Although
The Oxford Tea Party is still on vacation but I wanted to say Merry Christmas
and Happy New year to everyone…. Maybe even add a though or two since I was at
the computer.
When I
see the ducks on the pond I finally give in and accept that it's winter. The
ducks are now on the pond every morning. Yesterday, I got the last of the one
hundred and twenty trees and shrubs in the ground which finishes the
landscaping for this year. Thank goodness, I can now turn off the irrigation
wells, drain the lines, and call it quits till next spring.
Don't
have any winter travel plans so far. Went to Costa Rica last year and hated
it. Americans are more or less targets
in the many of the under developed countries so they are off our to-visit list.
We like to escape the cold in January or February so there is plenty of
planning time.
Introspection: How much does it cost and where do I buy
some?
Does
time change principles, alter values, and does time move on?
The
answer to these questions is , YES. (For some but never all.)
When
we look around everything we see has changed. Even the cursed bathroom mirror
tells us daily that we have changed as well as the skyline of our cities, TV,
value of money has changed along with food and gas prices. Change is
everywhere. Our best trick in managing this change has been to make judgments
on what is acceptable to us or not acceptable to us in this changing world. So
at best no more than half of what's going on is OK but the other half of the
changes aren't and it leaves us anxious and angry. On top of that is if the changes aren't
acceptable to us , we don't want those to be acceptable to 'THEM" either.
THEM is everyone else including the man next door, family members as well as
our dually elected. It's everyday. It's in our faces nightly on our newscasts,
newspapers, and discussions at the local coffee shop.
The Tea Party finds its roots in this worry,
fear, and anger. At the core of this last election what happened was not
acceptable to Tea folks as well as many other conservative. Obama being the icon of this change and
change won.
In
every experience, good or bad, there is the opportunity to learn. Usually if it
is really bad the experience jars us enough to reevaluate our desires, wants,
and beliefs. More often than not the opportunity to learn is lost through our
denial and rationalizing trivial details of what should or shouldn't have been
done by this or that candidate. The
outcome of this election created an undeniable and profound
loss. The loss was our belief that conservative ideals, beliefs, and values
were still most American's values and beliefs. Well, clearly they are not and
there is no way we can make it so. This group of American citizens that don't
hold what I call traditional values and beliefs is growing and is reflected in
their voting numbers.
There is another election is twenty three
months. Who and what the Tea Party is
has been sullied and viewed as a liability by many voters along with a
large group of politicians. We are seen as the extreme group within the
Republican Party. Ask yourself if any politician will embrace the Tea Party
support in the next election cycle. To hold the House and hopefully add a few
senators in 2014, all the Republicans will rush to a more liberal center with a
more centrist encompassing message. (This might be done without giving up
'smaller government' principles.)
For
their own purposes the more conservative writers are turning out article after
article placing the blame for the loss
on the mistakes they feel the campaign people made in their directing Romney….
Mistakes were made. So, are we to believe that Obama was reelected because of
these mistakes? Not hardly. We ran a good principled man who lacked the ability
to articulate a message that encompassed all Americans. Period….
Obama
was/is seen as a strong leader with a vision and goals. Right or wrong that is
the perception by majority of voters. Romney was seen as one more white, well
educated, nice rich male who didn't seem
to understand that the campaign was a war. Certainly he was not perceived as a
man of action. In times of trouble we look to a strong decisive leader. We all
know people who just didn't vote. There was little enthusiasm inside the GOP or
the Tea Party for Romney.
How
far back can you remember people saying, "Oh, I voted for him because he
didn't seem as bad as the other one?" That was in the background thinking
of many voters in this election…. Surprise… How many men, just like Romany, has
the GOP run for president in the last thirty or forty years. All lost and we
wonder why. Looking back at this campaign the conservative vision was missing.
Within our families
and friends we will find a whole bunch of people that want government to take
care of them at one level or another.
They just voted. Even in the group that voted against Obama with their
vote for Romney most want some level of active social government programs. We
know this because this same group of voters keep reelecting the same good old
boys and girls in both parties that created the warm fuzzy social caretaking
programs…The story goes that one of the national political parties wants a
smaller less intrusive government and not as many social programs as the other
party. WOW...How does one measure the differences? By imagining there is a
difference!
I don't care very
much how the rest of the world see us and I seldom read foreign press. But
every now and then an article published half way around the world finds it way
into my computer.
Here
is a article from Czech Republic newspaper Prager Zeitungon.
"The danger to
America is not Barack Obama, but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like
him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of
an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment
to a electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is
much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what
ails America. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the
vast confederacy of foolish voters that made him their prince. The Republic can
survive a Barack Obama but less likely to survive the multitude of people such
as those who made him their president."
Over
the past three years I have suggested in numerous articles that the problems in
our government is our responsibility. We elect someone and expect them to live
up to their campaign talk. They don't… They run again and we reelect them again
and again… Where and when do we realize we have to punish these people for
failing us? After each of these articles I get a variety of comments. Such
as how dumb I must be to all the way to
take me off your mailing list. At the core of our form of government is the
notion, "A government for and by the people." Not one that is for and
by the elected people. Somehow we have to get this straight. It is not their
government it is our government.
