Pessimism is the Only True Death of Conservatism

We are in a time, that many have labeled as dark. This is not difficult to explain. There are no conservatives in real position of leadership, on the national scene. We see that we may well be in danger of rising and restrictive taxes, the loss of public voices who are allowed to disagree and few on our side of the aisle get any positive press. It is not, however, time to despair. It is most certainly not time to waste our good energy on conspiracies. We must not be resigned to the place of having yesterdays ideas.

In watching the President, in his many speeches, we have little doubt that he has plans to take the country in a more 'France-like' direction. He has, in a month, out spent any previous administration, in a comparable amount of time. He talks of heavy regulation, higher taxes, higher levels of entitlement and more interference in banking and health care. Pretty grim.

In fact, few have spent this much money in their entire term as president, and with the placation of the three senate 'Milk-Duds,' there doesn't seem to be a away to stop the 'left-wing' train. The picture seems even bleaker, with the real possibility of Norm Coleman's seat in the Senate, going to Al Franken. We also seem to have a wave of new young voters who vote on the left. Now it's time to scream, right?

So what do we as conservatives do about these grim omens. We can first start by looking locally. This would be a forward looking and positive solution. 'Off Year' Elections are, more often than not, known for low turn out. If we want to change the future it starts with; City Councils, Mayors, State Legislatures, and County Representation. In Salt Lake City they have had liberal mayors for the last 35 years. The hideous part is that the mayor doesn't represent the population. Conservatives don't show up to vote. Worse yet, over the last 10 years, the city population has shrunk by about 4 thousand. Many of these people are saying that the city is too liberal. These facts show the root of the problem all over the country. Conservatives don't show up to vote, then they get angry that the people, who they didn't vote for are too liberal. The conservatives quit. Hence the growth of liberalism in metropolitan areas all over the country.

Along with population shift: staying home, 'third-party' voting, and 'write-ins,' hurt our cause even more. Indulge me again to mention a local voting trend. In Salt Lake County (which has about 1 million people) we have seen a rise in liberal voting, to the point of there being no conservative leadership in our state legislature from the largest county in the state. What happened? A mix of pessimistic voting apathy, thousands didn't vote, as well as thousands of conservatives who moved out of the county. Another important fact that the rise of liberal representation was that many conservatives voted for silly 'third-party' candidates and wrote in other candidates. Had conservatives voted for the the front running conservative candidates in the county, there would not have been a loss of representative leadership.

Pessimism manifests in 'third-party candidates and 'write-ins' and staying home, effect things nationally as well, in precincts all over the country. In Minnesota, had people voted for one of the two candidates, instead of some third party, the election would be decided. Minnesota would have two senators instead of one. In Salt Lake County in the general Presidential Election the county went to Obama because just over one thousand voters wrote in another candidate who wasn't running. Hundreds of other votes went to 'third-party's.' Had these two goofy voting anomalies not happened the county would have gone to McCain. In 1992 20% percent of the national vote went to Ross Perot (10% percent in 96). If one were to add Perot's percentage with that of the ' third-party' candidates, Bush would have won in 92 (Dole in 96) instead of Clinton. Perhaps McCain, and Bush, aren't ideal conservatives. Perhaps Colman hasn't been perfect in Minnesota. The alternatives, however, are much worse, much more liberal. In each case pessimistic Conservative tendencies, to not vote, or vote for some other candidate, have been total disasters.

Pessimism is not an effective political strategy. Especially in the case of conspiracy theory. I was having conversation with someone the other day. This individual brought up that they had heard a popular radio talk host discussing President Obama's Birth Certificate, and questioning if the president is a natural born citizen. This same talk show host voiced that, other talk show hosts, lack the 'gut's' or 'chootbah' to address this 'important' subject. As one in a team on a talk show I will address this subject, Barack Obama is the president. His legitimacy has been certified by the 50 State Attorney's General. He will be president for at least four years. I hope that he is only President for one term, but he won't be removed by silly, juvenile, and time wasting discussions like these. It is perfectly legitimate to question his leadership, his plans, his fiscal policy, his appointments, his view on guns, unions, education, banking,..the list goes on and on. It is not realistic to think that our country will be at all better off by wasting energy on, whether or not Obama's citizenship is valid, whether he is the "Anti-Christ, he is Malcolm X's son or if he is a secret Muslim. (If anyone knows even the smallest bit of Islamic culture being a 'Secret Muslim' doesn't really fit the Five Pillars.)

New and more ridiculous stories come up every day. More conspiracies. Each more distracting, to the real work, than the next. The real work of looking forward with realistic hope. The work of holding our officials accountable, only gets muted, when real work has to compete with mush. Ben Franklin printed his Ideas, he printed Paines' Common Sense. He didn't help to father the new nation, with Adams, Jefferson and Washington, by wasting his time with silly rumors. These men had real work to do. They were optimists.

Pessimism and cynicism are what lead to these propensities of destructive behavior. We as conservatives have too much love for our country to waste more time on 'Third-Party's,' Conspiracy Theories and these other points. Each of the pessimistic behaviors show that many are giving up, or giving in, to the forces with which we sincerely disagree.

We are in a time of a perfect storm. A storm that, I believe, will bring a sprouting of conservatism. Pessimism, conspiracy theories and watering down our message, are what will be our greatest stumbling blocks; they distract us from this most profound opportunity. We can point out the innate falsehoods of the welfare state and the nanny state. We can stop the spread of feminizing all aspects of our young boys lives, and instill a true sense of honor in our young girls. Truly a free society with Men as Men and Women as Women is the true identity of America. We are a society that that has succeeded on Liberty. A society where failure is the strengthening doorway to success. We can herald the coming of a new age, but only if we as conservatives can embrace this time of setbacks as a time to educate ourselves and others. We have the American solutions of liberty and freedom, and these are the only solutions for our country. Posted by Rhant at www.realityslate.com