Over the weekend of Nov. 4th and 5th I was among four Montanans who accompanied State Director of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, Scott Sales, to Washington D.C. for the fifth annual “Defending the American Dream Summit.”
AFPF State Director Scott Sales Delivers Invocation at AFPF Tribute to Reagan Dinner
Americans for Prosperity Foundation is a grassroots organization with more than 1,800,000 activists across the country, and 34 state chapters and affiliates advocating for public policies that promote principles of entrepreneurship, limited government and fiscal and regulatory restraint
Along with former Speaker of the House was news talk radio host, Mark Allen, of Belgrade, Americans for Prosperity grassroots coordinator and Bozeman radio personality, Henry Kriegel, and President of the MSU College Republicans, Jeremy Carpenter.
Attendees gathered to take a stand against the countless egregious of the current administration, including the passage of an unconstitutional health care bill now being challenged by half of the United States. The AFP Summit brought conservatives together as an objection to the deficit spending which has stifled the U.S. economy.
2012 GOP presidential candidates Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, and businessman Herman Cain addressed the crowd during the opening session. Over the course of the two-day event in D.C., more than 2,500 people participated in training sessions led by expert panelists on a wide range of economic issues. Panel speakers included Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN); young filmmaker, James O’Keefe, with Project Veritas; President of Americans for Tax Reform, Grover Norquist; and author Jonah Goldberg among others.
In addition to the training sessions, event sponsors including the Heritage Foundation, the American Conservative Union, Hillsdale College, Young America’s Foundation, and the National Tax Payers Union held a job fair.
Day two began with a “Cut Spending Rally” led by author and political commentator, Andrew Breitbart and radio host, Mark Levin who drew attendees to their feet in the unified chant to “Cut Spending Now!” Americans for Prosperity President, Tim Phillips, said that while an invitation had been extended to President Obama, he refused to attend the rally.
Former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Carly Fiorina, and filmmaker Ann McElhinney spoke about their own pathways to success; those which could never have been traveled anywhere else in the world. McElhinney, an immigrant from Ireland, praised the freedoms and opportunities granted to her since becoming an American citizen, and challenged listeners to pass along the “American Dream” to younger generations by teaching the principles that so many baby boomers lived by. Fiorina spoke about her rise from a secretary to the CEO of Fortune 500 company through merit, not by entitlement.
Outside the Dream Summit, others sang a much different tune protesting prosperity, carrying signs with mantras like “Human Being—not Human Resources,” “Occupy Everything,” and “Everything for Everyone.” Protesting not an overreaching federal government, but “corporate influence,” occupants have deemed wealth holders the antagonists of freedom. This disdain for “wealth” has to be the bi-product of an entitlement era, one that’s inciting civil unrest in many cities around the country.
I was impressed by the civility inside the convention center, as op posed to the occupants outside, many of whom swarmed all the doors on the convention center preventing attendees from leaving and making it necessary for security and police officers to intervene. Security guards had to forcefully remove one protester who attempted to disrupt the Reagan Memorial Dinner, for which former Speaker of the House, Scott Sales gave the invocation.
Timely enough, it was Reagan who said that “a free people will always choose peace”. Those words couldn’t ring more true than by comparing the two kinds of “protesters” at the Dream Summit; those rebelling outside the convention center, and those rallying inside the convention center
To conclude the memorial dinner, Judge Andrew Napolitano gave an impassioned speech inspired by the Reagan quote; “Freedom is never more than a generation away from extinction.” Almost no other message could have been more fitting, and it’s that exact quote which has motivated my involvement with the Young Republicans, my central committee, the State Legislature, and various campaigns.
I can only hope that more young people will get involved in organizations like Americans for Prosperity Foundation and events like “Defending the American Dream,” and am thankful to have been afforded the opportunity to attend.

Jessica Sena, a native of Choteau, Montana, is the Western Regional Vice Chairwoman of the Young Republican National Federation.