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California: A half-full glass

Wednesday, December 4, 2013, 2:55 pm | Randy Thomasson

glass-half-full

SaveCalifornia.com provides this solely for educational purposes
and does not support or oppose candidates for public office.

Do you see the glass half full or half empty?

I invite you to see the significantly good potential in a half-full glass of water, and all the satisfying quenching of thirst it can bring. Especially if it’s a big, tall glass.

The State of California is like that glass. And there are guaranteed opportunities to fill this big, tall glass with clean, sparkling, nourishing water that helps children and families as God desires.

So instead of thinking it’s impossible to fill the glass more, grasp the reality that indeed it is possible. And realize you are part of the faucet that releases the water that fills the glass.

‘Loser’ vs. ‘winner’ conservatives

Consider that there are actual or near majorities of Californian voters who support man-woman marriage, are against many types of baby-killing abortions, and who want lower prices and lower taxes. Conservative values are not extinct, just underrepresented in our elected representatives.

Now ask yourself — are liberals responsible for bad government, or are conservatives? Consider that:

• Many conservatives don’t vote or vote regularly

• Most conservatives don’t speak out publicly to educate other voters

• Many conservative pastors don’t help their congregations vote right in God’s sight

• Most conservatives never donate to or volunteer for good candidates

• Too many conservatives who know better have thrown up their hands and “dropped out”

The conclusion is obvious. Conservatives have been thinking like losers and not like community activists. This “loser” behavior must stop. For winners never have a “loser” attitude. Instead of imagining failure, they imagine success!

Your historic opportunity

Stop and realize that 2014 is California’s big election year. And for all those who see the glass as half-full, an election year is good, not bad. It’s good because you have an opportunity to make our government and laws and culture better.

On the ballot are governor and all the other statewide offices. Also up for grabs is every state assembly seat, half the state senate seats, and all of California’s congressional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Because so much is at stake, I’m challenging every moral conservative to choose to make a difference for God’s values here on earth. The results are in your hands, because whoever fights harder for something usually wins it.

How to make a simple and strong difference in your community in the 2014 elections:

1. Distribute a candidate information flyer: Report and compare the popular moral/social/fiscal positions of area candidates on a flyer. Make it look good, and document as much information as you can. Put these flyers on the windshields of vehicles in shopping centers, church lots, neighborhoods – and of course, online. Maximize your social engineering, a special website, and any other creative ideas you have. And recruit home schooling and church schooling teenagers to distribute flyers on a given Saturday or Sunday.

2. Find a candidate with great values and volunteer to hold a fundraising “coffee”: When a candidate is morally principled and has a chance to win, you can really help by inviting your friends to meet the candidate in your home, which is his or her opportunity to ask for funding for mailers and other essential campaign activities. Invite your value-voter friends over and have them bring their checkbook!

3. Consider starting a community group to do even more: One person can powerfully influence others. See how at SaveCalifornia.com’s Training Center (download “10 Ways To Build A Pro-Family Army”).

Here are the declared or likely candidates for Governor (in alphabetical order):

Jerry Brown

Tim Donnelly

Neel Kashmir

Abel Maldonado

Now are you motivated? For the love of God and people, turn on your faucet.

When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice;
But when a wicked man rules, the people groan.
Proverbs 29:2 NKJV

The day after: My take on California’s November 2012 election

Wednesday, November 7, 2012, 4:26 pm | Randy Thomasson

SaveCalifornia.com provides the following solely for educational purposes
and does not support or oppose candidates for public office.

Without an army, there is no defense and no opportunity to revolt against tyrants. This is true for defending territory and for defending or attaining good government.

California conservatives have no standing army, nor do California Christians, compared to the standing “armies” of the union bosses with big war chests, who consistently fund Democrat candidates and big, immoral government.

How did we get here? As a whole, the Church is either anemic or AWOL when it comes to civic responsibility. This is the consequence of believing you shouldn’t mix religion with politics, a sure recipe for immoral government. This mindset invites evil to win. For you can’t have religious freedom without political action, and you can’t have good government without Christians working to gain and maintain it.

So, without a truth standard to know what is RIGHT, and without a standing “army” to put MIGHT behind what’s right, it’s not surprising that California conservatives and Christians have not taken new ground, but have lost more ground in this election.

Today, lackluster RIGHT and missing MIGHT has resulted in Democrats apparently capturing a 2/3rd supermajority in both the California Assembly and California Senate, empowering them to directly raise taxes.

