Home of Today's Common Sense

Published Brownsville Herald Jan 17, 2011

We are now solidly in a new decade with problems, issues and just plain garbage left over from the past.
Politicians take care of us like they took care of the native Americans in the past, the southern Reconstruction after the Civil War and the liberated Africans. They take care of us by enforcing more and more control to ultimately enslave us.
It is easy to see the political obsessions for resources, a lesser regard and lack of respect for any group different than we perceive we are, and a further desire for more power and influence that continues to cloud the judgments of our leaders has now brought us to a severely divided electorate.
Do we seek the socialistic “nanny government,” or will we return to the passion for self-determination that we once had? Was that not what the native Americans were trying to tell us so many years ago? Our politicians wanted to dominate and “take care of” our future.
The larger political segment only seeks to be left alone to make their own judgments and accept the costs of those judgments in daily life. We do not want government to put us in a pre-planned community to be taken care of.
The other feels that not everyone is mentally or physically able to make all the perfect choices; they are lesser in some way and should not have a choice. These folks believe that those lesser people must be guided and supported through life with government assistance and direction.
This battle has been going on for many years with great costs and now leads our country into problems with our neighbors in the world as well as a sharply divided public at home, that grows more and more discouraged with more and more controls established for our own good, every day.
The government controls what is taught in the schools with “assistance” and dictates the legalities and the “politically correct” actions we must take rather than just let neighbors work things out.
Now each segment has developed fears of oppression that fans the idea that “those guys” have more, so the government must have helped; and sure enough it is often true in the manipulation of political “earmarks” and other sweets from the all knowing government.
The government was originally defined with few powers, but greed and the quest for power have interfered with the original intent. Largess is so attractive that even the swings of political power don’t limit it.
The one structure in our nation that has always seemed to adjust in time to defend the blunders of our leaders as well as to ensure our nation’s well being has been our military. It started out as a volunteer force and later became a mercenary one.
Now as in our history these heroes remain the one training center that contributes the best to our communities as leaders and influences for success. They still have a view of what America is supposed to be all about. I fear that political changes might even diminish that as well. Many of the educators of political thought and “correct thinking” demean the military and often do not allow recruiters on the campus.
In this new decade we begin with a new brand of thinking in the Congress, “Tea Party” influenced Republicans. Is this just a new mask on an old bandit, or folks who really know where we came from and the value that those ideals provided us through our birth and adolescence? Will they really work for a smaller, less intrusive government that actually follows the precepts of our forefathers as described in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution?
Needless to say I would have preferred real Libertarians whose ideals are exactly that. However, the Tea Party did get its start from the Libertarian “Tea Party Day” of April 15, when we protested the suffocating taxes.
We have a new Republican Congressman in South Texas, which is a genuine surprise, so perhaps there is hope for the future.
On his website, blakefarenthold.com, in a wonderfully titled “Common Sense Conservative Leadership for America” posting, newly elected Congressman Blake Farenthold said:
“I believe our government is too big and too expensive. We need to return to the ideals outlined by our Founding Fathers in our Constitution and return the power to states, local governments and most importantly the individual. I believe in less government (which means more freedom) and lower taxes (which means bigger paychecks). I’ll fight to defend your freedoms including freedom of speech & religion, the right to bear arms and the right to be free from discrimination. I am committed to protecting America both at home and abroad which includes fighting terrorism, supporting our allies abroad, reforming immigration and, most importantly, securing our borders.”
I suggest we all refer to his contract with us constituents, and hold him to it — I will!