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If you have any news tips, gossip or rumors you would like to share or any ideas for future post. Please send an email to: 6vwts@notsharingmy.info or contact us on Twitter: @IndyRepublicanX

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Sunday, December 31, 2023

A Surprise Reveal for 2024

     We are as always eternally grateful to all of our readers. Your support and encouragement these last seven years means the world to us and we look forward to many decades of writing and activism yet to come!

     You have known us mostly as Indy Republican or IR. And we love and will keep these designations. The time has come however to give our selves a more convenient name to be known by. We are now also known as Darius Kingsley. The time has come to tell you all more why we have taken it upon ourselves to be activists, agitators, and crusaders. We have shared some details of our general political and religious worldviews before and refer you to them herehere, and here. Now, we would like to share more about the people behind this blog. All of us here are proud, loyal and patriotic Americans. We all have family traditions stretching back many centuries of service to the ideals of these United States. Whether we have been in the USA since Jamestown, or if we are the first of our families to be born on American soil, we all have deep roots in promoting the ideals of America.

     Most of us currently writing for this blog came of age during the time of Reagan. And we have watched in disgust as today’s faux conservatives and republicans have gone from Reagan’s “Macho Men” to the weak willed wussies like Donald Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy, Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon. We also have had our stomachs turned at the Pro Sovietization of the historically anti-communist GOP. With its gushing over former KGB officer Vladimir Putin, and with Trump’s ass kissing of communist dictators Xi Jinping and North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un. Also the abandonment of strong opposition to terrorism has been replaced with Trumpian moral relativism and praising the Taliban as “Great Fighters”.

     Many of our ancestors fought and in many cases died to defend the Constitution and the Republic for which it stands. We will not allow the great sacrifice of our noble ancestors. In short we are determined to restore more sanity, rationality and honesty to American life. The task is sometimes daunting but it is rewarding. Seeing the small sparks and holy light of freedom and reason come into people’s lives is truly a wonderful sight, and a gift from God. We, Darius Kingsley promise to elaborate more on the problems that face us traditional conservatives and also the process by which we will defeat extremism and restore more common sense to this great land. Also we seek to offer sanctuary to political and religious refugees in these upside down times. Think of us as “Motel 6 Christian’s and “Motel 6 Republicans”, we are here to leave the light on and to make it brighter.
     We hope that you will join us in our holy cause. If you wish to contact us there is a contact form on the desktop version of this blog, you can email us at 6vwts@notsharingmy.info, or contact us on Twitter: @IndyRepublicanX. Have a Happy New Year, and God Bless You All!


Tuesday, November 7, 2023

Open Letter to the Traitor Peter Meijer


Former Congressman and Sell Out Peter Meijer of Michigan 

To: The Honorable Peter Meijer, Former Congressman from Michigan 

From: The people you stabbed in the back and will make you regret it.

Dear Congressman Meijer,

All of us here would first like to thank you for having the guts to cast a vote for the articles of impeachment against former President Trump. We are also grateful to you for saying you stand by that vote. However your recent actions have made it impossible for any of us to never support you again and to work towards your defeat in any and all future runs for an office of any kind whether it be state, local or federal.

Yesterday you gave in interview after having announced your run for the U.S. Senate in Michigan where you stated your horror at what happened on January 6th, 2021 as well as your defense of your vote to for Donald Trump’s impeachment. So far so good, you then proceeded to flush your reason, integrity and your balls down the drain by comparing President Biden’s conduct as President as being on par with Trump’s. Specifically you make note of the Afghanistan withdrawal last year. We have also criticized President Biden in that regard. It shouldn’t need to be pointed out that an error in judgment as President is not morally equivalent to causing a riot in our nation’s capital. It can also be pointed out that the withdrawal from Afghanistan was negotiated by Trump. Yes Biden could have decided not to go along with it, but it was Trump’s deal so you should blame him as well.

