RSSMission Statement
Jan 01
The mission of the Laurens County TEA Party is to restore our Constitutional Republic and to fight to preserve the freedoms granted by God as laid out in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
Rick Perry Endorses Newt
Jan 19
Rick Perry ended his campaign for President today and has endorsed Newt for President.
The SC primary is Saturday. Go vote!
WHO WILL WEAR THE SHOES?
Jan 16
Later this year on stages somewhere in America there will be two pairs of shoes that will be very important. One pair will be worn by President Obama and the other by the republican nominee for president. They will be debating before the American people concerning issues of great importance affecting the future of our country. More Americans will be watching the debates than at any other time in the campaign. The question for conservatives is which of our candidates do you want to be in these shoes?
Many people say Gov. Romney should be the man for he is the one who can win. Please think with me how this would likely play out if Gov. Romney is in the shoes regarding two of the major issues of the campaign, healthcare and jobs.
Healthcare: Gov. Romney will have to acknowledge that he pushed for and signed into law a mandatory health care law that included taxpayer funded abortion.
President Obama pushed for and passed a mandatory health insurance bill that provides essentially the same thing for all states.
So, what’s to debate? Romney will squirm and twist in ways that most of the audience is not likely to understand arguing his mandatory health care plan is OK but that Obama’s is not. That is like arguing that my skunk doesn’t stink as bad as his skunk. It will be a disaster for Romney.
Jobs Plan: Romney will argue his work at Bain Capital makes him uniquely qualified to create jobs.
Obama will likely say, “Mitt, in 1994 you claimed 10,000 jobs created; now you claim 100,000 while working for Bain. Where is the proof that 100,000 or even 10,000 were created?”
Romney’s defense so far is that he was doing the same thing at Bain that President Obama was doing with GM—cutting some and creating some.
Obama is likely to say, “If you were just doing what I’ve been doing (by the way we got advice from Bain on cutting jobs) what are you complaining about?
There are other things that Romney will be unable to successfully debate with Obama, such as taxes, socialism, and Obama’s association with Jeremiah Wright.
There is one man who can stand in those shoes against President Obama and that man is Newt Gingrich. No matter what the “experts, pundits, and political elites” say you are the one who gets to choose who will wear the shoes. Choose wisely.
THE CASE FOR NEWT
Jan 13
by Keith Tripp, Laurens County Tea Party
Though Newt Gingrich is not a perfect man, nor a perfect candidate (neither are any of the others) I believe he is the conservative with the best chance to beat Obama this year. I have described each of the things I’ve written about as “something to think about”, which is what I hope you will do with this. After all, if we don’t think, how are we different from the horses, cows and pigs?
I want to begin by asking you to think back six weeks. Conservatives were by and large paying attention to the campaign—watching the debates and comparing the candidates. Newt was way up in the polls. This was not based on spending millions in advertising or being embraced by the Washington political and media establishment but by his performance in the debates, his ideas and past accomplishments. A very high percentage of republicans said he was the man they would most like to see on stage to debate President Obama. He held a 38% to 17% lead over Romney nationally and 38% to 15% lead in South Carolina.
Fast forward to today, Newt as of January 10, 2012, is four points behind Romney nationally according to a CBS poll and roughly the same in South Carolina. So, here is where we need to really think. What happened between November 2011 and now? Did Newt become a stumbling, bumbling debater? Has he lost his ability to articulate America’s founding principles, his ideas for tax reform, etc.? Has he lost his experience from the US House of Representatives, of working with Reagan, and of leading the Republican Party to a majority for the first time in decades? Has he forgotten the experience of leading us to prosperity and four balanced budgets in the 1990s? The answer is obviously NO!
Has Governor Romney suddenly become a real conservative? Does he have an even better head of hair? Is it the endorsement of people like John McCain and Bob Dole who have made him rise in the polls? Has the endorsement of the beltway political and media establishment made him smarter and better? Again, the answer is obviously NO!
