Create a Little Controversy and Raise Some Cash!

This gets kind of complicated, but it is important to understand these organizations and the role they play in today’s political landscape.  These organizations all have a purpose, and that purpose is similar to organizations you see on the left.  They are all designed to drum up money donations while never fixing the actual issues the money is solicited to solve.  Many conservatives are familiar with Al Sharpon, Jesse Jackson, Al Gore and each of their corresponding liberal organizations.  We all know that if they actually solved the issues they were fighting against, they would be out of jobs and even worse…money. 

I recently concluded a series of communications aimed at responding to an email from Dudley Brown of the National Association of Gun Rights.  What I have figured out since is that Dudley Brown is merely a puppet. The puppeteer behind the NAGR and several other entities is a man that has dedicated his career to creating controversy in order to get the cash to flow in.  He has trained countless libertarian leaning conservatives in the art of issue baiting to get the money spigot turned on, all while NEVER solving a thing.  This man has created a tangled web of overlapping organizations all funneling up to him.  He has placed his trained confidants in charge of each of these entities all while he sits in the wings pulling the strings. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Michael Rothfeld.  

Who is Michael Rothfeld?  He is from Virginia.  Rothfeld is the founder of the National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR), and is currently listed as their board member.  Rothfeld is best known for his direct mail machine, Saber Communications, Inc.  Saber is notorious in the political universe for putting hard hitting controversial direct mail pieces into the mailboxes of voters across America.  These mail pieces are designed to stir up conservatives with misleading quotes and spurring action all while asking for donations for the candidate, cause, etc.  From his biography page: “Mike’s vision for SABER is to give conservative organizations and candidates an advantage in a political environment that is often hostile to principles such as limited-government, the right to keep and bear arms and protecting the unborn”.

Rothfeld has been a consultant on several campaigns. He uses his database of mailing addresses and email addresses to solicit funds through direct mail and email marketing campaigns.  Rothfeld worked for the 2012 Ron Paul presidential campaign. Two of his associates from Virginia were indicted in August by a federal grand jury in an alleged endorsement-for-pay scheme dating back to that Paul campaign.   Although Rothfeld has not been indicted for his actions, it is clear he worked very closely with the two that were (Read this article).  It is also clear that Saber has been at the heart of several controversial communications with the current Rand Paul 2016 campaign for president (Article 1, Article 2).  In fact Rothfeld’s organizations are deeply entwined between Ron and Rand Paul’s presidential campaigns (Read this article).

Rothfeld has many other organizations that he has either founded or co-founded all designed to push the “hot topic” for conservatives.  NAGR is a gun rights group.  National Pro-Life Alliance (NPLA) is an anti-abortion group.  National Right to Work Committee (NRTWC) is an anti-union group.  National Council for Freedom and Enterprise (NCFE) is a lobbying group used in several states to push his agenda.  Foundation for Conservative Leadership (FCL) is an organization to train activists.  Campaign for Liberty (C4L) is a quasi-grassroots organization used to gather recruits.  They all have in common a design to funnel money into Rothfeld and his inner circle.

Rothfeld’s group hosts training based on activism.  Campaign for Liberty which had deep ties to the Ron Paul campaign, specializes in training activists.  I interviewed an individual that attended a training arranged by Campaign for Liberty and facilitated by the Foundation for Conservative Leadership. While attending the training, he felt “something wasn’t right, and I’m a liberty loving American.”  He expressed his feelings to his trainer, and was immediately excommunicated from the group.  He had friends that actually went on to take the next level of education from the FCL.  Each of them left the organization feeling that the movement wasn’t for them. The problems they relayed to him centered on money.  Everything they were training for was to shake the money tree from conservatives.

This leads me back to my responses to Dudley Brown.  I concluded that Dudley was shamelessly using misinformation toward the Convention of States Project in several states to whip up a frenzy that would lead to money to his organization.  This teaching comes straight from Rothfeld.  He and his minion Ted Patterson employ a technique they term as the “confrontational model” to win political battles.  This model is to essentially push the “hot button” and watch the money roll in.  I mean, don’t mess with a conservative’s guns, religion, or our beloved Constitution.  Rothfeld has mastered the art of misinformation and misquotes to make the reader believe that there is a crisis and they must support his organizations to fight back.  The problem is, Rothfeld doesn’t care what he destroys along his path to the money train (read this article).

“We shouldn’t really need money to fight for our liberty,” said Rothfeld at a 2014 C4L event, imitating the voice of a critic. “Bless your little socialist hearts. I don’t like that direct mail, because all they do is ask for money. And then they earn a living. Outrageous! People that spent 40, 50, 60, 70 hours a week of their lives, who have wives and children, husbands, dreams, sicknesses just like you do. How dare they earn a living, huh? And you know who you are, bless your heart, that think like that.” Bless your heart, Rothfeld explained, was “Southern” for “you’re an idiot.”

Rothfeld, Brown, and Patterson are now employing their tactics toward the Convention of States.  Just last weekend the group NCFE sent an email out to Nebraska saying the Convention of States pending legislation would lead to a “runaway convention”.  The email further insists that the Convention of States and liberal groups are working together behind the scenes.  Again, more scare tactics and false statements while asking their email list for money. 

The real shame in all of this goes back to the founding of all these groups by Rothfeld.  If they were liberty loving, self-governance promoting, conservative groups you would believe they would be all rallying around the Convention of States movement sweeping the nation.  He has gone out of his way to promote these groups as the answer to liberalism in America, while in reality, these groups act just like them.  Spreading lies and falsehoods while promoting the status quo so that they will remain relevant. They continually need a crisis to allow the money to flow, all while the country continues its downward spiral. You see, they can’t raise money if they actually solve the issues like a Convention of States has the ability to do.