Harry Welty is going to file for Congress once again. There are 10 million words to chose from in this twelve-year-old blog. That will provide Pete Stauber’s campaign endless opportunity for OPPO Research. For the voter it presents a problem. At ten times the length of War and Peace it could be a challenge to narrow you search. You can begin by either going down the list of issues on the column to the right or typing the word/words you are researching in the Search function. At present there is no rush of people sending Harry emails so if you have a specific question you can email Harry at harrywelty@charter.net:
Harry is recording short video summaries of questions voters might be interested in. Harry will crank them out at about one a day. Harry is calling such posts TVBTB – The Voice Behind the Blog. Others more adept with tech are welcome to set up more give and take options for chatting with Harry in our time of the Cornonvirus.
Feel free to submit your own questions. In the meantime Harry has anticipated some of them and offers mostly short answers here:
1. Shouldn’t you be giving President Trump more credit or at least deference than you have?
2. How will the Coronavirus Emergency affect the Future?
3. Are you a baby killer? (WARNING: Harry makes no attempt on the question to address it in a skimpy two minutes)
Other questions to follow until such time as other’s are submitted to me.
* Are you rich?
* What should the Federal Government’s responsibility for Special Education funding be?
* Didn’t you screw up on the Red Plan?
* Is there anything wrong with Donald Trump’s determination to undo everything President Obama did?
* Why was the United States so unprepared for the Corona virus.
* Why are you so angry about President Trump calling news “fake news”?
* Do you think Trump supporters are stupid?
* How can you call yourself a Republican?
* How come you stopped teaching?
* Should we permit copper/nickle mining in our water rich environment when clean fresh water is disappearing everywhere?
* Are you a Christian?
* Was Abraham Lincoln a Christian?
* Does the United States owe any other country help?
* What do you think about reparations for slavery?
* How can you be so friendly with the idea of “socialism”?
MANY MORE TO COME
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Some Blah, blah, blah explaining the origin of this semi-permanent post
for those interested in Harry Welty’s likely campaign for Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District seat in the Republican Primary against Pete Stauber who has allowed himself to be cemented to President Donald Trump.
How can a fellow who thinks that he’s the best thing sliced bread get himself elected when he has to stay quarantined and the powers that be have billions of dollars to throw around on the Internet? I’ve been wrestling with some permutation of that question for thirty years. In 1992 I thought I could raise money by selling a book I’d written. When I began hearing about how individuals could have their own little electronic message boards on the Internet I thought that would be great. It took five years but when I could set up a website without having to learn HTML I did. That was www.snowbizz.com. Its so antique now that the last time I was able to update anything was two years ago. I can’t figure out how to add new snow sculpture images to it anymore. Then in 2006 I started a blog, this blog. I had planned to use it that year to run another campaign for Congress.
I’m still a lone voice (words mostly) followed by a few hundred people. That’s far short of the 300,000 potential voters in the Eighth Congressional District. I have other liabilities. A. I’m old. Although that hasn’t hurt Bernie. B. I’m alone, sort of. I am absolutely terrible about asking other people to help me. C. I’m a “perennial candidate.” According to society only winners should be taken seriously. I think the election of Donald Trump is the best counter argument to that pinched way of thinking. D. I long ago gave up my deference to know-it-alls in the Editorial Board of the Duluth News Tribune who took great delight two years ago in encouraging people to give me the heave ho in the 2016 school board election.
All I have to counter these disabilities is a A. good head, B. a good heart, C. years and years of studying the whole range of problems that we humans face, D. a sense of humor about myself, E. an unstoppable drive to share my gifts, such as they are with others, F. an almost incorruptible urge to tell everyone what I think with far more candor than safe politics would countenance, G. and finally, no fear of looking foolish. There are fifteen million words in this blog or more that attest over and over to these attributes and rarely have my words ever been used against me undermine my credibility. That’s a lot of evidence.
But words are not enough to win elections nor are they enough to teach, nor are they enough to change the direction of a nation the size of a planet orbiting a sun. However, ideas well argued can move people to make change. That would be my goal as a Congressman. That and making sure constituent requests are quickly and successfully acted upon. However, any run of the mill Congressman with a good staff should be able to do that. Today a Congressman’s chief duty is to spend half his or her waking time on the phone begging contributors for money for the next election. No wonder so many of them are ignorant. They don’t have the luxury of time to find out what’s really going on. Did any of them watch the Frontline expose about how the desperate oil industry is depending on plastic to keep them solvent in a time of alternate forms of energy after spending thirty years propagandizing people — to recycle all their plastics when for the last 30 years barely 10% of this poison is or can be economically recycled. No, they were in their offices calling oil men to ask for money for their next election.
If I was elected I’d probably end up a one term Congressman because I would watch Frontline any day over asking for money. Then again our most glorious politician of all time was a one-term Congressman. Abe Lincoln served one term during the Mexican-American War.
Soooooooo. Words being useful but limited I’m going to begin answering questions. At first they will be my questions – one a day. I will put them on a piece of paper and put that in a jar. I will shake them up and pull one out each day and answer it. If and when other people send me questions at harrywelty@charter.net I’ll put those in a different jar and begin answering them. Especially if they leave their name and tell me where they live. Those in Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District will be given preference. Starting today I will put myself in front of my cell phone and begin answering these questions, One a day at least. Those video replies will be left on the blog followed by a post that will link to each answered question so that the curious can find them quickly on this blog. In this way I hope to make Lincolndemocrat the go-to site for folks interested in how America is going to save the planet. I will cut myself off mid-reply like at a presidential debate when I cross the two or three minute threshold. I’ll be watching little timers or be listening to a two minute timer or something. Give me a couple days to figure out a workable set up.
I will start by answering one of three questions today after which I will take a chance on drawing some of the other questions that follow the first three. REMEMBER – THESE ARE 2 MINUTE ANSWERS TO LIFELONG DISCUSSIONS.
First three:
1. Shouldn’t you be giving President Trump more credit or at least deference than you have?
2. How will the Coronavirus Emergency affect the Future?
3. Are you a baby killer?
Other questions to follow until such time as other’s are submitted to me.
* Are you rich?
* What should the Federal Government’s responsibility for Special Education funding be?
* Didn’t you screw up on the Red Plan?
* Is there anything wrong with Donald Trump’s determination to undo everything President Obama did?
* Why was the United States so unprepared for the Corona virus.
* Why are you so angry about President Trump calling news “fake news”?
* Do you think Trump supporters are stupid?
* How can you call yourself a Republican?
* How come you stopped teaching?
* Should we permit copper/nickle mining in our water rich environment when clean fresh water is disappearing everywhere?
* Are you a Christian?
* Was Abraham Lincoln a Christian?
* Does the United States owe any other country help?
* What do you think about reparations for slavery?
* How can you be so friendly with the idea of “socialism”?
MANY MORE TO COME
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