So, what has changed? Millions of dollars of mostly false and misleading advertisements by Mitt Romney and Ron Paul supporters have filled the airwaves against Newt. Many have believed the charges put forth by these advertisements. But why do we tend so easily to be influenced by such? OK, here we go again, let’s think it through. Most of us don’t have or take time to investigate each of these charges so we fall back on the old saying, “where there is smoke there is fire.” But, is that true? The fact is smoke may be seen miles away from the fire and usually it’s a small or almost dead fire that causes the most smoke. Do these vicious ads of Romney and his partner Ron Paul really shed light or do they just deceive and confuse us with a huge cloud of smoke? Just notice the strange black and white pictures in some of the ads where the scenes shift rapidly from one thing to the other before you have time to focus on the attack with an ominous voice in the background. The whole purpose of these ads is not to have you think about the facts but to evoke a negative feeling in you.
Let’s realize that all this smoke doesn’t change the facts! Don’t be blinded by the smoke or we may lose our way and make a fatal wrong turn. Who can debate Obama, paint a conservative vision of the future based on understanding of the history of our founding. I believe it is Newt Gingrich.
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT!
No More
Jan 12
So, how do we keep PETE (McCain) from becoming REPEAT (Romney) in 2012? Conservatives must fundamentally think differently and have the courage to act differently. The conventional thinking is that the conservative candidates must battle each other eliminating one after another until there is one left to go head-to-head against Romney. This is a losing strategy. By the time the conservatives get through fighting each other until one is left, they will be broke and demoralized and Romney will have won. Romney and his millionaire crony backers will be laughing just as McCain did about outwitting the right wing of the party.
How about a different approach? Why don’t the conservative candidates take on Romney both in the debates and ads, until he is eliminated? Who then is left? The conservatives. And the voters can then decide which of the ones left should be our nominee.
One clear lesson from the 2008 primary is that when you have one predominantly moderate establishment candidate and several conservatives, the conservative vote is split several ways and the moderate wins. In 2008 Fred Thompson was the conservative who I believe provided McCain with the help he needed to win South Carolina and put him on a glide path to the nomination. Thompson, a close friend of McCain, entered the race rather late and didn’t do a lot of campaigning until South Carolina. Thompson was a very appealing candidate –articulate, TV star, former senator, conservative record. Though it was pretty obvious he was not going to win, he stayed in and enough people voted for him (67,897 votes) who otherwise likely would have voted for another conservative. This was enough to easily provide McCain the victory. Someone else may well have defeated Obama and how different would the world be today! Sadly, I must confess that I was one of those who voted for Thompson (my guy), but am determined not to REPEAT that again this year.
So, where are we today? In my view, there are only two conservatives with any realistic chance to win—Gingrich and Santorum. Perry, though a conservative, has demonstrated a clear and continuing inability to communicate in an effective manner. What would have become of Reagan’s great ideas if he had been unable to clearly and consistently articulate them? In kindness to Perry, I will omit the list already on the record of his shortcomings in this area. Ron Paul is a half and half candidate, conservative on financial and domestic issues, but to the left of President Obama on foreign policy and national security. From a strategic standpoint voting for either of these is a delight for Romney. In fact, Romney and Paul seem almost to be working together. Notice how they almost never criticize each other in debates, but go nuclear attacking Gingrich and to a lesser extent, Santorum. If candidates like Perry won’t get out of the race for the good of stopping Romney, then his supporters need to be smart rather than emotional and vote for the top conservative.
Conservatives need to make a sign that says, “These are the people who said we must vote McCain to win against Obama.” Conservatives should then tape it to the bottom of the TV because the news media, reporters and pundits (including Fox News), will be in full throated cry that Romney is the man and we must shut up and get in line. We need to be reminded daily how wrong these people were in 2008.
I believe that Newt Gingrich is the conservative who is our best chance to stop Romney and also to beat Obama. In out next posting, I will try to make the case as to why it should be Newt. SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT.
Written by Keith Tripp, member, Laurens County Tea Party
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
Dec 20
Is Newt Gingrich just another Washington Establishment insider?????
His opponents say yes… but “think” about this.
If Newt is just another establishment insider, why is there such a vicious and unrelenting attack upon him by both the Washington political (democrats and republicans) and media establishment? Would they spend millions to attack one of their own? Perhaps they fear that he really means to change things and with the help of the people, will actually do so!!