Congressman, May I call you Pete? Well, Pete we all know that you are aware of just how unsuited for office Donald Trump is. We also know that your ego is inflated to the point that you think that the nation needs you in office so badly that you will turn yourself into a submissive vasal to your Lord and Master Trump. We have news for you Petey, as Barry Goldwater said: “The sky will not fall on a congressman or the country if he is not re-elected.” But like too many in the Republican Party you have shredded your principles for power. And so far you have gained neither. You did state in your interview yesterday that your supporting Trump if he is the Republican nominee for President will make Never Trumper’s very unhappy. You at least showed a grasp of something obvious. You have failed to realize that you have awoken a sleeping giant Pete. 

Honestly you have almost no chance of winning the Republican nomination for Senate. That much should have been obvious to you when as reported by Politico earlier that the Trumpist establishment would rather slit there wrist than vote for you:

“Peter Meijer isn’t viable in a primary election, and there’s worry that if Meijer were nominated, the base would not be enthused in the general election,” NRSC Executive Director Jason Thielman said.

Pete you are a very wealthy man, and you could easily finance your own senate race. So why don’t you just be true to what you did when you stood up to Trump? Run in the primary as a real man, not some sissy girl little biatch trying to kiss up to Trump? Michiganders prize independence and courage in their elected officials. There’s Arthur Vandenburg, George Romney, Bill Milliken, Robert Griffin, John Engler, Fred Upton, Rick Snyder and many others. Yes you might lose but the odds aren’t exactly in your favor as it is. If you are going to lose at least have some pride man! You are a sad reflection of how far we Republicans have fallen! We have gone from being Reagan’s Macho Men, and George Bush’s cowboys to sycophantic enablers and ass kissers to a man whose physical ambition is to as close as possible resemble Chester Chetah! 

We could go on but we have made our points. We will let Heath Mayo and your former colleague and friend Adam Kinzinger explain to you just what an asshole you really are:


Monday, October 30, 2023

Mike Pence Hit’s the Eject Button on his Presidential Campaign


Former Vice President Mike Pence

On Saturday in Las Vegas at the Republican Jewish Coalition gathering, former Indiana Governor and Vice President Mike Pence announced that he is quitting the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Adam Wren a favorite of ours wrote about Pence’s announcement for Politico:

With donations sagging, the former vice president, who often made self-deprecating remarks about his middle-class finances, had recently ponied up $150,000 of his own relatively small, newly-acquired fortune, amassed from a two-book deal and speaking fees, to prop up his campaign.

It wasn’t anywhere close to enough. For months, virtually no pollster or political prognosticator saw his campaign gaining traction in a GOP that prized id over ideology, presentation over pedigree.

Just a little less than two weeks before on October 15th, Wren had written an article about how Pence’s campaign was having financial troubles Wren had reported at the time that: 

Mike Pence’s presidential campaign is running on fumes, reporting just $1.2 million cash on hand and more than $600,000 in debt.

The former vice president raised $3.3 million in the third quarter, he reported Sunday (October 15th). He has given himself $150,000 — a significant figure for a politician who has spent much of his life having never amassed much wealth, and one that far exceeds the less-than-six-figure salary he earned when he was Indiana governor less than a decade ago.

Given that Pence had failed to make much traction either in the polls and with fundraising we were not too surprised to hear that he decided to drop out of the race. We thought he would be either foolish enough or delusional enough to stay in until Iowa, obviously we were mistaken. It would appear that money and polling played a factor in Pence’s decision to quit, but we are fairly certain that he was pressured to do so. Probably by various GOP donors, officials, possibly close friends and family also helped make up his mind. Some of the Never Trump community expressed the belief that Pence’s inability to gain traction is a further sign of how badly the GOP has gotten under Donald Trump, and that Pence’s unwillingness to try to help Trump stay in office after losing the 2020 election doomed his chances.

We don’t deny there is some truth to that, but we don’t believe that was the primary reason his candidacy failed. His campaign went nowhere because Pence could not provide a rationale for why he should be President. He tried to say that the country needed to take a different direction than the one offered by Donald Trump, but at the same time kept saying how proud he was of the work he had done in the Trump-Pence administration. So if he was really proud of the work he had done in the Trump administration why was he running against Trump? Or if he wanted to offer an alternative to Trump why should voters pick him as opposed to one of the other candidates? Also having been Trump’s chief flunky as Vice President gave Anti-Trump Republicans no reason to trust Pence with being in the White House. Or as Reagan would have said Pence offered “Pale pastels instead of bold colors”. Meaning he failed to offer any significant distinction between himself and Trump.

