So I heard on the Neal Boortz show yesterday that there was a question on the Republican primary ballot in three Georgia counties, including where I live, about support for the FairTax. I've been a major supporter of the FairTax for quite a while. I had not been planning on voting in the primary, but as soon as I heard about it I made plans to drop by my polling place (which just happens to be my previous church) and add my vote to support the FairTax.

The results are very encouraging. In Fayette County, the FairTax was approved by 85.33% of the Republican primary voters. In Cobb County, the FairTax was approved by 85.15% of the Republican primary voters. And in Gwinnett County, the FairTax was approved by 86.89% of the Republican primary voters. (I was one of the 31,068 voters who signaled their support for the FairTax in Gwinnett County.) Between these three counties in the Metro Atlanta area, 74,494 Republican voters showed up at the primary polls and voiced their support for the FairTax.

Keep in mind, these were only the responses of the Republican primary voters in three Metro Atlanta counties. I had expected strong support in Gwinnett County, which is John Linder's home district. (John Linder is the author of The FairTax Act and the co-author, with Neal Boortz, of The FairTax Book). But I did not expect it to be nearly 87% in Gwinnett, and I certainly did not expect it to be as high in other counties.

To me, this signals a couple of things:

People are ready to ditch the IRS. Certainly, some of these voters don't know anything, or know very little, about the FairTax. But they read "abolishing the Federal Income Tax and replacing with _____" and they support it. To some people, it doesn't matter what replaces the Income Tax and the IRS: anything would be an improvement.

The Repbulican base is ready to support the FairTax. Notwithstanding my comment above, most of the Republican primary voters will know enough about the FairTax to voice their support without just responding negatively to the IRS. The Republican base wants the FairTax. These are the people who choose who will run as a Republican in the general election. Republican candidates will have to start appealing to FairTax supporters in order to win nominations.

Given those two things, I'm certainly hoping that the FairTax will be a much bigger campaign issue this year than it was even two years ago. Between FairTax.Org and The FairTax Book (including the paperback edition), there are plenty of sources where people can learn about this "FairTax" thing they're hearing about. I get a lot of comments whenever I wear my FairTax shirt. This movement is growing, folks. If you're not on board yet, read the book. Read the websites. You can even read the bill itself, it's a relatively easy bill to read. But the more you learn about it, the more you'll like it. And the more you'll spread the word. This tax revolution will be the largest restructuring of our government since it's inception. It will take a huge amount of power away from politicians and place it back into the hands of the voters.

Labels: politics

-- posted by Derek at 7/19/2006 12:41:00 PM  

1 comments

I posted a while back about using Bloglines. I'd just like to take this opportunity to remind you all about it again. If you find yourself manually checking this and other blogs, by going to the site to see if there are new posts, then you need to use a news reader. A news reader will keep track of what blogs you read, notify you of new blog posts, and should keep track of what you've read, all in one place. So you won't have to visit ten or twenty or thirty blogs every day to keep up with all of your favorites. You can also find news feeds for comics, weather, and lots of other stuff to track all in one place.

Bloglines is my favorite, but there are several other web-based news readers. If you look at my XML news feed, you'll see FeedBurner's list of popular online news readers that you can check out. If you've been checking this blog manually, you owe it to yourself to get set up with something like Bloglines.

Labels: tech

An interesting post from Dan Kimball about the end of Axis, the alternative worship gathering at Willow Creek Community Church (where the famous Rick Warren is the pastor). Kimball talked a good bit about Axis in one of his books, and has some interesting comments about it, that sort of reflect on some things I've been thinking about lately (emphases mine):

I am always mixed up when churches try to be "intergenerational" - but rely on the worship gathering to do that. It seems odd as all you are doing is sitting in a chair and watching something and singing together. I don't see intergenerational relationships occurring that way. Relationships occur outside the time you sit in a chair and watch what happens on the stage and sing. And then the never ending not pleasing anyone if you try to get all ages together "stylistically" for worship blah blah blah so it causes frustration any way you may look at it.

While that last sentence was not why I posted his comment, does that last sentence sound familiar?

The key here, though, is relationships. Do what degree is a church relying upon their worship service to build relationships? When it comes to visitors, you're left completely in the cold. We've visited four different churches in the past couple of months, and at a church service it's always the same thing: you might manage to say hello to a couple of folks on the way in or out, but you're not anywhere close to building a relationship. It's a problem with the model.

Kimball suggests that we shouldn't rely on the worship service to build intergenerational relationships. My question is, if the primary gathering time isn't serving the basic function of providing space for people to minister to each other, then what is the point? Why are we trying to patch the worship service with additional times for relationship building, instead of simply fixing the problem in the first place?

Labels: church

OK, so if you know me at all, you know how cool I think this is.

Teaser trailer was just released. Click here to see it. I now know where I'll be on July 4th, 2007.

Labels: movies