Pun with Fropaganda

What Does Conservative America Really Want?

by Goseph Joebbels

The Conservative press seems to have the right to complain about the MSM. It makes vigorous use of this right, particularly when liberalism is involved. National Socialism is a thorn in its eye.

Hollywood has been the target of its mockery, hatred, lies, and slander since the end of the fairness doctrine, especially from that part controlled by Rush Limbaugh. The Conservative press takes particular pleasure in criticizing liberalism on grounds of humanitarianism, civilization, human rights, and culture. It has every right to do so. Conservative humanity is shown by lynchings. Its civilization is shown in economic and political scandals that stink to high heaven. Its human rights are displayed by armies of disenfranchised, undocumented immigrants. And its culture exists only because it is always borrowing from the older social programs. Such a ideology is certainly justified in sneering at European socialism, whose nations and peoples looked back on centuries, even millennia of cultural achievements long before America was discovered.

The conservative press replies to our complaints by saying that it has nothing against liberalism, only against National Socialism. That is a poor excuse. National Socialism today is liberalism's guiding political idea and worldview. The entire liberal nation affirms it. To criticize National Socialism today therefore means to criticize the entire liberal nation.

It will not do to say that National Socialism is a dictatorship, and that there are still many in liberalism who, inwardly at least, reject it. That simply is not the case. It is a fantasy that exists only in the minds of republican politicians and journalists, but has nothing to do with the facts. There is no doubt about it: the public campaign against liberalism is a conscious and intentional provocation aimed at the MSM and liberal people.

Generally, it does not make any difference to us. We liberals do not depend on the love or grace of conservatives; we live from our own national strength. The time is long past when liberalism expected its salvation from concensus. Conservative help was always lacking when it was most needed, especially during hurricane Katrina. It appeared only when international money and stock capital believed that it could earn vast profits by helping drowning liberals.

We could simply say that conservative America is far away, with a big ocean separating us. What do we care about what they think, write, or say about us? That was quite OK as long as America's highly developed hate campaign against liberalism kept within certain bounds. But when it infects even official circles rather than merely newspapers and radio stations, it becomes more serious.

This campaign reached unbelievable heights after the fairness doctrine was ended. American public opinion, influenced by Rush Limbaugh, is trying to interfere to an unacceptable degree in liberal domestic politics. They think that can use methods against liberalism that are
normally unheard of in relations between civilized ideologies.

We know very well who the instigators and beneficiaries are. They are mostly the Limbaughs, or people who are in their service and who are dependent on them to do their thinking for them.

For example, it is not surprising that the conservative press attacks liberalism so strongly. Over ten million conservatives listen to Rush Limbaugh, and thier economic lives are totally under conservative control.

The liberal press so far has generally ignored this filthy campaign of hatred, or answered it only in a restrained manner. Only after official personages in the U.S. congress got involved did we think it necessary to say something. For example, the American president said that no American could accept a medal from the hands of a brutal dictatorship. With the same hand, America robbed and tortured thousands of people, that it saw a day when it committed no new crime against humanity as a day wasted. Put simply, that is not a style of speaking that is customary in relations between states.

Press secretary Tony Snow responded to liberal protests by saying that the president's statement represented the opinion of the overwhelming majority of the American public. One does not know what to say. What does he mean! Was the American president really ever personally attacked in the liberal press, or America's leading men slandered? We have been restrained, even though we certainly had every reason to discuss this or that matter of American domestic policy.

Such things are not our concern. Conservative talkers, not us, determine conservative domestic policy. We are concerned only with liberalism's affairs. We also have no reason or intention of smuggling liberal political ideas into the heads of conservative America. The very opposite, since the methods that we use are purely liberal. They are only valid in liberalism. But we do believe that just as we respect the internal affairs of other countries and avoid polemics against them, conservatives should treat us in the same way.

One cannot say that that is true of all of the United States of North America. Nearly the whole press and film industry, with the exception of radio, supports the worldwide campaign of liberalism.

Former president Reagan expressed the conservative position bluntly. "The American people do not like liberal government." We happen to think that the American people have nothing to do with the matter. If they do not like liberalism, it is because of the hate campaign. This campaign is conducted by certain radio broadcast scoundrels who lack conscience and scruples. They are doing it both for foreign and domestic reasons.