Yes Pence did agree to certify the election results, but he had no legal choice but to do so, and he had spent the previous two months being evasive on what he would do. He tried to find ways to do what Trump wanted but failed. If Pence had just come out forcefully from the beginning and said clearly that he and Trump had lost a lot of what went on during January 6th could have been avoided. Instead Pence waffled and waited until the last possible minute before saying clearly that he was powerless to overturn the election results. Pence knew full well that he couldn’t change the results but he stupidly thought he could placate Trump, instead the Frankenstein monster he helped create almost got him killed. 

If God forbid that Trump gets the nomination we would be shocked if Pence doesn’t immediately endorse Trump. So to our fellow Never Trumper’s don’t shed any tears over o Pence’s withdrawal from the race. The man made his deal with the devil and now he must reap the consequences of his actions.

Thursday, October 12, 2023

Don Bacon for House Speaker!


Congressman Don Bacon (R-NE)

Last year we wrote with great enthusiasm about the triumph of Congressman Don Bacon’s primary victory over a Trump supported knucklehead. As you probably know recently former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was fired from his post and the House has been unable function. And with Hamas raising hell in Israel, and Ukraine fighting against Russia, not to mention a looming government shutdown in less than 40 days, it would seem this is the worst possible time for the U.S. House to be unable to function. Try as they might we don’t have a new speaker yet, and it’s anyone’s guess as to who will get the job.

This is a long shot we admit, but it’s worth trying. We urge the election of Don Bacon as House Speaker. It would only take 5 Republicans to side with enough Democrats to work. Granted there is political risks in this approach mostly for republicans, but Bacon has shown himself to have real principles, he has a history of working across the aisle, and as a retired Brigadier General he has the military experience to help meet the challenges we and our allies are currently facing! So let’s give it the old college try, let’s call, email, and deluge members of Congress to pick Don Bacon for Speaker. Don’t just call or email your congressmen, call and email them every 15 minutes! Post about on social media! #DonBaconForSpeaker let’s get it trending! 

Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Ogden on Politics leaving the Blogsphere





It’s with a mix of emotions we report that our dear friend, fellow blogger and gadfly Paul Ogden has announced that he is leaving the world of blogging after 15 years. Paul’s blog posts will be dearly missed, but we are also happy for Paul to begin a new chapter in his life. 

We will quote from the master himself as he gives his thoughts on blogging and details some new developments in his life:

Sometime on Wednesday  the lights on the Ogden on Politics blog will go off.  I turned the auto renewal option off and on September 20, 2023 my annual subscription goes out.  Yes, I have backed up my blog in case I ever want to relive the past.

My blog was on line during the era of great Indianapolis blogs.  I think back fondly to reading Gary Welsh's Advance Indiana.  Yes, Gary liked his conspiracy theories, but he also wrote extensively researched articles and broke numerous stories, at least daily if not more.  Advance Indiana remains the gold standard when it comes to blogs.  Not sure where Gary found the time to do what he did.  He was a community resource who can never be replaced.

Here's the thing about blogging though...it is time consuming.  Even when you're only commenting on a news article, it still takes substantial time to write and edit that commentary.  If it is an investigative piece, then it could take a few hours to complete the research and write the article.  Finding the time to blog recently has been difficult.  I have a full-time job as manager of a title insurance agency as well as a part-time job.  I also occasionally write legal filings for attorney friends wanting help.  In addition to those jobs, I also help take care of my elderly mother who lives nearby.  I also try to get to the gym whenever I possibly can.

That's why I haven't been blogging much lately.  But there is another reason why I have decided to shut down the blog.  Come October, after some 17 years, I am extremely excited to be returning to government employment.  While nobody asked me to shut down my blog because of that job, having it active would be too tempting to offer political commentary on candidates and office holders.   I don't want to put myself or my bosses in an uncomfortable position because of some blog article I published.

So it is time to say goodbye.  As we older people say, "See you in the funny papers."   You younger people ... look it up.

