The Other Politician

We can all remember our mom’s making statements like “If all the other kids jumped off the empire state building, would you too?” Oh, how I remember cringing when hearing my mother say that. It meant that I had once again showed how I could fall into the sheep frame of mind. That was one of my father’s favorite sayings, “don’t follow the sheep.”

All my life I have fought that sheep frame of mind. It’s so easy to just follow along with everyone else. Just accept, and don’t think. I just start doing that and my mother and father pop up in my head scolding me again. So, in my life I have spent a lot of time researching anything and everything. You have to do this to be able to have an informed opinion.

Now I find myself horrified by what is coming out of the politicians’ mouths. I hear things like, “what I did is acceptable because the other politician did it.” What! How stupid do these folks think I am? Wrong is wrong! I don’t care if you can trace this wrongness to the beginning of time, it is still wrong.

Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina recently got caught cheating on his wife, and misusing taxpayers’ money in the process. He did come forward and give what seemed to be a heart felt apology, but then he diminished it by stating how these past politicians had done even worse. If these past law-breakers are still alive then go after them and accept your consequences!

Governor Sanford has recently been trying to tell the voters that he has saved the South Carolinians more money than he misused. Once again he seems to be missing the point. He screwed up! He misused money! Face the music Sanford!

Then I look at the national politicians and feel no better. It is amazing how many sheep we have in D.C. that are supposed to be leaders. Let’s take Representative John Conyers from Michigan as an example.

“I love these members, they get up and say, ‘Read the bill. What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?”[i] said Rep. John Conyers.

Sheep Alert! He just told all of us that he wants to take the easy way out. You know, just accept and don’t think! How in the heck did he get into congress?

Then I look at the highest office in the land and find myself disgusted. This is what I would call a Scary Sheep Alert! I will just take a look at one issue here for an example. Recently the media and some politicians are all upset about the number of czars Obama appears to have. There appears to be questions about the constitutionality of these czars having to be vetted by congress. One of the biggest defense tactics made by liberals for Obama’s czars is the fact that you can trace the use of czars all the way back to Franklin Roosevelt and both parties have had them over the years. SO WHAT! I don’t care who has had them in the past the question is…are they constitutional? If they are not constitutional, then all the past presidents screwed up as well. Can’t fix the past on that one, but we can fix it from this day forward.

I am trying to teach my children to not be sheep. These politicians are making it hard when my children notice what is going on. It is hard to explain to the boys that while these politicians are doing wrong, we no longer seem to have the tools to rectify the situation. We can’t vote them out if we don’t live in the right district. Even if we do live in the right district, how do we wake up the sheep? They seem happily asleep.

This makes me think about our countries history. How many slave owners explained away their actions because so and so has slaves? Perhaps they stated that they treat their slaves better than that other guy, so they should not be held up to blame.

And how about our founding fathers? What would they be say if they could see what has happened to this country? Would they be involved with the tea parties? Or would our founding fathers be screaming for revolution? Would they be able to wake the sheep?

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[i] Find this and other comments from John Conyers on youtube.com.

Can Conservatives Learn a New Trick?

I was watching the news the other day, when a story comes on about 2 mothers going on hunger strike for school dollars.  You have got to be kidding me!  Going on hunger strike because your kid’s school isn’t getting enough money!  Where are their priorities?  Does that really rate a hunger strike?

 

I know little to nothing about protesting, but shouldn’t hunger strikes be saved for things more dire?  How about protesting against those terrorists who want to blow up that same school you are trying to get more money for?  Maybe they should be protesting against all those laws that hamstring our military and intelligence agencies from protecting against an attack on that school?  Oh, and then there is this bailout of the banks, and car companies that are causing our government to look at taxing the heck out of those kids that attend that same school.   How about all those gangs, drug dealers and sex offenders that threaten that school, should they be protested against?  Or maybe the mothers should be protesting those laws and the lack of money that keep our police and justice system from catching and prosecuting those bad guys?  Or how about the fact that the convicts view most of the jails as a club med, therefore there is no longer any true deterrent from doing wrong against your kids?

 

These women have gotten our attention though, and maybe that is the key that conservatives have yet to truly find.  Yes, we do have the talk radio shows, blogs and even fox news now, but we are the silent ones.  Occasionally, we do see some conservatives out protesting, but nowhere near the amount of liberals that we see.  Try and find one day last year where there was no liberal protesting, somewhere in America.  You won’t find one.  Now look how often conservatives protested last year.  Not even close to the same number.

 

Conservatives tend to keep to themselves, which is part of what makes them conservative, but they just might learn something if they study the enemies playbook.  Liberals have made protesting an art form.  They do it so often that sometimes I think they actually have professional protesters. Every time they protest, they get peoples attention. They have found that by protesting often enough, about the same things, they can slowly change the publics mind.  They also grasp the attention, of the powers that be, with every protest.  Policy makers seem to get squeamish when the protestors are right outside their door.

 

Can we conservatives learn how to do the same thing?  It goes against our very natures, but the pro-lifers seemed to figure this out.  Maybe they should share their strategies with the rest of us.  Teach us and rally us.  Not just on pro-life questions but also on everything the conservatives stand for!

Are conservatives the new victims?

One of the main attributes of a victim is the desire to have others feel bad for them.  This is also one of the backbones of the liberal ideal.  They feel, instead of think.  They don’t want to feel bad, for themselves or anyone else and seem to think that if they throw enough victims at us we will feel the same.  Has the conservatives of this nation taken on this status?

 

Listening to talk radio, watching the news and researching the Internet you see and hear plenty of conservatives complaining.  The textbooks are to biased, too many liberals in the schools teaching/brainwashing our children, the media is too liberal, too many liberals in positions of power within local governments, too many liberals in polling places, too many liberal judges, etc. The complaining and even whining are getting out of control.  It is even to the point where it seems like they want to be viewed as the victim.  “Oh, poor us, they are out to get us!”  Maybe they are, so what are you going to do about it?

 

When are the conservatives going to stop complaining and start offering tangible solutions?  The common mantra seems to be “vote.”  Vote for what or who?  That is not working.  We need a better solution. 

 

It is ok to list the problems. The problems do have to be identified before they can be corrected, but at some point, someone has to point out what can be done.  There has to be something that we everyday people can do. 

 

Do we join militias and try to retake the country?  Do we take a different page from the liberal playbook and encourage our children to become the teachers of the next generation?  Or do we whine our life away? 

 

I don’t have the answers.  I wish I did.  I would love to hear your answers.