In the midst of this, what is proving to be one of the greatest contests in the "War of Ideas," the foundation, character, and future of the United States in the wake of the 2008 elections, one Congressional race this midterm cycle has modeled thus far a fatigue of the body politic hitherto shaken off in other quarters. I refer to the 44th Congressional District, Riverside County, California.

      The 44th is currently headed by nine term Republican incumbent Ken Calvert, Riverside County's thus far "safe" choice, even as his corruption accusations have mounted in recent years. From ear-marks, to shady land deals, to angering the base voting for TARP and cash for clunkers, there is much to undermine any support by Riverside County Conservative voters for Calvert. The listlessness I observe for Calvert by many is not unfounded, as Calvert and a still unrepentant GOP arm have done little to counter his opponents and the local media defining who he is in the eyes of the electorate. He has been less than forthcoming answering a lot of these accusations.

      It's not like they have much to work with, even with what Calvert has accomplished in Congress.

      He is being opposed by Democrat Bill Hedrick, currently Superintendent of the Corona/Norco School District, a hard-left "progressive" liberal extremist one would expect to be heading a school district, firmly navigating straight to the bottom with the rest of the state.

      I only call Hedrick an extremist because he calls Calvert an extremist on his web site. The only thing extreme about Calvert is he is extremely disappointing to the grassroots Republican party in Riverside, toeing the status quo GOP line in recent years and walking around dodging a cloud of corruption. The Republican party is better than this. Hedrick's use of that term is standard leftist tactics to "shame" the reader and anybody who opposes them into subservience, and only reveals the weakness in his political world view. It also reveals to the Conservative constituency how he will treat them if he gets into office.

      Hedrick says on his web site, "I'll fight to end corruption and bring leadership you can trust to Washington." Who was the last one to say that? Pelosi? Every other disgraced politician in Washington the last two decades?

      Hedrick's views on the war should be enough to make anybody well-versed in foreign policy, Islamic terrorism, and nuclear and bio/chemical weapons proliferation shudder. Either he is incredibly naive to the realities the dangers the American nation is facing, which immediately disqualifies him for Congress, or he is cynically pandering to his base to garner their support, and will immediately reverse himself like Obama did (right after he received his first Presidential national threat assessment), which shows him to be another typical politician. His proudly posting an endorsement by CAIR PAC—a recognized HAMAS front group—on his web site just blows another hole in his already leaky boat. Calvert trumps them handily in security/anti-terrorism national and foreign policy.

      You can pull that type of bureaucratic BS off running a California school district, the land of "fruits and nuts" as the rest of the country portrays us, but reality reigns in the rest of the nation (well, maybe not in New York).

      Into this sewer of ideas which is Orwell's "Animal Farm" realized wades political neophyte Chris (Who?) Riggs. I first heard of him back in September of 2009 at a local church, and emailed him to see if I could get together with him to access his capabilities of unseating Calvert—who is dug in, plugged in, bankrolled by the GOP and RNC and connected in ways only the politically astute can imagine. Even at that point Riggs was late getting started to achieve even moderate name recognition within the electorate.

      Furthermore, the U.S. Congress is comprised of 435 Representatives and 100 Senators, 535 people running the most powerful nation in the recorded history of man. A very exclusive club! Anyone attempting to join this club, one would think, would be halfway knowledgeable of the political arena and the way things work—and counting the cost beforehand, ready for a long-term, knock-down, drag-out fight.

      He responded back he was available for lunch, I submitted my phone number and ... never heard from him again.

      Fine. I sure wasn't going to be an annoyance to a complete stranger, and thus, certainly not convinced of his commitment to follow through on this very taxing and time-consuming endeavor, sat back and waited for his high-profile break out onto the 44th Congressional arena like all others who have run aggressive, sharp campaigns to take down respective incumbents in the wake of the Tea Party Rebellion.

      Next time I heard about him, he was speaking at a friend's ACT! for America meeting—this, nine months later and four weeks before the party primary's for the midterm election. I only heard of this through that organization's email. I seriously thought he had changed his mind and faded back into obscurity.

      Which was interesting, because during his short appearance, he boasted of his campaign's reach through Facebook, Twitter, and his web site, which are all resources being exploited by qualified politicians of every stripe in this election cycle. That was irritating. In reality, his Facebook has been almost bereft of updates and content over the last nine months, his sterile campaign web site was only recently upgraded to "fancy" sterile and devoid of any real depth of his positions and policy views, and his Twitter, critical in this era of "new media" in reaching young people today was, as of this writing last updated, let's see here ... July 12, 2009.

      No Op-Eds in the local paper (unless I missed that), no letters to the editor in their Reader's Open Forum, no commentary posted online over the years at any Conservative web sites or organizations. Nothing of real content, outside of standard Conservative talking points, to reveal who he really is. Just, "Bam! I'm here! Let's see if the Tea Partiers are serious!" implying if they don't vote for him their commitment is less than sincere.

      An older gentleman at this particular meeting asked him what his accomplishments, if any, where, that qualified him to run for a Congressional seat. An understandable question, because nobody knew him from the rest of faceless Riverside County humanity. His answers did not sway a few. I listened in on another gentlemen's whispered skepticism afterwards on Riggs' chances to make an impact.

      I received a mass generated email from his campaign just a few days ago though, a year too late and dubious comfort at the end of a lifeless and ill thought out campaign.

      Then he and his lovely wife left as the meeting went on.

      Well, I'll give him credit for trying!

      Those are the electorate's choices in the 44th Congressional District for the 2010 elections. For one of the most Conservative districts in California—if not America, the current scenario is a disappointing example of why we as Americans, especially Christians/Social Conservatives cannot live carelessly in these times and ignore the cultural and political arena—and hold our elected officials accountable at all times. We get the government we permit.

      This mediocrity of choices, this quantum of ... ambivalence in the 44th, is reflected in us.

Calvert Wins Another Term
"Progressive" Bill and pals wake up to reality. · November 03, 2010

Who would have thought?
Calvert buries Riggs two to one. · June 09, 2010

The GOP Crapweasel Club
By Michelle Malkin · May 18, 2010

        
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