January - February 2009 Campaign Update

WHO IS BILLY JOE AND WHY IS HE A REPUBLICAN? Billy Joe, his wife and three children live in a double wide in Virginia, and last November he voted for the McCain/Palin ticket. Billy Joe does construction work that has not been easy to find for the last year or so. He has no medical insurance, and his children are covered under a combination state and federal medical program. His family would qualify for food stamps, but he is not willing to apply for them. He did not earn enough in 2008 to pay any income tax and will get a refund equal to a little more than was withheld from his checks for taxes. Just doesn’t sound like he should vote Republican, but he does. He told me he votes Republican because he loves his God, his family and his shotgun, in that order. I met Billy Joe in the parking lot at the Super Wal-Mart when he asked me where I got the “Palin for President 2012” bumper sticker that was on my Jeep. I told him the PAC I am chairman of made them up and handed him two, which he tried to pay me for. He had no idea what a PAC (Political Action Committee) was. We talked about his kids and he told me how he wanted them to grow up in a country where they wouldn’t be ashamed to talk about the Lord at school and could go hunting it they wanted to. He was afraid the public schools were going to teach his boys that being gay was better than being straight, and he smiled and assured me it wasn’t. Billy Joe is one of the faces of the Republican Party we never see on Capitol Hill; he is the part of the party that would stand in line overnight to get a glimpse of Gov. Sarah Palin. The day after I met Billy Joe, I attended a meeting with the new chairman of the House Republican Conference, Congressman Mike Pence. At the meeting he talked about how the Republican Party was moving to a stance of “protecting the taxpayer,” and how that was going to move the party back into the majority two years hence. As Congressman Pense went on and on about protecting the taxpayers, I thought about Billy Joe and realized that the good congressman had no idea who the real constituency of the Republican Party was. Most millionaires and billionaires, including Warren Buffet, voted for Barack Obama. It was guys like Billy Joe who elected Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, and they had done it out of principle, not out of greed. A lot of them did not even make enough money to pay income taxes. As Pence spoke, he didn’t realize he was telling us, “We can buy the votes of the taxpayers by telling them we will help them keep more of their money to buy consumer goods.” This just does not matter to Billy Joe and millions like him who have voted Republican since Ronald Reagan ran in 1980. It was Reagan who convinced them that the Democrat Party had deserted him and them, and adopted the gay Hollywood lifestyle that promoted killing babies in the womb and banning God in the classroom. I don’t know exactly how many Billy Joe’s there are who voted Republican, but after talking to him I drove through a trailer park and discovered a lot more American flags flying there than in my own neighborhood, and a lot of McCain/Palin bumper stickers still on the tailgates of pickup trucks. I can’t prove this, but my guess is that as many as a full quarter of those who vote GOP do not make enough money to actually pay income taxes. I base this on the fact that 41% of those who file income tax returns have a “zero tax liability.” That means they got back 100% or more of any tax withheld from their paychecks. Congressman Mike Pence is a good man and a smart man, but he has read too much drivel in Heritage Foundation White Papers. Pence and a few other key Republican figures should stand in front of a Wal-Mart to meet some Republicans who actually work for a living, the kind that care more about their families and God than about buying alligator skin covered trash cans at Rodeo Drive boutique shops. With the knowledge of who their constituency actually is, just maybe they could start to understand how to win elections again. WE MUST REPLENISH OUR FUNDS There are going to be run-offs and special elections almost immediately. Just about all of our funds have been exhausted during the hard fought 2008 election cycle. We must prepare now for the upcoming fight to put more social conservatives in the House and Senate. Please send a check or give an online gift at www.gingpac.org . William J. Murray, Chairman Government Is Not God - PAC