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The "Big" Bad Word

"On the other hand, big government, which so many liberals adore, represents a usurpation of the allegedly inalienable rights of individuals." -- Burt Prelutsky
 
Watching the big game a month ago gave me a chance to see history, and see it I would. I would either see the culmination of the greatest season in NFL history or the sport's greatest upset. Why do you think they call it the big game? Various reasons apply from the game's importance this season to its place in all of sports history. The same goes for the big day. You know what day I'm talking about and why it is so important. If you don't, just look at your left hand. Either you've got a ring or you don't. If you do, you know it. If you don't, you know it. That's why it's called the big day.
 
I watch my own children use this word to describe things that have massive size. Of course, from their perspective, a lot of things tend to be pretty "big". Whether it is a toy or a plate of food, my children tend to throw that word around at everything.
 
Unfortunately, in some circles of national politics, big is given a negative connotation. How long has it been since you heard a speech on the evils of what is called big oil or big business? While I do agree that not everything that the oil companies and businesses in our nation do are right, I don't agree that they are evil simply because they are big.
 
This is why Burt Prelutsky's article titled, A 12 Step Program for Liberals stood out to me. The above quote is from Step #7 of his 12 step program. NOTE: I have both mentioned Mr. Prelutsky's name and linked to his article. I also requested his permission to do so in this article that is intended to be an expansion on his writing. We conservatives try to rise above the plariaristic tendencies of our liberal counterparts.
 
Big is not and should not be a vulgar and pejorative reference to successful companies. If it weren't for their success the unemployment rate would be much higher than the 4.8% it is as of February 2008. Whenever a liberal wants to denigrate an entity in America they use the simple adjective...big!
 
That seems to apply across the board. Liberals hate successful business! Why? Because such disprove and delegitimize their reason for existence. Think about it this way, what better way to destroy a philosophy that prides itself on the perception that people cannot succeed without their help than to highlight the individual successes that exist in successful business!
 
Let me explain...most major business in our country begins with an individual or group of individuals who take an idea and a huge chance, step out on their own and build an organization from the ground up. Liberalism believes such is impossible without its own big government taxation, regulation, and subsidization.
 
This unveils the liberal mindset. The only thing the liberal calls big in a good sense is the government. If the government can expand, the liberal is happy. Liberals are excited about the opportunity of being the biggest business entity in our country. Liberals want more of your money to spend however they want. Liberals believe that you aren't qualified to properly spend your own money, but they are!
 
Big government sucks the success right out of our economy. It does so by rewarding sloth and punishing success. The more money you make the higher your tax rate. This means you pay more taxes and a larger percentage of the total tax load. Just take a look at this chart and compare the percentage of taxes paid by those in the top 1% of income earners versus that of the other categories. People earning less than $31K pay just over 3% of total taxes.
 
I think what it boils down to is envy. Liberals seem to envy the aggressive entrepreneurship that is at the heart of our economy. They want the success that stems from business building without the effort it takes to create it. It's lazy! I guess that is why they want to share that wealth with their lazy legions.
 
Lazy liberal legions hinder economic success in our nation. They use Robin Hood (actual voodoo) economics to stifle business growth. The bigger the government gets, the smaller your freedom becomes. Big government and individual freedom cannot coexist. Government grows at your expense. How much more freedom are you willing to surrender before you say that enough is enough? How much more tax money will it require for big government to fix every ill in our nation? Honestly, probably a lot more than you are willing to pay.
 
Big government isn't like the big game. Well, it is only in the sense that a lot is on the line. Let's make history and turn the government back the other way. Remember the principle: Bigger government, smaller individual freedom. Smaller government, bigger individual freedom.
 
Let's make big government the big, bad word.
 
Defending the True America!
 
Mark "The True Patriot" West
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Are We Too Fat?

"Beyond--beyond these essentials, I believe our federal government is overgrown and overweight. Indeed, it is time our government should go on a diet." -- Ronald Reagan
 
I did something the other day that I do not usually do. You see, there is a conflict, a conflagration when it comes to me and this particular activity. I did this for two reasons and two reasons only! First, my clothing doesn't fit me like I want. Second, my reflection in the mirror is ginormous!
 
