Through Cory’s Eyes

I haven’t written anything in a little while, but today I felt the need to write about what I believe to be true power in our own lives.  I’ve come across many people that say to me “I don’t care what decisions other people make as long as it doesn’t effect me personally” and I have to be honest I understand the sentiment behind that statement, but the ramifications of our decisions sometimes aren’t seen on the surface.  I am a big believer in self governance as well as individual liberty.  However, it’s undeniable that with those God-given rights comes responsibility to ourselves, our families, and our local communities or else we quickly surrender those rights to someone whom doesn’t have our best interests at heart.

 The truth is those decisions we make do effect other people.  Maybe we don’t see it ourselves, but the facts are there that it happens.  Also it really should just be common sense.  I used to be a stock clerk at Publix.  Not a bad job for a 19 year old.  The pay wasn’t very good, but I liked the people and it taught me a little about responsibility.  It’s at this job, though that I really learned to have a liberal mentality.  I always felt like I was underpaid or owed something.  I actually complained to my manager that I couldn’t afford an apartment even if I had a roommate(as if this was his problem).  Basically with this mindset I went from being a very hard worker to very lazy and a whiner at work.  It effected my relationships with my co-workers as well as effected my communication with my managers.  In turn this effected the staff view of me which also effected my mood negatively.  I took this mood home with me and had an attitude problem with my friends and family alike.    It then effected my habits at home negatively. 

This was the result of feeling “owed” certain things from the company.  The minute I felt owed something and wasn’t getting it I put the control over my life in the hands of people that don’t have my best interests at heart(and I’m not saying they should because it wasn’t their responsibility).  Many continue on in life with these same types of habits and wonder why they don’t get anywhere.  So when they aren’t getting anywhere the government seems to feed this entitlement mentality with empty promises.  Some of these promises that are actually upheld that feed this entitlement mentality only vindicates in their minds a broken philosophy of life.  We aren’t owed anything.  Now the decisions they made to let their surroundings control them have now been taken hold by the government.  The government is a monster out of control stripping away the responsibilities of a free people that is mutually inclusive with the rights given to us by God. 

These awful decisions being made by Americans today have now effected their neighbors whether they see it or not.  How does the government pay for these new responsibilities?  Well the first obvious answer is through higher taxation and a more complicated, progressive tax code.  This not only costs another business or person more money in taxes, but also more money to comply with the tax code in general.  This is less money in the pockets of families or business’.  This means less ability for these people to feed and house their own families.  You’re bad decisions are indirectly hurting your neighbor’s chances of the American dream.  Another way this hurts families and business in America is through regulation and mandates.  The government has now taken upon themselves the responsibilities of the individual.  Ironically enough an individual they only see as a drop in the bucket of the masses.  When they take upon these responsibilities it’s based on their own rules.  These new rules always even if they help you will hurt someone else.  These new rules by definition always limit the chances and freedoms of others that had nothing to do with your situation. 

 We always have control over what we do even when we feel differently.  This where true power and liberty comes from.  As I said earlier we can only control that which is within our own power.  We can control how we act and what we do to correct the situations in our lives that we wish were different.  When we can look within ourselves and realize where we are going wrong and where we can correct our behavior then we recognize the abilities we have to effect change in our own lives.  Once we start to realize that the true power we hold is evident in our own abilities as well as recognition of our own faults then not only our lives will improve because of the choice we’ve just made to do for ourselves that which is within our power instead of handing it over to an entity that doesn’t see us as individuals, but the lives of millions of other Americans will improve as well because the decision you made to better yourself and your situation will put less of a burden on your neighbor.  

I believe when a person understands their own mistakes and faults that for the most part the majority of people will better control their approach to life.   I believe there is an absolute irony in the fact that people whom succeed to great levels in the free market are called greedy and yet the people that empower government to take away from those that achieve for their own purposes are considered victims.  To want and demand what others have acquired for themselves is greed no matter how you slice it.  Success and achievement comes not from being perfect, but from recognizing that we have flaws and need to grow and learn as individuals.  When we recognize that we might be the cause of our problems and then make the definitive decision to correct ourselves rather than try to control our surroundings I believe we begin to lose that feeling of helplessness because it becomes within our power to change the situation. 

I come to you today with a personal blog.  I don’t write many personal blogs.  It’s not a fear of people knowing something about me or anything of that sort.  It’s just that I don’t feel my life is that interesting.  However, today is different.  I feel God is telling me to write a blog in appreciation to my one of my favorite people.  My Father.  Before I get to the good stuff I will tell you up front that he and I go at it like nothing else.  We are both stubborn as hell and opinionated.  We butt heads quite often and will scream at each other at the top of our lungs.  Say hurtful things(hurtful for other people, but different for us).  Then two minutes later when everything is calm we can have a good conversation, laugh, and have dinner together like nothing happened.  Such is our relationship.  To be honest I think both of us like that kind interaction.

