From Email -
People have core values whether or not they recognize them. Core values are essential and enduring tenets. If circumstances around us changed and we were penalized for holding a core value, would we still keep it? If our answer is no, then we did not have a core value. You do not change core values; you change strategies.
A core value is simple, clear, straightforward and powerful. It provides substantial guidance with piercing simplicity. People can discover their core values, but new core values cannot be instilled. Core values are not something we buy into. We must have a predisposition to hold them. Core values need no justification, nor do they come into or out of fashion. Our core values define who we are and who we will be 100 years from now, regardless of a changing world or the penalties we will encounter for holding these values.
I have been sitting on this for a few days and almost decided not to send it out. However, this morning I heard a couple of Congressmen say “ the American people want to get the truth about Benghazi and they deserve the truth.” This now strikes me as a great American myth…the myth of a great conservative silent majority in America. This is a myth or at least it is a myth that a “great conservative majority” care about America. Most are content to be sheep. They don’t want the facts. The facts are below. Conservatives who care for this country probably have never number more than 25-33%.
The 2012 voting age population in the US is ~ 230 million. This election ~ 120 million voted. Conclusion—110 million voting age Americans don’t care. So, ~26% of voting age Americans decided the election and the direction of the country. Only 24% of the voting age Americans disagreed with that direction. By actively voting for Obama or copping out or by disinterest, 76% of voting age Americans indicate they approve of the direction of the country. Or you could look at it as there were 26% parasites, 24% sheep dogs and 50% sheep. It looks like the parasites may be feeding on the sheep for awhile until the “herd” is dwindled down to a size that the sheep dogs can protect.
This was the choice of those who did not vote for Romney in the election, because any vote for Obama or any protest non-vote was in fact a vote for the current direction of the country no manner how much some wish to “stand on principle” … not voting or throwing your vote away on a non-viable candidate is a cop-out, not a principled stand. Some say an individual’s vote does not matter statistically… certainly a myopic statistical argument. 60 million, one vote at a time, obviously counted.
Those who don’t like either party certainly have justification and they should do their best to effect change betweenelections…work to change a platform…work to establish or strengthen a third party that may redirect/influence …however, at election time, it is time to chose a realistic option … not voting for the best possibility for the Nation (maybe not the perfect choice) whom has a realistic chance of winning, is a cop-out.
Conservative values are different from liberal values. Conservatives believe they take care of themselves and their families and that the government works for the people because the people are smarter than the government; liberals believe the government takes care of the people and that the people work for the government because the government intellectual elite are smarter than the people.
So what does this mean? Probably that even greater discord is on the horizon unless conservatives roll over and abandon their beliefs, fold to the socialization of the country, give up their independent and entrepreneurial spirit, sell out God to the worship of the state, and settle for mediocrity and servitude. I think this is unlikely.
I pray conservatives do not lose heart, faith or sell out their core values and beliefs, but as a friend whom I respect told me, the GOP has to change strategies if conservative values are to survive.
The thing about the 24% is that they are passionate about the Nation. As a group, conservatives are much more prepared for the trials that are coming. After the trials, the percentages will be changed. Remember, only approximately 1/3 of the country supported the revolution in 1776; a third supported the British; and a third copped out….and we still made it.
Ephesians 6:14 -- Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, ….
“The battle, Sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, Sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable; and let it come! I repeat, Sir, let it come!” — Patrick Henry
“They tell us Sir, that we are weak — unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature has placed in our power.” — Patrick Henry
“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their county; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny like hell is not easily conquered yet we have this consolation with us, the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value.” — Tom Paine after the Declaration of Independence
“I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.” — Ben Franklin, 1766
“Our own Country’s Honor, all call upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the Cause, and the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands Victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble Actions — The Eyes of all our Countrymen are now upon us, and we shall have their blessings, and praises, if happily we are the instruments of saving them from the Tyranny mediated against them. Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and show the whole world, that a free man contending for Liberty on his own ground is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth.” — George Washington, 1776
“A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.” — Samuel Adams, 1779
“They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” — Ben Franklin, 1759
“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” — Tom Paine
“If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.” — Tom Paine, 1776
“Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.” — Captain John Parker, 1775
|
