They Think You're Stupid

by Herman Cain

  A New Voice is the voice of those voters who are tired of politics and politicians as usual. It is a voice of common sense and urgency. It is the voice of aggressive solutions to solve our nations' most pressing economic issues and to liberate working people from what has become economic slavery.

  A New Voice is not a political party; it's a purpose. That purpose is to inform, educate, and inspire motivated voters to leverage their collective voices to bring about more aggressive congressional action on the big issues.

  A New Voice believes that our government can work the way our Founding Fathers intended.

  Our strategy is simple. Stay focused on a few big issues. Establish a highly motivated and mobilized base of voters. Make our voices heard in Congress clearly, swiftly, and consistently.

  We will execute this strategy by maximizing the use of technology, establishing an interconnected network of voters, and maximizing media exposure to produce a new model for impacting public policy.

  Soon, the politically homeless will have a home.

  Maximizing Technology

  In 1971 while studying for my Master's degree in computer science, one of the ongoing academic debates was about the future of centralized versus distributed computer processing. IBM was the largest computer company in the world and led in the manufacture and sale of large mainframe computers. It was not unusual for businesses and organizations to have large rooms filled with their "big boxes," as they were sometimes called.

  Those who argued on behalf of more and more centralized processing were proved dead wrong. Computer processing power is everywhere now! Sometimes it is abused, but it is everywhere. We can see examples of computer technology every day, from our desktop computer to the car we drive to our cell phone. A typical cell phone has as much or more computer processing power than a typical big box mainframe of the 1970s.

  Laptop and desktop computers are everywhere, and let's not forget the latest handheld combination phone and computer that fits in your pocket and is no bigger than a typical cell phone. I resisted getting one of these devices when I was running for the U.S. Senate but finally gave in to my staff's insistence and found it indispensable. I had to learn how to type with my thumbs, but I have gotten pretty good at it.

  We are a technologically, 24/7, connected society. When you add snail-mail, e-mail, direct mail, junk mail, and incessant media madness on top of it all, it is easy to understand why many people suffer from information overload. In many cases, it is incomplete or misleading information overload. We are all exposed to more and more stuff, faster and faster, and it all started with the microchip.

  Successful businesses have learned how to maximize technology in order to remain competitive. Government agencies have tried to keep up for the sake of improved efficiencies with the people's money. Political campaigns maximize their resources using technology to better target voters. Associations and advocacy organizations have embraced technology for communicating with their constituencies and releasing an avalanche of influence on Congress at strategic opportunities.

  Helping to get candidates elected with views and opinions consistent with one's constituency is no longer enough to impact public policy. Effective follow-up between elections is also required using advances in technology, due to the plethora of political forces pulling on a senator or representative after they are elected. Election day is not the end of voter influence over the legislative process. It's the beginning, because too many veteran politicians campaign on hope and enthusiasm, then return to the status quo and doubt when they get reelected.

  A New Voice is your voice. It will maximize technology through the usual and some not-so-usual means to keep its voices engaged and inspired after election day. While many organizations have struggled to keep up with technology, a New Voice will maximize technology to develop a Vocal, Inter-connected, and Persistent (VIP) network of voters.

  VIP Network

  The information highway is loaded with reckless drivers. We cannot believe everything we see and hear on the Internet, and the trust many of us once put in the major television networks' newscasts was shaken during the 2004 election cycle with numerous examples of deliberately biased reporting and forged documents. A New Voice will counteract these reckless drivers with compelling facts, completed stories, and common sense observations. With these message characteristics and by focusing on a few big issues, A New Voice will be heard above the clutter more often with its VIP network.

  During the 2004 presidential election, Senator John Kerry and Democratic candidates repeatedly called the U.S. economy failed or lousy because of President Bush's economic policies. They were repeatedly wrong! Using research compiled by the Media Research Center (MRC), one could easily observe that their campaign rhetoric did not match the facts of the economic situation.

  Here are the facts. The following table provides a comparison of metrics for the economy during the 1996 reelection year for President Bill Clinton versus the economic metrics in 2004 during President Bush's reelection race.

  As mentioned previously, the MRC research report show that news stories about the 1996 economy under President Clinton were positive 85 percent of the time. News stories about the 2004 economy under President Bush were positive only 13 percent of the time. Maybe there is something to this liberal media bias conspiracy theory.

  I had several opportunities to debate Democrat officials or candidates during the 2004 presidential campaign on television and radio programs and I shared with them these compelling facts. They were not interested in the facts. They persistently stayed with the Democrat script of bash, distort, and smear. To paraphrase Jack Nicholson's character in the movie A Few Good Men, "They can't handle the facts!"