The union-backed Democrats needed only two more seats in each house. Senate Democrats have likely picked up three seats (SD 17 on the Central Coast, SD 19 in Santa Barbara/Ventura counties, and SD 31 in Riverside County). And Assembly Democrats have captured what appear to be two seats (AD 32 in Kern/Kings counties and AD 65 in north Orange County).

Meanwhile, California voters have approved:

Prop. 30 to raise taxes on all Californians

Prop. 36 to release some career criminals

Prop. 39 to give businesses more reason to leave

Prop. 40 to keep biased legislative districts

A wise historian once observed, “Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage.”

Where is America right now? Probably between apathy and dependence. Where is California right now? I think in a state of dependency headed back toward bondage. What is the solution? Spiritual truth, God’s truth, applied in people’s lives and applied to political involvement.

Don’t throw your hands up and say there’s no hope. Instead, commit yourself to become more responsible or productive in the opportunities God has given you. Remember, freedom is not free.

So I ask — will pastors, who are supposed to guide and equip believers in Jesus, teach them to be holy and fruitful, courageously helping people to personally repent and politically repent of their wicked ways? Will professing Christians repent, reject ignorance, and put on love by creating a citizen army in their communities that can win future elections? (Here’s how).  Will professing Christians resign from their union to keep working but stop subsidizing immoral government? These choices are in your hands.

SaveCalifornia.com is leading and working to renew the culture by stimulating believers to be difference-makers in their communities. Together, let’s persevere and shine Jesus’ light of truth into the darkness of our culture, reaching people who desperately need God’s wisdom for themselves and their families.

“As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man as ruler in Israel.’ But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them, then I will uproot them from My land which I have given them; and this house which I have sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
2 Chronicles 7 17-20 NKJV

Volunteer for your favorite candidate and change Sacramento

Tuesday, July 10, 2012, 5:10 pm | Randy Thomasson

Democrats control the California State Legislature, which they’ve had virtually since the late 1950’s.

Earlier this year, Democrat legislative leaders openly hoped to pick up two seats in the state Senate and two more in the state Assembly in November. This achievement would give them the immense power of a two-thirds’ majority, enabling Democrat legislators to pass super-majority measures, such as tax increases, without “needing” any Republican legislators.

However, the lackluster support for the Democrats in close contests in the June primary election has me thinking Republicans may actually gain seats, not lose them, in November.

Of course, this is all predicated on voter turnout, and on those who volunteer for and donate to candidates. SaveCalifornia.com does not support or oppose candidates for public office, but encourages individual citizens to be politically active for the sake of good government. Therefore, I urge you to find the competitive contests in your area, research where the candidates stand on the issues, and then volunteer for the candidate that best matches your values.

Here are lists of close legislative contests in California. A “close contest” is defined as a Democrat-held seat where the Democrat candidates, combined, received less than 50% of the June primary vote, or a Republican-held seat where Republican candidates, combined, received less than 50% of the vote in June.

DEMOCRAT HOLD OR COMPETITIVE REPUBLICAN PICKUP

AD8 East Sacramento County: June primary results: Democrats 42.8%, Republicans 52.7%
General Election Candidates: Democrat Ken Cooley, Republican Peter Tateishi District information, candidate links

AD48 West Covina-Glendora: June primary results: Democrats 43.4%, Republicans 45.6%, No Party Preference 11.0%
General Election Candidates: Democrat Roger Hernandez (incumbent), Republican Joe Gardner District information, candidate links

AD49 Monterey Park-Arcadia: June primary results: Democrats 47.8%, Republicans 52.2%
General Election Candidates: Democrat Ed Chau, Republican Matthew Lin District information, candidate links

AD61 Riverside-Moreno Valley-Perris: June primary results: Democrats 44.6%, Republicans 51%, No Party Preference 4.5%
General Election Candidates: Democrat Jose Medina, Republican Bill Batey District information, candidate links

AD66 L.A. South Bay: June primary results: Democrats 40.5%, Republicans 59.5%
General Election Candidates: Democrat Al Muratsuchi, Republican Craig Huey District information, candidate links

DEMOCRAT HOLD OR LONG-SHOT REPUBLICAN PICKUP

These are districts where Democrat candidates, combined, received 50% or more of the June primary vote, but if Republicans fight hard they might take the seat (unless the Democrats fight harder).

