I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve. — Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese fleet that attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941
The giant proceeded to unleash fury which Americans now regard with both pride and sadness.
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President Obama and the Democrats have launched an assault more capable of destroying our country than a thousand times the bombs and bullets that rained down on Oahu.
“Progressives” created big government in FDR’s New Deal, grew that government to mountainous proportions during LBJ’s Great Society, and now threaten to snuff out the American dream with BHO’s “transformation.” Progressivism’s practitioners push transformation that destroys people’s self-reliance with a social agenda funded by unsustainable taxation, spending, and debt. Conservatives can stop the progressives by awakening the passion and initiative sleeping beneath Americans’ apathy and disengagement.
Conservatives must anticipate that liberals will do as liberals always do when people assert any truth which is at odds with liberal doctrine. Liberals will try to dampen conservative resolve with relentless demonization that encourages Americans to mistrust the bearers of the offending truths.
Conservative: adherent to traditional values, conditions, or tastes; marked by moderation or caution.
The definition captures who and what conservatives really are. But as any objectively observant person knows all too well, liberals portray conservatives as backward, heartless, overly judgmental, change-resistant bigots. Cheerfulness, it seems, is a liberal forte.
Ideology: body of ideas, beliefs, and theories on life.
Conservatism is indeed an ideology. But to end the description there is a mistake. Conservatism is a way of living life, not just a theory of life. The conservative agenda is mostly shaped by data and facts and motivated by liberty, not feel-good naïveté.
To the conservative, armed law-abiding citizens shooting gun-wielding lawbreakers makes sense. Insisting that freebie-addicted dependents earn their own living is based on the observation that when freebies are withheld, freebie-addicted dependents earn their own living. To the conservative, finding no proof that humans cause global warming makes sense, considering the lack of proof that humans cause global warming.
There are common threads in all three scenarios. Effective conservatives employ a mostly commonsense, largely objective way of observing the world. Conservatives generally apply sound logic to sound science, economics, and psychology and reject pie-in-the-sky theory. Common sense and objectivity is, however, not always observed by conservatives. It cannot be honestly denied that political class conservatives have occasionally foisted up ideology and exerted government influence to inflict religious or socially narrow views on the people. Yet conservatives simply do not abuse such political power to the extent to which liberals abuse that power.
America’s biggest problem today is that few politicians act out of common sense and objectivity. Few legislate by applying sound logic to sound science, economics, and psychology. This must change.
Highly effective conservatives would do well do adopt a more libertarian outlook and cultivate a climate that allows each individual to live the life fashioned by that individual, with limited government influence.
The 7 habits of highly effective conservatives
- Accountability: Hold self and others accountable for choices.
- Agenda guided by truth: Pursue positive, realistic objectives.
- Emphasis on results: Do what works.
- Thought over emotion: Embrace logic of the mind over recklessness of the heart.
- Honesty from moral clarity: Apply traditional values to distinguish right from wrong.
- Commitment to the individual: Maximize personal freedom.
- Objective patriotism: Learn from mistakes and promote America as a force for good.
“Habits” are practiced behaviors that generate policies, which when implemented, generate results. Many conservatives make the mistake of professing conservative “beliefs.” The practice is unwise. Unless beliefs are accompanied with solid proof, the “believers” reveal themselves as dogmatists.
Conservatism must not degenerate into dogma. Dogma is a body of beliefs born of pure faith and devoid of evidence—or worse still, in conflict with evidence. Ideology has the same flavor. To grow more effective, conservatives must put clear thinking before ideology, live the seven habits, and advocate policies based on the way in which the world actually works.
The societal and economic destruction which Obama and the Democrats invite can be prevented by people dedicated to truth, logic, and the individual. People whose vision is to improve the individual—starting with themselves. People who infect everyone whom they touch with a passion for individual power to achieve instead of waiting for government to mete out “fairness” and “equality.”
With the rise to power of Fairness-and-Equality-Monger-in-Chief Barack Obama, Americans face a decision.
The people can let Obama and the Democrats spend, borrow, tax, spend and spend, until prosperity evaporates. Americans can let the liberal ruling class elitists “spread the wealth” so thinly that only the super wealthy have any left to confiscate for spreading. Hard-working people can let the Democrats send America back to the 1930s, which the donkeys surely will do, as the arrogant know-it-alls will neither comprehend nor acknowledge doing precisely that.
Or…
Conservatives can become effective conservatives, kick the government behemoth in the butt, and command, “Stop!”
