Note: These are my prepared remarks from Tea Party Review Magazine’s press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on May 18, 2011, titled “Lies of the Left, Wrongs of the Right.”

In the midst of the American Revolution, Thomas Paine began his essay series, The Crisis, with these words: “These are the times that try men’s souls.” Two-hundred and thirty five years later, those words sound eerily relevant to our circumstances today.

In times of crisis such as these, visionary leadership is not just important, it is essential. We need men and women who can define with crystal clarity what the future should look like, and how we will get there.

If we define vision, however, as foresight, then no community in America has been failed more by its so-called leadership than the black community. Rather than looking forward to a future of opportunity and promise after our victories in the civil rights movement, they continue to look backward as if this were still 1955 and we were still forced to ride in the back of the bus. (more…)

One of the valuable lessons I’ve learned in my 50-plus years of living is not to respond to an emotional event on the spur of the moment, but to give reason and thought the opportunity to take hold and better inform one’s actions.

Regrettably, that lesson was ignored by far too many people this weekend.

I was somewhat isolated from the news for a good part of Saturday morning and afternoon, so when I returned home, prepared for an afternoon of playoff football, I didn’t know about the massacre in Tucson, Arizona that gravely wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), killed six, including a 9-year old girl and a federal judge, and injured 14 others.

As stunned as I was by this senseless act of violence, I was equally sickened by the shameless exploitation of this tragedy by the liberal elite and the sycophants who parrot them, for the purposes of smearing their political opponents.

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I’ve reached the sad conclusion that the 21^st century liberal is like a virus that is resistant to previously effective medications. A stronger prescription is required.

Most sensible politicians of any ideology would take the drubbing the Democrats endured this past electoral cycle, lick their wounds and absorb the lessons from it, and seek to change in response to the expressed will of the people.

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Several years ago, Adrian Fenty, at the time a member of the Washington, DC City Council, promised the public he would send his twin sons to public school once they reached fourth grade. He wanted to demonstrate his support for public schools in both his political and personal life. He kept his promise and enrolled his sons in public school this fall, but the manner in which he did it has the District of Columbia in a minor uproar.

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Dear Mr. President:

Will you accept some unsolicited advice from a friend? No, you don’t remember me; I’m one of thousands of people who have crossed paths with you over the years. You invited me to become a volunteer for your first political campaign “back in the day,” as the kids say today. I was on your payroll for three years; I even got to visit you in the Oval Office along with a few of my colleagues. You were very generous with your time, respectful of the office and humbled by the charge you’ve been given. I like you, so please hear me out when I tell you your threat to veto a bill giving the residents of the District of Columbia their own representative in the U.S. Congress is not helping you or the Republican Party.

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