JUST SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
Endorsement
Dec 10
The Laurens County Tea Party has voted to endorse Newt Gingrich for President of the United States. One of the goals of our Tea Party group is to “restore our Constitutional Republic.” The very first step in doing this is voting Obama out. In spite of Obama earning the ranking of “worst president ever,” replacing him will still not necessarily be easy. Obama has powerful allies in the media, the backing of progressives such as Soros, and nearly 50% of the population dependent on the government dole. Laurens County Tea Party believes that Newt is the most electable conservative who can clearly articulate the Tea Party agenda of lower taxes, free enterprise, smaller government, and state sovereignty. We also believe that Newt will draw a clear contrast between his solutions and the failed, socialist policies of the Obama administration, which have resulted in a $15 trillion national debt, high unemployment, a weakening dollar, the downgrading of our credit rating from AAA to AA+, the appointment of two leftist and radical judges to our Supreme Court, the ramming through of the unpopular “Obamacare,” which the majority of Americans do not want, and the destruction of our Constitution and our liberties.
Newt is running a positive campaign, and we believe that the common-sense solutions he offers, his vast experience, his grasp of history, and his superior debate skills have led to his rapid rise in the polls. His 21st Century Contract with America is an inspiring document which offers every American hope for the future.
Some of the positive solutions Newt offers are:
– repeal Obamacare
– eliminate the Czars
– repeal job-killing legislation
– eliminate the capital gains tax and the death tax, and drop the corporate income tax to 12.5%
– appoint judges who will uphold our Constitution and not legislate from the bench
– balance the budget and pass a balanced budget amendment
– control the border by 1/1/14 and establish English as the official language of the U.S.
– enforce the 10th amendment by starting an orderly transfer of power and responsibility from the federal government back “to the states, respectively, or to the people,” as the Constitution requires.
Our assessment overall is that Newt’s positions are definitely in line with our Tea Party values, and a conservative position in general (pro-life, supports traditional marriage, strong defense, etc.) We recommend that everyone read his 21st Century Contract with America, as well as his “Solutions,” which are found on his website, www.Newt.org.
Dianne Belsom, President
Laurens County Tea Party (SC)
Letter of Support
Aug 18
August 12, 2011
To Congressmen Jeff Duncan, Trey Gowdy, Mick Mulvaney, Tim Scott, and Joe Wilson; and Senators Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham:
We, the undersigned, want to offer you our sincerest thanks for the strong stand that you took in the debt ceiling/budget debate. Though we will never be able to comprehend the amount of pressure and anxiety that you went through in taking this stand, we are grateful for it. A bill that cuts so little from our nation’s budget is useless in the struggle to balance the country’s finances. If American families are expected to balance their personal finances then the national government should have to do the same.
We realize it is not about entitlements, government handouts, or regulations; it is about government waste and the effect it will have on our future generations. Something must be done and our voices must be heard. Though the fight against this bill has failed, the battle for a balanced budget is not over. We have only lost when we choose to stop fighting. You must continue in the fight for legislation that cuts wasteful spending. The stand you took was a step in the right direction and for that we want to say thank you.
Our prayers and thanks go out to you,
Sincerely,
Dianne Belsom, Laurens County Tea Party
Allen Olsen, Columbia Tea Party
Linda Weeks, Debbie Spaugh, SC Patriots and Americans for Prosperity
Joe Dugan, Gerri McDaniel, Myrtle Beach Tea Party, Inc.
Shery Smith, Sumter Tea Party
Jim Matthews, Gilbert-Summit Tea Party
Brit and Judy Adams, Concerned Citizens of the Upstate
William Lindsey, 912 Spartanburg
Jonathon Hill, Anderson Tea Party
Roan Garcia-Quintana, Americans Have Had Enough Coalition
Paula Little, Barnwell County Tea Party Patriots
Karen Martin, Bill Conley, Spartanburg Tea Party
Harry Kibler, RINO Hunt
Michael and Maria Brady, Boiling Springs Tea Party
Randy Simpson, Seneca Tea Party
Rowena Booker, Assn. of Black Conservatives
Individuals:
Sheryl Moriarty
Shelley Townley
Javan and Jorie Browder
Jackie Fowler
Herb Hobgood
Rhonda and Stephen Barrineau
Magda Aguila, Greenville
Stan Crenshaw, Boiling Springs
Eric Williams, Greenwood