Has anyone wondered
why so many Republican voters stayed home in this election? The mantra had been
that this election was the most important election in our lifetime. I'm sure
there are at least three and a half million reasons why they chose not to vote. (Maybe some of the three
and a half million who didn't vote had
more than one reason.) Many voters
seemed to choose not to vote because they confused government and governing
with their personal beliefs, social and moral values. The Republican voters who
stayed home and did not vote did not connect the dots. They effectively voted
for Obama. (While wailing and beating their chests about the current
government.)
Government is about protecting the people and
the country as well as supporting social laws needed for a group of people to
live together who have different values and beliefs. At the core of the American experiment is
personal freedom. You cannot have a free country where people are not free to
make their own choices about their personal and family lives.
If the power of
government is used to impose beliefs and values on certain citizens not only
they but we also lose our freedoms. This is a very fine line and often we don't
notice when its been crossed.
Old Hebrew law and
Muslim law gives the right and obligation to judge others. One religion was not more strict than the
other in terms of controlling the beliefs and behavior of their citizens. What gets missed in this translation is the
individual who is judging does not question the wrongness in their judging
others. When HE was asked, the answer was simple, "He who is without sin
cast the first stone."
Stones were cast
during the last presidential primaries. We lost Newt Gingrich as a potential
president because many could not get past their moral judgments. He may or may not have won but he would have
fought the fights and his beliefs very much aligned with conservative beliefs
in governing. Primaries are sorting out process and I have no idea if his loss
was a good thing or not. My sense is that the
national GOP will shun any
candidate that has a strong stance on conservative ideas of government. Clearly
we lost two conservative men running for the senate in this last election over
what was seen as women's rights and
clearly morally based. Abortion seemed to be the focal point for
many in the Tea Party as well as many Christian groups. There isn't any
reason to think this will not be an issue to the same voters next time and
leading to the same political outcome.
To what extent and
in what areas of our lives are we willing for government to, through laws,
dictate our values, morals, and behavior. Liberal voters don't want government
involved at all in their private lives. Conservatives say the same with a big
BUT at the end of the sentence.
This is not a
question of one side or the other giving in on social issues. It's a question
of knowing what the reality is. Women won the right to vote in the early part
of the last century. In the mid-sixties NOW was established and women movement
began in earnest to assert women's rights in every area of family, community,
business, and government. Women, as a whole,
never will, nor should they, give up any of the rights and privileges
they have struggled so long and hard for.
Any politician, group, or national party, who threatens any of their accomplishments
will fail. It’s a done deal.
What does this mean
to the country, the economy, and our future? We can't draw on history for
answers or guides. This has never happened before. It is the women's vote that
will decide who will be elected in every election cycle. Challenge them at your peril.
Our economy hasn't
been good for the last couple of decades. Congress being congress they were
able to hide so much of the slippage by tweaking the governmental systems and
borrowing money. John Lenin said in a song, "One thing you can't hide is
when you are crippled inside."
Our crippling
process has been slow but consistent over many congresses and election cycles.
The question facing government and the rest of us is do we want to accept what we have done with our spending
spree and pay the price that has come due or simply add it to our credit card?
Hard core conservatives might say accept the consequence and pay the bill.
However, when has American citizens or their politicians ever made difficult
decisions unless they are pushed to the wall?
Most Americans do
not have a clue as to what the financial cliff is…. Many of us have lived
through a numbers of recessions. We know that the lower middle class and the lower income earner, as well as the
folks on social programs are the ones who are hit the hardest by recessions.
Our history tells us
that Americans stand up for what is right, try and right every wrong, and will
fight to protect their country…. The main difference between now and back then
is we can't identify the enemy or who or what we need to protect the country
from. If we jump back a few feet to get a better look we see that it is we the
people. It can't be anything or anyone else. The American citizens elected these government employees…. (Pogo: I
have seen the enemy and it is me.)
Not just in America
but in different parts of the world countries are dividing, floundering, many
collapsing financially. The prayer President Museveni prayed for his country
has a ring to it that resounds for so many people in so many countries around the
world.
Ugandan's President Yoweri Museveni
“We confess these sins, which
have greatly hampered our national cohesion and delayed our political, social
and economic transformation. We confess sin of idolatry which is rampant in our land. We confess sins
of shedding innocent blood, sins of political hypocrisy, dishonesty, intrigue
and betrayal. Forgive us of sins of
pride, tribalism and sectarianism; sins of laziness, indifference and
irresponsibility; sins of corruption and bribery that have eroded our national
resources; sins of sexual immorality, drunkenness and debauchery; sins of
unforgiveness, bitterness, hatred and revenge; sins of injustice, oppression
and exploitation; sins of rebellion, insubordination, strife and conflict,” So Museveni prayed a prayer for his nation.
Our opponents,
whoever they may be, in this 'crash-the-nation' game imagines they have won.
They imagine this because they don't understand that the outcome in this game
is everyone loses. At the core this is a battle over the beliefs and values
that were the foundation this nation was built on. This battle can never be
over. These very issues have has been fought over many times in our
history. These are not just Tea Party
values or conservative beliefs. These are basic American beliefs and are the
only anchor we, them, and the nation have.
Enough
said….. Maybe too much…. Now lets take a look at one man's effort to say Merry
Christmas….
Ron
docnick37@gmail.com
