The Gebhart Effect

The problem with posting great writing works on Facebook is that once it is past a little time, it falls off everyone's timeline and no one ever sees it again.  On a blog, writing is saved, searchable and out there for anyone to see, read and appreciate.

A friend of mine... (that's an odd statement, but that's a whole 'nother post) wrote this on FB.  I have stolen it and posted it here for posterity.  He is (i think) 29. Very wise for his young years. I hope you find it as inspirational as I.

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So here it is as i see it in terms of the 2012 Rumble in the jungle election:

winning is winning no matter if its by an inch or a mile and it appear that Obama did just that. As a fan of facts and numbers and how the relate to life it is interesting to note that Obama carried 7 MILLION less votves than in 2008 while Romney carried nearly 2t million less than McCain. What that tells me is that Obama is no longer the immaculate black Jesus here to bring about a new Golden Age but rather that of the people who voted, more are of the persuasion that personal liberty (which i have heard some call selfishness) trumps any national issue. I can understand and respect that position. There are things that I will go all in for and sacrifice my personal beliefs for a singular goal and do so on regular occasion (every two years when I vote Republican as all others seem to have forgotten what a budget is). so i hold no ill will to those who thought they were casting a vote for a small measure of freedom. I am willing to die for freedom, so voting for it is a small matter.

What can we learn from the electorate? That it is not so white or so "rich" (250k is hardly walking around money in the grand scheme of things) or so conservative as we believe and far more gullible and willing to swallow any lie to make itself feel better about the dire straights it finds itself in than we give it credit for. We have flip flopper vs flip flopper. It just so happens that one's flip is more popular than the other's flop. The people who are willing to take an hour out of their day to perform the most sacred of civic duties are also the people who think that if an individual passionately and ravenously loves another person of the same sex and has a commitment to them as equal or more so than any heterosexual couple then they should be afforded the same rights, titles and privileges as those heterosexual couples. These are people who believe that if someone was taken here as a child by parents who were willing to become criminals to get to a place that is unlike ANY other country on earth then they should be given some path to citizenship (but no one said it should be easy, as it shouldn't...either immigrant or natural born) and that if you have been here and paying into the system and living or dying by it, you too should be offered the same chance. These voters said that while Obamacare isnt perfect, they believe that it is a better situation than what existed before and that some safety net, no matter how flawed and marred, was better than none. They said that these and so many other issues that effect the individual are more important than the financial well being and success of the nation. That they were willing to be taken down a few pegs in terms of military might and international leader ship in order to gain these freedoms.

How does modern Conservatism adapt to this? As i no longer identify as a Conservative but as an Independent i can only tell you the course i feel is most appropriate. Milton Friedman once wrote something to the effect that as much as he hated the Fed, we should talk about how to mitigate it instead of living in a fairy tale where it doesn't exist. Whether Conservatives think that people should be responsible for the actions or not, children are born out of wed lock. Men flee their duty to raise children as do women. There are incredibly lazy people who would rather live as leaches than to rise to greatness. Welfare and food stamps and medicare and medicaid and subsidies for the most foolish and wise ventures exist and instead of spending time talking about how it ought to be it is imperative to take action based on the realities of the world. For conservatism to survive it must accept the equality of all people to live their lives as they choose. It must realize that not all march to their religious and social drum beat and what is morally reprehensible to them isn't the same for others that would flock to their cause but for their unwillingness to become a socially conservative Christians. That equality and freedom are not something that you can inflict upon a person but are rather the natural state of humanity and the only thing that impedes upon that are governments and religion.

I look ahead to the future with a hopeful eye. Rand Paul in particular seems to be a shining light of what modern conservatism can be. As much as i speak about living in the world as it is, i often wonder what could have been and would be had that been. On election night i confided in a dear friend of the liberal persuasion that if Obama wasn't such a Socialist, id vote for him. That is true. What a man he would be had he fallen under the influence of Milton Friedman while at the University of Chicago. What would our world look like. A new JFK that balanced fiscal conservatism with a liberal society. Perhaps then he would be black Jesus.