“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.

"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?