Restore Your True American Citizenship
by Michael D. Hume, M.S.
I can't say I've always been an awesome American citizen. Like many people of my generation (especially those of us lucky enough to "come of age" during the Reagan administration), I had better things to do. I was working. I was starting and raising a family. I was getting on with my life, and I assumed our country's leaders had the situation under control. After all, the economy was booming, I could always get a better job, and the Cold War we'd all feared during my military service was over.
Years passed, the changes seemed incremental and distant, and many of us kept our ignorance of what was happening in our larger nation. Then we all got a wake-up call in September of 2001, and many of us awakened to the notion that, perhaps, our leaders did not have everything under control after all.
Since Reagan left office in 1989, politicians of both major parties have taken advantage of the inattention of the broader citizenry by growing our national government under the guise of better helping the downtrodden. In the process, they've essentially "vandalized" our Constitutional republic as founded. And it's an effort that continues in earnest to this day: President Obama's leading narrative on the campaign trail is that we're all victims of his Republican opponents' failed policies, and that only his brand of European-style collective statism can save us.
People who didn't awaken on 9-11, or those who went back to sleep, are susceptible to this claim. Why? Because there are two types of people out there, and inside each of us. Our inner Victim wants to believe that life's a rigged game, it's all win-lose, and we got such a raw deal that we never had a chance to win. Our opposite nature, though, is not the semantic opposite ("victor"), because that personality does not see life the same way at all. Inside each of us is a better nature I call the "Entrepreneur," a risk-taking, hard-working, self-reliant powerhouse upon which America was built.
You can see why drowsy Victim-types are willing to believe that only an all-powerful government, in the name of "fairness," can protect them from those they're told are always out to get them. But you can also see why wide-awake Entrepreneur-types are having none of it.
The 2012 American election is a simple choice, really, and it would be even simpler if we had a Ronald Reagan running against the president. Reagan, the "Great Communicator," was an expert in presenting the case for the real America - the true free-market beacon of liberty, where anyone could become part of the wealthiest one percent of us, where anyone could start and run a business, where anyone could go as far as her dreams and talent could take her. He spoke to the Entrepreneur in each of us, woke the sleeping giant, and swept away his opponents by landslide margins.
President Obama's opponent this year, Mitt Romney, is vastly preferable to the specter of a socialist future represented by the president's possible re-election. However, Romney has missed so many easy opportunities to make the case Reagan made - to speak to our entrepreneurial spirit - that you have to wonder if he's really got it in his heart. But here are the facts: Romney is a good candidate getting better by the day, and Obama (as likeable a guy as he may be) is a dreadful candidate for his own job and getting worse all the time. You won't hear Romney speak to your inner Entrepreneur as often as he should... but you'll hear the president and his media cheerleaders preaching sermon after sermon to your inner Victim. That's what makes this a simple choice. Do you really want to be the sort of person the president's campaign seeks to bring out of you?
Our hope is that more of us are Entrepreneurs than are Victims... and I think that's a strong hope. We know America has created more prosperity for everyone, richest to poorest, youngest to oldest, than any other "system" in history; and we've seen enough such displays as the Soviet experiment to convince us of the perils of collective statism and to immunize us against the "Occupying" messages of the president's campaign.
But we have to wake up, we have to stay awake, and we have to restore our awareness and our citizenship in America at the individual level. America is like a once-proud classic car that's become a rusty junker. It's like a grand old house that has fallen into disrepair. America needs restoration! And the statists have vandalized her so badly, it'll be a daunting restoration project indeed.
But if we each take on our own little part, we'll be amazed at how quickly and thoroughly we can restore America. I write these articles, and submit humorous ones as letters to the editor of my local paper... among other little projects of citizenship that I'm committed to undertaking. What can you do? Can you start a business? Can you run for office, or support the campaign of another Entrepreneur? Can you start keeping an eye on your local town council or school board, and stand up to ask the tough questions "journalists" will no longer ask?
There are countless great restoration projects from which you can choose. So choose. In his most famous speech, "A Time For Choosing," Ronald Reagan made the point that the election at the time (Barry Goldwater's run against Lyndon Johnson) was not as much about choosing a candidate as it was about choosing a self, a direction, a future for America. The same is true today. Choose your own better nature. Choose to restore your own citizenship, and soon you'll have done a great deal to restore America.
by Michael D. Hume, M.S.
