A friend is in Dallas today and ran into a scary group at the hotel where she is staying ... the Heritage Action Sentinel Program, HASP (catchy acronym, wouldn't you say for gatekeepers to protect "our heritage"). Apparently "Thousands of Americans Joined Heritage Action’s Defund Obamacare Town Hall in Dallas" according to their PR story. My friend has been through some scary things ... was unwed single mother at 16, begged her way back into school and graduated, went to college and got a couple of graduate degrees, a couple of nasty divorces, a stalker, works for the state department. Did I mention she is AA, a proud woman of color who has made her way in this life. Not much scares her, but she thought this group was scary.
According to their website:
We take the conservative policy visions outlined by our sister organization, The Heritage Foundation, and make them a reality. We ensure members of Congress hear directly from their constituents, including over 700,000 members of The Heritage Foundation and millions of others around the country who believe in our principles and share our vision of America’s future.
To accomplish this, the do nifty things like give people points for six different categories
Here are the categories and some example work in each:
•Local: going to meetings and building your local conservative network.
•Media: letters to the editor, radio call ins, Op-Eds.
•Congress: call, email, or meet with your Members of Congress.
•Recruit: invite others to become Sentinels and earn 10% of their points.
•Online: Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and comments on heritageaction.com.
•Other: working for conservative accountability? Earn Sentinel points.
In order to remain a part of the Sentinel super doper merit based club, you have to have so many points each year.
It seems that the Heritage Foundation has figured out how to appeal to people with limited lives that want to feel important and useful and to be a part of something BIG. It's a little scary that I can understand how they recruit and keep people and that I can even sympathize with their victims who are scared that they will become the next victims ... but they do not understand their present status and that the devil comes in fine clothes with sweet lies and not in the scary liberal hippy dippy guise that they fear.
The Sentinel organization has training sessions in many different places ... I noticed Texas, Virginia, the Carolinas, etc. I imagine it is nothing new but they do make it sound attractive and it seems as if people are so ready listen to nonsense if it makes they feel better. And people like my friend and me find them scary and just walk around and away from them.
Just for fun because this is nothing new... here is their scoreboard, you can go state by state and see how your congressional delegation ranks but here are their top overall performers:
Top House PERFORMERS
Last Updated on: 08/18/13
Rep. Trent Franks AZ 98%
Rep. Matt Salmon AZ 98%
Rep. David Schweikert AZ 98%
Rep. Jim Bridenstine OK 95%
Rep. Ron DeSantis FL 95%
Top Senate Performers
Last Updated on: 08/18/13
Sen. Ted Cruz TX 100%
Sen. Mike Lee UT 100%
Sen. Rand Paul KY 96%
Sen. Tim Scott SC 92%
Sen. Ron Johnson WI 91%