Coffee with Kirby
News, Political, Guns ·Saturday May 7, 2011 @ 16:20 EDT (link)
I attended "Coffee with Kirby" (meetup), a PSCU event with Kirby Wilbur, the new chair of the Washington state Republican party, held at the Bothell library (1400-1530). It was quite well attended—the large ring of chairs had to be expanded several times to fit more people in—although there weren't many younger people present, unfortunately, although Kirby claimed that many of the staff at the state GOP HQ are young people which is positive.
Kirby had some good ideas to help turn former close races into Republican wins, and talked about a few candidates that last time around received little or no help from the party but still did very well; he reckoned with perhaps $5 or $10,000 from the state party those close races could have become victories. There was a bit of a discussion about the state and marriage and he seemed open to the idea that it's not the state's business. He wants to ensure that each county has a website and is involved with negotiations to set that up at a reasonable price through the national organization. He seems focused and to have some good ideas so we'll see where that goes in upcoming elections and events.
I didn't like his ranking of Reagan and Lincoln as the top two American presidents, but I accept that the brainwashing is deep and wide and won't hold it against him. I prefer this C4L list (which provides sound justification for their rankings), which has Lincoln as the worst (primarily because of the number of people killed in the war he started, the draft, destruction of the South, the income tax, …) and Reagan as 13th worst (due to Iran Contra, armed intervention everywhere, escalation of the Drug War, but points out that he did cut some taxes and regulation). Truly the president that governed best, interfered least, to borrow from Jefferson.
A woman there (I didn't get her name—Ann?) presented her idea of a Conservatives Serving America union as an idea to generate awareness by charitable giving with a conservative label on it. It was pointed out that the acronym was a bit unfortunate (CSA—Confederate States of America).
I saw Lori (from CLAMS) there but didn't get a chance to meet Ellin (if she was there). I brought my laptop; Bothell library has a decent wireless connection which was convenient.
I was approached by a nice couple afterward who thanked me for open carrying; I expect they too will be carrying at the next event, so I was happy to have been able to spread awareness of and encourage exercise of these rights. I told them about some good local ranges (WCA and SVRC) and such (and reassured them that neither was the one around here that is anti-camo and requires loading only one round at a time). We talked a little about Rothbard, since I mentioned I was finishing one of his books—turns out the guy had met him at a Mises course a while back—and about The Patriot's Guide to American History which I'm making my way through now and Zinn's The People's Guide to American History which we had both read and thought it well done.
I went over to WCA afterward to shoot my Springfield Armory XDM-9 and 1911 EMP… it was a good day.
