What It Takes

Like most people who believe in the Constitution, freedom, and America, I've been a little down lately. Okay, more than a little down, more like downright pessimistic about where this country will be in five-ten-twenty years from now.

We seem dead-set on spending "other peoples'" money while leadership lies about the costs of social programs, bailouts, and the effects of turning the IRS into a force for social change. The deficit is huge and getting bigger. Unemployment is increasing. Iran is build nuclear weapons. Afghanistan is out of control and Pakistan may fall to "militants" any day.

The worst part of this is thinking about what it would take to get the nation back on track because it's then that I realize it likely won't happen. The real sacrifice (not the Obama brand [i.e. someone else's sacrifice]) it will take to restore the country is immense. The individual strength it will take to hold fast to the Bill of Rights and ideals in the face of Democratic populism (the "me, me, me" entitlement block) is seldom seen in everyday life.

I don't think we have what it takes. I could still be convinced otherwise, but I fear the Republic is doomed.

And then I stumble upon this op-ed (via Rossputin.com) written by Wendy Button a former speechwriter for "John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Barack Obama, and Mayor Tom Menino of Boston as well as other national and international leaders..." This is definitely worth a read if you can stomach the "growths in my uterus" bit.

Ms. Button learned something about her failed ideology; it creates consequences. Those individual consequences were unknown to her while she was promoting health care "reform" (i.e. socialism). She drank the collectivist Kool Aid and didn't understand there was a personal price she would pay for creating "social and economic justice." Now that the bill has come due, Ms. Button is singing a different tune--I wonder if her former employers are listening?

This is where I find my silver lining; consequence. When the individual consequences are fully known, individuals tend to make relatively good decisions. Had Americans known Social Security would be broke within 80 years and the Federal government would use the "fund" as a piggy bank for all sorts of budget misappropriations, the New Deal may have never happened in the first place.

Collective consequences are easier to stomach. We can always fix problem x with person y's money. Where y can be the "rich" or future generations of Americans. But it's the individual consequences that sting!

What it may take to get all Americans (including former liberals) to see the danger of socialism is individual consequences. And despite all of Obama's empty promises, the everyday, working class American will be the most impacted by these policies.

If consequences will be the start of a movement to restore this country to its Constitution, then I welcome them.

In the meantime, I'll be at the bar.