Conservative America hopes to encourage South American hostility against liberalism, and really against Europe as a whole. They do not like liberal competition in the South American market. The enormous conservative backed American armaments industry is also calling up images of a coming war against the totalitarian governments for business reasons.

We have no intention of answering the criticisms that the conservative American press raises against liberalism by looking at America's domestic affairs. It is enough to observe that although liberalism is for the poor countries in the world, in terms of foreign currency
reserves and raw materials, it has not only abolished unemployment, but has a labor shortage.

Conservative America, meanwhile, wants to deport the immigrants who will fill that shortage, even though it is rich in foreign currency reserves and raw materials. Most of the conservative press ignores this situation. It cannot deny it, of course. It claims that liberal success is contemptible, since it used methods of hate and contempt.

This is entirely backward. The millions of new liberals who will get jobs after National Socialism takes power are not interested in the methods that gave them those jobs. It reminds one of the familiar joke. Two workers are halfheartedly trying to remove a paving stone. A passerby watches for a while, then grabs a pickax and yanks the stone out. One worker says to the other: "Well, sure, if you use force..."

The conservative press uses the same argument. It cannot deny National Socialism's successes. It can only say: "Well, sure, if you use force..." It thinks the liberal people had to make too great a sacrifice for these successes.

The liberal people sees things differently. They know that certain restrictions in some areas were necessary for national reconstruction. The American public is practically drowning in wealth, prosperity, foreign currency, gold bars, and raw materials. It can hardly imagine how an intelligent, hardworking and courageous people can get along without all those advantages.

However that may be, future developments concern us.

No one but liberals have the right to judge liberalism's domestic affairs. No one has the right to turn one people against another, to incite discord and promote ignorance that lead to international crises.

Mr. Limbaugh, leading talk radio voice of conservatism, found the right audience a few weeks ago, when he attacked National Socialism. The most prominent representatives of American international industry, economics, and finance were gathered. Mr. Limbaugh would have done better to tell the eleven or twelve million undocumented immigrants where they could find jobs. He seems to have realized that his hate tirade might have found a less friendly reception there than it did from the audience to which he did speak.

Limbaugh applauds whenever liberalism is attacked. Limbaugh hates National Socialism for reasons that do not need to be mentioned. Limbaugh and the conservative radio pundits are our enemy, should be our enemy and must be our enemy. The question is whether the American people want to make the Limbaughs happy by engaging in fruitless conflict with the
liberal nation and the liberal people. That we do protest against. That is neither necessary nor helpful.

We have nothing against the American people. We know and respect their political views and internal affairs, even if we might do things differently. We believe we have the right to expect the same of American public opinion about liberalism. We also fail to see the benefits of such controversy. What good will it do America? Does it think it can starve liberalism using the same methods as those of the Cold War?

Every economic action has two sides. It affects not only its target, but also the side that uses it. American automobile manufacturers, sitting on piles of unsold SUVs, know this well.

It is time to recommend peace and good sense. American public opinion is going the wrong way. It would benefit by returning to the old, tested practices of international courtesy and good manners, and by treating liberalism in the way normal for civilized people.

We do not expect our appeal to have a great impact on American attitudes. Still, we think it our duty to speak plainly.

Given the influence of the Limbaughs on parts of American public opinion, we again stress the shortsightedness and uselessness of such methods, and ask the world this question: "What does Conservative America really want?"


Now, go read the original speech, in all of its original glory.


Pretty scary.

Meme'd Was I

Here are the rules (as they were explained to me).

1. Let others know who tagged you.





a4g and DPT, this means you!




I was tagged by JimmyB on another score. We will see if I get
around to that one.

2. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.



Look out below.








3. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.




Consider yourself served.








4. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged.
(Take note of the should part.)



