Welcome to Townhall Magazine’s September 2013 issue! Check out an exclusive sneak peek of a few stories that made our pages, from a viable 2016 contender for the GOP to the persecution of Christians in America (yes, you read that right).
Order Townhall Magazine today for these can't-miss articles:
--Katie Pavlich: "The Faces of Obama’s ‘Phony’ Scandals”: Obama may think the scandals surrounding his administration are phony, but in reality, the only things that count as phony are Obama’s empty promises to take the murders of Americans and government thuggery seriously.
--"Persecution of Christians … in America": From the military to businesses to the classroom, Christianity is under attack, and you won’t believe the examples! Fox News & Commentary host Todd Starnes reports.
--""The Costs of Counterterrorism": Americans have paid a high price to increase their sense of security in the post 9/11 era. But how high is too high? Expert Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, explores the bloated bureaucracy and other costs associated with America’s struggle against jihad after 9/11.
--"The Shocking Roots of the Organic Food Movement": Before you buy organic, you should be aware of its Leftist undercurrents, from its origins to its anti-free enterprise flavor.
--*Cover Story*: "The Face of the GOP’s Future": S.E. Cupp takes a trip to Indiana to visit Gov. Mike Pence—who very well may be the GOP’s key to the White House in 2016.
*Scroll down for an exclusive excerpt of the article!*
Remember, our print features are generally 100 percent exclusive ... most won't run in full online!
Excerpted from Townhall Magazine's September cover story, "The Face of the GOP's Future," by S.E. Cupp:
... In the wake of President Obama’s re-election and the mini-awakening Republicans have been experiencing since, many have suggested that one of the problems the GOP faced in 2012 was a lack of positive messaging and clear alternatives to the Democrats’ policies. For four years, Republicans ran an anti- Obama campaign instead of conditioning environments all over the country to embrace conservative ideas.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is reluctant to pile on in the autopsy efforts, but he does offer some analysis along those lines.
“I’m someone who really believes that one of the reasons for our success in a difficult election year here in Indiana was we spent all the resources in our campaign articulating a positive vision for an even better Indiana. We talked about the progress Indiana made in the last eight years, becoming the fiscal envy of the country, advancing economic and educational reforms. But we spoke aspirationally. We said we want to go to the next level. We want Indiana to be known everywhere as the state that works, and we laid out a roadmap for how we would do that. We spent all of our time in our campaign not talking about what was wrong with our opponent’s ideas but what was right about our ideas.”
Conservatives in the wake of 2012 have also taken up the project of judging each other on their “conservativeness,” wondering aloud if someone like Chris Christie is “too moderate” and Ted Cruz is “too extreme.” I asked Pence if that’s been a productive or valuable exercise for a party that is supposed to be a big tent.
“Well, I’m a conservative, but I’m not in a bad mood about it,” Pence said. “I understand politics is about addition and not subtraction. And I really do believe that any success that I’ve enjoyed in public life and in being awarded the opportunity to serve in this position has been a testament hopefully to a lot of hard work on our part. But more importantly it’s been a testament to the power of the ideas that we’re advancing: the principles of economic freedom, of equality of opportunity in education, of common sense and common values and expressing those in a way that demonstrates respect for all concerned.”
And when it comes to the ways Republicans need to communicate their ideas, Pence naturally turns back to Reagan.
“I was drawn to the Republican Party because of the voice and ideals of Ronald Reagan, and what I heard in him was an uncanny ability to articulate the principles of limited government, a strong defense, a respect for American traditions and values. But what I also heard in Ronald Reagan was a gentleness and a respect for every American and a deep love for this country. And I truly believe that as I go forward in my career, I’ll always seek to manifest those same aspirational qualities, because this is a very difficult time in the life of our country. People are really looking for answers more than arguments, and the more we can articulate the ideals and the policies that naturally proceed out of them, the more I think we’re going to be given opportunities at every level ahead.”
Opportunities like the White House? Pence tells me he hasn’t “spent a single second” thinking about any other job. But others have been happy to.
In 2010, Pence was the subject of a presidential draft movement, and, at the Values Voters Summit that year, he won the presidential straw poll. National Review’s Katrina Trinko and Erick Erickson of Red State were among the conservative voices pushing Pence to run, but in the end he declined so he could run for the governor’s office following Mitch Daniels’ retirement.
Now, as the focus turns to Republican newsmakers like Rand Paul, Marco Rubio and Chris Christie, the attention on Pence may have waned, but it will no doubt resurrect as 2016 draws near.
Until then, while some hope that he’ll make a run for the White House, he is focused squarely on Indiana and his mission to bring jobs back to the state. And, though the state’s unemployment rate is still above the national average, it dropped to 8.3 percent in May while the national average ticked up .1 percent.
But in Indiana, all roads lead back to, well, more roads. In May of this year, Pence signed a $30 billion, two-year budget into law that invests more than $600 million in roads and infrastructure, all while passing on to Hoosiers a $600 million tax cut, a repeal of the state inheritance tax and business tax reductions.
It’s business-friendly overtures like tax breaks and deregulation that have lured companies like Geico, Toyota, Angie’s List and Subaru to invest and expand in Indiana.
“On day one of my administration, I signed an executive order that established a moratorium on any new regulation in the state of Indiana until we did a full-scale look back at all of Indiana’s business regulations,” he says. “I simply think that less taxes and less regulation means more jobs.”
Indiana was also the first state in the industrial Midwest to pass right-to-work legislation.
“Since we became a right-to-work state,” Pence says, “literally dozens of companies have initiated contact or made decisions to come to Indiana, and we welcome that.
“By Indiana becoming a right-to-work state, by our neighbors to the north becoming a right-to-work state, I think we are beginning to model the kind of policies and practices that can really relight the pilot light of the industrial Midwest, which I believe is of incalculable importance.”
....continue reading in Townhall Magazine's September issue.