  I was only one new voice of a few people aware of these facts. Just think of the impact when we have millions of new voices to counter all the junk scattered on the information highway.

  Examples of incomplete stories can be seen all the time in newspapers and heard on television and radio news programs. Most incomplete stories are "sound bite" driven, and the media usually tries to personalize the stories by describing their version of a typical person or family, which was selected more for emotional appeal than any statistically representative situation.

  Consider this example in the following table:

  Compelling facts, completed stories, and common sense observations by millions of new voices are a powerful weapon against what Brent Bozell, President of the MRC, calls the "weapons of mass distortion."

  Your vocal, interconnected, and persistent involvement in influencing public policy is the key to growing A New Voice, expanding your own VIP network, and saving our economic infrastructure. As a self-motivated new voice, there are no limits to your ability to influence others on the urgency for aggressive policy solutions!

  You can begin your own involvement in saving our economic infrastructure by first contacting those in your existing networks of influence. This includes your friends and family members, people in your e-mail distribution list, members of your place of worship, members of your neighborhood association, loved ones on your holiday card list, and members of your community, civic, or service organization. These are the people who know, respect, and trust you.

  Send an issue awareness or issue endorsement letter or e-mail to members of your networks. The letter introduces those in your networks to the issue, urges them to support it and provides supporting reasons, and urges them to contact their own networks of influence.

  Contact your U.S. representative and senators and ask them to support replacing the tax code, restructuring Social Security, and removing government interference in Medicare and our health care system. Urge your legislators to become leaders in Congress in passing legislation related to each issue.

  You can also spread the message of economic freedom through local and national media outlets. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper that states your support for a particular issue. Call local and nationally syndicated talk ra
dio programs and discuss the issues and the urgent need to enact aggressive policy solutions. Share your views on the issues on Internet discussion groups and blogs.

  Solutions to our big issues are lost in denial, empty rhetoric, misrepresentations, bureaucracy, and personal agendas. In order for real solutions to rise to the top of the public's mind-set and the forefront of congressional action, we must consistently challenge the status quo and elect senators and representatives who share our passion for change. Take every opportunity available to volunteer your time for candidates who are truly committed to challenging the status quo in Congress. The following table illustrates the many opportunities you have to become A New Voice and influence public policy decisions.

  Maximizing Media Exposure

  There's an old saying, "Fight fire with fire." The often incomplete reporting and liberal bias of mainstream media is well documented. Although Brent Bozell and the MRC do a great job of keeping many media outlets' and producers' feet to the fire, it is a never-ending battle. There are newspapers, magazines, newsletters, television and radio programs, and Internet sites that regularly present the conservative side of many issues, but the daily battle against the liberal media establishment is similar to David's fight against Goliath. The good news is that the conservative David is growing, and he did defeat Goliath in the end.

  A New Voice will capitalize on numerous media opportunities to promote its messages of aggressive solutions and economic liberation of working people. My 2004 U.S. Senate campaign demonstrated that there are hundreds of thousands of people who have an appetite for challenging the status quo in order to fix the big problems. Members of Congress and the media will pay attention when millions of politically homeless across the country begin to make their voices heard.

  A New Voice has a unique personality with a multidimensional background to lead this unique endeavor: "The Hermanator." Here's how Larry McCarthy of Gannon, McCarthy & Mason, Ltd., describes the origin of "The Hermanator":

  Around the time we were working with Herman Cain on health care reform and other National Restaurant Association issues in 1994, I stumbled across the movie The Terminator while cable grazing.

  One of my favorite lines from the movie is Arnold Schwarzenegger's guttural catch phrase "I'll be back," an especially appropriate line for a character who was impossible to stop and kept popping up everywhere.

  At the time, Herman was receiving very heavy press coverage for his "debate" with President Clinton on health care and appearing all over the country on a variety of issues. Herman was impossible to stop and kept popping up everywhere. Hence, "The Hermanator."

  The new voices will not go it alone on our mission to save our economic foundations. There are dozens of organizations that are our strategic partners in this new vision, and many have been fighting the good fight for many years.

  The mission of A New Voice is to leverage its members and those of its strategic alliances into a more focused and inspired VIP network. It is not the intent of A New Voice to reinvent the wheel; our objective is to connect the spokes of the wheel so common sense can conquer insanity.

  The need for A New Voice that utilizes cutting edge technology and a VIP network to influence public policy and tell the truth about issues and the best solutions is long overdue. Major media outlets do not help us. Our elected officials get timid about aggressive policy solutions. And most of the general public is apathetic and absent. Granted, there are many associations and organizations working to protect the issues of their respective constituencies, but the issues of A New Voice transcend industry, political party, race, sex, or income level.