I can speak for all of us here at the IR blog: Paul you have done well, and what you have done will live on, besides your far to young to be finished doing good in this world. Godspeed old friend and remember there are others of us who will keep up the good fight. Some of us might be rare, sometimes we are unknown but we help move the world! 

Hang Lose Paul!

P.S. Check out Paul’s blog here at the Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20230920085121/http://www.ogdenonpolitics.com/

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

IR Report on First 2023 Republican Primary Debate

Tonight at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin the first Republican Presidential Primary debate will be held. Former President Donald Trump has said he will not appear but instead clips of him will be shown for the candidates to respond to. This year the Republican National Committee (RNC) has set the following conditions for candidates to qualify for the first debate, namely that they have 40,000 individual donors, and they must have 200 individual donors from at least 20 states. Also the candidates must poll 1% in multiple polls. 

CBS reports that:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former Vice President Mike Pence, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamyand Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina all qualified for the debate.

Despise some drama of a basketball injury last night North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum will be at the debate. Chris Christie was once a staunch supporter of Donald Trump’s but has emerged along with Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson as the two Anti-Trump candidates at tonight’s debates. Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramasway, and Tim Scott have all been running to various degrees as somewhat Trump like. In full disclosure we must reveal that our sympathies at tonight’s debate are with Governor’s Christie and Hutchinson, we will strive to show fairness in our appraisal of the other candidates.

This will be the first time in almost three years we have watched Fox News. But seeing as the network is the broadcaster for this debate, we have to go into the lions den to watch it. We figured we would watch and report on the debate so you don’t have to! Of course we as always would love to hear any feedback you have regarding tonight’s debate. We just pray it doesn’t devolve into a freak show!

Martha Macallum and Bret Baier moderated the debate. Ground rules for the debate are the moderators asked the questions, candidates have one minute to respond, if someone is singled out they have 30 seconds to respond.

DeSantis spoke first and proceeded to attack the congress for overspending, attacked the Biden administration. Argued for the need to reduce taxes and spending.

Christie said he disagreed with DeSantis by saying that in order to be successful in reducing inflation, taxes and deficit spending that Republicans need to sell their plans and win over a majority of the public. 

Tim Scott alternated between promoting some ideas of his own and attacking the Biden administration.

Vivek Ramaswany argued that his experience as a family man and entrepreneur give him the outsider perspective needed to help guide the country to better economic times. So far his conspiracy theories haven’t come up.

Nikki Haley opened by attacking Republicans for passing large spending bills including many of the other candidates on the stage while also attacking Donald Trump for raising the national debt. So far Haley is the only one to criticize Trump.

Mike Pence opens by praising the Trump-Pence administration, Pence criticized Ramaswamy for saying the President can’t do everything. Vivek and Pence started to have an exchange saying that Vivek lacks the experience to be President. DeSantis then fired back attacking the Trump administration for COVID lockdowns. Ramaswamy seems intent on pushing the line that he is an outsider.

Governor Doug Burgum opened with a joke about his recent leg injury, and criticized the Biden administration regarding energy policy.

Asa Hutchinson talked about his record as a tax cutting and budget balancing Governor. He argues that he has experience as the head of the DEA, as a Governor and a Prosecutor give him the needed skills to be President.

So far DeSantis is doing better than we expected, Ramaswamy seems to be doing most of the talking. Pence has been more aggressive than we expected but doesn’t seem to be scoring many points. Nikki Haley is appearing more thoughtful, independent and articulate than many would have thought she would be. Chris Christie has been willing to go after Vivek for being to inexperienced. Tim Scott pointed out that the United States has drastically reduced its carbon footprint and points out as Nikki Hailey has that China by far produces more carbon output than America and that is where we need to crackdown on carbon emissions.

Impressions so far of the debate is Nikki Hailey and Ron DeSantis have helped to revive their campaigns so far. Mike Pence is not making up any ground. Hutchinson has done okay but is not standing out enough. Christie is getting plenty of attention, remains to be seen if it helps him. Burgum is alright but isn’t making enough waves.

