With a Smile on Your Face or Not at All

My philosophy is that anything beyond your daily bread is a luxury, and from that perspective we live a very rich and luxurious life here in the United States of America. Nothing guarantees that will continue, though, and no one owes it to us. I say this not because I think we will suffer great loss, but we often get so caught up in thinking of what we can lose that we don’t appreciate all the blessing we have. It is very easy to be a miserable billionaire. But that shouldn’t be us. We have so many luxuries, so many opportunities in this country, that we should always have a smile on our faces. If we keep perspective. And we need to hold tightest onto the things that can never be taken away from us: Our principles.
Anyway, the election… it was disappointing. But one of the great foolishnesses the left believes is that the right needs to avoid is that you change the country at the ballot box. They think they can elect the right people and they’ll drag everyone to their view. That was the attempt with Obamacare and other left-wing ideas forced on the country. We have to be smarter than that. This is a country where the government serves the people — not where it molds them. To affect change in government, we as a people must change first.
So how do we change the country? We have to forget about politics, because politics is small and insignificant and America needs to be a place of big ideas and grander things. One of the defining characteristics of a conservative is that we have many many things in our lives much more important than politics. Family. Careers. Religion. Politics is but a bump in the road compared to those things.
So if we want a better government, we need to be a better people. And you don’t get to be a better people focusing on tiny things like politics. Instead, we need to build people on the important things and the politics will come naturally. I think a good example is Dave Ramsey. He’s on crusade to get individual out of debt and relying on themselves and their own finances for retirement. He doesn’t talk politics, but when someone has learned to rely on themselves and not government, do you think they’re going to vote for people asking to confiscate their wealth for empty promises of false security? As I’ve said, give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll stop voting Democrat.
We can’t be people who think conservatism is just a neat political idea; we have to be people who feel liberty is the true security down to the bone. And we have to build up others around us to feel that to. The culture is the battlefield, and actions speak much louder than any media can. That is where we must focus. If we want a better government, we all must be better people.
It won’t be an easy journey. It’s not like we lost our way just recently. It started in the beginning of last century when the federal government began to guarantee people’s individual security, i.e., making sweet promises it’s too inept to keep. How do we get away from that mentality? Who knows. It would be unprecedented, which is why I’ve always thought “classical liberal” is a better label for us than “conservative.” We’re supporting radical ideas of liberty that have never been achieved before. And they’re still scary to many people. Which is why we need to be a stronger people. Independent people who all truly believe they can best take care of themselves. And only then can we work together to achieve greatness like this world has never known.
So that’s what we’re working for. And if you can’t do it with a smile on your face, then I recommend giving up worrying about politics altogether as it is not worth the aggravation. We have to continue forward with hope — not hope in some government or idiot bureaucrats, but hope in each other and our abilities.
So, in summary, I don’t do being all dour and sad. Many have worked hard and even died to give us all the opportunities and luxuries we have now. Let’s take advantage of them and not be a bunch of whiny sissies about all this.