Chapter 305

I knew some of them even before they introduced themselves.

Senator Malcolm Fordes, long time member of the Senate armed services committee. He was well liked by hawkish conservatives for his stance on the military defense and intelligence communities. He hailed from Mississippi.

Senator Albert Stoneham from Kansas had been reelected several times. Albert was on the Senate agriculture committee, hated the EPA and was vocal about it. He believed that many government agencies needed to be eliminated, and many others downsized.

He called them over-reaching, overbearing, abusers of authority and power hungry. In the latest round of Senate hearings to make the liberal loonies go ballistic, the senator demanded to know why the EPA needed a 200 man full blown SWAT team with helicopters, Hummers and MRAP's (mine resistant-ambush protected) vehicles to enforce environmental laws.

Someone desperately needed to end the EPA having a SWAT team: that was an insane decision by bureaucrats wanting bragging rights. Millions of dollars were being thrown away in equipment and training, for nothing. If they ever needed that kind of support there were plenty of state and local SWAT teams that would be more than willing to work with them.

Senator Colin Harrison from Indiana; he was another farm state conservative who had been against many of the liberal administration's policies. That included foreign policy which had abandoned many of our long time allies. He also wanted the US out of the UN, calling it a worse fiasco than the League of Nations. He was also a harsh critic of all the EPA power grabs.

Senator Hank Whitby from North Carolina was a firm believer of state's rights and a smaller federal government. He was a strong supporter of the bill of rights and railed against all the increasing surveillance powers given to federal agencies, the attack on Christianity by the government and was critical of allowing any immigration with the high unemployment rate. Hank was in the growing chorus of critics calling for either the repeal of Obamacare or a major overhaul of it.

Connie Hovater was a business executive and had held high level positions in major businesses. Connie was a strong constitutionalist. She wanted government downsized, the EPA, ATF, Department of Education, Department of Energy and Labor eliminated and the Agriculture, Health and Human Services reduced, the State Department budgets severely cut. She also wanted the Obamacare health care repealed to be replaced with a more patient friendly patient needs and less expensive version. Connie wanted all illegal's fast tracked for deportation and all legal immigration stopped for ten years, including the work permits for tech workers.

Finally there was Harmon Getties, a multiple major business owner. He was very outspoken and opinionated on just about everything. He was notorious for speaking his mind and then letting the chips fall where they may.

Harmon wanted to take the axe to government, not the hatchet. His push was to eliminate any government agency, department, or office that had a copy at the state level.

"It was insane to have repeated duplication of agencies at federal, state and local levels. A terrible waste of tax payers' funds" he said. He also wanted the defense department and defense suppliers held accountable for cost overruns, delivery delays and military equipment that did not meet design requirements and operational performance.

"It was unconscionable that planes and ships were years behind schedule, with massive cost overruns and outdated before they could get into the field, and many planes were so expensive that they would be cancelled way before intended numbers could be completed," he replied to a reporter's questions.

For two hours we listened to one story after another about the candidate being run off stage by aggressive protesters from every fringe group out there. Save the whales, save the planet, ban guns, legalize drugs, close the prisons, waive college loans, free lifetime college, open immigration and stop deportations.

The BLM group was the most aggressive by getting physical on stage. In some cases, they never allowing the candidate to speak and if he or she did, they used bullhorns, yelling their message while he was trying to speak

The tactics always seemed to be the same, just different players. They were well rehearsed like they had the same training. As the last one finished I was sure there were collusions between the groups. Only one group appeared at any one candidate whistle stop.

Another big concern was that at TV media promoted forums, few questions of a conservative nature were asked and usually by the most liberal host that could be found. This host also shut them down quickly if the answer didn't open a controversy for the liberal media to run with against them for the next week.

They were very angry at the party heads for always agreeing to the liberal arrangement. All of them suspected that the party was supporting a dark horse who would suddenly appear to save the party on Election Day.