Excellent article, Ed!

Most of the time I'm feeling as if it is too late to turn things around.  That the long, long time the Progressives have held sway in the educational system - generations - created a nearly unstoppable force and a return to freedom will have to be far off in some distant future. 

But now and then I get the feeling that an angry, if inarticularte demand to stop the nonsense might just find the right voice, the right messages, and turn things around.

Now is the time for the GOP candidate, whoever it ends up being, to deliver these messages:

- The politicians represent themselves.  They aren't our friends.

- No more identity politics which turns us into a nation of angry factions fearing and hating each other.  It turns women against men, blacks against whites, young against old, poor against rich, workers against employers.  That is worse than manipulative.  It is stealing votes with fraud and at the expense of the destruction of a nation... destruction by hate.  The politicans tear our nation apart in the pursuit of their grab for other people's money and power for themselves.

- No more stealing from one person or one group to buy votes.  That's what "redistribution" is - just theft.  A politician says this group is evil and tries to get you to hate them.  If it works they can get votes AND steal from that group.  It destroys a nation, take away liberty, steals from the productive, rewards the special interests, parasites, and the unproductive.  It introduces theft as national policy.  That isn't the nation we want to be.

- No more borrowing from foreign nations to wage wars, fund giveaways and bailouts to fulfil toxic promises... for what?  Just for more votes?  We have no right to put our children and grandchildren into a life of indebtedness for some politician's ambition for yet another term.

- No more lies.  Progressives treat their political drive like it were holy and as if there were no means that their ends don't justify.  They lied.  You can't keep your doctor.  You can't keep your health plan.  Your medical costs won't go down by thousands a year.  Ladies and gentlemen, it is time to quit electing liars.  If you don't trust them, don't give them your vote - no matter what their party.  It is time to demand honesty and integrity and to throw the rest of them out.

- Progressives ALWAYS promise to fight to help the poor, the sick, the children, the middle class... and they always blame the rich and businesses.  But their programs NEVER work, always cause unintended consequences.  It is time to turn a deaf ear to that empty rhetoric. 

- Progressives ALWAYS talk about how bad the rich are, and how horrible big business is... but who do they get in bed with the minute they are elected?  Who is it that funds their elections?    More lies.  When someone starts telling these lies, they are just adopting the views of Karl Marx and to divide the country to win votes - and all with lies. 

- Here's some honesty:  If the government keeps growing it is because it has eaten more of the private sector.  What is the private sector?  It is your money, your paycheck, what you are 'allowed' to keep after they take taxes - They take taxes from you, from your employer, from the businesses you frequent and everything else - stationary or moving, alive or dead.  And, guess what?  If you want the private sector, your money, your ability have a life, your ability to leave something for your retirment and something for your kids... then you have to shrink the public sector.  It ain't magic.  It is the federal government or you - and you know what they want.

- Here is some more honesty:  Freedom and liberty mean free enterprise.  That means Capitalism.  That means you should turn your back on anyone that won't embrace capitalism and fight for it.  That means that those who make up exceptions and appeal to fear or greed to limit freedom aren't your friend.  A vote for them will result in your paycheck shrinking, jobs growing scarce, your savings at greater risk, and the future of your children and grandchildren growing dark and cold.

- The religious right says that a war is being waged against Christianity.  Well, they are correct.  The secular left will only tolerate one religion and that's their Progressive views.  And there is only way for the religious right to win that war.  They must join in with the left in removing religion from the public grounds.  The religious right are their own worst enemy.  By trying to get government to act on behalf of their religion, they grant the premise that it has the right to act in any way in this sphere.  They will only be safe when they quite making Christianity a target by demanding to parade it about in the public sphere instead of recognizing that it belongs in the private sphere.  Fight to allow people to be Christian or not in the private realm - that is the only place a line can be drawn that can be defended.  If you don't want atheism or Islam or who knows what in the public schools - then fight to make schools a matter of private choice.  Don't elect people who try to force government to force others to accept Christianity in the public square.  Other wise every religious sect in the universe will want to do battle to be the ones in control of the government.  What do think Sharia is about?

- Once a upon a time, people didn't ask for government to do things for them.  When they saw a problem they thought, "What are we going to do about that?"  And the "we" wasn't a reference to government.  There was a time, long ago, if they'd have had nightly news on TV, none of the stories would have been about government - it was too small and did nothing very interesting.  We were a stronger, more resiliant people then.  We weren't each other's political enemies then.  And we helped out those having hard times because we weren't poll-tested, political identity groups warring with each other.  Every time someones says the government ought to do something - treat that as a threat of great danger, of the loss of your liberty, of the destruction of the economy, and of the creation of a culture of hatred and strife... because that's what it is.  Vote for people who say they will dismantle the many, many disfunctional government departments and make government small.  The rest are your enemies.

Bigger government means bigger special interests, more waste, less money for you, more reasons to lie for votes, more hatred spewed out by those wanting to have government do what they want.  You wouldn't let someone tell you about all the wonderful things they were going to do for you, if you kept in mind that it was going to be done with your money.  When the propose anything that costs money, ask where they are going to cut spending.  And ask yourself, "Can I REALLY trust this person to ACTUALLYshrink government?" 

How did things get so bad?  One reason is that the politicians and their supporters either pretend that it is too late to do anything about that (maybe in the future they promise), or that we have to make small steps, or that we just accept things as they are until the NEXT election, or they come up with more poll-tested sound-bites that promise their scheme will fix things.  Then they work behind the scenes to block off other choices, ridicule anyone who suggests trusting a non-politician or an idea that is out of the norm, and they sows great fear of trying anything new.  It's worked hasn't it?

When a politician's mouth starts to move, and what comes out are a lot like Republican or Democratic talking points... he or she probably doesn't have ideas of their own, an understanding of the real problems, may or may not be intelligent enough to deal with the real problems if they did understand them, and is just after your vote so they can pursue their political career at your expense.  If they keep repeating the same words, they'd better be REALLY good words - if not, don't vote for them.