So I was reading on a blog what someone said about “suffering.”  That if we haven’t walked in other peoples shoe’s whom have truly “suffered” that we don’t know what it’s like.  Well I’m sorry I forgot that we all don’t have problems in our lives.  How do we get rid of problems?  Well the liberal answer is to throw money at it because that’s “real” compassion.  The conservative answer is education(not school), empowerment, and community support.  But to keep from getting off point I’ll get back to my father.  When I was about 3-5 years old he worked at Pepsi-Co in the factory.  He worked on the lines.  In fact, I think he set the record for production in a month.  I have no idea if that record is long gone by now, but he is definitely a man that takes pride in his work no matter what it may be at the time.  I remember I was too young to stay home alone and he had to work the night shifts.  I remember my parents waking me up 2-3AM and my Mother taking Dad to work because we only had one car.  Oh how I hated doing that.  Little did I understand that it was much worse for him to have to get up in the middle of the night to go work in a factory for however many hours, but I was just a little kid.  This is a man that worked 6 months on a broken ankle just to be able to afford a new mustang convertable for his wife so she could have something nice.  To this day he still shows those selfless qualities. 

Well one day he came home and gave us the bad news.  He was laid off.  We had no savings to speak of and he had no college education.  We were so broke that some nights I was eating peanut-butter crackers for dinner with water from the sink.  Some nights he would get a can of beets, cook them, and that would be dinner.  Can you imagine a 5 year old kid THANKFUL to have beets for dinner?  We were so poor that we went on food-stamps.  My father worked every job he could find just to find a way to put food on the table and pay some of the bills.  I emphasize some.  We were evicted from a couple places because of lack of funds.  This went on till I was about 10 years old.  Now, we were only on food-stamps for a month though because my father has too much pride.  He then saw an opportunity.

A couple of his friends were in construction and house painting.  He worked with them as hard as he could and learned everything he could from them.  He was a 35 year old man starting over in life with a wife and kid.  After a few years of working for other people he decided to take a risk.  He decided to start his own painting business.  He struggled for quite a while.  There were times we were hoping for just one job to pay the rent.  Nevermind water, electricity, and others we were just hopeful to have a roof over our head.  We did a lot of praying.  Well to finish up this story he has now owned his own business for over 13 years and is doing well.  For his sacrifices and refusal to quit in life I’ll always love him and who he is because I do believe being stubborn can be a very strong asset in life.

So what’s the point of my story?  To be honest it’s a story that shows the difference between liberals and conservatives.  There are MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of blue-collar, hard working Americans that do those same kinds of things in their own lives that my father has done.  Liberals seem content to define “suffering” in their own terms.  Well suffering for my Father was the fear of not providing the necessities for his wife and young child.  Liberals must be pretty arrogant to think that somehow they are special enough or talented enough to achieve in this country and others just can’t do the same for themselves.  They keep making them out to be victims of circumstance.  They keep holding them back by telling them it’s racism, or it’s “the rich”, or it’s society.  It’s just too hard.  Give them a hand out.  Treat them like children.  Where a conservative will tell them that they have the God-given ability to do anything they wish in a country so great as ours.  A conservative will tell them that if someone else can achieve then they can, too.  A conservative looks to empower and help people OUT of poverty.  Not keep them in it and yes liberal solutions do keep people poor.  My Father is just one example of many.  What a little stubborn pride can do for you in this great country.  So why look down on people and assume they can’t do the same?

I remember an interview with Denny Hastert on the Mark Levin radio program.  As we all know he is the former speaker of the house and actually taught economics in high school.  I recall him saying “I thought teaching economics to 16 year old would be the toughest thing I’d ever have to do until I got into Congress where I had to teach actual congressmen how economy works.”  It really goes to show you that we do not elect the best and brightest of the population.  I’d argue that the best and the brightest of our population are in the Military, but that’s another story.

I used to try and give these people the benefit of the doubt.  I used to say “we’ll they’ve bought into a philosophy on economics that just doesn’t work.”  I’m starting to see that I’ve misjudged these people and gave them too much credit.  It appears to me that these people make economic law only on the “what should happen” basis of self morality that violates the law of unintended consequences.  Where do these people’s beliefs come from?  Well they come from the typical “Demand Side” economic fallacies of John Maynard Keynes.  To basically sum up his views of economy he says that government should cover the areas where the “free market fails” and we see that concept applied even by Republicans today.  Look at health-care(which is not run by the free market) and the mortgage problem.  What is the overwhelming ideas that democrats offer?  More government intervention.  In health-care they wish to give government total control.  Well we see what’s going on around the rest of the world even in the most of industrialized of nations with their government health-care programs.  The facts simply do no matter to the democrats because as I said they work on a self morality basis of economic policy rather than common sense.  Now as we see with the mortgage problem in this country even Republicans run to the table to freeze interest rates and create a moratorium on foreclosures. 

