Joe Siano

September 2009 - As I stood on the lawn of the National Mall, along with hundreds of thousands of kindred souls, I reflected on how far I had traveled and how far my country had traveled with me.

I thought back on those winter nights in Michigan, in another age, when I fervently campaigned on behalf of Ralph Nader in his mission to force consumers to return their empty bottles to merchants and for the shopkeepers to store and ship them back to bottlers.

I was convinced, as were so many young people, that no good ever came of free people acting independently on their own behalf. I was convinced that human progress could only be achieved through the vision and will of virtuous and enlightened leaders who would compel the ignorant masses to comply with their “high-minded” schemes.

And now here I was, standing shoulder to shoulder, with those very people who I disrespected. Those hardworking, tax-paying, family loving, live-and-let-live folks who Dick Nixon once called the “silent majority” and they were silent no more. What happened to them? What happened to me?

I meandered politically. I was drawn to and repelled by personalities. I liked Nixon as a kid but the war in Vietnam seemed pointless and it was cruel to the American boys who fought in it. Watergate angered me and I ran to Carter. He always seemed so sincere and earnest but one thing after another went wrong and bad came to worse. By the time that Ronald Reagan came along, I was a free marketer but I feared the man and people who surrounded him. I feared that he would cavalierly push the world to the brink of nuclear war or failing that, his Religious Right supporters would morph our democracy into a theocracy – a Christian Iran.

Bush 1 seemed OK to me at the time precisely because he was innocuous. But I wondered why did we have to go to war to save one undemocratic Arabic regime from another who supposedly was our guy. And when the Berlin Wall came down, why did we have to spend the “peace dividend”? And what about that promise of “no new taxes”?

Still searching for a political home, I turned to Bill Clinton, a supposedly “new Democrat”. This new “small government” Democrat immediately set upon socializing the health care system. Again, a disappointment.

This brings me to 1997 with Murray Sabrin who was making noise while running as a Libertarian . Finally, I found a party rooted in principal not expedience with a philosophy that was rational, morally defensible and rooted in the finest spirit and traditions of our founding fathers. I joined the party on election night and was on the state board and running for office in only months.

And now twelve years later, I’m standing in the midst of an uprising of enraged citizens who are demanding that government get out of their pockets and off of their backs. People are are calling out politicos of both big parties demanding accountability. Demanding a return to personal self determination and individual responsibility. Demanding a return to the constitutional rule of law.

I felt that I died and went to Libertarian heaven. Whether they realized it or not, these Tea Partiers, these 912ers had arrived at a place that the Libertarian party had staked out nearly 40 years ago. And why?

The borrow and spend orgy that was the supposedly “conservative” Bush administration gave way to the feeding frenzy of Obamaism and it was all too much. The Republic hung in the balance and the majority could be silent no more.

So today we live in a world where to be a Democratic is tantamount to being a card carrying Socialist. And although Republicans are voicing admirable limited government sentiments we must remember that this is the welfare / warfare party of Bush II whose administration ran up record deficits. Whose track record read like fellow Texan Lyndon Johnson’s – big Liberal entitlement programs at home and military adventurism abroad.

That is why I believe that America needs a new party with a new voice, a fresh perspective and a clean slate to begin the hard work of setting the ship of state right. And that’s why I am entering the race for U.S. House of Representatives in the Fourth District of New Jersey.

For those who want just the facts, I am 53 year old. I grew up in South Jersey, graduated from Michigan State University and have worked my entire career in advertising agencies in New York, Philadelphia and New Jersey.

Life in the agency business taught me to respect, value and work with individuals of diverse talents, temperaments, ethnicities and lifestyle choices. It taught me to respect the free-will choices and the wisdom of American consumers. They can smell a lie and will reject bad products out-of-hand, no matter how clever the advertising. And it taught me about accountability. Advertising is a “what have you done for me today” business. Our clients are under extreme pressure. We understand that and must stay on top of our game to support these clients or we will be replaced..

Because of what my business career taught me, I will always respect my constituents. I will always be accountable and on top of my game. I will know full well who I work for and that I can be replaced.