Written by I was recently talking with a friend in Los Angles about what I do for a
living. In short, I told her, I get to promote a think tank that believes Free Enterprise, Limited Government, Individual Freedom, a Strong National Defense, and Traditional American values are the principles our public policies should be crafted in concert with. In short—our First Principles.
My friend’s response was that it sounded like I was “in a cult.” And, while she was in no way trying to insult my person or my profession, I think she was inadvertently on to something, which is why I responded, “Sure, I’m in a cult…if you consider the Founding Fathers part of a cult.” My apolitical, left-leaning friend unwittingly voiced what conservatives have known for years: we now live in a United States where the roadmap the Founding Fathers actually intended future generations to follow is now foreign to large swathes of the American public.—particularly young people. Liberalism and the moral relativism that comes part and parcel with it has muddied up the learning pool enough so that things that were once “self-evident” no longer are, and past axioms associated with freedom and liberty are no longer such—they must be questioned and examined.
To you and I, the evidence is clear that free societies are strongly correlated with prosperity and economic growth. To you and I, bloated government is like an out of control Zeppelin that clumsily teeters to-and-fro before crashing and burning into a sickening display of wreckage. But to countless others, there is no intellectual double-take when the same people who can’t run a post office decide they want to control the ultimate package: You, and the health and well-being housed inside (Kudos to any liberal critics who pick apart this post by pointing out that “Ultimate Package” sounds like a really bad 80’s adult film, but it still doesn’t undermine the soundness of the argument).
It’s a sad and pathetic existence when smart, creative young people in the prime of their lives are trained like Pavlov’s dogs to doubt the potential for greatness inside them (the key to their release?). Instead of cultivating a nation of go-getters who would look at the US economy’s flotsam and jetsam and make something new and bright and bold that might change the world for the better—because of their initiative—we’re planting the seeds for a nation of reticent loafs who wait for third parties to tell them what to do and how to do it.
It would be easy to blame the usual suspects (e.g. Hollywood, liberal academics, etc.) for the situation we find ourselves in, but in this instance I think it’s important for conservatives to look in the mirror and take ownership for the part they play in colonization of America by Alan Colmes clones.
When you’re trying to paddle to a destination up steam, a really a good idea is to paddle with a force greater than that of the current. Sure, the Tea Party movement is fighting furiously to save us from quickly becoming a nation of Nanny State slaves wallowing in subsidized mediocrity like blissfully ignorant pigs, but what if it’s too late? What if we’re too close to the waterfall and no amount of paddling can save us?
Personally, I don’t think we’re at that point (I’m an eternal optimist), but conservatives need to learn some hard lessons from this moment in history. When fighting against the tide of liberalism, whether it’s on a college campus or the entertainment industry or any other aspect of our lives, we need to work twice as hard as the next guy and always be on the lookout for new ways to innovate from within, educate the public outside the Beltway, and disseminate amongst all contributors to the movement.
And if you haven’t gotten anything from this post I award you no points…and may God have mercy on your soul.
Douglas Ernst Blog 
It has been a long and frustrating week for me. I look around and see people fighting for a healthcare bill on which they know nothing about. (“YAY THE BILL IS GOOD and will solve all our problems! What? Abortion is covered in the bill?”) It got to the point that I felt like I was banging my head against the wall when trying to explain why the bill was bad and why the idea of the current bill is flawed.
Then the House passed the Slaughter solution…
For the last 5 or 6 months I have been trying to find the perfect argument to use against the ideas embodied in moral relativism. A way to show the ends do not always justify the means.
A civil society is based on sets of rules. (our Constitution)
But if the “ends justify the means”, then rules ultimately do not matter. (changing House rules to fit the desire of the majority)
A world without rules is anarchy. (What you are seeing on Capitol Hill as we speak)
*sigh*
I know it’s frustrating, my friend. But what choice do we have? We have to keep plugging away. A lot of wars are wars of attrition. Sure, it’s interesting that liberals are oddly inclined to surrender in most wars, and yet they choose the intellectual front to dig in their heels…but the situation isn’t hopeless. I think you’ll see that a lot of people agree with you come November.
Many people agree that this was a particularly nasty fight. Most Americans were taken a-back at the way it all played out and were quite disgusted. When a president feels it nessesary to demonize a legitimate business to get his way no industry is safe. And then for that president, after forcing his will on the people, tells them to ” go for it ” when they threaten to repeal his outlandish powergrab…the American people see him as becoming Ruler of the United States. But everyone knows the American emotional gas tank is low right now and they hope that we get tired. So instead of letting it go he ramps it up so as to put the opposition into submission.
God help us.
Whether they realize it or not, the current administration’s white-hot intransigence is forging a new kind of conservative. I hope the economy doesn’t melt down, and if we had space-time continuum goggles I’m sure the future of America’s children would be warping under the pressure – but I think we’ll come out of this okay in the end.
This is all based on the assumption that guys like you will take your passion and your knowledge and spread the word in ways that motivate and energize others.
I don’t see this health care outcome as a loss at all. It was an opening salvo in the fight for the future of the country. It was a BIG one, I’ll grant that, but the counter strike is coming. November will be here before you know it.
For lack of a better term Obama is the lefts PERFECT president. They have always tried to hide and nuance their true intentions. So now this president gives them cover. They can be open now and honest about true objectives because they can cloak all opposition on some sort of ” hatred ” or ” race ” issue. They have framed it that way from the beginning and it has always put us on the defensive. So we have to resist the temptation to go over the top to prove out point. Every president has threatend to use recess appointments but has never done so to this extent. He is bolder and badder now because the narrative is ” well I have to get this done cause these racist bastards are holding everything up….just cause they are racist”. The attempt to quite the opposition is like what a 3rd world leader does.