I understand Jeff’s frustration with having his ideas used without acknowledgement of them.

A few weeks ago I wrote an article critical of Jeff Bolton’s website blowoutcongress.com. The article appeared on a number of sites. I received quite a few comments. Not all were very well thought out, but they were all civil. Since I’m pretty sure those comments all came from Jeff’s fans I was favorably impressed with my little sample and believe it is a direct reflection of the way Jeff conducts himself on his show. He is a gentleman. I feel comfortable in stretching that a little farther to say that in my opinion, he is having a positive impact on polite debate in Dallas.

The first comment I received was from Cliff Sosamon. I am of the opinion that Cliff is an integral part of blowoutcongress.com. He didn’t say that in his repsonse to my post, but I think I recall Jeff mentioning a “Cliff” in relation to blowoutcongress. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’ve got a feeling… I once wrote to blowoutcongress.com with some suggestions regarding the site and the unsigned response (a tiny bit snotty) I got was quite similar in tone to the response Cliff sent to my article. It’s not important, its just a feeling. I’m always a little bothered when people are secretive.

I responded to all the comments. I was polite and took the effort to explain myself in the hope that those who wrote would clearly understand my position.

Lo and behold. For the last couple weeks Jeff has been talking about a new, related site – rebuildcongress.com. I recall Jeff saying something about the site which made me think it was more along the lines of keeping the good congresspeople and getting rid of the poor performers if the good ones would stipulate that they would support things like term limits. That’s much more in line with something I could support.

There’s this tiny, niggling thing though. The timing of my article, Cliff’s rebuttal and the announcement of rebuildcongress.com leads me to suspect that perhaps – just maybe – my article caused some rethinking, re-evaluation and re-focusing. If that’s true it would have been nice to get an acknowledgement of the value of considered criticism. Just a little “thank you” maybe…

I understand and agree with Jeff’s frustration with the way things are in our government.

However, I disagree that blowoutcongress.com is the answer.  I disagree because it is essentially the strategy which President Obama used to get elected and subsequently get us onto the superhighway to disaster.  It plays on the emotions of people who are dissatisfied with government by evoking the “anything is better than this” attitude.  Since the election of Barack Obama, Americans (including many Obama voters) have come to realize that “anything” is not necessarily better than “this.”  Certainly change was/is needed, but not just change for the sake of change.  Change for the better was and is still needed.

This strategy preys on the emotions of those who don’t really know what they want – they just want “different.”  That’s child-like and I think many people are now realizing that they should have looked more carefully before they leapt on the Obama bandwagon.  Jeff Bolton however is promoting the very same strategy and in so doing, preying on the same emotions as the people who voted the wrong way in the last election.  My own emotions want to agree – anyone would be better than Obama.  But following my emotions in this case would be stupid.  What would be more intelligent is to help to find someone truly better, more in line with the real desires of most Americans, to run for President in 2012.  The same things applies to my congresspeople.  Rather than just fire them and replace them with anyone who wants to run, I should communicate my wishes to them and to anyone who will listen to me in order to get the very best person to represent me.

Frankly, I’m pretty happy with my congressman.  I don’t want to replace him just to start anew.  That would be the Obama plan.  I didn’t like the idea of electing someone with absolutely no experience other than rabble-rousing.  Someone with dubious ties to dubious characters.  Someone whose mantra was hope and change.  Jeff’s plan demands change and hopes for the best.  That’s what got us Obama.

There are a couple other troubling things going on too.  Jeff has mentioned once or twice that he has been approached to run for congress.  And KLIF is heavily promoting an adjunct to Jeff’s morning show where he will have a panel of blacks on his show which he will moderate.  The premise is “what is it like to be black in Dallas.”  Separately, blowoutcongress.com, the black panel and the possible run for congress are not bothersome – together though they begin to look a bit like a self-serving campaign for political office.

If, in fact, the convergence of these initiatives is actually nothing more than the beginning of a run for political office, it’s bothersome in it’s sneakiness.

In case you’re wondering why I don’t just express my opinions directly to Jeff Bolton?  I have attempted to do so several times without success.  I’m not interested in being on hold for 20 minutes only to find he is “up against a commercial break” whereupon my call is ended.  And I have tried emailing several times and gotten nothing but an auto-generated reply for my trouble.