A recent article in the Springfield News-Leader highlights that career politicians and consultants have yet to learn the lesson of the 2016 presidential election - Missouri voters are tired of elected officials who behave as if the voters are a mere afterthought to be targeted with sweet, poll-tested speeches and commercials during election cycles and afterwards, when the election is over, ignored while the lobbyists, special interest groups and consultants get their rewards. Missouri voters are not in the mood to accept the same old prescription of settling for the lesser of two evils. It's not enough to have candidates who pitch themselves as believing the same things and holding the same values as Missouri voters. In the 2018 Election for our next US Senator, Missourians will decide if our next Senator is chosen by the consultants and the Establishment that pays them, or the patriots who fight, sacrifice, love, bleed and die for our country.
As a U.S. Army veteran, I served during a time of relative peace. The Iraq war inspired in me to enlist and serve my country. During four years in the regular Army and another three in the Reserve, I learned everything from the firing and maintenance of the M-16 Rifle to the Army's Leadership Model - Be, Know, Do. Three little words, but as a Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) they were everything you needed to know to be an effective leader. Be is all about character and leading by example. Know encompasses the knowledge and skill you need to be a competent leader. Do is taking action and all of the tools used to ensure to a successful result. Many who serve today, have been deployed multiple times to different theaters of operation. The sacrifices made by U.S. Military Personnel and their families cannot be easily estimated. Military families are separated for long periods of time and the soldiers risk life and limb to defend our country. The men and women who either serve, or have previously served, possess discipline, knowledge, training, experience and leadership that can set them apart from others. They have more than "skin in the game." They are willing to give all so the rest of us can live as a free people in our Constitutional Representative Republic.
So, when those we have elected to positions of leadership choose to trim the truth, climb the ladder of ambition, and make public service an exercise in personal power and profit, Missourians are offended. A public office is a public trust, but our leaders' actions too often erode that trust. They promise to do one thing, but then reverse course and do something else. They, along with consultants and the Establishment that bankrolls them, make campaigns into a personal contest, while the press reports on elections as if they were a horse race where one horse (candidate) wins and another loses. But elections are not horse races. Voters aren't casting their votes with an eye towards the spoils of victory. We vote seeking leaders who will "Be" in office what they promised they would be during the election. We seek honest leaders who speak from the heart. We want our leaders to "Know" about who we are, what our concerns and dreams our, what we fear, the sacrifices we make to move our country and families forward. We want them to have the right experience to leave the country better off than how they found it. We need leaders who "Do" what needs to be done - even when it may not be popular or easy. I believe much of the inaction we have seen from Washington, DC is because we have elected leaders who weren't who they told us they would "Be." They didn't "Know" what they were doing. They couldn't or wouldn't "Do" what we elected them to do.
This bring us to our present moment. We are told by the Establishment bankrolled consultants and the parrots in the press that the 2018 Missouri Election for the U.S. Senate comes down to two candidates - Senator Claire McCaskill and Josh Hawley. Why? There are many justifications given but, in reality, they all just equal a simple statement from the Establishment Taste-makers, "Because we said so." But that's not the way elections work. Already, one consultant who shapes the words of one candidate has offered some gems - “I think the election is going be a whole lot more about what happened on the floor of the Senate than in the basement of the Greitens' house," he said. What? This election is not about the Senate although the winning candidate will serve there. It's not about what happened in Governor Greitens' house, although what happened there may determine the governor's political future. No, this election is about the people of Missouri and what can be done to make them more free, safe and prosperous. That same consultant stated, "This is a campaign between Josh and Claire McCaskill." Really? Last I checked there was a Republican Primary August 7th. A 2018 campaign between Senator McCaskill and newly minted Attorney General Josh Hawley would have more (political) calculations than a calculus textbook and more angles than a geometry test. Our consultant concludes, "We think in the end, the election will be about the two of them [McCaskill and Hawley].” Wrong, wrong, wrong. The election will be about Missourians and what they deem is important. Any candidate who looks past the voters is likely to be unpleasantly surprised with the results on election night.
Politics and elections, despite what the Establishment and their hired hands, aka consultants, may think, are always about voters. Politicians are elected to be public servants. Ideally, our public servants would be citizen legislators who are chosen from our fellow citizens based on the qualities encompassed in "Be, Know, Do." They would serve for a time and then return back to their communities to live under the laws they helped craft in consultation with the voters. Missouri needs a leader like Tony Monetti - Air Force veteran who served his country in two wars, successful businessman, Christian author, speaker, and leader. A man who hates war, but understands what is needed to successfully defend our country if necessary. A man who has struggled to meet a payroll and manage a successful business. A man who can effectively communicate. Even more important, a man who listens and genuinely cares about what the voters he seeks to represent think. It's rare in this age where political messages are massaged and images created by highly paid consultants, to find a genuine leader who will speak from his heart and tell voters what he knows to be true. Tony Monetti is that rare leader. It's time for Missouri to go in a new and better direction. It's time to say that we, the voters, decide who's going to represent us in the United States Senate. We decide the future of our state, not the Establishment's hired gun consultants. I for one am ready for change. I'm ready for Monetti to be our next U.S. Senator.
PS - If you like what you see and believe Missouri voters deserve a choice not already predetermined by the Establishment and their consultants, please help Tony fuel his campaign. If you provide the fuel, he will get his message successfully over the target and win this campaign for all Missourians.
