Grassroots Radio Colorado, Justin Everett, January 11, 2013
Station: KLZ, 560 AM
Show: Grassroots Radio Colorado (with guest host Randy Corporon)
Guests: Everett
Link: http://grrc.podomatic.com/
Date: January 11, 2013
Topics: Randy Corporon, Arapahoe County Tea Party, Douglas County GOP Party Chairman John Ransom, Townhall.com/Finance, Leadership Program of the Rockies, “Kill” Committee, State Committee & Veteran Affairs, Right to Work, Senator Owen Hill, Scott Walker Recall, Collective Bargaining, Public Employees, Public Sector Unions, PERA, Teachers Union, Douglas County School Board, Corruption, Michigan, Jobs, Economy, Obamacare, Credibility, Mitt Romney, House District 22, Ted Cruz (Texas), Reagan, Mainstream Media, Social Media, Alternative Media, Education Committee, Public Healthcare Financing, Medicaid Expanshion, Healthcare Exchange, Transportation and Energy Committee, Hydraulic Fracturing, Oil and Gas Commission, Fracking, 2nd Amendment, Guns, Gay Marriage, Civil Unions, Christian Conservatives, Mark Ferrandino, Compromise, Statesman, State GOP Chairman, Chairperson, Ryan Call, Jared Wright, Repeal NDAA, “Make My Day Better” Bill,
HOST RANDY CORPORON: Colorado State Representative Justin Everett is on the line, home safe and sound, and Justin, I know, wait a minute. Is it proper for me to be calling you ‘Justin’? Do I now have to say ‘State Representative Everett’, or ‘Sir’, or ‘King’–
COLORADO STATE REPRESENTATIVE JUSTIN EVERETT: [chuckles] Oh, Randy, I still put my pants on one leg at a time. We’re a citizen legislature.
CORPORON: All right, so ‘hey, dude.’ ‘Hey, dude’ is cool.
EVERETT: So, I’m no different than the average person, you know. And it’s not a glamorous job. We’re just average people, you know, trying to do good by the state.
CORPORON: Well, I know we want to talk – and since you said you could stick around, um, maybe we can explore some things together. I know that we want to talk about – the reason I had called you and asked you to come one was because this was the first week of the legislature. You’re a brand new legislator. And I thought it might be interesting for folks to hear – not only what went on, maybe some of the bills that were run and that made people sick and you know, that sort of thing. But just kind of what it’s like from your perspective. But we were talking about – because Rose, the liberal, called in, we were talking about what she surmised is the demise of the Republican Party. And I really appreciated what a great segue that was for you to come back and talk about how, you know, from your perspective, from my perspective, the reason Republican’s are losing elections is because they’ve gotten away from the conservative values that makes Republicans win. And what I fear, Justin, and I don’t know what you’re seeing, it’s awfully early obviously in Colorado and in this session, is that Republicans are buying into liberal mantra. And instead of refocusing on limited government, on security, on individual responsibility, on freedom, they are trying to be these mushy middle of the roaders, thinking that that is what is going to help them get elected. They’re over-reacting to what was a very disappointing election, but is very explainable: explainable by a weak candidate at the top of the ticket. Explainable by a once in a century politician in Barak Obama. Things – you know, we’re not going to have to face that guy again, unless he appoints himself dictator. So, I think there are a whole host of ways that Republicans can recover their bearings without throwing in the towel on being Republican.
EVERETT: Well, I think it goes back to what I said in the segue, is that, you know, we need to actually stand for something and put our best foot forward and show that, you know, we stand for the Constitution, we stand for conservative values, and we just didn’t hear that. You know, the whole ‘jobs and economy’ concept, you know, blandly, ‘jobs and economy, jobs and economy’’, I mean, that really wasn’t moving any numbers towards the end of the election. And we need to have more to it. You know, ‘Obamacare’ – the Obamacare issue, it’s like, “Okay, everybody’s made their decision where they come down on Obamacare.” So, those were our two main issues that we were just sort of pushing, you know, pushing the button, but we weren’t doing anything bold – sort of those bold colors versus pale pastels that Ronald Reagan talked about, back in 1979 or [inaudible]
CORPORON: [interrupting] Well, and you know, we nominated Mitt Romney and just handed the Obamacare issue completely over.
EVERETT: And that was the other problem, but that, you know, the messenger has to have some sort of credibility. And since the model for Obamacare came out of Mitt Romney’whole concept or scheme in Massachusetts, and I believe Massachusetts has 33% higher helath care costs than any other state. You know, if you’re rallying against something you were once for, you know, it destroys your credibility. And things like guns and other things, where he was anti-gun when running for governor of Massachusetts, and all of a sudden, he’s a gun guy. And so, you know, when voters are evaluating their candidates, you know, the credibility factor is huge! And I don’t think we had – and, you know, everybody has been pawing on Romney since he lost but I mean, this is just the fact of the matter. I mean, he wasn’t able to shore up the base, and we saw that in some of the turnout numbers, as Democrats were turning out in droves, in far bigger percentages, especially in my district, than for Republicans. And, uh, we’re just trying to get some air for our campaign, because it was all Mitt Romney 24/7/365.
CORPORON: Well, you know, once the votes were counted, the bottom line is that somewhere between three hundred and less than five hundred thousand votes, across six states, are what swung this election for Barak Obama. And a lot of Republicans, especially the conservative side of the Republican Party, simply stayed home. And so, that is something that I think can—that ought to be able to, you know, reinvigorate Republicans a little bit. The other thing is, even though we lost to– talking about the national election, even though some seat were lost, look at the quality of the people that won. Ted Cruz, in Texas, for example. Uh, Justin Everett, in House District 22.
EVERETT: [laughs]
CORPORON: There are – and I’m not – you laugh, but I’m absolutely serious, Justin, true Constitutional Conservatives, willing to not only believe in something, but to stand on something when you make decisions, and to articulate it, loud and proud!
EVERETT: Absolutely. And even here in the state legislature, I mean, we were told not to go to meetings, and not fill out surveys, and not really take strong stances on anything. Obviously, I didn’t do that, because I think I was on Grassroots Radio a couple times with you, where we definitely flushed out a bunch of issues. But again, it’s that – sort of –we’re past the two minute warning and we’re just going to kneel down and let the clock run out. We weren’t going to push any issues. We weren’t going to rock the boat. We weren’t going to be, sort of, those bold conservatives. And I think, you know, we paid for it. And all those races that were supposedly competitive races ended up not being competitive races because our candidates just weren’t taking strong stances, on anything. So, you know, it is what it is, you know, we’re going to go through this battle every two years, about, “Yeah, we need to move to the Left, further left, further left.” And then of course, there will be those of us who will push back. “Actually, we need to move further right,” because it seems that we’re always compromising with the Democrats, much to their side, and that’s how we end up with $17 trillion deficits, and you know, our Constitution basically being used as toilet paper.
CORPORON: Well, it’s how we wind up with someone like my friend Rose calling in and actually — or talking as though the Democrat Party was somehow the mainstream party now.
EVERETT: And again, we just have to get better at our messaging.