Congress seems to create situations to hurt our financial institutions even worse than they have hurt themselves with bad loans(even if Congress DID implore them to make it easier for poor people to get those loans).  They make it so the lenders take massive financial hits and then their solution to the problems they create for the lenders is to bail them out with borrowed money which in turn hurts the value of our dollar.  Therefore it still in the end causes too many problems for Government to fix and they shouldn’t be meddling anyways.  It appears to me that our respective leaders are creating the same conditions as 1929.  Congressman Tom Feeney whom is an excellent economist came to my republican party meeting and told us his concerns.  He says because of Congress’ actions instead of having what would possibly could be a 2 year recession will end up being a 10 year depression.  I fear he is right as they continue to ignore history. 

So what caused the depression of the 1930s?  Was it just bad business deals?  Well that is part of what created the recession.  It’s common business cycle.  A recession doesn’t even mean the economy is bad in every case.  As we have seen in history with low tax rates the economy always springs out of a recession in glowing numbers.  So why not 1929?  The myth is that FDR’s policies saved our economy.  Well that’s not exactly accurate.  FDR continued upon and added to the failed policies of progressive Republican President Herbert Hoover.  If you look back at the policies then and compare them to today’s proposed actions there is an extreme parallel.  The only advantage we have today is that our economy is more dynamic, more technologically advanced, faster, and more globalized than that of the 1920’s economy. 

 So what did Herbert Hoover and FDR do to create a depression?  Well first of all Hoover got business leaders together and implored them to refrain from cutting wages, arguing that high wages were the way out of the Depression so as to give consumers some buying power.  This ignores the fact that wages are a cost of doing business in a time where business’ were struggling to stay afloat.  Hoover demanded high wages while prices were rapidly declining.  Business honored Hoover’s request and the predictable consequence came about.  Mass unemployment.  As historian Thomas Woods puts it:

“Hoover’s mistake was to presume that high wages were the cause of American prosperity rather than a reflection of that prosperity.”

How does that compare with today?  Well look at the mortgage problem.  Their big suggestion is to freeze interest rates of those struggling to keep their home before they rise next year.  Well this is again when prices of homes are declining so the lender takes the big hit financially as contracts are essentially adjusted for them from an outside source.  What does this cause?  Well the predictable consequence is that new home mortgage rates will rise considerably.  That will lead to less incentive in buying homes.  Now the big lenders are willing to comply with these sets of rules(as were business’ back in the early 30’s) because they can afford it and even if they can’t they know Government will bail them out anyway.  Which leads me to my next point.  Hoover also spent big money to attempt to prop up failing business.  These business’ either went bankrupt or were crushed under a load of debt.  Remember this was financial assistance they needed because of the conditions created by government intervention.  Hoover also spent big dollars on unemployment benefits(unemployment his policies created).  To parallel today’s congressional “heroics” they have offered both government financial bailout of failing business as well trying to push through unemployment relief in their most recent economic stimulus package.  The situations are not exactly the same, but the principle philosophies are absolutely identical. 

 That’s not all!  Hoover also increased the overall tax rate from 25% to 63%.  He either created new or raised existing taxes on: corporations, estate, gifts, cars, tires, gasoline, toiletries, electric energy, luxury items, bank checks, telephone, telegraph, and radio messages.  I don’t think I have to let you know the tax increase proposals of today’s left.   So let’s get this straight.  President Hoover raised taxes on failing business’ and struggling consumers all the while using the taxpayers money to prop up said failing business’ as well as dictating to them how they would run those business’.  It’s no wonder how such a blind, ignorant, and dumb philosophy fails and it the same philosophy will predictably fail today as well.  FDR continued and added on to these policies throughout the 1930s.  The average unemployment rate for that time was steady at 18% and that was with a much smaller population than today.  The interesting thing is that when the economy was hurting in 1920 President Harding’s strategy was only to tighten the government’s “purse strings” by cutting spending.  The economy began roaring within a year.  As we see the parallels between the policies of Herbert Hoover and today’s congress(as well as President Bush in some cases) it becomes more and more apparent that they have ignored history.

I wrote a blog a while ago talking about “Republicanism.”  To basically sum it up very shortly I asked what republicans stand for in their beliefs.  I still have no idea.  However, the fight seems to continue.  I’m voting for John McCain, but I’m also being intellectually honest about how I feel regarding his candidacy for President of the United States in the party that I most identify with in my beliefs.  However, some “republicans” take issue with the fact that I still don’t line up with their thinking in completely getting behind McCain rather than just being terrified of an Obama Presidency.  I mean that basically is why I am voting for McCain in the first place is because the other option is just something I don’t even want to think about in the short term. 

