CLICK HERE to learn more about his campaign.

First let me say how much I love your show. It is more about facts and less about rhetoric, and I enjoy your banter with your team. I have switched to your show for my AM drive, from that other morning talk show, and I haven’t looked back. I only wish I had more time to devote to your program, but alas, we must make a living. I am just thankful I am not among the massive levels of the un-employed.

A little background about myself, so that you know where I am coming from. I am in my early 60’s, and a Viet Nam veteran (‘70-’71) and a conservative most of my life. I was raised in the mid-west, my parents a product of the depression, so life long democrats. My father was a factory worker (UAW) and while we never went hungry, with my two siblings my family was barely above the poverty level.

Weather it was my upbringing, the influence of my surroundings and environment or a combination of many things, I have a strong and deep love of my country. So when it was my time, I was happy to serve my country and do my small part to keep the forces of tyranny from crushing the people of South Viet Nam. I look back on my time “in-country” as we called it as one of the most valuable life experiences I have ever had.

To this day it is very very difficult for me to visit the Viet Nam War Memorial. An overwhelming sense of loss comes over me as I see the names and the mementos that people have left for my brothers. The sons, the daughters, the husbands, the brothers who gave that ultimate sacrifice so the people of another nation could live in freedom. Even as I write these words, my eyes fill and I am sad beyond words.

But I also and filled with a certain level of anger at that senseless loss. The combination of political constraints and the wailings of a misguided vocal minority did not allow our brave men and women to do their job effectively. And for that I have a great sadness in my heart.

But a fallen brother from another time put down in his writings home to his wife the feelings and dilemma that all those who serve feel at one time or another. I have attached below one of many links to a small segment from Ken Burn’s most excellent documentary of the Civil War. Please take a moment to watch/listen to this:

This is what I would offer as my small tribute to our fallen, so that those who have not served might take notice and support our service members and veterans in every way, and take a minuet as I do to shake their hand, look them in the eye and thank them for their service. I only wish someone had done that for me as I returned from my service.

May God bless the United Stated of America.

Here is the full letter from Major Sullivan Ballou, July 14, 1861:

My very dear Sarah:

The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days—perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write you again, I feel impelled to write lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more.

Our movement may be one of a few days duration and full of pleasure—and it may be one of severe conflict and death to me. Not my will, but thine O God, be done. If it is necessary that I should fall on the battlefield for my country, I am ready. I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in, the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American Civilization now leans upon the triumph of the Government, and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing—perfectly willing—to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this Government, and to pay that debt.

But, my dear wife, when I know that with my own joys I lay down nearly all of yours, and replace them in this life with cares and sorrows—when, after having eaten for long years the bitter fruit of orphanage myself, I must offer it as their only sustenance to my dear little children—is it weak or dishonorable, while the banner of my purpose floats calmly and proudly in the breeze, that my unbounded love for you, my darling wife and children, should struggle in fierce, though useless, contest with my love of country.

Sarah, my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me to you with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break; and yet my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me irresistibly on with all these chains to the battlefield.

The memories of the blissful moments I have spent with you come creeping over me, and I feel most gratified to God and to you that I have enjoyed them so long. And hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when God willing, we might still have lived and loved together and seen our sons grow up to honorable manhood around us. I have, I know, but few and small claims upon Divine Providence, but something whispers to me—perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar—that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, and when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield, it will whisper your name.

Forgive my many faults, and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless and foolish I have often been! How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness, and struggle with all the misfortune of this world, to shield you and my children from harm. But I cannot. I must watch you from the spirit land and hover near you, while you buffet the storms with your precious little freight, and wait with sad patience till we meet to part no more.

But, O Sarah! If the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the brightest day and in the darkest night—amidst your happiest scenes and gloomiest hours—always, always; and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath; or the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by.

Sarah, do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for me, for we shall meet again.

As for my little boys, they will grow as I have done, and never know a father’s love and care. Little Willie is too young to remember me long, and my blue-eyed Edgar will keep my frolics with him among the dimmest memories of his childhood. Sarah, I have unlimited confidence in your maternal care and your development of their characters. Tell my two mothers his and hers I call God’s blessing upon them. O Sarah, I wait for you there! Come to me, and lead thither my children.

