First of all I am a conservative, an independent conservative. If you read my posts regularly you know I sometimes call some Republicans CINO (Conservative in name only). And I am very conservative. It may be hard to tell much of the time because when I talk about public policy, my ideas are moderately conservative to what some would call liberal ( I am highly supportive of green initiatives, but in a business way). And one of the reasons I consider myself very conservative is based on values.
These values include hard work leads to success or it should, families are important, small businesses are important, especially to help build wealth and help the economy overall, respect for life from conception to natural death, the Constitution actually means something, and basic conservative talking points such as smaller government, balanced budget, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, free markets, you get the point.
I wasn’t always a conservative, or maybe I was, just didn’t realize it till I got older. At the ripe ole age of 14 while visiting that very same building that was recently desecrated I told an elevator full of military brass that we should get out of Vietnam. I participated in Vietnam protests. I protested against Nixon. I did a heck more than just taking a knee.
I also once participated in a “protest” that by the end of it I was wondering exactly what we were protesting. I was “beat up” by the police that day and on that day I harbor no grudges. We were wrong that time and we shouldn’t have been there. I actually realized the truth a few minutes too late and I was trying to get my friends to leave when the police moved in. There were thousands “protesting” actually so it got pretty scary, but after being clubbed a couple of times and pushed over I managed to get up scream at a police office I am trying to leave, literally grabbed and pulled a couple of my friends away and we left. No ones rights were affected or taken away that day.
So after years of being a protester, anti government person, anti establishment, I learned that there are times when you need to speak up and there are times when there is no real fight. What I have also learned is that my generation had motivation to do what is right at one point, but somewhere along the line, greed and self entitlement took over. I watched it happen. Slowly at first in the seventies, and it was building then, up until the eighties when full force greed took over this country. And also coke fueled entitlement. Me was the in word and in philosophy. If you hear anyone say anything different they are lying to you. Self entitlement and greed took over as the main drivers of values.
Sad, but true. And once basic values are corrupted which they were all the way to the top of our society, things come crashing back down on top of people. People no longer cared about values, it was only about what was in it for me. And this is the environment that motivated people like Trump. He didn’t care back then about others and obviously he doesn’t now.
And you have read me say this about him for years. And many many others have said the same thing. So why do tens of millions of people think he is right? That question is beyond me. I occasionally try to find an answer, but for him to convince so many people of his lies is incomprehensible. I grew up figuratively with many of these people. I watched them lose moral compasses, I watched them raise families so in some ways you can see the decline in society, but for the masses that follow him to be so enthralled with someone so shallow amazes me. And for some even scarier reason they think something precious is being taken away from them.
They no longer understand what is precious or valuable. They have no clue what is truly their rights. They scream loudly and say nothing. They think a piece of cloth covering their mouth so not to spread germs is an affront to their liberty, yet they no nothing of the true value of their liberty. Tens of millions of Americans, know not of what they speak. And if you try to reason with them, you are taking away their freedoms. They gave away their freedom when they quit trying to think for themselves; when they let a weak man con them, when they believed lies with no evidence, when they accused others of the very same problems they exhibit, they gave away themselves body, heart and soul.
So how on God’s green earth did so many average most hard working, Americans become so misguided. Yes, people are writing books on it now, but they do not have the answer. This complete destruction of the self will not be easily understood, yet I watched it happen over the last thirty years. I saw it and cannot explain it. I have friends who have fallen victim to it. I have friends who are just as perplexed by it as myself. There are a few complete idiots out there making the most noise that really don’t even care about Trump. They are just getting to make noise and act tough and that is all they want. There are though the tens of millions who do believe something was stolen from them. It wasn’t. They gave it away and I am not talking about the election. I am talking about their souls, brains, intellect, common sense. I am talking about their being. They just gave it away. And for what?
Societies do not experience what we experienced overnight. This happens over time, slowly then finds momentum and that momentum begins to consume things in its path. Eventually it hits something. Well it hit something this week. The question becomes is it breaking apart into many pieces that linger or did it bowl over the obstacle in its path and has become stronger. Soon we may know the answer to that particular question. And even it it lingers a new momentum can develop from the pieces if we are not careful.
So what happened this week? God only knows for the time being. People were there for trouble, some were there because again for who knows what reason, think they were robbed of something. Instead their ignorance robbed us. This was obvious from a long ways out, yet people on the news say this was surreal. It wasn’t surreal, it was the truth hitting us upside the head. This was happening right in front of us for a very long time. We choose to ignore it. The rich, the poor, the politicians, the lay people, the media, the pretentious left, the alt right, the conservatives, the liberals, all of us watched it grow into the mess it became on Wednesday. And it is not over. Again, are we dealing with pieces that linger or is the momentum now solidified?
On the side notes, Ted Cruz is a weak kneed prick, I do not know Hawley, but have no respect for him, there are others that are opportunists who have learned to put themselves first and get what they can. And some call themselves conservative. They aren’t. Lies, theft, cons, they are part of the problem, but only the visible sores of the true problem. We lost our souls, our values, our true understanding of what it means to cherish life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This is the underlying factor that caused Wednesday. Trump is just the ugliest sore or cyst on this body called the United States of America, but he is not the root of the cancer.
He and others though do need to be held accountable. And there will be ugliness holding them accountable. If we don’t, the cancer will grow, the momentum will grow or the pieces will rebuild. Just like cutting open the human body to remove the cancer, there will be pain, but we have to endure this pain to cure our cancer.
I love our country, our Constitution and our people. Most are hard working and care about something. We just need to get some people to start caring about true values and freedoms again. Even those of us who think we care about what is right because it is obvious we didn’t enough.
Unfortunately no cheers tonight. Stay safe my friends, the enemy is us and yes a cartoon character said that. Thank you Walt Kelly. A drawing is smarter than most of us. Oh and a naval officer also chimed in long beforehand, different context though.
And this virus doesn’t care that we are struggling as a body politic. It is still out to get us.
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