So I’ve been questioned about my loyalty to the Republican Party.  I’ve been asked “aren’t you a Republican?” and “Aren’t you loyal to the party?”  I went on to think about it for a while and I came to the conclusion that no I’m not.  I’m not just blindly loyal to the Republican Party.  I have my set of beliefs and principles and as I said earlier right now the Republicans are the ones I most identify with, but if we are moving towards the center I decided I have two options.  I can either sit back and just leave the party(and I have thought about that believe me) or I can get involved and give conservatism another voice.  After careful deliberation I decided the latter of the two was the best option because I refuse to sit by and watch moderates decide my choices for me or at least decide my choices without me getting a word in the conversation.

So I went and joined the republican party here in Florida.  I don’t mean I registered to vote I mean I actually joined the party and am attending committee meetings.  I have to say it was at that point I came to the realization that these people don’t understand how to fight socialism, but  I won’t stray into the details of that until later blogs because I don’t want to get off point.  I am only a Republican as long as they keep to conservative values.  However I have to say that if the democrat platform drastically changes to:

• Limited Federal Government
• States Rights
• Individual Liberty
• Less Government Programs
• Lower Taxes or Tax Reform in general
• Pro Growth Economics
• Free Market Solutions
• Defense of the sanctity of Marriage and Life
• Originalists Justices
• Strong National Defense

Along with some other things then guess what?  I’m re-registering as a Democrat so how can I rightfully call myself a Republican or be beholden to the party in general?  I mean John McCain is one thing, but imagine if the candidate were Olympia Snowe or Arlen Specter?  Would these Republicans be saying the same thing?  Just support the Republican Party?  It’s thoughts like these that make me believe that these Republican followers simply have no values at all.  So my values have led me to believe that no I’m no Republican, but I fight for conservative values within the party that gives us the best chance.

 I know this may seem such a bland conclusion to come to, but just to get a little personal here let me just say that I used to have a very liberal mindset before I was at all educated.  I’m 24 years old and only about 4-5 years ago I had no idea about politics or political philosophy.  I used to really be behind everything republicans did as I started on my venture into right-leaning politics and now as I know more and more republican people I feel like I’m passing a lot of them as they still just sit back and do whatever the republicans say and will defend their actions to the end.  They now scold people like me for having values that I believe in with all of my heart and mind.  I love to talk with many of the people I’ve met here on myspace that I feel are true conservatives because we care about real issues not walking party lines.  I guess that’s why more and more I realize I try to be a conservative voice within the party rather than a Republican myself. 

I’m sick and tired of the tax cut argument.  They work.  I’m going to explain in very simple terms why they work.  Most conservatives are going to understand this very easily…liberals might have a tougher time and I understand that because they can’t get the word “greed” out of their head for more than two seconds to read this.

 I’m going to use simple numbers.  Not just for the readers sake, but for my own as well while writing this piece.

Let’s say the investment tax rate is 50%.  First of all not very many people are going to invest with this higher rate because the risk of investing can be great and now even if you win, half of your money goes to the government.  But let’s say there are 2 people that decide to invest.  Doesn’t matter what amount they invest with let’s say they both equally make 100 dollars in profit.  The tax rate is 50% so the government takes 50 dollars from each of them and collects 100 dollars total while both of the investors keep 50 dollars a piece.  So people keep less money at these rates and the government doesn’t collect as much as it could have in revenue and I’m about to show you why.

 The tax cuts work because of percentages and incentive.  At a 50% rate the incentive to invest is low.  Meaning less people will invest.  This is where the beauty of tax cuts takes hold.  Let’s say a republican President(a true republican conservative) gets elected and lowers the rate to 35%.  Now the incentive to invest becomes higher.  Now let’s use a conservative(mathematically not politically) figure and say now 4 people want to invest rather than just 2 because of the new rates are attractive to investors.  All 4 investors each make 100 dollars profit a piece.  Now the tax rate is 35% so 35 dollars from each of the 4 investors profits(35% of 100 dollars is 35 dollars) is equal to 140 dollars of revenue for the Government.  Not only that, but each investor keeps 65 dollars of their investment.

To recap:  With the lower rates and more incentive the government collects more in revenue and the investors keep more money to invest more or build more in the way of jobs and business.

Under the 50% rate the incentive is lower so the government does not collect as much nor do the investors whom do actually invest keep as much.  Not only that, but I would argue that the higher rates actually help the rich and hurt the poor.  At a higher rate who can afford to invest?  The super rich because they have the capital available to actually make money on their investments.  The poor or middle class do not have the capital to make a sizable enough profit to increase their incentive toward investment on the higher rates.

Once again with 2 investors at a 50% tax rate the government collects 100 dollars in revenue and the investors only keep half of their profit.

With the 4 investors at a 35% tax rate the government collects 140 dollars in revenue and the investors keep 65% of their profit.  This is why tax cuts work.  Percentages and Incentive.

