3562. Three thousand, five hundred sixty-two. Remember that number.

Now lets go back to election night 2006. For those of you who weren’t paying much attention to politics back then, or for any of you who, like me, are operating with 256K memories in a 4G world, let me re-set the stage. November 7, 2006 was the beginning of the Democrats’ takeover of American political power. You probably don’t remember, but as the results poured in from the East Coast and across the Heartland, one senate seat after another that had been red turned blue. And finally, sometime after ten – or was it eleven?- p.m. Mountain Time, the final wall was breached: The media called it – Montana’s junior senator, Conrad Burns was defeated by his Democrat opponent, Jon Tester.

Over 410,000 votes were cast in that race, and 3,562 – less than 1% – of them made the difference. What difference, you ask?

The difference that on December 24, 2009 gave this country Obamacare. Before there was Scott Brown, there was Jon Tester, the last best vote that Obama needed to ram his 2000-page abomination down the throats of the American people. No special deals like Louisiana, no bribes ala Nebraska, just pure unadulterated liberal commitment to the cause.

Gee, thanks, Jon. But no thanks. I think we’ll take what’s behind curtain number 2012.

Last summer, when Congress was in recess, Jon somehow missed those town hall meetings all over the state. And somehow the thousands and thousands of letters, emails, and phone messages just never got through to him, because even though almost 70% of the people of Montana opposed the healthcare bill, Jon, Harry, Nancy and Obummer, himself, had an agenda they were going to advance whether we wanted it or not.

2010 and 2012 are years of reckoning for liberals who refused to listen to their constituents.

Yesterday, I had the honor and pleasure of being invited to Steve Daines’ announcement that he will run against Jon Tester in 2012. Steve is a very impressive individual and one of the nicest people I have ever met. He’s been working behind the scene for the last two years to get ready to launch his campaign and the event yesterday was as professional and well-orchestrated as any campaign kick-off I’ve ever seen. It bodes well for a positive result. But there is much to be done between now and November, 2012.

In his announcement speech yesterday, Steve quoted from the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. ”

That’s the part that the Democrats forgot last year. Two weeks ago “the governed” withdrew their consent to the House; in two years we must do the same to the Senate.

Today, I am beginning my personal campaign to send Jon Tester back to Big Sandy, MT. It’s a very small farming village (population 703), and I’m going to be doing my level best to see to it that they get their idiot back come January 2013. You can help, too, by becoming members of the 3562 Club:

First, please go to Steve’s FB page and “like” it: Can we get 3562 people to like “Montana Needs Steve Daines for US Senate” by Christmas Eve? We can, if you help and share this message with your friends and email lists.

And second, for those of you who can and are so inclined, please consider a contribution to his campaign. If you can, remember that number I shared at the beginning of the post. Could you help by sending $35.62 to retire Montana’s flat-topped progressive senator? How about making that a monthly contribution from now until November, 2012? That’s only about 1 lunch a week. Isn’t America’s future worth at least that much?

You can learn more about Steve and why I am so excited that he is willing to take on this important role at this time in our history by visiting his website, and feel free to sign up for the newsletter, emails, or even become a volunteer.

Montana usually doesn’t capture headlines when it comes to national elections. Our measley three electoral votes generally cast us into the “Ignore” barrel when it comes to attracting national attention and make us the definition of flyover country. But we discovered in 2009 that our elections can and do have national consequences and reminded us that every single vote matters: If Jon Tester had not been in the Senate last Christmas Eve, Harry Reid wouldn’t have even been able to bring Obamacare to the floor.

Montana legislators will have an opportunity next year to send a clear message to our young people: We know that your education is a vital to your future success.

A local legislator is drafting a bill that is designed to at least partially address the dropout problem in Montana schools. Rep. Mike Miller (R) has submitted a request for a bill that will tie the privilege of driving with school attendance. As I understand the proposal, a person under the age of 19 will not be allowed to possess a driver’s license unless he/she is enrolled in and attending school full-time – or has already graduated.

