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Following are some article written by or about Stephen Flanagan. Check the Conservative Society for Action website for more information:  (http://www.csa-1776.org).

By Stephen Flanagan - October 15, 2008

Americans talk about Freedom with the utmost pride and satisfaction. Americans have fought for freedom since the inception of our country and millions have placed their lives on the line to maintain that freedom. Thousands more have made the supreme sacrifice in defense of that freedom.

There is no higher ideal in the American spirit.

But the threat to freedom has never been greater than right now, for the assault on our freedom is NOT coming from without, it is coming from within.

One of the world's most cherished and successful systems of government is under assault right now. The American FREE Enterprise system.

The American economic model is the envy of the world. It has produced the highest standard of living for its people. It has resulted in the most advanced and innovative technology in world history. It has resulted in economic strength that allows America's 320 million citizens to compete head-to-head with countries having 5 or 10 times the population.

Many economic models have been tried throughout history, from feudal kingdoms, to massive military empires, to communism, fascism, socialism and dictatorships.

Of all systems of government tried in the history of the World, only one system has resulted in unparalleled Freedom, Prosperity, Innovation, Security, and Dignity for its citizens!

It is the American Free Enterprise system!

As amazing at it sounds, that Great System is now being attacked. These threats are coming from a coalition of ideologues lead by Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, George Soros, Christopher Dodd, Henry Waxman, and Barrack Obama, not to mention a gaggle of lesser players that include our local representatives.

Despite their pleas to help the needy, their promise for change will mean one thing, central government control of the United States of America and its people.

It means you will have to check with a Medical Czar before you call your doctor. It means your house will have to be inspected by an Environmental Czar before you can sell it. It means you will have to pay $7.00 a gallon for gasoline and home heating oil so you won't use too much. It means you will have to apply to a government Czar for a mortgage. It means a government Czar will decide what kind of car you are allowed to buy. It means you will have to publicly declare HOW you voted in union elections because there's no more secret ballot. It means Americans will be issued a national ID card that contains information on your income, investments, assets, medical history, and even your travel and purchasing history as the government monitors your credit card use.

There are powers at work in Washington today that want America to join the rest of the world. Well if America joins the rest of the world, what will happen to that shining light that still attracts immigrants from around the globe?

When my ancestors came to America, they came here because they wanted a BETTER life and a BETTER country for their children. Immigrants like those in my family did NOT come here to maintain the status quo. They came here and they MADE America a country that WAS better in a thousand ways. The next time you hear someone say that America does not deserve its prosperity or its security or its success, you ask them WHY NOT? We earned it!

We earned it with our blood. We earned it with our hard work. We earned it with immigrant generations that sent their kids to school so they would be better off than themselves.

America is not an accident of history.
America was built on well-defined principals, the primary being
INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM and the FREE ENTERPRISE SYSTEM.

Do you really want our Representatives to destroy that system?

If you say NO, then you must fight efforts by Washington to CONTROL heath care.

You must fight Washington's desire to CONTROL the energy industry.

You must fight Washington's attempt to CONTROL the financial institutions.

And you must fight Washington's efforts to CONTROL our auto and other industries.

Please look up the meaning of the word CONTROL. You will find that the opposite of control is FREEDOM.

Let's remain a free country and a free people!

Please join the fight to keep America FREE!

Sincerely,
Stephen Flanagan, Founder
Conservative Society for Action

GOP Knight Aims to Check Democrats
Conservative anger attracts national attention, financial backing to district

Stephen Flanagan’s strategy worked.

The 55-year-old Suffolk businessman and conservative activist wanted to prove to the world that his congressman, four-term Rep. Tim Bishop, could be defeated, despite scant interest from national Republicans.

So Flanagan and his group, the Conservative Society for Action (CSA), whose 5,000 members meet monthly in a rented American Legion hall in West Islip, hatched a plan to attract national attention to the district and lure credible candidates to the race.

They swarmed Bishop’s first summer town hall meeting in June, mobbing him as he arrived and then chanting epithets inside. Police had to be called to escort the congressman from the event.