I can't say I've always been an awesome American citizen. Like many people of my generation (especially those of us lucky enough to "come of age" during the Reagan administration), I had better things to do. I was working. I was starting and raising a family. I was getting on with my life, and I assumed our country's leaders had the situation under control. After all, the economy was booming, I could always get a better job, and the Cold War we'd all feared during my military service was over.
Years passed, the changes seemed incremental and distant, and many of us kept our ignorance of what was happening in our larger nation. Then we all got a wake-up call in September of 2001, and many of us awakened to the notion that, perhaps, our leaders did not have everything under control after all.
Since Reagan left office in 1989, politicians of both major parties have taken advantage of the inattention of the broader citizenry by growing our national government under the guise of better helping the downtrodden. In the process, they've essentially "vandalized" our Constitutional republic as founded. And it's an effort that continues in earnest to this day: President Obama's leading narrative on the campaign trail is that we're all victims of his Republican opponents' failed policies, and that only his brand of European-style collective statism can save us.
People who didn't awaken on 9-11, or those who went back to sleep, are susceptible to this claim. Why? Because there are two types of people out there, and inside each of us. Our inner Victim wants to believe that life's a rigged game, it's all win-lose, and we got such a raw deal that we never had a chance to win. Our opposite nature, though, is not the semantic opposite ("victor"), because that personality does not see life the same way at all. Inside each of us is a better nature I call the "Entrepreneur," a risk-taking, hard-working, self-reliant powerhouse upon which America was built.
You can see why drowsy Victim-types are willing to believe that only an all-powerful government, in the name of "fairness," can protect them from those they're told are always out to get them. But you can also see why wide-awake Entrepreneur-types are having none of it.
The 2012 American election is a simple choice, really, and it would be even simpler if we had a Ronald Reagan running against the president. Reagan, the "Great Communicator," was an expert in presenting the case for the real America - the true free-market beacon of liberty, where anyone could become part of the wealthiest one percent of us, where anyone could start and run a business, where anyone could go as far as her dreams and talent could take her. He spoke to the Entrepreneur in each of us, woke the sleeping giant, and swept away his opponents by landslide margins.
President Obama's opponent this year, Mitt Romney, is vastly preferable to the specter of a socialist future represented by the president's possible re-election. However, Romney has missed so many easy opportunities to make the case Reagan made - to speak to our entrepreneurial spirit - that you have to wonder if he's really got it in his heart. But here are the facts: Romney is a good candidate getting better by the day, and Obama (as likeable a guy as he may be) is a dreadful candidate for his own job and getting worse all the time. You won't hear Romney speak to your inner Entrepreneur as often as he should... but you'll hear the president and his media cheerleaders preaching sermon after sermon to your inner Victim. That's what makes this a simple choice. Do you really want to be the sort of person the president's campaign seeks to bring out of you?
Our hope is that more of us are Entrepreneurs than are Victims... and I think that's a strong hope. We know America has created more prosperity for everyone, richest to poorest, youngest to oldest, than any other "system" in history; and we've seen enough such displays as the Soviet experiment to convince us of the perils of collective statism and to immunize us against the "Occupying" messages of the president's campaign.
But we have to wake up, we have to stay awake, and we have to restore our awareness and our citizenship in America at the individual level. America is like a once-proud classic car that's become a rusty junker. It's like a grand old house that has fallen into disrepair. America needs restoration! And the statists have vandalized her so badly, it'll be a daunting restoration project indeed.
But if we each take on our own little part, we'll be amazed at how quickly and thoroughly we can restore America. I write these articles, and submit humorous ones as letters to the editor of my local paper... among other little projects of citizenship that I'm committed to undertaking. What can you do? Can you start a business? Can you run for office, or support the campaign of another Entrepreneur? Can you start keeping an eye on your local town council or school board, and stand up to ask the tough questions "journalists" will no longer ask?
There are countless great restoration projects from which you can choose. So choose. In his most famous speech, "A Time For Choosing," Ronald Reagan made the point that the election at the time (Barry Goldwater's run against Lyndon Johnson) was not as much about choosing a candidate as it was about choosing a self, a direction, a future for America. The same is true today. Choose your own better nature. Choose to restore your own citizenship, and soon you'll have done a great deal to restore America.
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