On Reminiscing

Dave Hodges of The Common Sense Show, an admirable conservative blog site, has recently posted there a tribute of sorts to Ross Perot, who has come out with an I-told-you-so comment on the state of political affairs in the country, and for whom Dave had voted “twenty-six years ago,” when Ross first ran for president, on a third-party ticket.(1)  He got some 19% of the popular vote, mostly, not exclusively, conservative,(2) and it may well have meant the difference, when Bill Clinton ended up beating George ‘Poppy’ Bush in his re-election bid.  (That’s ‘poppy;’ as in opium.  Another story.)

It brought me to mind of my own connection with Ross, which went back some twenty years before Dave’s.  It was in the early ’70s, and Perot had just come out onto the national scene with a scheme involving petitions to send to Congress regarding the sensitive and building issue of POWs/MIAs in the Vietnam War debacle.(3)  I forget how I found out about it, but I can remember setting up shop outside of the entrance to a local shopping mall, collecting signatures for his, and the country’s, worthy cause.

That also reminded me of something similar that I had done around the same time, when I set up shop in a similar fashion collecting signatures from Republicans to get one John Ashbrook on the California Republican Primary ballot for president, opposing Richard Nixon in his re-election bid for the office, in 1972.  John(4), an up-and-coming young conservative Congressman from Ohio, was, like me, and other conservatives, concerned about the general tenor of the direction of the Nixon administration, and deeply concerned specifically about rumors (emanating from the Office of Naval Intelligence/ONI) that Nixon had allowed the Russians (read Soviets at the time) a foothold in Cuba.  (My god; had the JFK thing all been for nothing???)  I don’t recall if the Watergate thing had even come up by then; in any event, it wasn’t the issue that it would become after Nixon’s re-election.

Incidentally, in the event, we conservative Republicans in California did succeed in collecting enough signatures to get Ashbrook on the Primary ballot; but to no avail.  But hey - causes are causes.

And I am reminded that my efforts in the matter extended to collecting signatures from registered Republicans in the residential hills of Oakland (with my rapidly patented opening pitch I succeeded in ending up collecting some 100 signatures for him, in one afternoon’s efforts; which ‘earned’ me a personal handshake from John when he came out to ‘press the flesh’ and burnish his image amongst the Party faithful), and being involved in getting various hardline conservative platform proposals accepted by the more conservative Republican grassroots activist organization of the day.  (United Republicans of California/UROC.)  I was also part of a small number of hotshot young conservatives who tried the same sort of effort at the moderate (and more ‘prestigious’ and numerous) such organization, the California Republican Assembly/CRA; where we had limited, but on the whole satisfying, success, given the ‘mainstream’ nature of the beast.

With all that, I was on my way to getting more deeply involved in the political scene of the day, when Fate intervened, and my life took on a different tack.  All, a story for another day.  But this here, to show my basic interest in such matters.  And basic orientation. 

      

Specifically politically, that is to say.

In a word?: The Founding principles of this country.  

Can such things change over time?  Indeed.  But when you are living under the rule of law, they need to do so by the amendment process built in to your constitution.

Or we’re talking tyranny.  Despotism.  Chaos.  Which, of course, is the motive of some people.  For whom, especially, Chaos brings Opportunity.  As we are seeing in our day and revolutionary age.

But which can also lead on to further, and Process-completing, revolution, when the time - and read Time - is ripe.

And lo.  Here we are.  And all I can say to that is that I’m back from my TDY down the strictly spiritual path; and, in perfect timing, I would encourage the executive branch of the American government to be ready to hit the ground running.  For, we have a Work to do.

And it will make all the difference. 

—

footnotes:

(1) He ran again, in the same way, in 1996; to a lesser effect.   

(2) He was for such conservative hot-button issues as reducing the debt and opposition to gun control, but he was also for something that he called ‘electronic voting,’ wanting a ‘direct democracy’ system.  Which opened up a whole level of concern in the conservative ranks in the country, of a ‘This is a republic, not a democracy’ nature.  So, he was thought more of a populist than a staunch conservative; which muddied his chances a bit.  

(3) The ‘No-win war,’ as it was labeled by disgruntled conservatives; including some personally restricted in that budding NWO enterprise.

   Young people caught in the Draft net were not the only ones protesting that drawn-out war.  Which began under legitimate pretenses, with the U.S. being a member of SEATO and under treaty obligations.  But with the word beginning to come out via conservative channels (via such impeccable researchers as Antony Sutton) of the ‘U.S.’ - read: the Establishment - clandestinely selling war materiel to the Soviets, which ended up being transhipped on down to North Vietnam; and with one hand tied behind our troops’ and airmen’s backs, it began to take on a stealthy, and most disturbingly sinister, hue. 

   And here we are today.  In part, because of the success of that operation.  For the termites.

   (N.B. I recall also that I volunteered to go over there, as a medic, when they weren’t getting the job done, and the war was beginning to drag on.  But I was turned down, politely, for my age; being, then, in my late 30s.  But something needed be done… 

   …and a ‘Ho - Ho - Ho Chi Minh’ to you too, Jane.)    

(4) I distinctly remember one guy, noticing me there with my ‘Ashbrook for President’ sign, asking me, “What’s an Ashbrook?”  That speaks volumes regarding the power, or lack thereof, of name recognition.