American values | Rockin' On The Right Side

we agree If you listen to the network news, you probably think that most Americans favor abortion. You would be wrong. According to recent Gallup polling data, 70% of Americans think abortion should be always illegal or only allowed under certain circumstances, such as rape, incest, and life of the mother.

If you listen to the talking heads, you would think almost everybody opposes voter ID requirements to prevent election fraud. False. Rasmussen polls show 78 percent of voters are in favor of requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship.

You hear daily that you are out of the mainstream if you think illegal immigration is a big problem in this country. But that’s not true either – Rasmussen says 80% of voters consider it a very serious problem.

When it comes right down to it, Americans still share basic conservative values, despite the rapidly changing demographics. We pretty much all think it is wrong to harvest baby parts for profit. We support our policemen, firemen, and servicemen and women. We want to have a strong military, affordable health care, and safe roads and streets. We don’t like it when race-hustlers try to gin up conflicts among us. We want to raise our families and run our businesses without the government taking huge chunks of our paychecks and then trying to control every detail of our lives. We hate it when we find out the government is in bed with big business. We don’t want our country flooded with unvetted third-world foreigners who have no intention of becoming Americans. And we sure don’t think non-citizens are entitled to benefits at our expense.

These are not partisan issues. The vast majority of us agree.

So why won’t our elected officials do what we – the majority of Americans – elected them to do? And why won’t the media tell the truth about our shared American values?

Fortunately, it is not yet completely out of our control. We can make our elected officials represent us, and we can make them clean up the cesspool that our federal government has become. Elections have consequences, but so does good old-fashioned communication. If you want your congressman to know what your expectations are, you should be in frequent enough contact that he or she knows your name. If you are tired of manipulative media organizations, you can let them know your disapproval or turn them off. And if your neighbor, your father-in-law, your preacher or your teacher disagrees with the majority of us, you can persuade and invite them to join us in celebrating our shared American values.

For over a year I have been attending political and presidential campaign events. Whenever Speaker Boehner’s and Leader McConnell’s names are mentioned, there is a unanimous and resounding boo from the audience. The GOP candidates routinely advocate dumping the congressional leadership for a guaranteed ovation. Today’s news that Speaker Boehner will step down proves that Americans agree it is time for change, in such numbers that he had no choice.

Yes, these are dangerous times. Yes, there is corruption all around us. But please don’t believe that you are the one who is out of step. Americans agree much more than the idealogues want us to know. If we stand firm by our common values, our grandchildren still might have a nation worth living in.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Right, you’re bloody well right
You know you got a right to say
Right, you’re bloody well right
You know you got a right to say

Bloody Well Right – Supertramp

There’s no mistaking Supertramp’s Fender Rhodes signature electric piano sound. They are still rockin’, and here’s a great live take on one of their super hits.

photo courtesy 21stCenturySchools.com

Standing in the checkout line at Costco, I watched and listened to the family in front of me chattering in a language that I couldn’t identify. Was it Flemish? Behind me a mother and her daughter spoke what I think was Hindi. Another group of Indians near us was speaking English in their distinctive clipped dialect, and then a passel of giggling little Chinese kids ran by, with Mom and Dad sternly attempting discipline in their home language. Then the pretty young Caribbean woman began checking out our groceries as two young Hispanic men worked the merchandise and carts and shared a joke in Spanish.

And it hit me like a brick. The United States I had known all my life is no more.

I know, it sounds cliched, but I (conservative, Tea Party, mature white male) am not a racist. I have no ill will or condescension toward any kind of people. I have said I am an “economic bigot” – I expect capable people to work, and don’t particularly care for those who won’t, regardless of ethnicity. But I enjoy the uniqueness of people from different places and cultures, especially the flavors of family interactions that are so universal – devoted parents raising their fun-loving kids.

No, I’m not a racist, but I couldn’t help but notice that American-born, English-speaking whites and blacks were outnumbered on that Saturday afternoon in that Costco store in a relatively affluent Charlotte neighborhood.

I was flooded with questions and emotions. Do these foreigners also speak English? Where do they work? They seem to have plenty of money – were they wealthy in their native countries? Are there here legally? How did they get drivers licenses? Do they vote? Are their kids in the neighborhood schools, and how the heck do the schools deal with so many languages and customs?

Of course, no broad-brush answers apply. Some speak English, some don’t. Some have jobs, others are on government benefits. Some are legal. Some have drivers licenses. Some vote. One thing is for sure, suddenly there are a lot of them, as both legal and illegal immigration rates are exploding, compared to our earlier history. Many states are importing more people than are being born to natives.

The United States will never again look and sound like it did during our lifetimes. It is a done deal.

But we, as a nation, are still at a tipping point: Will the values, social structure, and laws that made this country the most prosperous and powerful in the world survive? Will our new immigrants become Americans who share the love of Mom, baseball, apple pie and Chevrolets, like earlier generations of immigrants? Or will our great nation be split into hundreds of tribes, each clinging to their native habits, and suspicious of all the others?

It is a time in our history when leadership is critical. Now, more than ever, we need leaders who care about the well-being of the nation, not just their own or their party’s political success. We need honest men and women with an understanding of the importance of time-tested rules and practices. America was built on laws that we could all agree upon, and that were proven to work. And America was once a “melting pot”, where newcomers assimilated into our culture while preserving their own heritages. Now is not the time to get fuzzy about our American laws, Constitution, or values. Our immigrants need order and stability, too – in fact that’s what many seek by moving here.

My wife often complained that our home state of Montana changed radically as more and more people moved there from the west coast. “They move to Montana because it’s better than California, and then they try to change it into California!”

In addition to accelerating legal immigration rates, our government has decided to erase our southern border and pretty much accept all comers. They claim their motivations are humanitarian; some of us believe they are political. But even if the border could be sealed like a Tupperware bowl tomorrow, the United States will never be the same as it was. So now what?

Many of the newcomers don’t really know what made America great. They and their families weren’t here. It’s up to us remaining native Americans (by that I mean those of us born here) to stand up for American traditions. values, and laws. We must make sure that our history is accurately and broadly taught, and expect our leaders to proudly defend our national identity and solidarity.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

On the boats and on the planes
They’re coming to America
Never looking back again
They’re coming to America

Neil Diamond – Coming to America