So I broke down, slipped the devilish device away from the wall and took...a step. The sound from that step was like crossing a rusty gate hinge with a worn out brake pad. My hope was that this noise was a common refrain of this device. My realization, unfortunately, is that it was a moan of agony. The scales recoiled under the girth that I placed on them as I stood with both feet right in the center.
 
Disbelief! I had worked so hard four years ago to lose a lot of weight and was very successful. Then the whispers started, the "comments", the "advice". Suddenly, my achievement became a detriment. I was ashamed to be so skinny! So I began to eat...and I ate. Now I arrive exactly where I was prior to my enormous triumph.
 
Introspection is painful! Wouldn't it be great if our government would do a little? I believe our national stomach is turning again as Reagan noted it was in 1980 during a time that a new word was introduced into the English dialect...stagflation! Our government if grotesquely overweight with a body mass index near one hundred.
 
What needs to happen? Government needs to take a look in the mirror and realize that it doesn't look like it is supposed to look. Our constitution lays out the essentials for our government...say a waistline of 32 (men's). In comparison, our government is wearing at least a size 66! What do I mean? Well, why does our republic exist? We must look back to our national foundation to answer that question.
 
"We hold these truths to be self-evident," says the Declaration of Independence. What truths? Truth number one "that all men are created equal". Truth number two "that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights". In essence, we are all equal by virtue of our creation, not our government. Who created us? Duh, God did, through Jesus Christ! When God created us, He gave us certain rights that cannot be taken from us, even by our government because they supercede it. What rights? Right number one, "that among these are Life,". Right number two, "Liberty,". Right number three, "and the pursuit of happiness." Every created person has the right to live, the right to live free, and the right to pursue what it is that makes them happy.
 
Why is all that important? "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,". Government has one purpose, the securing of our rights. Government is empowered by us for this purpose and this purpose alone. However, certain duties accompany this purpose. The Declaration of Independence gives our government purpose, the Constitution gives our government duties. 
 
Does anyone remember the preamble to our national constitution? Here is a refresher, "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
 
Our government exists to establish justice (make laws), keep the peace at home, protect us from our external enemies, promote national well-being, and pass freedom on to the next generation. The bulkiness in the beltway of our nation is caused by an erroneous understanding of one clause. Our government is designed to promote the general welfare, not to provide it! Promote means to help or encourage to exist or flourish, to advance, to aid. Provide means to make available, furnish, or supply. Please tell me that you see the difference?!
 
Our government should promote retirement, not provide retirement through the flailing Social Security system. Our government has no constitutional business building museums, paying people not to work, or supplying medicine. Our government has every consitutional duty to promote these things through law making but not to provide these things through law making. Imagine our nation if it were not for all of the overextending debits created by our governmental tentacles doing more than it is empowered to by our foundational documents.
 
If our government were willing to step on the scales and look in the mirror, it would definitely see the need for a diet! You diet by cutting out the non-essentials from your menu of food choices. If our government would stop attempting to provide for the general welfare and move back into its' essential role as a promoter of general welfare it could loose a lot of weight a lot of quick.
 
Kind of like Slim Fast, which by the way, I am starting on Monday. I want to look like I should and have my clothes fit like they should. Our government needs share in this desire.
 
Defending the True America!
 
Mark "The True Patriot" West
Tags: spending  
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Conservatism Is Change

 

Facts are stubborn things.” – President Ronald Reagan

A change will do you good. Does it remind you of the song? Good, that’s what I was going for. If it doesn’t, just Google it. Of course whether or not change would do you good would depend on what I mean by change. This buzzword is being tossed around by many candidates in this election. All of the Democrat candidates have bunted this idea around to the fulminating applause of their supporters. Republicans Mitt Romney and Ron Paul have been stalwarts of this discourse.

Digesting all of these declarations leaves me with the same fundamental question I left you with. What do they mean by change? Examination of their platforms and stump speeches leaves me with the impression that they seek change, but not real change.

So here we are again…what do I mean by change? Let me begin with what I do not mean by change. I’ll do this by laying out some facts that are true for me and detailing how my concept of change is supported by these facts.

FACT: The establishment with different leaders is still the establishment.

