Thanksgiving is here! Many people are preparing for that feast of turkey, dressing and pumpkin pie. Some are packing clothes and making plans for their flight or drive. Others, though, are spending time with friends and family, recalling the fond memories of better days during their childhoods, as well as their traditions and the pride of celebrating this America holiday.
But most conservatives, however, are gearing up for that once-a-year visit from their liberal Uncle Phil or Aunt Sally. Amidst the conversation, in the past, they would’ve been forced—through dirty looks from their spouses or a gentle hand placed on the knee—to ignore the claims of bringing home the troops. They would’ve gritted their teeth when their liberal relative drifted down memory lane and proclaims that stimulus spending and healthcare are what America needed.
In days gone by, they would’ve choked down peas, dressing and turkey as they hear the same old refrains about how everything wrong in America is Bush’s fault, and that Obama is doing all he can to bring shovel-ready jobs back to America. In years past, they would’ve had that extra glass of wine when their liberal counterparts started spouting about how Obama’s healthcare refrain will bring down premiums and provide quality healthcare for everyone.
But that was in years’ past. This year, conservatives will bend their liberal relative’s ear. They have stomached enough. They’ll remind their liberal relatives how our debt has skyrocketed and that millions of children born and unborn will be faced with a burden they did not create. They will lecture their relatives on the unsustainability of Social Security and Medicare, waxing poetic on the frailty of these entitlements and the impending crisis these schemes face.
They’ll tell their loved ones that without reforms, these programs will more than double the historical average of federal spending from 20% of the economy to nearly 50% in just two generations. They’ll point to the fact that there is a total lack of budget control, noting that these programs are not subjected to real budgets, and that the U.S. debt exceeds $13 trillion, but we would have to take out the equivalent of a mortgage of $63 trillion to cover the future debt costs of these entitlements.
Conservatives will step up to the plate and remind their liberal relatives that spending is out of control, and huge portion of that spending is on healthcare. They’ll point out that healthcare spending will price less skilled workers out of full time jobs – the very people it’s designed to help, telling them that after paying the new health premiums, the minimum wage, payroll taxes, and unemployment insurance taxes, hiring a full-time worker will cost employers at least $10.03 per hour. Full-time workers with family health plans will cost $13.75 per hour. Employers who hire workers with productivity below these rates will lose money. Businesses employing less skilled workers will probably respond by dumping their employees onto the federally subsidized health care exchanges and replacing full-time positions with part-time jobs.
The American conservative, cherishing their precious freedom, will indicate that Obamacare will be an utter failure for business. They’ll demonstrate bluntly just how badly Obamacare hurts less skilled workers, saying, “It raises the minimum productivity required for them to hold a full-time job, particularly workers with families. Workers who cannot produce at least $20,000 per year (single plan) or $27,500 per year (family plan) of value to employers will have serious difficulty finding full-time jobs. Many of these workers will have to either live off reduced income from part-time hours or juggle the schedules of multiple part-time jobs.”
And in their Thanksgiving struggle, conservatives will win the day, because this great experiment known as America is too wonderful. Because they know that their freedom is too precious to roll over and settle for that’s the best we can expect. They’ll do all they can because they will remind their relatives that their children will endure an insufferable loss of their ability to choose the life they choose to live. And finally, they’ll convince their relatives because they know that America is worth the fight.
And then conservatives – that have a job in this Obama recession – will go to work and drive America like they always do. They’ll perform at their very best while their liberal coworkers complain about how their greedy boss is sticking it to them and how he or she isn’t paying them enough. They’ll advance up the corporate ladder, and get job after job done while their liberal coworkers are worrying about who looked best on American idol.
Conservatives, in their indefatigable diligence, will fight to keep the American economy moving, advocating for more of their own money and less government intrusion. They’ll turn on their radios, log on the internet and call their favorite talk show hosts in support of America’s finest on this Thanksgiving.
In this primary season, they’ll remember the words of Patrick Henry, “If we wish to be free, if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending, if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained we must fight!”
And when Obama starts spouting off about a do nothing Congress, conservatives will remember the words of President George Washington, “Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and show the world that a free man, contending for his liberty on his own ground, is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth.”
They’ll advocate for the Nativity scene as America nears Christmas. They’ll no longer suffer the righteous indignation of liberals when they rambunctiously complain about Chanukah and Christmas. They’ll tell their children about Santa, never forgetting about the real meaning of Christmas: the birth of Jesus Christ.
When liberals are having temper tantrums about the separation of church and state, conservatives will remember the words of John Adams, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Most of all, conservatives will remember the words of Daniel Webster, “God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.”
It is conservatives that I am thankful for on this Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 2011 these men and women that love liberty, the men and women that use the Constitution as a guide, never forgetting its principles in their daily lives, and holding their senators and congressmen’s feet to the fire.
These conservatives come in all races, colors, creeds and worship different religions. They are, at their very essence, the heart of America. They perform their duties with unabashed vigor. They represent the best America has to offer and keep coming back for more. They come from all walks of life, and hold patriotism sacred. They are never what the mainstream media covers, but are what America is and what it should always strive to be. They personify every notion the Founding Fathers had for America.
They are represented by men like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark Levin – individuals that understand that the Founding Fathers and the U.S. Constitution give us direction. They are more than happy to read Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto and are anxiously awaiting Ameritopia. They will surf the web and you will find many of them at Free Republic, a forum dedicated to ending socialism and tyranny’s grasp on America.
On this Thanksgiving Day, I am truly thankful for all the conservative men and women that make a difference in America. They should be saluted for wishing to return to the concepts of the Founding Fathers. They should be respected and admired for admonishing liberals at every turn in the road.
And they should be thanked for fighting the good fight, a fight to return to our American Republic. Conservatives have had enough.
All data attributed to the Heritage Foundation.
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