, but how effective would he be without like-minded people in Congress and the Senate?  For all of the heart strings that get pulled every time I hear a new RP speech, or watch an old gem, he is, after all, one man.  Without the support of the constitutional government, he is a President without the force of the people behind him.  I wondered if Col. West has ever heard of Ron Paul.  Well, he is about to, along with a whole lot of other good American people with their voting card in their hands.  I hope he is wizened enough to heed the message of the American people when they elect Ron Paul, and follows orders (in this case, the orders of the American people), like any good soldier would.

The point of all this is that we need to pay attention to the politicking at local level, as well as the national debates.  Failure to elect good Congressmen and Senators in the next few years will be a failure to follow up on the mandate to the good doctor that I know is coming.  If each of us is as dilligent about supporting our President as we are at getting him elected in the first place, the future looks rosy indeed.

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2007 Wandering Weasel, all rights reserved.
Published: Thursday, December 13, 2007
Last modified: Thursday, December 13, 2007

The views expressed in this article are those of Wandering Weasel only and do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Wandering Weasel is solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.

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