Proud American

Proud American
Bruce Bialosky
Monday, February 01, 2010

Anyone with my political convictions was likely very frustrated after the 2008 presidential elections. Not only had we elected a very inexperienced man to be our President, but we had appeared to place the entirety of our government in the hands of the far left. Recent events have restored my faith in my fellow Americans, but my elation goes much deeper than a few election victories.

Once the policy intentions of the Obama Administration and their allies in Congress became clear, people started turning away from their elected officials in record time. Those people who actually understood the Cap and Trade bill – a number minimized by the House’s deliberate effort to withhold information on its full effects – were profoundly alarmed by its effect on the nation’s economy. And Americans of all stripes were sufficiently disgusted by the complexity, deceit, and utter bribery wrapped in the Health Care Bill to affect one of the largest electoral upsets in modern American politics.

The last 12 months have brought clarity to our political system. Not only had the American people voted the Democrats into office, but they had put the left-wing in charge. The elements that view European-style socialism as a model for America now had the opportunity they persistently and surreptitiously pursued for more than a generation. They launched two major – and unpopular – legislative initiatives and carried out wholesale takeovers of several large private enterprises. Americans saw with a clear eye what would continue to happen under left-wing leadership, and through the ballot box have resoundingly said NO.

How have such circumstances come to be? Americans have been conditioned for over forty years by the mainstream press that the policies being proposed by the current administration are what this country needs. The most prestigious newspapers have relentlessly editorialized on the errors of Republican policies and the goodness of the left’s wisdom. Certainly Fox News was launched to counter the effects and deliver a more evenhanded analysis, yet it could not compete with the combined numbers delivered by CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN and MSNBC. Most Americans are still viewing the left-wing slanted media, but they’re no longer duped by the media mouthpieces.

Concurrently, American universities have driven the Republicans crazy. For forty years, any pretense of even-handedness has been tossed aside on college campuses. Conservatives either are not welcome or are booed off the stage and too many campuses embrace evil leaders such as Ahmadinejad more warmly than Americans who don’t blindly adhere to the far-left party line.

Students continually must endure classes where college professors express their left-wing opinions freely and without recrimination. Conservative students often feel oppressed and fear for their college careers if they confront tenured professors who express their political views as if they were established facts. Ultimately, the lack of free interchange of ideas has turned out wave after wave of college graduates who are hopelessly indoctrinated.

Yet after all this, the American people have endured. In 2006, far more Americans identified themselves as conservative than liberal (the actual poll results were 38% to 24% with 34% saying they were moderates). Four years later – after a year of Obama – the figures are similar, except that now, only 21% state they are liberals; a nearly two-to-one edge for conservatives!

How could such attitudes exist after more than forty years of the intellectual elite reminding us that left-wing policies are best for America? Above all, it’s because Americans have common sense.

Americans still believe that private enterprise is more effective than government programs. They believe charity is compassionate and that government programs are not. As much as the left attempts to undermine property rights, Americans clearly understand that private property is what has made this country great.

Americans have been most upset with Republicans when they have bought into the left-wing’s policies and started acting like Democrats. Republicans were voted out of office over abuse of power and abuse of our checkbooks. When Republicans started spending like leftists and loading the national budget with earmarks, the American people turned on them.

Americans understand that less government means more freedom. Republicans need to do more than just oppose the expansionist policies of Obama and his cohorts. They need to return to the principles for which they have stood for ages.

Historically, Americans have always rejected the efforts of the left to turn our freedoms over to a controlling central government. The election of Scott Brown two weeks ago embodied this belief, and put to rest the centerpieces of the Democrats’ left-wing agenda. In the same week, the Supreme Court struck a blow for free speech and the First Amendment.

The icing on the cake was the death of the Air America radio network. In the only example of the left-wing attempting to communicate its message through the mass media where they clearly labeled themselves and their views, they crashed and burned. The American people rejected their efforts and made me a proud American.