Whether you want to admit it, you know the truth. Our nation is on a collision course with fiscal and political disaster.
Congress is currently bickering over $61 billion in cuts to a $3.7 trillion dollar spending spree — for this the Democrats are willing to shut down government?
While the Republican Congress is off to an admirable start, there still is no real leadership on tackling the essential problem — entitlements and deficit spending.
The source of a leader’s “political will” comes from both within and without. Many of our leaders want to do the right thing, but they need to know that if they keep their promise to make tough decisions, we will stand behind them. I fear all they see right now is the protesters in Wisconsin and all around the country demanding the status quo.
When Winston Churchill warned of impending danger from Germany, he was scoffed at by his countrymen. Even as Neville Chamberlain declared, “We have achieved peace in our time,” Hitler was on the move.
Soon, Great Britain would realize that Churchill was right about Hitler’s motives and would call upon him to lead. Later, when speaking about this period in his life, he reportedly said, “A principled man has but to stand his ground and the world will yet come round to him.”
While fiscal policy is certainly not a raging Nazi army, our national debt is just as dangerous to the endurance of freedom.
Like Chamberlain, Obama and the Democrats see the danger of our nation’s financial situation, but they turn away from it and pretend it can be fixed simply by making a few adjustments here and there. As Chamberlain declared “peace in our time,” Obama has declared “primary budget balance in our time.” They were both wrong.
Ronald Reagan once said that “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction … ”
And he was right, for each American generation has been presented with an opportunity to preserve liberty for the next.
Up to this point, not one of those generations has ever failed to live up to the task. Because they knew, even though he hadn’t yet said it, that what Reagan went on to say in the rest of his statement was true.
Reagan continued: “We didn’t pass it (freedom) to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States, where men were free.”
History eventually will judge us all, as it knows no prejudice. You do the right thing or you don’t — you cannot hide truth in death or time. History judges us not only by what we do, but by what we allow to be done.
As another American generation facing the challenge of preserving liberty, we must ask ourselves how we wish to be judged. We must rally to the cause of liberty — in our words, our actions and in how we support those we’ve elected to lead.
Recently, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said in a speech, “I love when people talk about American exceptionalism. But, American exceptionalism has to include the courage to do the right thing. It cannot just be a belief that because we’re exceptional, everything will work out OK. Part of truly being exceptional is being willing to do the difficult things.”
Our elected officials have found themselves in the position of leadership at a time of great consequence, but elected leaders cannot make these hard decisions alone. They must know that we have been called to share their burden. Are you ready to do the difficult things for America’s future?
Leland Conway is co-founder and executive editor of www.conservativeedge.com and host of the Pulse of Lexington on News Radio 630 WLAP. He can be reached for comment at Leland@conservativeedge.com.
