Election 2012 - Ideas Have Consequences

As we head into the upcoming presidential election campaign, I am reminded that many Americans today seem confused about the realm of ideas.  During last year’s mid-term election, I asked a candidate to define for me his understanding of the difference between a Liberal and a Conservative.  He couldn’t do it. 

A young family member visited us just after graduating from college. In conversation about college life, I asked about her political preference: liberal or conservative?  She announced with some pride that she was a Liberal, and added that all of her friends are Liberals.  As the conversation continued, and as I expressed several conservative views and positions, she responded positively, saying that she agreed strongly with each point.  I asked her if she was aware that she wasn’t helping the Liberal cause and she said that she was unaware that the views I had expressed were considered conservative.  As I listened to her, I realized that her identification with Liberalism was more a desire for peer acceptance than from an understanding of what constitutes a liberal view or a conservative view.  It is clearly “popular” to be liberal, at least in college.

After gaining that insight, I pursued the issue with many people, both young and old.  My pursuit convinced me that today many Americans vote for personalities or single issues.  That is, we vote for the candidate with the most charisma, or the candidate who tells us what we want to hear about our pet peeves, rather than voting from an understanding of the candidate’s political philosophy or worldview.  It appears that voting based on where a candidate, or a political party, desires to take the country is an overlooked concept.  While these mistakes in voting behavior have always been damaging to a self-governing nation, in the present atmosphere of leftist demagoguery and deception, when the Marxist /Progressives seem to have the upper hand, they are decidedly dangerous, and possibly fatal, mistakes.  We need to mature as citizens and voters and understand that ideas have consequences!  If we don’t, the ultimate consequence may be the loss of the right to vote!  That’s how seriously things have changed while you weren’t noticing!

In the presidential election of 2008 the Democratic Party cleverly took advantage of the mistakes that had been made by the Bush administration and the subsequent victory of Barack Obama, in part, seemed to some observers as more of a backlash against Bush and Cheney than it was an endorsement of the Democratic ticket.  Add to that the Republican Party’s offering—a RINO—John
McCain, as their standard bearer.  I knew I could not vote for a Marxist so I went to the polling place on Election Day, pulled the lever for John McCain and went outside, decidedly sick to my stomach!  Never had the term “the lesser of two evils” had so much meaning for me.

OK, so we all have our humorous political anecdotes, but the point is, the presidential election of 2008 was a critical election and we “blew it.”  And, now we have another critical election coming up, one that we cannot “blow.”  This one will decide the direction this country, and the rest of the world, takes for a thousand years. 

Two years ago, when anyone asked whether Barack Obama or the Democratic Party was taking the country toward Socialism, the charge was denied.  Lately, when that question is asked the retort is more likely to be, “What’s wrong with Socialism?”  See the progression?  For those that don’t know, Vladimir Lenin provided the answer, “The goal of Socialism is Communism.”  

Just watch Fox News. Earlier this year, the capital of Wisconsin and, more recently, the staging cities of the Occupy phenomenon look like the so-called Arab Spring.  Recently, I watched the demonstrations in New York, where the rhetoric from the demonstrators sounded like that of the Bolshevik Revolution: “Wall Street and the bankers are the enemy, hang them!”  This country is embroiled in ideological warfare, class warfare, and the Whitehouse and Democratic Party are leading the charge.  If you’re not worried about the future, you’re just not paying attention!

The most worrisome part of this debacle to me, is the belief I have that the vast majority of my fellow citizens simply don’t understand what is happening.  Just like my young family member didn’t understand the difference between conservatives and liberals, I’m afraid the majority today doesn’t understand the difference between Conservatism and Communism!