Sullivan

Sullivan was killed a week later in battle.

Senator Carl Levin called the GOPs budget cuts, “far too extreme”

Senator Barbara Boxer called on Speaker Boehner to “abandon the extreme right wing.”

You get the idea.

Liberals try to paint us as extremists, as if that’s a bad thing! But the word extreme only described the degree of the departure from the norm. It doesn’t answer the question, “An extremists…for what?”

Yes, you can have extreme amounts of hatred, jealousy, and vice. But you can also have extreme amounts of courage, strength, and virtue.

In our case, we are extremists for LIBERTY! And that’s a good thing!

Here’s Martin Luther King, Jr, in his brilliant work of art “A Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, 1963 (That’s his mugshot in the picture below):

But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”

Was not Amos an extremist for justice: “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.” Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” Was not Martin Luther an extremist: “Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God.” And John Bunyan: “I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience.” And Abraham Lincoln: “This nation cannot survive half slave and half free.” And Thomas Jefferson: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal . . .

So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary’s hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime–the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

Barry Goldwater, Republican presidential nominee acceptance speech, 1964:

I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.

And why is it, when the big spending liberals champion a status quo where in March we spent 8 times as much as we took in – an amount unprecedented in American history – why is THAT not extreme? Why are WE, the people who want to confront “the most predictable economic crisis in history” and solve it, why are WE the extremists?

Senator Rand Paul spoke in Iowa on March 21:

It’s not enough just to be a Republican. It’s not enough just for the Republican parties to exist. Political parties are empty vessels unless we imbue them with values. We have to stand for something, and we have to mean it.

So let’s stand up for freedom and liberty; not moderate amounts of each, but EXTREME amounts of both!

Benjamin Rush, “Address to the People of the United States”, 1787,

There is nothing more common than to confound the terms of the American revolution with those of the late American war. The American war is over: but this is far from being the case with the American revolution. On the contrary, nothing but the first act of the great drama is closed…

I am extremely sorry to find a passion for retirement so universal among the patriots and heroes of the war. They resemble skilful mariners, who, after exerting themselves to preserve a ship from sinking in a storm, in the middle of the ocean, drop asleep as soon as the waves subside, and leave the care of their lives and property, during the remainder of the voyage, to sailors, without knowledge or experience. Every man in a republic is public property. His time and talents—his youth—his manhood—his old age—nay more, life, all, belong to his country.

Patriots of 1774, 1775, 1776—heroes of 1778, 1779, 1780! come forward! your country demands your services!—Philosophers and friends to mankind, come forward! your country demands your studies and speculations! Lovers of peace and order, who declined taking part in the late war, come forward! your country forgives your timidity, and demands your influence and advice! Hear her proclaiming, in sighs and groans, in her governments, in her finances, in her trade, in her manufactures, in her morals, and in her manners, “the revolution is not over!”

BEnjamin Rush, “An Address to the Inhabitants of the British Settlements in America upon Slave-Keeping”, 1773,

Ye men of Sense and Virtue—Ye Advocates for American Liberty, rouse up and espouse the cause of Humanity and general Liberty. Bear a testimony against a vice which degrades human nature, and dissolves that universal tie of benevolence which should connect all the children of men together in one great Family.—The plant of liberty is of so tender a Nature, that it cannot thrive long in the nieghbourhood of slavery. Remember the eyes of all Europe are fixed upon you, to preserve an asylum for freedom in this country, after the last pillars of it are fallen in every other quarter of the Globe.

Please read the entire address here. It’s brilliant. Tyranny is Tyranny. Freedom is Freedom.

About God’s hand in our founding and existance, here is Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson’s proposal for the first seal of America (page 3):

“Pharaoh sitting in an open Chariot, a Crown on his head and a Sword in his hand, passing through the divided Waters of the Red Sea in Pursuit of the Israelites: Rays from a Pillar of Fire in the Cloud, expressive of the divine Presence and Command, beaming on Moses who stands on the shore and extending his hand over the Sea causes it to overwhelm Pharaoh”

Notice the motto: “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God”

First, the median income in San Diego county is $22,000. If that’s you, then you’re among the richest 10.72% in the world. If you’re a teacher in California with an income of $59,000, then you’re among the richest .98% of the planet. You’re richer than 99.02% of the world!