Footage of the protest spread like wildfire across the Internet and cable news. The National Republican Congressional Committee circulated the video among its donors. Conservative activists across the country mimicked the strategy, fanning a national phenomenon.

And suddenly Bishop, who won by healthy margins in each of the last four elections, became a target.

“We did target him for removal, and we felt that the first step was to create a vulnerability. That’s when we came up with the town hall protest concept,” Flanagan said. “The hope at that point was that, once it became clear that he was vulnerable in his position, it would attract a wider field of candidates and financial support going forward.”

Now, the unrest Flanagan’s group has stirred on the normally sleepy East End has attracted national attention from Republican and Democratic leaders, who see Bishop’s seat as one of a few dozen that could help shift the balance of power in Washington. The contest has also become a national bellwether for the relevance of the right-wing agitators and the ability of national Republicans to channel widespread frustration into electoral success.

“That put a spotlight on the district that had not been there before,” said David Wasserman, the House editor at the Cook Political Report, which has tagged Bishop’s district as a possible swing seat. “Republicans did some more prying into this district to try and gauge whether it was a sort of one-time-only thing, or whether skepticism toward Democrats is more widespread.”

Republicans in Washington and Suffolk say they found the latter, and as a result Flanagan and his allies have secured all of what they wanted and more: a credible Republican candidate, financial backing from wealthy GOP patrons and, at last, the interest of the national party.

Randy Altschuler, a Wall Street entrepreneur and Republican bundler, has emerged as the early favorite among local activists and GOP operatives in Washington, who believe he can meet the all-important benchmarks that determine a candidate’s credibility: endorsements, infrastructure and cash.

“With Randy, it changes the dynamic completely,” said Assembly Member Phil Boyle, who has managed several Republican congressional campaigns in Suffolk. “This is Tim Bishop’s worst nightmare.”

Altschuler has also demonstrated considerable progress toward a crucial benchmark many of his predecessors have promised to meet but failed: At least $2 million in cash-on-hand, the minimum the NRCC prefers to see before committing to a challenger. Altschuler’s campaign announced earlier this month that he has already collected a quarter of that, much of it from his own pocket.

“There’s been a lot of positive support from the national party,” Altschuler said.

An NRCC official confirmed that Altschuler had met with Republicans in D.C. and that, so far, his campaign had reached or exceeded each of the benchmarks national GOP operatives had laid out for him.

“He is impressing people in the first district and he’s generating significant momentum,” said the official. “He’s put up some impressive numbers and an impressive infrastructure.”

Altschuler’s campaign is being run by Chris Maloney, a veteran of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign and a former aide to the NRCC, who has helped Altschuler build a sizeable ground operation and connections to party officials in Suffolk and D.C.

Altschuler has engendered valuable goodwill among local lawmakers and activists by loaning his 100 or so volunteers out to their campaigns. His team hopes that strategy will help him avoid the problems that have plagued upstate Republican congressional candidates Jim Tedisco and Dede Scozzafava, who have suffered from the perception that they were forced upon their districts by national Republicans.

“My team has gotten involved with a lot of local races,” Altschuler said. “You have to show that you’re invested in the local party.”

But some Republicans remain hesitant to embrace Altschuler because of his Wall Street background. During the presidential campaign, when Altschuler served as a bundler for John McCain, reports emerged that a company he founded, OfficeTiger, had helped outsource American jobs to India. Democrats have already promised to make that a central theme of their attack ads, which has given some local Republicans pause.

“There’s a lot of this coronation going on,” said one Suffolk Republican who has stayed out of the race. “I think he probably has a consensus of support, but there are people who are concerned.”

Those people are instead turning to an alternative candidate, George Demos, a former Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer who worked on the investigation of Bernard Madoff. But Demos was late in announcing his candidacy, has raised only a paltry sum and has been outpaced by Altschuler in winning endorsements and assembling a campaign operation.

John LaValle, the Suffolk Republican chairman, said that would make catching up very difficult for Demos.

