Thomas Paine’s opening lines of The American Crisis ring true today as well as they did when he penned them.
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 his country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
If you’ve ever wanted to start a blog of your own, here’s an opportunity you might want to take advantage of.
In one of my favorite sci-fi TV series, Babylon 5, there is a group of humans with psychic powers called the Psi-Corps. Their slogan is “The Corps is Mother, The Corps is Father.” Today’s leftist Democrats could modify that slightly to, “The State Is Mother, The State is Father.”
Romney has completely erased Obama’s lead among women, probably due to his strong debate performance.
Roger Scruton is a real-life British conservative (as in “conservative in the American sense”). He’s been with AEI for many years, taught in British universities, and has written several superb books on politics and culture.
Of his books my two favorites are The Meaning of Conservatism, his magnum opus, and Gentle Regrets, a wonderful and very touching memoir of his rediscovery of conservatism and God. The man is incapable of writing of boring sentence. For several years, he’s written a monthly column in American Spectator (though I understand he recently wrote his last one). I don’t agree with everything he’s written, but the areas of disagreement are very small. So do yourself a favor and pick up one of his books.
As an incentive, here are three quotations. The first one is particularly pertinent to today’s American political scene:
“[T]his is the strongest argument in favour of democracy, and the reason for retaining democratic procedures at the heart of politics: namely, that they enable us to get rid of our rulers.”
This insight on the power of tradition (a subject that he often addresses) is powerful:
“Tradition . . . must include all those practices which serve to define the individual’s ‘being in society’. It constitutes his image of himself as a fragment of the greater social organism, and at the same time as the whole of that organism implicit in this individual part. . . . In seeing yourself as a father you find yourself entangled in a bond of responsibility.”
Finally, a thought on the relationship between “freedom” and our civic “institutions”:
“Freedom without institutions is blind: it embodies neither genuine social continuity nor . . . genuine individual choice. It amounts to no more than a gesture in a moral vacuum.”
Try Professor Scruton. You’ll like him. I guarantee it.
Two of my great loves, like those of George Will, are baseball and politics. So, if I may, I’d like to combine the two to explain why conservatives shouldn’t be walking off the diamond like Charlie Brown after a loss just yet.
I’ll state right up front that I haven’t been watching the Democratic National Convention. However, I also didn’t watch much of the Republican National Convention, tuning in only to see who their “mystery speaker” was, so I’m being close to equal in ignoring the conventions.
However, from the coverage of the conventions, and from the political ads I’ve seen, I’m noticing a pattern. The GOP is running ads explaining both why voters should vote for Romney, as well as why they should not vote for Obama. On the other hand, the Democrats are running mostly ads explaining why they shouldn’t vote for Romney.
Conservative Wanderer (CW) has kindly given me a corner of his platform to talk politics. I’m grateful. Before telling you a bit about myself, I’d like first to talk about Mia Love, the black conservative Utahn who wowed the convention last night. I’m proud to say that I live in Utah’s new fourth district and will have the honor of voting for Mia. I’m also a volunteer. Over at Ricochet, where CW and I hold forth from time to time, CW posted today about the “civil” leftist internet trolls who hacked Mia’s website in order to insert thoughtful phrases like “housen****r” to refer to her. I guess this is what lefties think passes for civil discourse these days (Cher and Ellen Barkin have certainly covered themselves with glory for their high-toned references to Republicans). Let me just say that Mia is no one’s pawn. She is a mom (three daughters), a wife, committed to her church, mayor of a fast-growing city, and truly conservative. If that weren’t enough she’s beautiful, smart, and principled. She has a tough race against a long-time incumbent blue-dog, but I believe she’ll prevail. If you’ve got a few dollars sent them to her. She is a classy person and I’ll be proud to have her as my representative in Congress.
The 2012 presidential contest is the most important election since 1980. Our choice this year is more distinct than the one between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. In 1980 the economy was mired in stagflation, people were genuinely hurting, and our leader was clueless; even so, we were not facing, as today, national bankruptcy.
Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!