Our government is like a broken water pipe…running cleaner water through it isn’t going to fix the break! Every candidate is doing nothing more than proposing to run clean water through the broken pipe.  I propose that we need to actually fix the pipe. Money is at the heart of the government problem. Money trickles down and creates every other problem we have in this nation. Uncovering the root of our problems occurs when you follow the money trail. Government begets government, not freedom. Should we be proud that our government is the largest enterprise in America!?

FACT: Real leadership finds real solutions in times of crisis.

When your water pipe is busted, that is not the time for debate, it is the time for action. Leaders act, sometimes correctly others fallibly but always in what they believe to be the best interests of those they lead. Health care is broken? Then get to the root of the problem. Unfortunately, our leaders tend to pass the crisis off to the next generation. Why? Real change requires work and sacrifice. Popularity and the next election drives our leaders more than commitment and sacrifice. Doing the good thing takes precedence over doing the right thing.

Now, another fact will define what real change means to me.

FACT: Real change works from the bottom up, not the top down.

Sometimes you just have to replace the pipe! That requires getting nasty, dirty and sweaty. You will have to put on your working clothes.  Revolution is not the labor of the feeble!

“All great change in American begins at the dinner table.” – President Ronald Reagan

We must empower families not with government regulations or subsidies, but with the freedom of choice. Families must be allowed to choose the pursuit of happiness that best meets their needs rather than be pigeon-holed into a governmental mold for the model citizen. Our tragedy is that so many have been robbed of liberty, instead settling for a litany of government handouts.

Empowering individual freedom, not the government’s, nor those running it, is the best change Americans can experience. It is the solution to our problems. It is the hope in our darkness. It is the light for our valley. It is the voice that calls us to press on knowing that we haven’t yet achieved our greatest days. We need to push away from the government table of subsidy, regulation, and bondage to the freedom of the family dinner table to make our own happiness.

Empower someone with the liberty to think and act and you will empower the man for a lifetime.

A change will do YOU good!
Tags: Citizenship  
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Hope Is Substance

 

"We are the showcase of the future. And it is within our power to mold that future this year and for decades to come. It can be as grand and as great as we make it. No crisis is beyond the capacity of our people to solve; no challenge too great." --President Ronald Reagan (1974)

We fail to exist if we have no hope! We roam through our lives as mindless zombies with our only inclination being to feast upon the weaknesses of fellow man. Conservatives get it...liberals do not!

I know, I know, its the liberals that are campaigning vigorously on hope. Just because they are campaigning on it does not mean that they understand it. Liberals have campaigned on big government programs for years and yet are clueless as to how to fix the programs already in existence as it is.

Did you watch the Democrat Party debate between Billary and Bama earlier this week? Did you happen to catch the implied theme of the debate? It was there, hiding scurrilously in the shadows of their comments. Lingering deceptively under the waves made by their verses of change and hope was the theme for their debate. Did you hear it? You need them because you are not good enough.

Liberals do not believe you are good enough to fix your own problems. Liberals believe that as the self-appointed elite in our society, they are the "chosen ones" who are able to fix every problem in your life. Liberals believe that you need them, that your life would be miserable and drab if they were not around to feel and heal your pain.

Unfortunately, they have no clue what real hope is. Hope doesn't need to make you need it. Hope doesn't need to beat you down to build you up. Hope doesn't need negatives to make a positive. Hope needs only the opportunity to speak.

Hope is substance. Hope is believing that you can do it, not that you need someone to do it for you. Hope is acting on what you believe, knowing that you can not count on someone else to make it happen in your life. Hope is realizing what our founding fathers meant when they said that we are both created and endowed by God with equality (a concept liberals despise) in our rights and personhood.

Hope motivates and drives us to actualize our abilities. Hope doesn't need help it needs opportunity. Channeling Rob Schneider from The Waterboy, "You can do it!" I agree, you can do it. You don't need the help of any politician from Washington D.C., all that you need is the opportunity. Stop and look at your circumstances. How do you respond to them? Do you blame them or learn from them?

You are the substance of hope when you realize your potential and actualize your abilities through the opportunities you have on your own. Liberals are cringing right now because they have been exposed. They don't offer you hope, they offer you bondage disguised as hope. I'll get into that next time.
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