You can click here to punch in your income. And here’s some great perspective from the Heritage Foundation on how good the “poor” have it in America.

The brilliant Mark Perry does a great analysis of HOW FAR our wages will go today with this example:

In 1979, the 17-cubic foot Kenmore refrigerator…from a Sears catalog cost $469.95 (on sale at the “lowest price in 1979″), and the average hourly wage then was $6.34, meaning that it would take 74.1 hours of work at the average hourly wage to earn enough income to purchase the refrigerator.

A 17.5 cubic-foot Whirlpool refrigerator…is currently listed on the Sears website for sale at $524.99. At the current average hourly wage of $18.67, it would take the average American today only 28.1 hours of work to buy the refrigerator compared to 74.1 hours in 1979.

Here’s another example from Mark Perry:

In 1949, the minimum wage was $0.40 per hour, and a full-time summer job (40 hours per week for 12 weeks) would have generated $192 in total summer earnings (ignoring taxes). Using a Sears catalog for retail prices, $192 would have only purchased the following 4 items in 1949:

Now contrast that with 2009. At the current minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, a full-time summer job will generate about $3,500 this year, which would be enough to purchase the following list of 28 items (click to enlarge):

But for an even better example, let’s look at how much food costs as a percentage of our disposal income. The average American spends 5.7% on food. The average Mexican spends 24.2% on food. That’s the same that we spent on food…in 1950.

Here is the data for the above graph.

Here is the data for the above graph.

Our wages have gone up and our wages go further than ever. Why? In short, Capitalism.

Please make the blog of Mark Perry “Carpe Diem” a part of your daily reading. The insight he brings to the world everyday is invaluable. And while you’re at it, check out the blog of Don Boudreaux everyday, too. We talked with Professor Boudreaux a few weeks ago.

Every post is honorable in which a man can serve his country.

George Washington, General Orders, July 2, 1776:

The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them. The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die.

George Washington, First Inaugural Address, April 30, 1789:

The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people

And about the union discussion, THIS IS THE article to read. It was written by Nathaniel Branden in 1963. This is one of the essays in the #1 book on The Mike Slater Show MUST READ list which can be found here.

But ya, please read this essay, it’s a 5 minute read, you’ll love it.

He hated it like we can never know. He was a slave to a master. He was property to another man.

When he escaped tyranny he toured the nation and condemned the Constitution for “supporting and perpetuating this monstrous system of injustice and blood.”

But Slater, why do you love Frederick Douglass because he HATED America?

Because he went on a quest for knowledge. One day he decided to sit down and “re-think the whole subject, and to study, with some care, not only the just and proper rules of legal interpretation, but the origin, design, nature, rights, powers, and duties of civil government.” And from that study came a “radical change in my opinions.”

On July 5th, 1852 he gave a speech entitled “What to a slave is the 4th of July?” Speaking of our founders:

The signer of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men too…. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes… Your fathers, the fathers of this republic, did, most deliberately, under the inspiration of a glorious patriotism, and with a sublime faith in the great principles of justice and freedom, lay deep the corner-stone of the national superstructure, which has risen and still rises in grandeur around you…. Mark them!

They loved their country better than their own private interests; and, though this is not the highest form of human excellence, all will concede that it is a rare virtue, and that when it is exhibited, it ought to command respect. He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country, is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. Your fathers staked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, on the cause of their country. In their admiration of liberty, they lost sight of all other interests.

It’s an amazing speech. Please take a few minutes to read the whole thing here.

And I misspoke this morning. The following poem is from a different speech than the one he gave on the 4th of July. This is from May 11, 1847. I hold this close as the guiding principle of the Tea Party:

Weapons of war we have cast from the battle:

TRUTH is our armor—our watchword is LOVE;

Hushed be the sword, and the musketry’s rattle,

All our equipments are drawn from above.

_

In other news, we kicked off the show talking about the differences between a democracy and a republic, and how it’s NOT just a matter of semantics. Understanding the difference between the two is vital in understanding what is unique and exceptional about America.

