Dear Tennessee Star,
We all witnessed an historic change in American politics with the election of Donald Trump as President in November of 2016. A man who never held a political office of any kind defeated all the primary candidates of the Republican A-Team. A group so strong that the late Charles Krauthammer stated there was never a better group of candidates assembled in any prior election. The Republican Party was certainly confident that one of their establishment candidates would rise to the top with ease. Their first but not last choice of course was Jeb Bush. They backed Jeb with all the considerable money and connections they possessed. In any prior election cycle it would have been all over but the music for the remainder of the Republican candidates. What we all learned however is that 2016 was no normal election cycle. The movers and shakers of the political world had somehow lost both their bark and their bite. Even the media elites could not resurrect the campaign of “low energy Jeb,” as one of the candidates called him.
Of course today you know I refer to Donald Trump who won the primary and went on to win the general election for President. This event I have described in the past as “Devine Intervention” for conservative Americans. Yet while it was clear to me that Mr. Trump had the ability to alter a failed and corrupt political system and restore much needed American cultural values, he remained a very polarizing candidate for office. Many in conservative ranks declared themselves “Never Trumpers” in an effort to force voters toward other candidates. Indeed, candidate Trump could often be his own worst enemy giving a biased media ample opportunities to showcase his non-politically correct campaign. Needless to say, he ruffled many feathers of the party elites and media alike.
One group whose feathers he did not ruffle to a great degree however was conservative Mom and Pop Americans. Maybe I should say the “great unwashed” or perhaps just the forgotten ones. The primary reason for that in my opinion was because hardworking, law-abiding folks could tell that Donald Trump was actually saying what he felt. They also realized he was actually being truthful to them and would fight for them as no prior politician had ever fought for them. Mr. Trump was going to balance the scales once again between government and “we the people”. He might be a rookie but he was going to be our rookie and not a party hack giving us more of the usual campaign rhetoric. How in the world did we wind up with over a 20 trillion dollar deficit if both political parties didn’t go along with it from the beginning? We the masses finally got tired of being treated as ignorant fools who were only useful for campaign donations and occasional votes.
So let’s fast forward to 2018. Here we are in a midterm election cycle of monumental proportions. This may be the biggest midterm of our lifetime. At the center of it all is the race for a new Governor of Tennessee. We have four Republican candidates that are trying to separate themselves from the other three and win the Republican primary. As a voter in Tennessee you have to decide soon who you are going to cast a ballot for. We are being exposed daily with television ads which tend to make things as clear as mud so to offer some clarity here is the way I see the Governor’s race.
I wholeheartedly support Bill Lee as our next Governor. I have met Bill a number of times and I see in Bill the same qualities that drew me toward Donald Trump in 2016. Please allow me to elaborate these qualities. He is a very successful businessman in the private sector with over 1000 employees working at Lee Company. He actually has to create a budget and stick to it and he has to get enough money in the door each week so he can meet payroll and not run endless deficits at the local bank. He is a seventh generation Tennessean who certainly has our values and he knows how important the Constitution of our country is to maintaining our treasured God-given freedom and values. Bill knows the Founding Fathers were smarter than us and that the Constitution is not to be toyed with. The Bill of Rights means what it says. There can be no doubt that Bill will protect the life of the pre-born children. His strong religious convictions would never allow him to do otherwise. He is not going to allow Nashville or any other Tennessee city for that matter to become a Sanctuary City for immigrants. Bill is not a politician, he owes nothing to a political party or a DC swamp, and he has never voted to approve an unbalanced budget or a budget that funds abysmal operations like Planned Parenthood. Don’t worry about your gun rights with Bill Lee as Governor. He supports Constitutional Carry. Bill doesn’t know what campaign rhetoric is, he just speaks the truth as he sees it. He is not going to tell us something and then when in office do exactly the opposite. We all know what that feels like don’t we. In fact Bill has written up some of his goals for all to see and read. He calls it “Ten for TN”. Go check it out. Bill’s leisure time finds him on the family farm and he has a strong passion for rural America as well as the Agricultural sector in general.
So in closing, this election of 2018 is not going to resemble 2010 or 2012 or 2014. The people of Tennessee have woken up to all the political games being perpetrated upon us as both citizens and voters. It’s payback time with each new election cycle from now on. 2016 was a mighty good start and a trend worth keeping. Many who have written to the Tennessee Star or other sites asking you to support Diane Black were also members of the “Never Trump” conservatives. I know many of them personally and I tried to convince them to support Donald Trump. I also tried to convince them to support Bill Lee as the attributes are very much the same with both men. I call Bill Lee the Tennessee version of Donald Trump without all the tweets. I pray that you will support him and allow Tennessee to lead the nation in the restoration of American principles and values and a growing state economy for all counties not just a handful of the big ones. Bill Lee may be a rookie but he’s our rookie.
Sincerely,
Kevin D.
Knoxville, TN
