Adjustments

Its been a while since I last wrote, and for that I must apologize.

There are a few reasons, I left one job and started another. School and after school activities rose above normal. I read a book by Tom Friedman.

I read, That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back, which is where I left of with this blog over a month ago. While it didn't take me all of a month to read the book, it did take longer than usual to finish it.

Frankly, it's a book that no one would like.

No American that is, surely our enemies would love the narrative of the broken system our proud nations is mired in.

I found it energy draining. Until the end, when Tom and I found common ground again, and that was in his suggestion that we vote third party. The idea would be that by voting this way, we affect the thinking of the major parties. We in effect splash the cold water of reality in their monopolistic faces.

Friedman cites a few examples of it happening in the past, Teddy Roosevelt and Ross Perot both ran as third party candidates and effectively moved their opponents off the party reservation.

Personally, I've been liberal before and I have liberal ideas, although nothing too important, for example I can't see any reason why the national government should be involved in marriage, but I am not liberal en mass anymore.

Reading this book, I was beginning to wonder about my conservatism, whether the idealogues and candidates today who profess conservative views are as smart as I thought they were. Have they been adjusting to the times? Have their ideas moved in any manor to adapt to the realities of today?

This is natural and healthy skepticism. I've read many liberal books over the years, and been influenced by the them all, but not one has stirred such second thought in my mind as this book.

I don't doubt much of what Friedman writes, although he positioned Obama as much wiser than I give the president credit for. I do doubt that government is capable of solving many of these problems we face with more government.

Which brings me to Newt Gingrich. I watched my first debate last night. Many of my readers know I am a proponent of the former Speaker of the House. There is no one, not one candidate for president( the current occupier included ) who is as articulate, thoughtful, and accomplished as Newt. He created the surplus at the end the Nineties, he reformed welfare, he created the impetus to end the era of big government.

And he, again, provided me with the optimism and confidence that there are conservatives out there, running for high office, who get it. Who understand the world we live in today, and have contemporary ideas on how to fix our problems with minimal government growth, in fact with negative government growth.

I'll give Newt and any conservative who can inspire me with their ideals seven times seventy opportunities to fix the mess we are in before I'd pull the level for a liberal candidate who would rather place more trust in government than individuals in making the right decisions for themselves.