Here are some of the sources we used today:

Check out Federalist Paper #10 for a longer discussion on this. Here is James Madison.

A pure democracy … can admit no cure for the mischiefs of faction.  A common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority, and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party…  Hence it is that democracies have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.

If the guy who wrote the Constitution was against a democracy, he probably didn’t make one when he wrote the Constitution.

John Adams (Read the entire letter here, Page 484)

Remember, democracy never lasts long.  It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself.  There was never a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.

Ayn Rand, “How To Read (and Not to Write)” The Ayn Rand Letter:

“Democratic” in its original meaning [refers to] unlimited majority rule . . . a social system in which one’s work, one’s property, one’s mind, and one’s life are at the mercy of any gang that may muster the vote of a majority at any moment for any purpose.

Leonard Peikoff, The Philosophy of Objectivism:

The American system is not a democracy. It is a constitutional republic. A democracy, if you attach meaning to terms, is a system of unlimited majority rule; the classic example is ancient Athens. And the symbol of it is the fate of Socrates, who was put to death legally, because the majority didn’t like what he was saying, although he had initiated no force and had violated no one’s rights.

Democracy, in short, is a form of collectivism, which denies individual rights: the majority can do whatever it wants with no restrictions. In principle, the democratic government is all-powerful. Democracy is a totalitarian manifestation; it is not a form of freedom . . . .

The American system is a constitutionally limited republic, restricted to the protection of individual rights. In such a system, majority rule is applicable only to lesser details, such as the selection of certain personnel. But the majority has no say over the basic principles governing the government. It has no power to ask for or gain the infringement of individual rights.

Thomas Sowell’s Basic Economics, A Common Sense Guide to the Economy has been added to the required reading list.

1) Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

2) The 5,000 Year Leap

3) Atlas Shrugged

4) Henry Hazlitt’s Economics In One Lesson

5) Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell

Here are some of the quotes used on this morning’s Mike Slater: Young Conservative on Patriot. It was Lincoln’s 202nd birthday yesterday, so happy birthday, Abe!

Abraham Lincoln at Independence Hall, February 22, 1861,

I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence. I have often pondered over the dangers which were incurred by the men who assembled here and adopted that Declaration of Independence. I have pondered over the toils that were endured by the officers and soldiers of the army, who achieved that Independence. I have often inquired of myself, what great principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long together. It was not the mere matter of the separation of the colonies from the mother land; but something in that Declaration giving liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but hope to the world for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in that Declaration of Independence.

Abraham Lincoln, 1861:

The assertion of that principle, at that time, was the word, “fitly spoken” which has proved an “apple of gold” to us. The Union, and the Constitution, are the picture of silver, subsequently framed around it. The picture was made, not to conceal, or destroy the apple; but to adorn, and preserve it. The picture was made for the apple not the apple for the picture

Proverbs 25:11:

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.

Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816, on Debt (page 123):

To preserve [the] independence [of the people,] we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude.If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses, and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes, have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account, but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers.

CLICK HERE to see the Fox & Friends appearance where I used the above quote that ticked off Media Matters.

I’m going to get back to using this site more often now. Sorry for being MIA, it’s taken me a while to get my feet on the ground here in San Diego.

And as soon as I get the pictures of the American flag waving below the extended fire truck ladder from Chris in Long Island I’ll post them! Have a great sunday!

We are now about to finish the second week of The Mike Slater Show in San Diego on 760 KFMB. It’s been a wonderful experience so far, everyone has been so welcoming (and for our Tennessee listeners, you’ll be surprised at how conservative San Diegans are!) This is such an amazing city. I feel so blessed to be here.

I want to thank everyone in San Diego for giving this new guy a chance and everyone in Tennessee for your continued support. It really means a lot to me.

For a few weeks we’re going to be spending more time working on www.760KFMB.com, but eventually these two sites will both be up to speed for you.

We have a lot of terrain left in this journey to understand America. In fact, the best part is, it never ends. So let’s keep it up! See you in the morning!

ps, We have a VERY EXCITING new…opportunity…coming up really soon that I can’t WAIT to tell you about. Stay tuned…