I was in the Washington DC airport two weekends ago when I saw an overload of Obama magnets. For some reason, I took a picture. Then I thought to myself, “I should have turned them all upside down and taken a picture, because he is trying to turn the U.S. as we know it upside down.” Which was the kernel of the idea for this post. (And thanks to Photoshop, the magnets are now upside down.)
This weekend I was also in the airport on the way to my cousin’s wedding. I went into a bookstore and saw the book “Common Sense” by Glen Beck. I thought I’d pick it up for my father for a belated father’s day present, and decided I’d read it on my plane trip. It was a quick read and was fascinating. I’d recommend it.
The gist of the book was that government has gotten WAY far away from what the founding father’s of this country envisioned. And has way more power. And it talks about how the progressive movement is moving this country far away from it’s origins. And back towards the kind of government our country fought to escape. At the end of his book he includes Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, which was written back at the time the United States was at the beginning of its revolution.
As I finished the book and got into kind-of a depressed state wondering what in the world I could do on my part, I realized that our free-market country works when people take personal responsibility for their actions. But I’ve increasingly noticed that we’re moving away from that virtue. I think I first noticed it when alcholism was declared a disease, and people who have it can’t help themselves. It’s not their fault that they drink too much. And look at all the corruption we are finding in companies and in the government. The founding fathers tried to prevent this in government by setting up a system where people would go and serve for a period of time then come back to their regular life. That way the government would represent the common man.
And so, what do we do? I don’t know. Beck says we should vote for people who support term limits and for people with values. But how much of our population has an air of entitlement, wants a quick fix for problems, and doesn’t want to take responsibility for change? I hope there are enough of us left that can make Beck’s vision happen. People with common sense.
[update to add this disclaimer: this is way more political/negative than I care to get on this site. I thought about deleting the post, but instead added this disclaimer.]