The moderator’s next turned to the subject of abortion and how the issue has affected the Republican Party. Nikki Hailey says she favors late term abortions, favors the availability of contraception and not demonizing women who get abortions. She was met with great applause. DeSantis defended his record on abortion and tap danced around whether he would support a six week abortion ban nationally. Pence talked about his faith and said that he supports a fifteen week abortion ban. Hailey responded to Pence by saying that Pence needs to be honest about the difficulties in passing a nationwide abortion ban. Burgum stated he doesn’t favor a federal abortion ban because that is a state issue. Burgum was meet with great applause. Asa Hutchinson argue that infant care and adoption should be part of the dialogue regarding abortion.

Chris Christie when asked about gun violence. He stated that the laws need to be enforced and violent criminals should be held accountable for their actions. 

Now that we are about 52 minutes in we are finally going to be asked about Donald Trumps indictments! Love how Brett Baier referred to Donald Trump as the “Elephant not in the room”.

The candidates are asked to raise there hands if they would support Trump if he is convicted of crimes. Only Asa Hutchinson and Chris Christie refused to raise their hands. Chris Christie says that we cannot normalize a presidential candidate being convicted of crimes. Christie and Ramaswamy had a heated exchange over the issue. With Vivek defending Trump and Christie pushing back against Vivek as a foolish amateur. Tim Scott said that Mike Pence acted properly on January 6th, DeSantis refused to answer the question. Pence defended his actions on 1/6. Hutchinson said that Trump is morally disqualified from being president and that under the 14th Amendment Trump might be disqualified from being President. Christie emphatically defended Pence and pointed out that Republicans can’t move forward until Donald Trump is dealt with. 

After all the shouting over Donald Trump the debate moved onto the issue of Ukraine funding. Ramaswamy proceeded to rattle off his usual Pro Putin talking points and criticized Christie for going to Ukraine. Christie responded by discussing the war crimes of Russia towards the Ukrainians and said that if we refuse to stand up to Putin we will invite more tyrants by refusing to fight against dictators. Pence and Ramaswamy engaged in a bitter back and forth over the war in Ukraine. Ramaswamy was met with more boos than we expected from his alt right talking points. Nikki Hailey made the moral case for supporting Ukraine and stated that if our goal is to reduce China’s influence than we should help Ukraine defeat Russia. We are pleased that the reaction of the audience so far is one of support for Ukraine.

With only about a half hour to go in the debate here’s our thoughts: Nikki Hailey, Mike Pence and DeSantis are all doing much better than many thought they would at this point. The rumors of Hailey’s political death might have been greatly exaggerated! Mike Pence was aggressive but we seriously still doubt he will win the nomination. Ron DeSantis didn’t embarrass himself too much we still don’t think he’ll get the nomination. But his performance so far will keep his campaign alive.

Asa Hutchinson and Doug Burgum might drop out before Iowa. They just aren’t getting the traction they need tonight to further there campaign. Chris Christie probably is still a long shot for the nomination but he is doing a great job attacking Vivek Ramaswamy and Donald Trump. Before tonight we thought everyone would have knives out on DeSantis, instead it’s turning into a attack against Vivek! Probably because Vivek comes off as such an asshole they candidates probably just decided to attack him en masse. Donald Trump is also a loser by refusing to attend the debate he’s helped breathe new life into some of his opponents. Wouldn’t surprise us if Donald Trump eventually enters some of the future Primary debates. No doubt the fact that it took almost an hour before he was mentioned in any noticeable way. Will have to keep an eye on the polls over the next couple days and weeks to see who gains and if Trump losses any ground. 

The candidates gave their speeches about why they feel they can help inspire the American people. Interestingly all of the candidates even Vivek Ramaswamy struck optimistic tones about America and it’s future. This is a stark contrast to the apocalyptic doom and gloom ramblings of Donald Trump. This debate although tiring was not as depressing as we feared it would be. 

Wednesday, June 7, 2023

Mike Pence’s Town Hall

Mike Pence



Mike Pence announced today that he is running for President. Apparently he is still delusional enough to think he is of Presidential timber. This evening he took part in a Town Hall on CNN hosted by Dana Bash. 