While it will not single-handedly correct the drop-out problem; it does something that no other proposal I’ve seen does – it communicates a societal recognition that a high school education is a minimum requirement for a productive life. It’s no big secret that high school drop-outs are far more likely to end up on the wrong side of the law (according to Miller, about 85% of the men and 75% of the women in Montana’s prisons never completed high school), and they continue to be an economic drain on society throughout their lives due to low incomes and poor financial choices (see the debate over the recent I-164 ballot initiative). I could go on about the obstacles faced by drop-outs, but we all know that this is a serious, life-long, generational problem. The opportunities for those without even a high school education will continue to get worse as technology becomes more and more sophisticated and markets become more globally competitive.

There are all sorts of thoughts, ideas, proposals, and even some other proposed legislation out there for consideration, but this bill is unique in a couple of ways: First, it combines something that kids want with something they need, and second, it should be relatively easy and inexpensive to implement. Not only does this incentivize young people to get that high school diploma – how uncool is it to be sixteen and not have wheels? – but it sends a message about where our priorities are: school before cool.

IT’S NOT YOUR (Grand)MOTHER’S MOVEMENT ANY LONGER

Betty Friedan

Gloria Steinem

I came of age as the “Second Wave” of the Feminist Movement took center stage in American society. The baby boom generation was well established as a cultural force; Viet Nam captured the political spotlight; hippies, free love, LSD, and flower power were all the rage; and Betty Friedan’s book, The Feminine Mystique” was the instruction manual for a whole bunch of young women searching for something more exciting than a wedding band, a mortgage, and soap operas.

Enter Gloria Steinem – she of the “A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle” mantra – and cue the angry, man-hating bra-burners. The 20th Century feminist evolved into a shrill, ultra-left harridan who viewed traditional values, not as a choice, but as a threat. God help the ’70’s woman who wanted to fly the Friendly Skies in a cute little mini-dress and sassy bobby cap as she trolled for Mr. Right and the suburban cottage complete with picket fence and 2.5 adorable toddlers. A traitor to the cause! A “real” woman wouldn’t be caught dead serving a meal to a man, and the healthy male who took a second glance at the mini-skirted stewardess was roundly castigated as a chauvinist pig.

The War of the Sexes went nuclear. Millions of young women – intimidated and berated by the sisterhood for wanting a husband and family – were pressured into becoming Super Mom, juggling a full-time job and a full-time family. Family planning evolved from the pill to abortion, and the late twentieth century feminist became a dogmatic, hard-core progressive with a rigid agenda: Her way or the highway!

But something happened for some of us who didn’t buy into the ’60’s Women’s Movement and our daughters who came of age at the end of the century. We, and they, looked around and saw that, while career options had expanded into almost every field, and the wage imbalance was improved (albeit not yet equal), the rage of the sixties feminazis had become limiting rather than empowering. Much to the disgust of the aging leaders of the movement (see pictures of Betty and Gloria, above), the new generation, with their mothers’ support quietly and effectively paved the trails that had been blazed a quarter century before, and began accepting a new view of a woman’s place in society and a different way to reach her goals: She could be anything she chose to be and – horrors! – she could achieve her objective without emasculating the opposite sex or suppressing her own femininity.

The “Third Wave” of the Women’s Movement is hitting the beaches.

Tuesday’s elections graphically underscored the new type of American “feminist” leaders – among them, Carly Fiorina, Jan Brewer, Nikki Haley, Susana Martinez, Kristi Noem, Liz Cheney, and of course, Sarah Palin – as truly empowered women, able to have careers, families, husbands, AND conservative values.

The last forty years have seen a dramatic change in the feminist movement. The laws of nature have shown those radical bra-burners that time will cause the loose boobs to drop farther than Al Gore’s pants in a massage parlor, while a strong, traditional foundation can keep the girls looking real good.

There will be volumes written about the 2010 election, but I think this pretty much sums it all up: