Clarity Crafted From Common Sense!

Let's face it; we are all liberals, no matter howour hostages were traumatized and the rest of us
conservative we may be. The Puritans who foundedwere slowly strangled at the gasoline pump. We
America conquered dangers and disasters to winwere brain dead.
religious freedom, but they were liberals. In 1754,We watched our principled Ronald Reagan from a
Benjamin Franklin depicted a rattlesnake cut into eightdistance with admiration, as did millions worldwide
sections in his Pennsylvania Gazette. The eightthroughout the 1980's. When Ross Perot entered
sections of snake symbolized eight eastern seaboardpolitics, he caught everyone's attention by driving the
colonies and the caption said "Join or Die!" It was anational debate for a balanced budget and by
call to arms during the French and Indian war. Byopposing NAFTA (North American Free Trade
1776, an image of a coiled rattlesnake, with "Don'tAgreement) with his famous "giant sucking sound"
Tread on Me", became an American icon ofquote. Perot redirected enough conservative or
independence and a battle cry engrained in the Spiritmoderate votes from Bush Forty One to put Clinton
of '76.in the White House.
What is different about the liberalism of the PuritansBill Clinton really motivated me politically. When Clinton
and the liberalism of the progressive movement insaid that he did not inhale the marijuana he tried in
America today? In a word, the difference is morality.college, it was obvious that he was a liar, a
The Puritans personified deeply held, Bible basedscrupulous manipulator and I was motivated against
morality with their liberalism. When morality is strippedhim immediately. The Adolescent President, Bubba,
away from liberalism, the result is 30 million aborteddragged us all into the abyss of political and moral
babies over thirty years, legalized sodomy and therelativism where anything goes, as Nixon had done
North American Man-Boy Love Associationdecades earlier. It was more liberalism without
(NAMBLA), all protected by the immoral ACLUmorality.
(American Civil Liberties Union).Rather than recount the long series of terrorist
Born in 1954, I was a classic Love Generation,attacks we suffered and mostly ignored, from
anti-Vietnam War liberal, living at the speed of party!Carter's administration until 9/11, let it suffice to say
It is unbelievable; what our generation has livedthat I was already paying attention to politics before
through. The sexual revolution, women's lib, the music9/11 thanks to Bubba. Now we are aware that we
revolution, the recreational drug awakening, the Civilare in the fight of our lives. We have let the radical
Rights marches, the nuclear arms race, the spaceideology of our enemies morph into a giant violent
race, the information revolution spawned by thenetwork with global reach and influence and we
computer, the internet, satellites and cell phones areeven, indirectly, enabled it and still do.
just part of what we have witnessed! What aOur strategic goal must be the triumph of human
wonderful life and evolution of our democracy, in ourfreedom over tyranny in Muslim countries, for our
time!own safety too. It is in our interest, is moral and it
Our choices for president in 1972, when I turnedwill take a generation or two for freedom to achieve
eighteen and got a draft card, were Richard Nixonvictory over this brand of fascism. For non-radicals
and Hubert Humphrey. I did not vote that year. Mostlike most of us, it is bigger than the cost of oil,
profound, perhaps, we stopped the Vietnam War torevenge or even justice. Because of weapons
protect those poor rice farmers, from US troops. Wetechnology, it is about survival for which radicals care
quit and came home. Then, between 1975 and 1978,not. Tactics, tools and diplomacy will need to adapt
the Viet Cong and Khmer Rouge slaughtered aboutand be re-configured for each adverse circumstance
three million of those peasants who weuntil the right combination is found to achieve long
demonstrated in US streets to protect, from USterm victory.
troops. How foolish we were!The hour is late. Since 1979 our enemies have been
The lesson is clear: really bad guys immediately fill theat war with us and teaching their children to be
muscle void when good men stand down and gomartyrs, en masse. Most of us were asleep at the
home. Those who rallied our utopian filled minds towheel until September 11, 2001 and too many of us
stop the war were mostly silent about the genocideseem to have gone back to sleep again. Religious,
that ensued, after US troops were withdrawn. Ourideological hatred and technology are growing against
killed and wounded were sacrificed in great numbers.us, so America must fight for freedom for others
In the end, their mission and our allies were simplyonce again. We can not maintain our freedom alone,
abandoned by Congress and our divided nation.we need allies.
We grew up with Why We Fight, Victory At Sea,While we are divided about the best ways to
Combat, Black Sheep Squadron, Rat Patrol and otherachieve the strategic goal of freedom over tyranny,
programs about WWII, the death camps and theit is clear to most of us that we must use all of our
cost of freedom on TV. This type of programmingresources and tools, for generations. Clarity resulted
saturated the few over-the-air channels and wefrom 9/11 for most baby boomers and that means
found it educational, entertaining and fascinating. Manywar, and diplomacy.
of us still find it fascinating. It was all about the gritty,Lightning fast global communications show our
epic struggle between freedom and tyranny and itenemies a vicious political war internally which makes
was very patriotic!winning the wars of bullets and bones infinitely more
The Rifleman, Leave It To Beaver, Gunsmoke, Mydifficult. Our political division emboldens our enemies
Three Sons, Bonanza, The Waltons, Wild Kingdomto kill more Americans. They believe we will quit and
and All In The Family are just a few programs I recallgo home, again. They have Vietnam, Lebanon and
that were favorites for lighter entertainment. AndSomalia as their proof and recruiting tools. Last but
the Ed Sullivan show. It was all pretty wholesomenot least, our division demoralizes our own volunteer
fare and we loved it. The America of our youth ismilitary forces.
already gone forever, in case you missed its passing.A massive show of political unity at home is required
We watched in naive befuddlement while the Shah ofbecause votes affect troop morale on both sides!
Iran was overthrown by the Islamic RevolutionaryPurveyors of propaganda surround us. Seek and you
Guard in Tehran, who used US hostages as pawnsshall find what our troops' majority wishes are, but
on TV for over a year beginning in 1979. Interestyou must work at it. It is not easy if you prefer
rates were sky high and lines at gas stations werepolling data of our military over logic. Polling questions
longer than that. Our President at the time was awill improve so answers cannot be so easily spun into
former peanut farmer and most of us watched,interpretations not intended by the military volunteers
from afar, the rise of radical Islam withoutquestioned, if I have my way. When you are sure
understanding it.you know what our troops' majority political wishes
As a result of the gasoline shortages that followed,are, support them with your votes because only
there was a lot of talk about energy independence.votes count. Our words of support, without our
Certainly, the masses of us did not connect the dotsvotes being aligned with our troops' majority political
between buying foreign oil and funding terrorism.wishes, mean nothing.
Apparently, neither did our elected leaders who wereOur troops and our enemies have connected the
most interested in re-election, as they almost alwaysdots between votes and troop morale, on both
are above all else. In retrospect, what in God's namesides, can you?
were we doing? Oh yeah, partying! We watchedVote as if your life depended on it, because it very
while our secular, modern thinking but despotic allywell might. This is how we found clarity, crafted from
was swept from power, our Embassy was overrun,common sense; the hard way!