2-5-25
Monologue:
We Need Statesmen!
Triple Dipper:
1. Identify As Americans
2. No Sanctuary
3. Home Fries
Guests
4pm: Grand Council w/Jeff Poor and Dale Jackson
Resources
1. Identify As Americans
https://www.axios.com/2024/03/24/pride-flag-ban-fight-white-house-embassies
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/saraharnold/2025/02/02/pete-hegseth-no-more-identity-months-n2651521
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-bans-pride-blm-flags-report-2018810
https://x.com/marcuslemonis/status/1886900000472301813?t=RMvg5gbrQ3zZY-3GzsfpWQ&s=19
https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/camping-world-defies-county-order-take-down-giant-american-flag.amp
2. No Sanctuary
https://www.foxnews.com/us/sanctuary-cities-refuse-ice-removal-requests-could-punished-under-state-federal-legislation.amp
3. Home Fries
https://www.wvtm13.com/article/alabama-gov-kay-ivey-state-address-2025/63667408
Rightside Way Monologue
If you really want to freak someone out tell them that you don’t care what
happens to you as long as the victory is achieved……really, you’re naysayers won’t
know what to say to that……folks who don’t have a broader view of the world
never really know what to make of someone who tries to see and do the bigger
things……because most naysayers are the ones who have a single issue in mind
and only see one way to handle that issue……they don’t get it when someone
comes along who is willing and able to put in the time, the sacrifice, the hardship,
to make things better for more than themselves…….and in politics those people
who are willing to accomplish the big stuff that means more than just their own
petty reelection or little district……they are called statesmen……
Oftentimes that strength to pursue something bigger comes from having been in
a fight and emerging from it intact…..you learn from it, you grow from it, you
realize that you can hit and get hit and still keep moving…..overcoming adversity
makes you appreciate what you have all the more and it creates a different
view….a view that things can get done, big things, things that some people recoil
from because they still fear getting hit…..that’s why its so important for a football
team to practice in full pads and trade blows on the practice field, so that they
don’t avoid the hits they need to endure to win the game…..that’s why boxers
have sparring partners, so that they learn to trade blows for the big
match……that’s why General Norman Schwarzkopf said “the more you sweat in
training the less you bleed in war”…….and in politics, the ability to trade those
blows and stick to your guns is what changes someone from a politician to a
statesman……
Yesterday I told you about the Alabama Legislature being in session for day one of
the 2025 regular session…..last night Governor Ivey gave her State of the State
address in the Old House Chamber in the Capitol Building…..Tennessee’s
legislature gaveled in a couple of weeks ago in an special session to tackle school
choice and yesterday they passed state level illegal immigration laws…..All across
the nation state elected officials are doing what they do, debating good bills,
stopping bad bills, passing budgets…..and I can tell you from experience that
there will be political machinations that make no sense at times…..there will be
state legislators who can’t see past the nose on their faces….there will be some
who will only do what the lobbyists tell them to do…..but I also know from
experience that there will some who will take to the floor of the House or Senate
in their respective states with a statesmanlike attitude of doing what is right for
the greater good because that is who they are…..
The ones who don’t have that view are often the ones who did not become
stronger by virtue of a good fight…..either a) they got whooped one time and are
gun shy now…..or b) they’ve never been in a fight and so they don’t have any idea
how to trade blows when the opposition comes in swinging……too many of the
Republicans in our state supermajorities are in that second group…..they’ve had
the joy of being large and in charge for their whole time in office and have no idea
what it really means to have a good fight and to stand their ground on behalf of
the greater good…..
A few years back there were a class of freshmen legislators, men and women,
who came in to the Alabama House and Senate having endured one of the most
brutal campaign seasons in Alabama history…..it was called the Republican wave
of 2010 and I talked about it a bit yesterday…..the Tea Party was active….a
grassroots effort like never before in our state was just plain tired of the
corruption, and the Democrats had controlled the Statehouse for 136 straight
years….. but it was a slugfest……the teachers union especially fought and often
fought dirty……I was proud to be a part of that wave and I know for a fact that
those of us who overcame such nastiness in the elections were then better
prepared for the fights that came afterward……I know one guy who won his
election despite his opponent paying strippers to show up at his front door…..I
personally had supporters have their businesses threatened if they put up my
signs…..but we fought those battles and the ones that came after as they tried to
dox our families, our businesses, and harass us for daring to have a statesmanlike
view of how to fix our state……I could tell you story after story of men and women
I served with who came to the Capital battle-scarred with a desire to pursue a
different agenda, a broader agenda…..a statesman’s agenda…..but it only came
when we knuckled down and got into the fight and then lived to fight another
day……
The teachers union was absolutely the worst and often coached its members out
of a position of fear…….they would lash out with the most ridiculous and
unfounded attacks and when they didn’t get us to cow down they would often
resort to personal attacks…..I recall so many times being verbally accosted for
daring to suggest a different budget, or a different way of handling education, or
considering how to save public retirement that was on the verge of collapse…..the
mantra from the teachers union became…..”do what we want or we’ll make sure
you never get reelected!”…..….my response used to tick them off to no end when
I would reply, and often in writing, that, “I didn’t get elected to get reelected. I’m
going to do what I believe is right”…….I’d love to take credit for that statement
but I can’t…..I learned it from a real statesman….someone who had been through
the fire….someone who had even lost elections, and pushed for unpopular
options at times, because he knew that there was a larger plan….a broader
narrative….one that held to higher principles……because that was what statesmen
do……that man was Ronald Reagan who I read had once been advised that a
position he was preparing to take on a major issue could be considered political
suicide…..his top advisors were telling him not to do it out of political expediency
but Reagan, with the scars of prior battles in the public arena told them ….”I
didn’t get elected to get reelected. Let’s do the right thing.”…….That’s a
statesman……
The politician makes promises but may not deliver on them once elected. …..but a
statesman?......A statesman is a person who stands by his ideals and does
everything in his power to do what he believes is right for the people of his
community, his state, his country……… Statesmen stand on a platform of
fundamental truths…….principles…..and the scars of prior fights…….because when
the fur starts flying, and the attacks come from all angles….and they will…...it is
the embedded principles and the knowledge of prior survival of big fights that a
statesman will lean on to get him or her through the fight…….
And they cannot be myopic…..they cannot be fixated on just one thing……they
must be broad, and deep, and able to address the issues…….can they adjust from
a fight on cultural issues and pivot to fight for fiscal issues…..are they effective in
the arena of facing down attacks on the constitutional liberties that we as people
enjoy and then able to move next to a debate about economic development or
military spending or education reforms or abortion or prison construction….. can
they see past the moment they are in to decide what is for the greater good…….
A statesman is one who recognizes that his or her position has given them the
opportunity for power…..power of position…..power over people….power that
can become a distraction…..power that can become a tyranny…..and statesmen
do not give way to the idea of power…..for a statesman it is antithetical to pursue
tyranny or to lord themselves over others……George Washington, fresh on the
heels of victory in the Revolutionary War was granted by the continental congress
what they termed as “unlimited powers” in 1777 to pursue the fight against the
British……responding back to the Congress Washington said, “I shall constantly
bear in mind that as the sword was the last resort for the preservation of our
liberties, so it out to be the first thing laid aside when those liberties are firmly
established”……Washington famously resigned his commission as a General
before taking the office of the Presidency and he also declined to serve more than
two terms…….he was a statesman……honed by the fight……standing on
principles……and in the fight for the greater good……..
We need more statesmen……especially in our state government…..we need them
right now…..for such a time as this……And we need them to fight……
And that’s a wrap for the Rightside Way