It’s often argued mainly by conservatives that we are headed toward socialism on our current path.  It makes a good argument and for the most part I agree with it and I have my reasons for believing the warnings.  The constitution becomes more and more crumbled as many more serious socialist leftists walk all over it for power.  If everyone abided by the constitution you have to wonder if there even would be political parties in general.  The democrat party champions its stance as being “for the little guy” and I ask where in the constitution does it say to favor the “little guy?”  It says to respect personal liberty and with that we understand personal responsibility.  They aren’t supposed to legislate to favor any group of people as they define said group. 

Well the question is how.  How are we headed in this direction?  There are many theories and I think the most common I hear is lack of education.  There is a lot of validity to that and I certainly won’t argue against it.  Our current public school system is a failure and no not to any fault of the teachers.  It’s more due to exactly what I’m talking about and that is a socialist approach to education.  Couple government inefficient control along with “feel good politics” and our educational system once the envy of the world is failing our future generations.  So no I won’t argue that our educational system needs to be fixed and is at least in part a cause of our slow road to socialism.  However there had to be a starting point that led us to these awful policies in education. 

There is also an argument that it starts in a similar fashion to todays progressive movement reaching for Utopia.  It’s really nothing new as many throughout history have attempted to create a Utopian society.  Now without question the thought of a Utopian society is so ridiculous and delusional that anyone whom thinks that will work must be a fan of Barack Obama.  How is utopia possible when it can only exist in the eyes of men who rule?  By the definition of freedom, one’s utopia can be anothers nightmare or in a liberals case that nightmare being America.  A perfect society is impossible yet so many attempt to achieve it.  Some view that as noble.  However, I view that as tyranny.

 The point I’m trying to get to is that some start on a road to socialism by trying to achieve a Utopian society.  However this is not a first step in my opinion because you need a tool to unite the masses to that idea.  The liberals in government in order to get the vast majority of people on their side needs an enemy and no I’m not talking about a foreign enemy.  I’m talking about an enemy they have to create in our minds.  An enemy that goes beyond common education.  It feeds off the envy of those who have little as well as focusing their attention away from themselves and towards a common feature.

Socialism or Communism came to pass in Russia for various reasons.  Of course they had a tyrannical style of government in the autocracy of the Tsar.  There were the failures of Nicholas the second in world war one.  Also there were an envious state of the wealthy.  The de facto leader of the revolution was Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin.  It’s worth noting that the new republics split up as a result of the downfall of the Russian Empire absolutely despised capitalism.  As these republics united under one party that would become the Communist Party of the Soviet Union there was born what was called a set of  Bolshevik Initial Decrees.  These decrees as they grew in the future years included:

• minimum wage
• worker’s hours
• nationalization of banks
• abolishing classes and civil ranks
• nationalizing external trade
• nationalization of sugar industry
• nationalization of private railroads
• nationalization of large-scale industry and railway transportation Enterprises
• social security for working people
• abolishing private property Rights on Archives of Russian writers, composers, painters and scientists, preserved in libraries and museums
• universal labour conscription
• wage regulations
• running of factories by elected workers committees(unions)

When looking at these decrees you have to wonder if the communist government is here already.  However, I believe the first step is class warfare.  I believe liberals in government use the rich as a common enemy of the masses.  The idea plays on the emotion of men of all educational backgrounds.  It plays on their envy of what others have accomplished.  History has shown us that class envy leads to revolution and revolution is a change in constitution or government.  As liberals have created this enemy in the minds of the masses they are viewed as heroes for taking from the accomplished to give to what they call the “entitled.”  Class envy also creates a hatred towards the most free economic system in mankind’s history which is capitalism. 

The liberals under the guise of patriotism have used the tool of class warfare to create angst against not only capitalism, but the history of America as well through our capitalist system which is representative of freedom.  They have used and skewed the founders words to aide them in accomplishing these deeds.  With the history of America being tarnished the founding document becomes more and more subject to change from it’s original intent.  Norman Thomas a socialist leader in America once said:

“The American people would never vote for socialism. Under the name of Liberalism the American people will adopt every fragment of the socialist program.”

As it stands and through the common views of the liberals and socialists of the past they have their plan.  As they execute their plan the public becomes the ”tools of the ambitious” as Thomas Jefferson once said.  Ideas such as: watering down education; creating a victim mentality; Entrenching their power by taking from some what is rightfully theirs and giving to the “unfortunate” are all part of the process as it’s being ushered in by those same tools these policies help create.  Politicians will be called heroic and statesmen for doing so.  However, to be a hero you need to conquer the enemy.  Step one is creating that enemy and this time they have chosen their own citizens.