AD9 South Sacramento-Elk Grove-Galt-Lodi: June primary results: Democrats 50.8%, Republicans 46.1%
General Election Candidates: Democrat Richard Pan (incumbent), Republican Tony Amador District information, candidate links

AD21 Merced County-parts of Stanislaus County: June primary results: Democrats 54.5%, Republicans 45.4%
General Election Candidates: Democrat Adam Gray, Republican Jack Mobley District information, candidate links

AD37 Santa Barbara County-Ventura-Santa Paula-Fillmore: June primary results: Democrats 56%, Republicans 44%
General Election Candidates: Democrat Das Williams (incumbent), Republican Rob Walter District information, candidate links

AD41 Pasadena-Sierra Madre-San Dimas-Claremont-Upland: June primary results: Democrats 58.6%, Republicans 41.4%
General Election Candidates: Democrat Chris Holden, Republican Donna Lowe District information, candidate links

AD43 Burbank-Glendale-La Crescenta: June primary results: Democrats 55.7%, Republicans 44.3%
General Election Candidates: Democrat Mike Gatto (incumbent), Republican Greg Krikorian District information, candidate links

AD57 Whittier-La Mirada-Hacienda Heights-La Puente: June primary results: Democrats 56.2%, Republicans 43.8%
General Election Candidates: Democrat Ian Calderon, Republican Noel Jaimes District information, candidate links | Local news coverage

REPUBLICAN HOLD OR DEMOCRAT PICKUP

AD32 Kings County-parts of Kern County: June primary results: Democrats 41.4%, Republicans 58.6%
General Election Candidates: Democrat Rudy Salas, Republican Pedro Rios District information, candidate links

INTERESTING DISTRICTS WITH LESS THAN 50% DEMOCRATS

AD4 Napa and Yolo Counties, with parts of Colusa, Lake, Sonoma, Solano counties: June primary results | District information, candidate links

AD7 Sacramento-West Sacramento: June primary results | District information, candidate links

“NO PARTY PREFERENCE” CANDIDATES

These are districts that you can call “question marks” or experimental or unpredictable due to the presence of a “No Party Preference” (NPP) candidate, which, for the first time, are allowed this year through Proposition 14, passed by California voters in 2010.

For example, if a “No Party Preference” is running against a Democrat, the “NPP” candidate could win by attracting — on the issues — Republican voters,  independent voters, and disenfranchised Democrat voters.

Assembly District 28 in the Silicon Valley in Santa Clara County has both a Democrat and a “No Party Preference” candidate in the November runoff. June primary results | District information, candidate links

Assembly District 11 covering Fairfield, Vacaville, and the sprawling Sacramento Delta region) has a Democrat and a Republican facing off in November, but the “No Political Party” candidate came in a strong third and that candidate’s supporters could affect the outcome in November: June primary results | District information, candidate links

STATE SENATE COMPETITIVE CONTESTS

SD5 Stanislaus County-San Joaquin County-Galt: June primary results: Democrats 40.7%, Republicans 59.2%
General Election Candidates: Democrat Cathleen Galgiani, Republican Bill Berryhill District information, candidate links

SD27 Thousand Oaks-Malibu-Simi Valley-Santa Clarita: June primary results: Democrats 48.9%, Republicans 51.1%
General Election Candidates: Democrat Fran Pavley (incumbent), Republican Mike Zink District information, candidate links

SD31 Corona-Riverside-Moreno Valley-Perris: June primary results: Democrats 48.9%, Republicans 51.1%
General Election Candidates: Democrat Richard Roth, Republican Jeff Miller District information, candidate links

LONG-SHOT REPUBLICAN HOLD OR DEMOCRAT PICKUP

SD19 Santa Barbara County and part of Ventura County: June primary results Democrats 54.9%, Republicans 45.1%
General Election Candidates: Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson, Republican Mike Stoker District information, candidate links

DEMOCRAT HOLD OR LONG-SHOT REPUBLICAN PICKUP

SD39 San Diego-Coronado-Del Mar-La Jolla-Solana Beach-south of Escondido: June primary results: Democrats 56.3%, Republicans 43.7%
General Election Candidates: Democrat Marty Block, Republican George Plescia District information, candidate links

Again, you choose the candidate or candidates that best represent your values. But I urge you to volunteer, because volunteering with your interests or talents or skills is how you can make the most difference in an election year. Either volunteer directly for a candidate or develop and distribute your own material supporting a candidate or a slate of candidates (i.e. a voter scorecard).

Both Democrats and Republicans quote Edmund Burke, who, in 1795, wrote, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” This modern proverb is true and applicable to elections. But you should know that Burke was a British moral-values Christian, and would not want evildoers to use his words to rally their troops more than workers of righteousness in their communities.