Unmasked by a Stranger

Imagine you're wearing a dark coat to an important social function. A total stranger walks up to you and says, "Excuse me, but there's something on the back of your coat. May I remove it for you?" You're a little suspicious, and ask, "What is it?" The stranger replies, "It's a large 'X' made out of two foot-long strips of masking tape." You're totally baffled and incredulous. (For the benefit of those who went to a government school [like me], "incredulous" means you don't believe the stranger; he does not yet have credibility in your mind. From the Latin, credo, "I believe.") The stranger can tell by your expressions that you did not put the 'X' on your coat, and someone is playing a joke on you, so the stranger begins to tear the first strip of tape off your coat. It makes a sound that terrifyingly resembles the tearing of fabric, and quickly you physically distance yourself from the stranger, fearing that he's tearing your coat. But when you turn around, he's holding a foot-long piece of tape in his hand, and suddenly you believe that there's one more strip of tape on your coat, and the stranger is sparing you from an embarrassing evening of walking around with a masking-tape 'X' on your back, which certainly would have destroyed your credibility in the eyes of everyone at this evening's function.

If you're prepared to vote for the incumbent Congressman, I want you to imagine that you're in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, in the company of America's Founding Fathers. I want to convince you that your willingness to vote for the incumbent is like having a big "X" on the back of your coat, and the extraordinarily intelligent and patriotic men who signed America's Declaration of Independence and Constitution would lose all respect for you, unless I remove that "X" from your back. America's Founding Fathers risked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to defeat a government that was only one-tenth as tyrannical as the federal government of 2006. If you have the opportunity to vote for a candidate who values liberty as much as America's Founders, but you're going to vote for the Republican incumbent, you would never have joined America's Founding Fathers in their battle to preserve "Liberty Under God." If you can vote for a politician who has consistently voted to expand the powers of an already unconstitutional, monstrously powerful federal government, you would not have resisted a comparatively libertarian king, George III, nor confronted the taxes of a comparatively frugal Parliament, nor joined in the struggle to "secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity."

In Southwest Missouri, there are more than 100,000 people with a big "X" on their backs. The task at hand is (a) reaching all these people, (b) establishing enough credibility to (c) explain that they have a big "X" on their back, and (d) remove the "X."

It's a formidable task, but in future posts I'll explain how it's possible.

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