Why Should Southeast Kentuckians Vote for Jim Holbert?

Why should southeast Kentuckians vote for a non-career politician who wants an end to pointless politics, who believes in common sense solutions to real problems, who talks straight, and who is a genuine alternative to the "business-as-usual" (monkey business, that is) that has gotten us into a world class mess at home and abroad?

A better question seems to be, why shouldn't they?

Of course many, many folks in Kentucky's 5th District--and quite a few Washington lobbyists and their clients--just love Hal Rogers' pork-barreling, piecemealing, earmarking ways. After all, these are the tactics by which our democracy has been warped in order to enrich a few, at the expense of the rest of us.

Still others--including lots of folks who have never been, and never will be, on the receiving end of the pork-barrel largesse--are for Hal because of the excellent propaganda machine and network he's built up over the years. But as I often have occasion to advise, "Don't be fooled."

Hal Rogers is the standard bearer for the policies that have failed us and the "ideas" which have been tried in the balance, and found wanting.

Hal Rogers has been a reliable water-carrier for the "new economy," "free trade," "supply-side," "American exceptionalism," "free enterprise," "limited government," and "tax-cuts-for-what-ails-ya" ideas that were supposed to provide Americans with jobs, peace, and prosperity--but which have instead bogged us down in (so far) two endless, politically mismanaged wars half a world away, and put us on the brink of another Great Depression here at home.

If we want something different, we must do something different.

We've got to turn our back on the misbegotten mindset of empire and return to the roots of our Republic. In plain English, this means beginning to get our own house in order and stop attempting to mind the business of other nations--bringing our troops home, taking care of our veterans, and doing the many other things that need to be done here at home, for our own Country and our own people.

We've got to move toward an energy economy which not only liberates our Country from Mideast oil dependence and the Mideast involvement that goes with it, but liberates our region from the stranglehold of the extractive industries that have taken so much and left so little--which have done so much damage while leaving our people to bear the scars and the costs.

And we've got to reverse the policies that have deliberately de-industrialized America, left us up to the eyeballs in debt and trade deficits, and cost us millions of jobs.

We can do these things. Don't let anyone tell you we can't. And if doing these things sounds good to you, then you should vote for Jim Holbert in the May 18th Democratic Primary for U. S. Congress in Kentucky's 5th District.

On the other hand, if you're happy with an economic mess at home and endless mismanaged and widening warfare that's bankrupting our Country and strengthening our enemies--well, a vote for Hal in November will be a vote for more of all that.

If we've become convinced that a law degree and career politician ambitions are prerequisites for Congress, then God help our region and our Republic. And if we confuse statesmanship with a candidate's willingness to align himself with a corporate anti-people, anti-America agenda--thereby filling his campaign coffers to overflowing--then our democracy is sunk.

I'm not a career politician. I'm a family man, veteran career military officer, and working person. I was certified as a secondary school teacher. I understand first hand the military and international and trade and employment and educational problems we face.

I hate partisanship and I despise the pointless posturing that passes for political leadership. Hal and most others in Congress--on both sides of the aisle--have not only been fiddling while Rome burns, but have poured gas on the fire.

I'm not controlled by any special interest and I won't be a mouthpiece for any Party or any establishment that seeks to perpetuate its own power or influence at the expense of our Country, our people, and our future. I offer common sense, straight talk, and an alternative to the corrupted, "business-as-usual" career politicians that have failed us.

And I ask you to remember that I was the only one with the courage and the conviction to oppose Hal Rogers and run for Congress in Kentucky's Fifth District in 2008.

Doing more of the same things we've been doing for the last three decades (and even longer) is not going to get us out of the hole they've put us into.

And this is why you should vote for Jim Holbert in the May 18th 2010 Democratic Primary for U. S. Representative for Kentucky's 5th District.