I often wonder to myself based on the new movement towards Barack Obama what passes as inspiration in today’s world?  Empty rhetoric on the surface of policy ideas that would even make the likes of FDR and LBJ cringe.  When I hear many give their reasons for supporting this man I realize the blatant ignorance of what this country was founded upon amongst these people.  This man proposes some of the biggest nanny state ideas ever proposed in government.  Apparently, he inspires the weak minded.  The weak willed.  The weak in general.  Apparently, he also inspires the selfish whom feel it’s OK to have big brother take from your neighbor and give to you what you didn’t earn.  This is called “inspiration” in today’s world.  Thomas Jefferson refers to this kind of dependency:

“Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition. “

How far we’ve come from the likes of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.  These were men whose works were true inspiration.  Their works inspire the best in us.  Their works inspire morals and principles toward our neighbors.  We have gone from “Give me liberty or give me death!” to “I will give you free health-care!” as a guide to the fire that awakens our spirits.  The founders made no secret of their intentions with this government.  They disputed quite often over the procedures in which this government would operate, but they all had the common goal of protecting individual liberty.  They left no question as to what the role of government needed to be in our lives, but apparently according to many of the masses that has changed.

 Some would argue that the constitution is subject to change because of the changing times.  Many of the laws and lessons of the past no longer apply today.  Well I say they are wrong.  Do the principles of success change with time?  Does the idea of freedom change with time?  Does the desire for absolute power change with time?  Are Christians all of a sudden looking elsewhere besides the Bible for parables, lessons, and morals because those lessons no longer apply to today?  Apparently society in large numbers is demanding that government take care of their needs.  I think this calls for a Thomas Jefferson quote because this as relevant today as it were over 200 years ago.  He says:

“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.”

With too much liberty we have the abilities to correct these problems ourselves as to how we see fit.  With too little liberty we have no say in the matter and any outcry we make is interpreted as more big government solution by our leaders.  I’m hoping for a leader to promise me that they will do whatever they can to lessen the scale of government inside the boundaries of the constitution as it was written and ratified by those state representatives of whom had just fought off a tyrannical regime for true freedom.  They offered only one promise to the people.  That they would be free to manage and govern their own lives within the limits of the freedom of others around them.  To them that was the dream for which they were fighting and sacrificing.  There is no confusion in these concepts.  Thomas Jefferson says:

“On every question of construction [of the Constitution], let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.”

The founders gave us vast amounts of interpretations and writings for us to understand exactly what their intent was when they created the constitution.  They warned us of the signs of of a tyrannical government.  Yet today many of us seem to ignore the warnings of battle-tested men and rather pay heed to the complacency of indecision.  Our master will take care of those decisions for us even if only the few cry for milk.  At what point did we start looking to one man for answers instead of the wisdom of millions governing their own lives?  With freedom comes responsibility and with responsibility comes the acknowledgement that we were created with abilities that stretch beyond the answers of the imperfect governing the imperfect. 

When we think of the greatness of this country there are two rules of thought.  Some compare this country to what a utopia is in their own minds.  Others(mainly conservatives, but you don’t have to be to understand this basic common sense) compare America to the rest of the world.  We also consider the fact America has been a beacon of light and example to the rest of the world for over 200 years.  Through our founders dying wishes they wanted to see a country of a free people that were naturally pushed to self governance because they know this was the only way they could be free.  They knew this from experience.   They knew this from trial and error around the world.  They knew their history.  So today we must look back not only to their history, but to our history that was at their time the future. 

The saying goes history always repeats itself.  Sad part is that’s true and it shows how unbelievably ignorant we can be as a people.  When I see a groundswell of even my own friends flock to socialist ideas I have to wonder what is to be of our great nation.  They want answers they say.  They want solutions.  They’ve even warmed up to the idea of sleeping under the dragon’s wing.  Our founders may have fought and died for future generations to be free, but I wonder if they could ever picture a time where the men and women of this great country would crawl on it’s hands and knees in a rush just to call someone else master.  I can think of no greater ignorance than to live on your knees praying to the almighty government.  A government not so merciful as the God they attempt to destroy.

You probably think I am overreacting.  It’s all about the common good.  It’s all about the good of society.  Each of us sacrificing what we don’t need for the good of those around us.  Well, is it about the good of society or ones interpretation of what society should or should not be in general?  I see many of my friends try to assure me that Barack Obama does not wish to completely hand us over to socialism.  Of course, they use different words but that’s the meaning of their interpretation whether they know it or not.  They are willing to go along with it as long as it’s a slow death rather than a quick one.  Willing to eat from the hands of our master at a slower pace until we reach the point of no return.  I, for one, refuse to go along with it and will fight it at any cost.

There is America and then there is everything else.  Fascism, Socialism, Communism take your pick.  I know some are saying “but Cory, Fascism is an extreme Right wing ideal..not leftist” and you would be wrong.  There isn’t much difference between any of them.  Many describe Fascism as corporate takeover.  Well they would have to explain to me why millions upon millions of Marxists in the 1930’s became Fascists.  Kind of interesting to see millions of people believing in working class rule would switch to a corporatist ideal.  It’s not very debatable that communism is the far left(or socialism), but I would argue that Fascism is as well.  Mussolini himself was a socialist before the party threw him out over his support of world war one.  He then eased into a fascist transition and oh by the way Hitler was a great admirer of his philosophy.  You probably think I am getting off point, but I’m only furthering the point that there is America and then there is everything else. 