“Randy Altschuler has clearly established his ability to raise funds, and in addition to that he’s put together a very solid campaign team,” LaValle said. “We’ll see how George proceeds.”

What Demos lacks in money and infrastructure, he hopes to make up in grassroots energy. Demos is a member of Flanagan’s group, the CSA, and has already courted the organization’s members on several occasions for their endorsement.

But so has Altschuler, which Flanagan and his cohorts take as evidence of their growing influence.

“I think they know that we’re responsible for taking the first step,” Flanagan said of the candidates. “Our message is clear: If you don’t represent us, we’re going to come after you.”

If Not Now, When? The Crisis is Here!
Who Will Fire the Shot Heard Round the World?

By Stephen Flanagan, Conservative Society for Action

Stalled talks about the national debt ceiling and cuts in spending are proving that politics as usual will threaten the viability of the U.S. economy.

As a young college student and later as a small business owner, I read about the Soviet Union's numerous five-year economic plans. I thought it funny that few of the plans ever worked. Their five year plans rarely lasted five years. Most were replaced after only a few years because they were failures. I laughed when I heard they would try another.

The Soviet Union finally collapsed under the weight of a huge bureaucracy that was unsustainable. Even in a country where there was ONE party and no political debate, the bureaucracy still ruled.

Now talks from Washington between an incompetent president and hapless Congress boast about a Ten Year Plan to reduce the deficit. There's no plan to eliminate the deficit, just to reduce it. That alone indicates that we've given up.

I have often said that the Left is better at governing than the Right. The reason is that the Left has no problem lying about its positions and using its absolute power. Remember that it was the Democrats that controlled Washington in the last two years. There were super majorities in the House and the Senate and they controlled the White House. They acted ruthlessly by sweeping the Republicans aside. They won and they took full advantage of that win. That's why we have ObamaCare, huge deficits, debt forever and unelected czars controlling every facet of our economy.

The House is now controlled by the Republicans. They cannot yet override a presidential veto and they cannot win in the Senate. That is a very difficult situation, but it is the House that controls the debate about the debt ceiling and spending. So far, all we have heard about is a grand compromise that includes "taxing the rich" and "hands off social security and Medicare".

The other great proposal? A smaller increase in spending. Look up the words "smaller" and "increase" and then figure out that meaning. Republicans on the weekend talk shows all seemed to agree that we will still increase overall spending but that they want smaller increases.

An increase is an increase! Federal spending is up 24% in the last three years. STOP!

The entire mentality in Washington today is to talk and do nothing, but even the talk has become meaningless. Here's a quick translation of Washingtonspeak":

"Reduce the rate of spending" = "The increases will continue"
"Deficit reduction" = " The deficit will continue"
"Revenue enhancement" = "Tax increases"
"Tax the rich" = "I have no guts to make real cuts"
"Fairness" = "Everyone who currently pays taxes will pay more"
"Private jet" = "Only union leaders and politicians can fly them"
"Financial crisis" = "My campaign war chest is low"

I have heard NO ONE talking about real cuts in total spending. Republicans in the House feel backed into a corner because the president has promised to expose them for protecting the rich and for "throwing Granny under the bus". The Democrats ALWAYS accuse Republicans of this and they always will. For House Republican to somehow feel intimidated by this just proves how timid they've always been.

Where are the statesman? Where are the leaders? Why is the Tea Party standing on its own?

The crisis is now. A ten year program of deficit reduction guarantees future deficits. It is time for Republicans in the House of Representatives to stand up for something. The time for talk is over.

There needs to be a shot heard round the world!

It is time to finally say "no" and let the chips fall where they may. We simply don't have ten years left.

Sincerely,
Stephen Flanagan

Click below for links to other articles:

For a Suburban Tea Party, Anger Is All the Rage - New York Times

Long Island Malaise Launches Glory Era for Local Tea Party Groups, Steve Flanagan

Flanagan to be Honored by Queens County Republican Club:

It's 2011. What's Next?