Posted on 03/08/2009 9:31:34 AM PDT by Pharmer
My father was a man of great principle. In raising seven children to be responsible adults, his strident adherance to his principles were the thing that kept order in the house and his sanity. My sisters hated him for it. He died when I was only fourteen but he passed his fidelity on to me and my only brother. He used to tell me that a man has to believe in things. “The only thing you get by being in the middle of the road is run over!” or “if you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for anything” and even better “if you don’t believe IN something, you’ll believe anything”. Everyone has heard these clichés but conservatives live by them.
This past month we have suddenly been reminded of it. And it took a harmless fuzz ball masquerading as bombastic overly self-assured talk show host to remind us of this. Conservatives needed a kick is the ass (some in the teeth) and we got it last Saturday when Rush Limbaugh spoke at the CPAC meeting. Delivered off the cuff, his hour and a half excoriation followed by a needed pep talk was one for the ages. As a constant listener to his show rarely have I heard him wax so eloquently. The main theme of his talk was to remind us that faith in our principles is the heart of what we are. Policy without principle is in the words of Obama “just words, just speeches”. We have forgotten that and as a result stopped believing in ourselves.
All we have to see that is to read the writings of David Brooks or David Frum. They seem to think that our party’s appeal is lost on the newer younger voter and Hispanics. And we need to accept the “reality” of climate change and the need for government largesse. Thank God for people like Rush, Hannity and especially Mark Levin who personally took Frum to the woodshed this week. They have reminded us that as these might be political realities that doesn’t make them real. They have become political realities because spineless fools like Brooks, Frum and John McCain accepted the Left’s premise and are arguing the resulting policies from what they see is a conservative angle.
Rush likes to say that just because there is a recession doesn’t mean we have to participate. This goes for a lot of things. Just because fools are at the edge of the cliff with Obama looking to jump off, why do we have to join them? Don’t we have better things to do? I certainly do. But I digress…
Rush pointed out in his CPAC speech that we conservatives believe in things. We believe in things greater than ourselves such as country and God.
We believe in good and evil, right and wrong. The dividing concepts are clear. There may be different degrees within the concepts but on the whole they are as clear to us as night and day. We must not be afraid to see them, call them by name, and say as they are. We may be called judgmental or politically incorrect but at least we have the sense to know what they are. After all our good judgment is what keeps us free.
We believe that our very nature given to us by God is a manifestation of the inalienable rights described in scripture, stated in the Declaration of Independence and protected in the Constitution. We believe that God gave us the gift of language to communicate and that our words mean things, specific things. We believe the founders of our nation wrote the Constitution in plain English and that the words have the same meaning today as the day they were written. We believe in fealty to the principals of the founders as written in those documents and so eloquently explained in the Federalist Papers.
We believe that our unalienable rights have made us the great nation we are today. We have shown the world what happens when a good and moral people are free to pursue happiness that a great nation can and will be the result. We are not without flaws and we have many battle scars but we believe that we are the greatest nation ever to exist in human history, bar none. We should not be ashamed of our heritage and should never allow any one to let us believe we are any less. We owe no one in this world any apologies for anything. We believe that America is the solution to the world’s ills not the cause.
And we believe in the American spirit. We believe that American individuals are the solution to the nations ills not some elitist, know it all politician or bureaucrat in Washington DC. We believe that shoemakers know best how to make shoes, and parents know best how to raise their kids. In short we believe in people. And we want to show them how to be the best they can be, not just do it for them.
It is easy to see how we lost our faith in our principles. Since the end of the Reagan administration we have had very little leadership to guide us and to reassure us that we were right. We have watched as our culture has been corrupted by a self serving news media and a hedonistic pop culture emanating from Hollywood and our college campuses. We had a president and a presidential candidate tear at the fabric of the nation to spare their own political fate. Clinton got away with it but mercifully Al Gore did not. Unfortunately the cries of an angry left for the fate of Mr. Gore grew into abject rage of the kind we have not seen. Many of us myself include felt that like children, they would grow weary of their hissy fit. If we confronted it we would risk losing our civility. Instead some of us became cowed. And like a spoiled child being placated, we gave them and inch and they took a mile. And unfortunately we are helpless to stop them…for now. We can only pray that the damage they do can be repaired. Kipling’s poem “If” comes to mind. I suggest we all read it.
We must remind ourselves that although we were defeated in the election we are still here. Bruised but not dead. As all hell has broken loose around us we must keep our wits about us and remember our principles that we believe in. We must stand up and be proud of them. Show our younger voters that they are the true route to the future and a future for which they can be proud. Any human being that believes in God knows these principles. We must not be afraid to show them the light. This is the way out of the wilderness. We do not know when we will emerge if ever but at least we have a compass, because, we believe in things.
Thank you El Rushbo for showing us the way.
Very well written!
Do you write professionally?
Well said. Thanks.
“Inasmuch as most good things are produced by labor, it follows that all such things of right belong to those whose labor produced them. But it has so happened in all ages of the world that some have labored and others have without labor enjoyed a large proportion of the fruits. This is wrong and should not continue. To secure to each laborer the whole product of his labor, or as nearly as possible, is a worth object of any good government.”
- Abe Lincoln
i am a research scientist and have to write professional journal articles on my data. I am writing 2 now! It takes forever as my co-authors want in on the act!!!
From my view in Texas another thing that has bothered me is the complete lack of following the law. Church going “Conservatives” are teaching their children that hiring illegals is okay as it gets the job done cheaply. As of late, whether I am in the Bank of America, Walmart, HEB, the POST OFFICE last week, etc. if you wouldn’t tell me I’d think I was in Mexico or South America! The postal clerk had to take Spanish customers because she spoke their language, they didn’t even try English. I have to thank our former President for this takeover as well as the Texas teacher’s unions and latin activists who get their pesos from hard working taxpayers. Many get cheap labor all the while putting the burden of care of their cheap labor on the backs of law abiding citizens. Austin, TX is seeing the ramifications of this being a sanctuary city. Crime is going up dramitically and they don’t have money to hire enough police force in their budget. Duh.
In ending, when we are LAZY and FAT all the while letting cheap illegal labor build our homes, roads, clean our homes, mow our lawns, paint our homes, etc. we lose our country and it’s truth. We’ve had church going conservatives laugh at us for spending a bit more to have legal Americans (of different ethnic groups) work with us on projects. It’s also that we have to look within for solutions!
As the Bible says, Be Strong, Work Hard.
All worth repeating to the kids, over, and over, and over....
....and look at the article following this one, haa!
let’s all meet in Nicea and get this down on paper!
Yep, you go girl!
btt
“It is amazing how much panic one honest man can spread among a multitude of hypocrites.” -Thomas Sowell
Any wonder the press and the WH had such a strong “reaction” to Rush’s CPAC address?!
You go, Pharmer, great post!
Great post.
Save
btt
Monday AM bump. Bump
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