These fascist governments offered many of the things that these liberal politicians are promising as of right now in this historic election.  Fascism in Italy included ideas such as:

1. Lowering the minimum voting age to eighteen, the minimum age for representatives to twenty-five, and universal suffrage including women
2. The abolition of the Senate and the creation of a national technical council on intellectual and manual labor, industry, commerce, and culture.
3. End of the draft.
4. Repeal of the titles of nobility.
5. A foreign policy aimed at expanding Italy’s will and power in opposition to all foreign imperialism’s.
6. The prompt enactment of a state law sanctioning a legal workday of eight actual hours of work for all workers.
7. Minimum wage.
8. The creation of various government bodies run by workers’ representatives(unions).
9. Reform of the old age and pension system and the establishment of age limits for hazardous work
10. Forcing landowners to cultivate their lands or have them expropriated and given to veterans and farmers’ cooperatives.
11. The obligation of the state to build “rigidly secular” schools for the raising of “the proletariat’s moral and cultural condition.”
12. “A large progressive tax on capital that would amount to a one time partial expropriation of all riches.”
13. “The seizure of all goods belonging to religious congregations and the abolition of episcopal revenues.”
14. The “review” of all military contracts and the “sequestration of 85% of all war profits.”
15. The nationalization of all arms and explosives industries.

Hitler’s Germany wasn’t far off.  Notice anything familiar when comparing these policies with the policies of the liberal left today?  You should.  They are nearly identical every single one of them.  Why do we regard these dictatorships in history as evil and then turn to the same exact policies as answers for a free society?  We are repeating history once again.  In the name of tired cliches such as “get things done” we are trading our freedoms in for government handouts.  These policies are the visions of men in power not the results of a free society.  The visions of those men are to shape society as they see it.

Doing for the common good of society is a noble concept.  However the only answer is to let society move with the trends of a free public.  We are deciding to turn over those decisions to men ruling over men and these ruling men refuse to abide by the founding document of the country they serve.  This is irresponsible on all sides.  This is why as I wrote earlier that the founding fathers were strict believers in self governance.  It’s not perfect.  It’s not easy, but it’s freedom.  I wonder at what point will we wake up and realize that there are consequences to the actions of giving too few too much power over our lives.  I wonder when we will discover the attitude of confidence in our own God-given abilities.  Abilities that will be suppressed by a strengthening fiat if we are not careful.  As many as there are strong and true to the founders warning there will always be those that walk down the path to the master’s answers.  Consequences be damned.

This is really a response to the likes of John McCain and Mike Huckabee when they attack companies and CEO’s as “greedy”.  When it comes to our economy or any capitalist economy the term greed gets thrown around a lot.  It gets thrown around by the masses.  I can forgive that because many haven’t studied some very basic economics.  What’s more troubling is when a politician uses the term.  This, of course, is a term most used by liberals.  To be honest I’ve come to a cross in the road.  On the one hand I would like to believe that these people are just ignorant.  I would feel better about them being ignorant, but that’s still a scary thought considering they are our leaders.  On the other hand they know better yet are CHOOSING to be ignorant.  As a good friend of mine says “willful ignorance is not a badge of honor”.

However, I want to get back to the meaning of greed.  Everytime prices go up many assume it’s greed by the company.  I heard on Sean Hannity’s show a caller call in to say “the economy is so bad because of food prices rising” and I got an email from a family member saying something to the effect of “if companies were less greedy our economy would be stronger”.  It then started to hit me that I wanted to write a piece about some foundational concepts of a free market economy.  The basic foundations of a free market economy are prices and supply and demand.  It’s as simple as that.  However, first I think Thomas Sowell best describes the fear of greed when he says

Just as primitive peoples tended to attribute such things as the swaying of trees in the wind to some intentional action by an invisible spirit, rather than to such systemic causes as variations in atmospheric pressure, so there is a tendency toward intentional explanations of systemic events in the economy, when people are unaware of basic economic principles.

What this means is that people automatically assume it must be some unprovable factor of greed as an intention for higher prices rather than changes either in government law or else supply and demand.  In a competitive free market it’s very, very difficult to be greedy as far as prices go because someone WILL find a way to undercut your prices or else people will leave on their own and find some alternative.  People’s responses to prices are what create both shortages and surpluses.  When a price is high on a product then people are less likely to buy that item and that will create a surplus of said item.  As the surplus grows the price goes down and then people become more attracted to the purchase.  As more people buy this item at the lower price it creates a shortage.  This the role of prices, but it goes even deeper.

