Returning to traditional/conservative values...

Well, you can already hear the self-appointed experts on talk radio and other sites of the internet pontificating on what will win back the country in 2012. They seem to feel a return to the sort of virtue we once enjoyed is just an election away if the conservatives play their cards right.

Give it up folks, the problem runs deeper than you think.

As I opined recently, several reliable sources have stated the economy was the driving force behind Obama's win. That and the liberal white guilt which automatically caused so many to swoon at the idea of a black President, insured a win. Admittedly, it didn't hurt at all that Obama's campaign outspent McCain's by a ratio of 4 to 1, had the MSM in the tank and was very generously funded by private donations. But without the white guilt and worry about the economy he'd have been history on November the 3rd.

So, we're so damned concerned about the economy that all other issues were crowded off to the side. Have there been any front page stories about the troops in Iraq & Afghanistan recently? Nope. Was the abortion issue ever raised to the same level it enjoyed in the 2004 campaign, especially given Obama played an active part (three times!) in defeating the Illinois version of the Infant Born Alive Act? Kerry just passively supported abortion, he didn't actively kill laws that helped minimize it. The answer to the question is "Nope" again.

I understand ignoring the issue of immigration, on that one both parties stated what were almost carbon copies of each other's position. Let that one slide.

But We The People were more concerned about our stinking pocketbooks than anything else. We suck. Forget the unborn, forget our responsibility to the decent people in Iraq & Afghanistan. They don't matter as much as a secure 401K fund. Gotta keep your priorities straight.

I want to puke.

It wasn't a minority of voters that staged a violent putsch to take over the polls, it was a majority of Americans. It was a majority of us.

Like I've already said, we suck.

Somewhere along the way we lost our sense of decency and self-sacrifice. Please don't blame the boomers for it, I've heard my share of folk old enough to be my parents spouting off about the glory of Obama. Florida went to the Democrats, and there are two things you find in that state. Cuban refugees and retirees. So don't dump exclusively on the boomers. There's enough blame to go around all of us. And thats also part of the problem, we keep thinking "It's not my fault" when it damned well is.

What have we done to promote those ideals that really mean something? Let me tell you a story that illustrates the attitude and behavior of so many of us.

The War Department started researching the denomination she'd lived in all her life and found out that on a national level their leaders unequivocally support "women's reproductive rights" and that means abortion.

She'd been unaware of this and started trying to talk to her pastor about it. He blew her off, was always too busy. He understood how she felt but, golly gee, life for him right now was really busy and when he had the time he'd get back to her. Noted.

She tried talking to other members of her congregation. Some just shrugged their shoulders and said they didn't personally believe in it but what could they do? Others said they didn't believe in it and felt they'd do something to speak up when the time came but for now there was no prolife ministry in her church so they'd just have to wait. And everyone kept hobnobbing with one another, having a grand old time planning the next church get together. All very comfy cozy in doing nothing because doing nothing means you don't have to exert yourself.

The WD is now going through RCIA. She'll be Catholic come Easter.

But the behaviors and attitudes exhibited by her former coreligionists are so damned typical of all of us. What do we do to promote the virtues that would drive us to consider the troops in the field and the unborn to be more important than our retirement funds? Do we just shake our heads and mutter how the world is going to Hell in a handbasket?

How much time do we take to let the local, state & federal government know when we're pissed about self-serving incompetence or corruption? How much time do we expend trying to engage our fellows in conversations about the moral problems of our culture, instead of just keeping mum because we don't want the reputation of a weirdo? How much time do we use to try putting "adult" bookstores and theaters, massage parlors, strip joints, swinger clubs, etc. out of business? Or do we just drive by, inwardly shrug and think at least our kids ain't in there? How often do we speak up about things we know are wrong but that we've grown numb to and learned to accept? How often do we shake our heads about the crap that gets pushed in public schools and feel so smug because our own kids are in private ones?

It's all part of a package deal, none of it is isolated. I recently heard a priest state that when you allow abortion you devalue life at it's beginning and when you devalue it in one stage you'll devalue it at all others.

So the reverse holds true. If we want to reinstill value in one stage we have to fight to reinstill it in all others.

To get back to where we need to be will be the work of years. It took generations to get here. It didn't start with the boomers, it didn't start with the "Greatest Generation", it started when we as a people began thinking we could give away little bits and pieces of ourselves in order to get along better, "to have a better life" (which meant more creature comforts). Now we find we've given up enough of our souls that creature comfort instead of an adherence to values dictates our choice of a leader. And most of us will sleep soundly tonight despite that.

So entire new generations will have to be raised with the sort of values that made us an honorable, God-fearing people. The ones presently alive will have to die off. In the meantime the political tug-of-war will continue with the avowed champions of decency and honor inching their way further towards the liberal/secular way of thinking while loudly proclaiming loyalty to us all.

Because that sort of thinking & behavior is what won the election. Don't look for a championing of values from the GOP party leaders, they want to use what will win and damned how much it stinks. Those of us who want a return to honor and decency have to make it happen ourselves. That cavalry ain't coming over the hill, homeboy. We're on our own against the ruling elites of both parties.

We have to do it. Those of us who want to return to decency, to a point where honor is valued, to a point where selflessness is admired and emulated, have got a long row to hoe. Don't expect to live to see it come about. All we can do is just keep plugging away, comforting ourselves that we're doing the right thing. It isn't much but it's what we've got.