  Our collective task is to create a VIP network of voices capable of dramatically influencing what goes on in Washington, D.C. between elections. Congress has repeatedly demonstrated that it does not act without public pressure applied heavily and frequently.

  Fortunately, President Bush has demonstrated that he is not afraid to lead. In fact, during his Economic Summit in December 2004, he stated, "I came to Washington to solve problems." With majorities of Republicans in both the House and the Senate, I believe he will do just that, if Congress will follow. Our job is to make sure that they do indeed follow. Otherwise, in the next election our job will be to make sure they get out of the way.

  A New Nation

  Most people do not object to providing assistance to their fellow citizens either directly or by way of efficient government assistance programs, but no one is entitled to the fruits of another man's labor. Our current methods of taxation and redistribution of income follow the foolish directive of Karl Marx: From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs. Our so-called progressive system of taxation at the federal level is based on the premise that those who make the highest incomes should pay proportionately the most for the government services that benefit all citizens.

  Those at the lowest income levels are in fact hit the hardest by our system of taxation. One hundred percent of their wages are subject to the Social Security and Medicare taxes, which are of course automatically withheld from their paychecks. When they retire and begin receiving their monthly Social Security benefits, they are taxed again because our government considers your Social Security benefits income--even though you already earned the money decades ago!

  Contrary to the thinking of many members of Congress, our systems of taxation and income redistribution are inherently unfair to every citizen because they do not treat every citizen equally. Additionally, the "more you earn the more you pay" principle is a bigger disincentive to the low wage earner than to the high wage earner. Why? Because just as it takes more fuel to accelerate a car to cruising speed than it does to maintain cruising speed, a worker has to work harder and earn more proportionately to get into economic cruise control. As a result, many people never get there.

  Our current economic infrastructure, the tax code and Social Security system, punishes everybody because of progressive tax rates on what people earn and massive government inefficiency.

  Our elected leaders in Congress insult our intelligence every day. They simply do not think we are capable of managing our own money, of saving and investing in our own futures. Many in Congress obviously have the desire to create a socialist system that adheres to Karl Marx's vision. They just have not been honest enough to say it out loud.

  What would Thomas Jefferson, author of our Declaration of Independence and one of the preeminent political minds in history, think of our current taxation policies and entitlement and discretionary federal spending that exceeds the entire GDP of many nations? Listen to Jefferson's words on these issues.

  Thomas Jefferson on taxation:

  The taxes with which we are familiar class [classify)] themselves readily according to the basis on which they rest: 1. Capital. 2. Income. 3. Consumption . . . . A government may select either of these bases for the establishment of its system of taxation, and so frame it as to reach the faculties of every member of the society, and to draw from him his equal proportion of the public contributions . . . . But when once a government has assumed its basis, to select and tax special articles from either of the other classes, is double taxation . . . . For that portion of Income with which these articles are purchased, having already paid its tax as Income, to pay another tax on the thing it purchased, is paying twice for the same thing; it is an aggrievance on the citizens who use these articles in exoneration of those who do not, contrary to the most sacred of the duties of a government, to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens.

  Our government is clearly not providing "equal and impartial justice to all its citizens." Every citizen who earns a wage is taxed on his or her income, but we are also taxed again when that income is invested and grows--what the tax code calls a "capital gain." We are also all subject to local taxes on consumption--sales taxes--when we purchase retail goods. Our money, therefore, is "triple-taxed." And when we die, we are taxed again!

  Thomas Jefferson on excessive federal sp
ending:

  I do not know on what principles of reasoning it is that good men think the public ought to pay more for a thing than they would themselves if they wanted it. (1808)

  To preserve the faith of the nation by an exact discharge of its debts and contracts, expend the public money with the same care and economy we would practice with our own, and impose on our citizens no unnecessary burden . . . are the landmarks by which we are to guide ourselves in all our proceedings. (1802)

  Congress is losing the faith of the nation because it does not adhere to our Founders' warnings to spend within our means, and it unnecessarily burdens current and future generations with needless debt. There are certainly times in our history when it is necessary to incur budget deficits. For example, we are currently engaged in a war against terrorists to protect our borders and our freedoms. Congress is justified in spending the amounts needed to equip our military personnel and secure our borders.

  The public loses faith in the ability of Congress to sensibly and honestly control the nation's purse strings, however, when it approves 50 million dollars to construct an indoor rainforest in Iowa, 15 million for dairy development programs overseas through the U.S. Agency for International Development, and 13 million for United Nations programs. These are just three of the thousands of pork barrel spending projects that cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars each year.

  Surely Thomas Jefferson had in mind greater ideals for Congress and a greater vision of freedom for American citizens when he stated, in 1826,