We have to remember that every cost of doing business is pushed to the consumer.  That’s just common business principle.  Whatever the add on to the individual product is the profit.  I mention that because the prices that we see at the store aren’t the only prices that are a factor.  Assuming there is no government mandated price controls we have to figure in certain costs such as: labor; bills to run machinery, electricity, water etc etc; maintenance; transportation; in the case of food there’s ingredients; and of course taxes.  These prices are all subject to change that will affect the cost of the final product we see on the shelf.

For instance with the prices of energy going up as well as gas prices it’s no surprise that transportation and common bill prices would go up.  The consumer will see this change in the final product.  Of course as we know energy is also a world commodity subject to price change based on supply and demand.  As these rules affect the underlying costs it will directly effect the cost of production which causes prices to go up and down on the final product.  This is called fluctuating prices.  Fluctuating prices based on supply and demand which as I mentioned earlier is determined by the public response to prices help the producer determine what society wants and needs.  There are other variables that I haven’t gone into in this piece(such as the evil known as government controlled prices), but I wanted to cover some very basic fundamental economics.  If you still want to believe it’s greed then that’s your right, but I would encourage those people to consider that there are many underlying variables that effect the prices that we see on a daily basis.

I have many fellow conservative friends.  Some of us have never met individually, but we talk on occasion.  I’ve really met some very good, young conservative minds in the last few months.  I’m grateful for that because I love to see other people’s perceptions on what it is exactly that we fight for in the ways that we can fight in our busy lives.  The common denominator in all of this is that we love our country and feel conservative philosophy is the chosen path of what the founders had intended.  It really isn’t about anything else other then that and those principles hold true universally to any challenge we face or will face in the coming generations. 

As anyone knows I am no fan of John McCain.  I don’t even much care for him as a person.  I respect his military service, but that will not be and has never been a determining factor in how good or bad of a President that will make him.  I don’t know why that is even a determining factor for voters to be quite honest.  I still view him as a country club republican and will never be able to truly sell himself as a true conservative.  The argument now is he’s “conservative enough” and that he has to prove his conservative credentials to the base.  I’m sorry, but if you’re a conservative you don’t have to prove anything especially after having a quarter of a century in congress.

Trust me country club republicans annoy me almost as much as liberals.  Liberalism can be both ignorance for the well intentioned and also an enemy of the founders vision for this country.  It has shown itself as such through many years now.  However those who embrace many of it’s ideals in the name of republicanism or conservatism can be just as damaging if they get their way.  Reaching across the aisle to work with democrats seems like a noble idea, but only when you take our values to the table and fight for them as a pasionate American knowing that it is the right course for this country.  That doesn’t entail standing beside them on issues that we as conservatives know are wrong for the country and then calling it “getting things done”.  I have to be honest I am sick and tired of that cliche.

However we as conservatives whom claim to stand on principle really need to think twice about whom we wish to vote for in the fall.  I feel we need to vote for John McCain even as much as we disagree with him.  I feel we have the obligation to hundreds of thousands of our brave men and women to give them the best commander in chief available and that’s John McCain when it comes down to a race between he and Obama or Clinton.  Isn’t one of our principles to stand behind the troops?  Make any case against McCain all you want in this instance and some of it may be valid, but it doesn’t compare to the irreparable damage that Obama or Clinton can do to our military.  Keeping America safe is a major priority.  I know in my heart when I think about it that John McCain is better for that job than any leftist that caters to a base that hates this country.  I’m talking about the loony left, of course. 

We also have to face the fact that while conservatism ultimately lost in this election season that with McCain we have a much better chance of being heard.  Obama or Clinton have no intention, desire, or need to listen to what we have to say.  With McCain we do have a shot at being heard and not having to fight like hell while watching this country go down the toilet bowl of liberalism in all cases.  As Newt Gingrich whom is possibly our greatest conservative leader right now says we should rather wish to fight with McCain some of the time rather than all of the time with an Obama or Clinton. 

There is also another very important issue which is the issue of the supreme court.  The next President will have two to three and possibly even four replacements to make.  Now I would not be surprised if McCain somehow found three more David Souters to put on the bench.  But we don’t know that for sure and we will at least have somewhat of a say in where the direction of the court goes if we have someone that has to listen to conservatives at least to some degree in office.  With an Obama or Clinton with their views of the constitution we are sure to get three more Ginsburgs on the court or possibly even worse.  We will have no say as they do not adhere to us for our votes.  It’s too important to risk in my opinion and we need to focus on that as we look forward to November. 

Senator McCain may indirectly actually unite the party, but not in the way he says or thinks.  He may end up being the republican nominee or President that ultimately furthers on what George W. Bush has started and that is dissatisfaction within the party to an even greater degree.  The more discontent conservatives get the louder we are and the more we move.  The boots are on the ground and the grassroots are swelling as we speak.  There are many younger conservatives such as myself that wish to advance the movement and will do so because we love our country too much to sit still.  We lost this year, but to quote Don Shula “Success isn’t forever and failure isn’t fatal”.  Thus we live to fight another day.