TLR: The Speech Writing Project, Part 2

The next Texan in the White House Needs Great Speeches

When I mentioned the importance of good speech writing in our next effort to put at Texan in the White House, I mentioned that our universities could support this effort by promoting promoting presidential rhetoric and oratory.

Besides normal scholarly work, we could look at the example of Jeffrey Hart at Dartmouth University. Besides teaching English Literature, he worked as a speech writer on Ronald Reagan's 1968 run for the Republican nomination. He worked as a White House speech writer for Nixon. Then he returned to Dartmouth.

Jeffrey Hart worked as a book reviewer for Buckley's National Review. Hart helped start the Dartmouth Review.

A great leader needs great speeches to showcase great ideas and affirm great values. We need to develop great speech writers in Texas to help make Texas Ascendant!

Robert Canright

Related posts
TLR and the Speech Writing Project, December 3, 2008

The Heartland Union

We Need Help

If Texas is going to be the engine that pulls America back on track, we cannot do it alone. When I first proposed the Democracy Project I suggested we ally ourselves with the states in the American heartland. We need a good name for this alliance and I now propose the Heartland Union for the name.

If the middle-class is going to survive, then middle-America must organize for self preservation. At some point we will need to win the Presidency. We need to think outside the box and put aside the conventional concept of political parties because neither of the two parties at the national level represents the welfare of the middle-class. I cannot predict whether there will be a new third party or a revolt within an existing party, but we need a change.

Whatever the vehicle to power, we need to borrow some of the thinking the parties use for Presidential elections. It so happens that most of the American heartland corresponds to the red states in an electoral map, as you might find at PoliticalMaps.org.

Possible list of States in the Heartland Union

What will the Heartland Union look like? It has to look like a winner, which means 270 electoral votes!

Let's construct a map of the Heartland Union based on electoral votes. The following states have voted in similar fashion in Presidential elections. Below are the state initials and the number of electoral college votes.
ID 4
UT 5
AZ 10
MT 3
WY 3
ND 3
SD 3
NE 5
KS 6
OK 7
TX 34
MO 11
AR 6
LA 9
IN 11
KY 8
TN 11
MS 6
AL 9
WV 5
VA 13
NC 15
SC 8
GA 15
AK 3
The subtotal is 213 in 25 states, but we need 270 electoral votes so we are 57 short.

FL 27
OH 21
Which add up to 48, need 9 more.

Colorado has 9:
CO 9
At this point we have 28 of 50 states.
If we do not get Colorado, then we need 2 of these 3:
NM 5
NV 5
NH 4
If we got all of these states, they add up to 31 states.

I believe if we controlled 34 state legislatures we could force a new Constitutional Convention. This would be leverage. We would need 3 more states to join the Heartland Union, even if they are not contiguous with the rest of the states in this political alliance.

Small states might be easier to work with, so we need to develop good relations with the following small states, all of which have 3 or 4 electoral votes, to develop enough influence to threaten holding a constitutional convention:
DE, VT, RI, HI and ME

Smaller Set of States in the Heartland Union

A dozen contiguous states would be a good core for the Heartland Union:  Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Wyoming, and Montana.

Strategies

My thought has been to form a Heartland Union based on shared values. It's also possible to create alliances with states having different values if there are mutual interests. I'll explore this approach later.

Key Concepts

We must recognize that Ohio, Florida, and Colorado are import to include in the Heartland Union, but they flip-flop between red and blue. New Mexico goes blue more often than you might expect. It may be that these states recognize the failings of the Republican Party at the national level and reject that leadership. Texas needs to be the alternative to the RNC (Republican National Committee). Texas needs to represent the interests of middle-America because no one else does.

Robert Canright

See also

The Heartland Union, Part 2  January 3, 2010
The Democracy Project, January 31, 2009