He started by saying that he is running due to what he sees as the weaknesses of current President Joe Biden. He defended his actions on January 6th, 2021. He was asked if a vote for Trump is a vote against the Constitution, Pence refused to answer the question directly. Pence appeared to state that he would not pardon any January 6th defendants. Pence criticized the FBI for issuing the search warrant on Mar-a-Lago last year, Pence clearly has not either reviewed the circumstances of the warrant being issued or he is lying to try and score points with Trump supporters.

Pence was twisting himself in knots trying to argue that he supports the rule of law but doesn’t think that Trump should be indicted because of the divisions it would cause in the country. So far Pence is trying to be a Diet Coke version of Trump, similar taste but less filling. Much of the rest of the broadcast consisted of Pence giving standard talking points, and trying to avoid angering Trump voters to much. He kept trying to claim credit for what he thought the Trump administration, while at the same time arguing that Trump shouldn’t be president again. 

In fairness to Pence though he did express strong support for Ukraine against Vladimir Putin. Although Pence overdid it by saying he he met Putin and told him things he didn’t want to hear. We are having a hard time believing that Pence stood up to Putin when for four years he just supported and enabled Donald Trump. For all the times where to our amazement that we didn’t find ourselves thinking that Pence is a total moron, what good Pence said should have been said years ago, when it would have made more of a dent into Donald Trump. As Christ said: “It is by their fruits that you shall know them.” Our observation has shown to us that the fruits of Mike Pence’s time as Vice President to Donald Trump have been not only bad, they have been poisonous fruits. It is for that reason among others that we can no more support a President Pence, just as we cannot support a Trump or DeSantis presidency. We as Christians do believe in redemption and we do not believe Pence is beyond the grace of God, but like all of us, Pence must “reap what he has sown.” Pence’s redemption will have to be found outside of elected office. His time in office has beefed weighed on the scales and found wanting. 

So to Mike Pence we can only say: We truly wish you and your family long and happy lives. We want you to all do well, however your time as an elected official has passed and a new season in your life must begin.

Tuesday, May 2, 2023

RIP, Gordon Lightfoot


Gordon Lightfoot 1938-2023

It is with a heavy heart that we report on the loss of one of Canada’s and the world’s finest singer-songwriters Gordon Lightfoot. Lightfoot died yesterday at age 84. Rolling Stone magazine writing last night about his passing pointed out some of the highlights of the career of this most talented performer:

His most enduring works include “If You Could Read My Mind,” “Sundown,” “Carefree Highway,” “Early Morning Rain,” and “Rainy Day People”

Lightfoot’s deceptively simple songs, which fused folk with pop and country rock, have been covered by everyone from Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash to the Grateful Dead, Barbra Streisand, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Buffett, and the Replacements.

Here are some other tributes to Mister Lightfoot’s musical talents:




Wednesday, March 15, 2023

Indy Republican’s View of Principles First 2023 Summit



Having attended last year’s Principles First Summit in Washington DC, naturally our humble correspondent was, of course curious to see just how the mood of the conference would be versus last year.


Also, we were curious to see how attendance would be at this year‘s summit, as opposed to how it was last year this time . We arrived at the Conrad, DC. In enough time to get registered for the summit and to take our place in the ballroom to begin the summit. 


Heath Mayo the founder of Principles first started off the summit by giving a little talk titled “Putting Principles First”, his speech was very well done, and basically covered what he felt are Principles First’s main goals. Heath said the main goal of the summit was to help grow the principled movement, and as Heath pointed out, we are principaled conservatives, and basically our goal is to work to improve our existing institutions, and that we favor empowerment over victimhood and also to point out how the America first movement is fundamentally anti-American, because it does not support the traditional view held by conservatives of America whatsoever. Mister Mayo also criticized the idea held by many at CPAC that unless we elect their particular brand of politicians, then basically the country is finished. This is similar to what Barry Goldwater wrote in his final book Goldwater in 1988, where he pointed out that “the sky will not fall in a member of Congress or the country, if they are not reelected.”


