One of my first memories of government in any form was the black and white image on the television in our living room of President Lyndon Johnson. Dad was in his chair, smoking a cigarette and listening to that deep Texas drawl drone on about supporting our boys in Southeast Asia. To a young boy it was a nightmare of boredom.
LBJ droned on about that war on a pretty regular basis in those days, and I really grew to hate it. I didn't understand the war or what we were doing (at the time I thought it was just me). Johnson was my first memory of the political "establishment". Old, white, male, southern - in many ways he resembled Dad. He was authoritarian and, it seemed, pro-war.
Richard Nixon is probably the next memory; at first as someone who was promising to end war and bring our boys home. Nixon was truly a liberal in his basic outlook. Later I remember Nixon and his "wage and price controls", and I had the first stirrings of my free market ideology. Nixon seemed stupid. Of course we all remember the "long national nightmare" of Watergate and the impeachment and resignation and pardon.
Government was corrupt and politics was no longer cool. Apathy reigned. Nixon in particular became a symbol of all that was wrong about politics. Republican became a very bad thing.
Ford was a good man who tried. When Ronald Reagan challenged Ford at the convention I honestly didn't know what to think. Reagan was painted as a warmongering radical, but it seemed to me he had some good ideas.
Carter was also a good man who tried, but he failed. The malaise of the Carter years is still etched on my mind. He remains a paradox. Jimmy Carter is an intelligent man with a good heart. I think he is a moral man. And at the time I had read enough Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand to understand that being good and smart is not enough. Carter's leftist policies were never going to work any more than Nixon's wage and price controls. You have to start with the right principles.
Out of this dismal and depressing fog stepped the radical right-winger that had challenged Ford. I started listening to him again. I was a little older, with a few more books under my belt. I remember the lump in my throat, and the moisture in my eyes as I listened to Ronald Reagan tell people that government was not the answer. He said not only was he not going to be handing out goodies, we were going to need to make sacrifices so we did not leave a mess for our grandkids.
You can call it coincidence but it turned out pretty well. Not because Reagan was brilliant. Not because he was a great negotiator. Not because he was a good and honorable man, which he was. It worked because he started with the right set of principles. Government is not the answer, freedom is. Reagan did not bomb the Soviet Union out of existence. They fell as a result of our strength.
He wasn't perfect. He didn't fix everything. He was vilified by some. But he stuck with his values and changed the course of history. Reagan was the last libertarian Republican to be nominated. Bush 41 is a decent man. Bill Clinton is a very smart man who has deep issues with his character. As a pragmatist with a Republican congress he ended up governing as a centrist/populist.
Bush 43 is a good hearted man who got blindsided early in his presidency and ended up focused on a decidedly neocon foreign policy. Not our smartest president but a moral man who cared deeply for this country and made a lot of tough decisions the best he could.
And then, of course, along came Hope & Change. Barack Obama returned us back to Jimmy Carter. He clearly stated his philosophy, which was and is the furthest left of any in my lifetime. And that is the direction we have shifted. Some voted for his philosophy and others just wanted to be part of history. Both gave us the same result.
In a political season people try to raise emotions. Fear is encouraged. Goodies are offered and presented as rights and entitlements. Candidates will tell us how smart and moral they are. We live in a flood of labels like establishment and RINO. Everyone's opponent is a liar and a racist.
I have noticed we are much more loyal (and blind) with our first choice than our second. With our second choice we are more aware of the differences and we view them with a more critical eye. We need to be just as critical with our first choice, and take the blinders off.
We should ignore the fear and gotcha politics, and instead demand answers on policy and philosophy. We should not gloss over uncomfortable differences in principles or contradictions. I encourage you to take a moment and look at the underlying principles and core philosophy of each of the candidates. Vote for the one that shares your values, not just the shiny one.
Government is not the answer, freedom is.
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