Next up was a discussion over the subject of why American institutions matter. Bill Kristol started off by discussing his recent trip to Europe, specifically to Prague in the Czech Republic, and had pointed out how they elected a new pro American president, and how, unlike at other past visits to Europe he was encouraged by many trends pro democracy trends he saw. Kristol also talked about the importance of reforming our institutions, and how institutions can help to mold character he also pointed out how the late great William F Buckley believed in guard rails and how he, Barry Goldwater and President Reagan tossed the John Birch Society to the curb back in the late 1960s early 1970s, which is of course an interesting contrast to President Trump and MAGA World that have embraced and empowered such silliness.


Mona Charen was the next one up to speak. She discussed the nature in which Americas institutions were under attack and does point out correctly that institutions sometimes behave badly and still do but she did discuss the positive aspects of institutions such as they can be character building and also they force people to work well together or face consequences when behaving badly. She pointed out how there needs to be accountability in order to make American institutions work better, the most key example that she gave was how the US Congress needs more accountability in order for it to start behaving better and for the members of it to live up to their oaths of office, she did point out though that just nonstop reflective attacks on institutions are what she called “social poison“ she also pointed out how institutions can decline and revive. As an example of she pointed out how the military in the United States had been in a state of decline in the 1970s, but how it started to revive quite a bit in the 1980s and 1990s she also points out how although some institutions such as the Heritage Foundation, Fox News, Claremont Institute, CPAC,etc. had caved into Trumpism. She pointed out that there were many that have refused to do so such as the American Enterprise Institute. She also pointed out how Alexis de Tocqueville said the great thing about America is Americans can create new institutions, overall, Miss Charen seemed to be fairly optimistic about our ability to reform our existing institutions, and also to create new ones, when warranted such as The Bulwark, The Dispatch, and Principles First joining together to promote their ideas, and to push back against extremism on the left and right.


James Waller, who was the last to speak on the subject of American institutions in their value, had stated that institutions are “the secret sauce of American exceptionalism“.


The next topic up for discussion was Americans, foreign policy institutions and Putin‘s war in Ukraine. Tom Nichols, started off by pointing out how now Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida had flip-flopped on Ukraine, and when he was in Congress was a start supporter of supporting America’s allies abroad. But has since turned against Ukraine.


Lieutenant General Mark Hertling pointed out why Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has gone so badly. He pointed out that Putin didn’t take into account sufficiently before launching his invasion. These included not considering just the size of Ukraine’s landmass the fact that it had nine major cities, and that Putin failed to do a troop to task analysis. 


A lot of issues that have been faced he said that have caused the Russians so much trouble fighting the Ukrainian’s, included the Russian army having a weak command structure, badly trained soldiers, and as he pointed out in warfare power equals resources times will. In warfare it’s not just a question of what resources you have, but how are they used. If they are not used effectively then it is ultimately counterproductive. 


The generals commentary on how resources have to be used effectively, and it is not just a question of do you have more and better resources than your opponent could also be applied to many other areas, especially the political sphere one area, which we will has promoted us here at this blog, to do a deep dive into is just how we as principled conservatives can use our resources, most effectively in order to push back against extremism.


The last member of the panel ambassador, Roger Noriega, pointed out that we as ordinary citizens can help support, the Ukrainian war many of whom are temporary in the United States directly, and also to make sure to contact our lawmakers, and to help them to understand that there is widespread support for continuing to help Ukraine. 


Stephen Richer the Recorder of Maricopa County in Arizona discussed how American elections help to uphold our democratic republic. Richer, who is the recorder of Maricopa county in Arizona and has received a lot of pushback for refusing to bend to President Trump and his allies during the 2020 presidential election. He also pointed out ideas on voter persuasion which consist of understanding what voters want, listening and engaging with them.


Governor Wes Moore of Maryland pointed out that the best way that office seekers can help to uphold democracy is that when they run for office is don’t just try to turn out their base only, but to campaign everywhere where they are running. The governor  pointed out during his campaign for governor in Maryland last year, he campaigned in his opponents hometown, while his opponent was away at Mar-a-Lago doing a fundraiser. And it did pay to campaign everywhere because even in areas where they weren’t many people who would support him they would take notice of his presence and several told him he was the first person running for governor to visit their town in 20 years. As to how to push back against election denialism, talk about how election deniers are not strong, powerful people. They are very weak because they have this entitlement mentality that they can only lose if they are cheated out out of a victory which is utterly at variance with our beliefs in free market competition, American exceptionalism, and letting the voters decide who wins.


Next up was Adrian Fontes the secretary of state of Arizona. Fontes said that you win elections by welcoming other voters in, you also have to make the people care about you as a person. If they care about you and what you stand for enough, they will ignore your party label. You have to reach out to people who disagree with you, being a person matters being assertive and aggressive when necessary to defending your values is important, but make sure to reach out to the voters and help to assuage their concerns. They may not agree with you, but if you present yourself well, and you engage with them directly, their concerns about you will be put will be put more at ease. And if they’re fairly comfortable with your person whether you defeat there candidate or not, it makes them less likely to believe that you’re trying to cheat them. 


After taking about an hour and a half or so for lunch, we then reconvened and our next discussion basically was about how to keep the peace after the incident of January 6, 2021 the riot on the capital. To assist in dealing with this question Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former Trump official and now a host on ABC’s The View interviewed Officers Michael Fanone and Harry Dunn, who are both police officers in Washington DC. The officers stated out that to break through the echo chamber of false information. Accountability is the way to do it. One of the reasons why there wasn’t really much of any in the way of violence after last years midterm was because so many of the January 6 rioters are serving time in prison in some cases several decades that definitely has had a deterrent effect against election violence. 


Next up was a live taping of The Bulwark Podcast, which was aired Monday March 6, 2023. The podcast was Charlie Sykes interviewing former US Ambassador to the UN, and former national security advisor John Bolton. Sykes asked good and hard questions of the ambassador and to Bolton‘s credit. He answered directly, sometimes not to the satisfactory of many of the audience, but he was willing to engage in a venue in which people would not agree with him across the board and we give him great credit for that. After the taping of the episode, we went back to get an autograph from the ambassador, and exchange a few pleasantries with him.


David Frum a good speech, writer, and political scientist, a veteran of both Bush administration’s, and a conservative critic of the presidency of Donald Trump, gave a brief but good speech, where he talked about how what we are doing with principles first is helping to make an impact. This year’s summit was larger than the last. Frum recounted about how William F Buckley in the early 70s moved to revive Conservatism and how in his opinion, he feels working within the two party system is the only way forward. Frum struck to us a more optimistic tone about the possibilities of working within the two party system to defend American traditions, as opposed to last years summit.


The discussion held after Frum’s speech. Was a panel about looking ahead to 2024, what their hopes were and what they were nervous about. Amanda Carpenter said what her hope was is that she hoped that Trump and Ron DeSantis would just destroy each other in the primaries, and that a somewhat sensible Republican candidate would get the presidential nomination. Sarah Longwell wants an alternative Republican candidate for president and also for Trump to lose badly she is of the opinion the only way that we are going to revive a healthy two party system is for the extremist sides of both political parties to suffer so many electoral defeats that they are largely powerless to affect anything on any significant level. We are in agreement with Longwell, and we continue to push back hard against extremism in both parties.


Nicholas Grossman said one thing he was grateful for is, is that Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, also of Georgia, managed to not only win their primaries with a fair amount of ease, but also went on to easily get reelected, and also the fact that many election deniers lost is very encouraging. Mr. Grossman pointed out though that as did the rest of the panel that it is not just enough for Democrats, especially to oppose the craziness on the Republican side they also have to give people a positive vision going forward not just a reason to vote against Republican extremism, but also a positive case for themselves And also what is needed on the Republican side, is we need more people of goodwill, who are willing to engage in the political process and not be afraid to lose at times. This gave us a flashback to last year‘s conference when Miles Taylor had said what we can do if we want more principled people in politics, is follow the law of supply and demand, if we can increase the supply enough of principled people in politics, we can lower the cost to them of entering, basically following the principle that if you increase the  supply of something, the cost will go down.


Overall we were pleased with this years summit. We are noticeably more optimistic about the future than last year. We hope next year to have more discussions of policy issues and how to organize to reform both parties, and to keep building a more cross partisan coalition of principled conservatives. We were sorely tempted to send some veggie trays to Trump PAC CPAC labeled “Crudite”, but decided against it. Maybe we can troll them more next year!