Eight pseudo-random facts:

* Every time my neighbor mentions the uncut part of my lawn, I need to generate a fresh rationalization. The last one outlined my desire to observe the different seeding patterns of the wild grasses of the northeastern region of North America. The one before that was my intention to increase the rooting strength of the green cover, by allowing it to create more topside demand for water and nutrition. Weeds are wonderful examples of Darwinian tenacity. There is one particularly hardy fellow, right in the center of my property. I scalped him down to the dirt with a nylon cyclone. Now he is back, stronger than ever. Why grow wimpy, expensive grass, when there are indestructible alternatives?

* I have a weird allergy to catfish. I love the taste. It's the sudden violent nausea and subsequent penitent prostration to the god of porcelain that has smitten this item from my future menu choices.

* I go through more diet ginger ale in a week, than most people go through in a year.

* I never watch broadcast television. I have a DVD collection sufficient to keep me entertained. The best television shows are commercial free on DVD. I don't need to see any Moron.org political ads either.

* If it weren't for a good paying job and the occasional blogging opportunity, all of the atoms in my body would find more interesting compounds to hang around with.

* I am fast becoming one of the few remaining people alive today, who know that Calgon is
an ancient Chinese secret.

* I keep having this recurring dream that Winston Churchill's corpse runs for John Kerry's seat and wins it, changing the balance of the Senate. If Strom Thurmond can do it, why not?

* I once bought a $145 Japanese calculator for $15 bucks from a German tourist.
(just kidding). I can still use a slide rule. Pickett model N 200-ES.

1. Uber of PJ Maximum fame.
2. Wyatt of SYLG.
3. JimmyB, The Conservative UAW Guy (What goes around comes around.)
4. RT of Public Ponderings.(cough)

8. Fitch of Radioactive Liberty.

Another Presidential Malaise Moment

I promised you a president who is not isolated from the people, who feels your pain, and who shares your dreams and who draws his strength and his wisdom from you.

During the past three years I've spoken to you on many occasions about national concerns, the energy crisis, reorganizing the government, our nation's economy, and issues of war and especially peace. But over those years the subjects of the speeches, the talks, and the press conferences have become increasingly narrow, focused more and more on what the isolated world of Washington thinks is important. Gradually, you've heard more and more about what the government thinks or what the government should be doing and less and less about our nation's hopes, our dreams, and our vision of the future.

Ten days ago I had planned to speak to you again about a very important subject -- energy. For the fifth time I would have described the urgency of the problem and laid out a series of legislative recommendations to the Congress. But as I was preparing to speak, I began to ask myself the same question that I now know has been troubling many of you. Why have we not been able to get together as a nation to resolve our serious energy problem?

It's clear that the true problems of our Nation are much deeper -- deeper than gasoline lines or energy shortages, deeper even than inflation or recession. And I realize more than ever that as president I need your help. So I decided to reach out and listen to the voices of America.

I invited to Camp David people from almost every segment of our society -- business and labor, teachers and preachers, governors, mayors, and private citizens. And then I left Camp David to listen to other Americans, men and women like you.

It has been an extraordinary ten days, and I want to share with you what I've heard. First of all, I got a lot of personal advice. Let me quote a few of the typical comments that I wrote down.

This from a southern governor: "Mr. President, you are not leading this nation -- you're just managing the government."

"You don't see the people enough any more."

"Some of your Cabinet members don't seem loyal. There is not enough discipline among your disciples."

"Don't talk to us about politics or the mechanics of government, but about an understanding of our common good."

"Mr. President, we're in trouble. Talk to us about blood and sweat and tears."

"If you lead, Mr. President, we will follow."

Many people talked about themselves and about the condition of our nation.

This from a young woman in Pennsylvania: "I feel so far from government. I feel like ordinary people are excluded from political power."

And this from a young Chicano: "Some of us have suffered from recession all our lives."

"Some people have wasted energy, but others haven't had anything to waste."

And this from a religious leader: "No material shortage can touch the important things like God's love for us or our love for one another."

And I like this one particularly from a black woman who happens to be the mayor of a small Mississippi town: "The big-shots are not the only ones who are important. Remember, you can't sell anything on Wall Street unless someone digs it up somewhere else first."

This kind of summarized a lot of other statements: "Mr. President, we are confronted with a moral and a spiritual crisis."

Several of our discussions were on energy, and I have a notebook full of comments and advice. I'll read just a few.

"We can't go on consuming 40 percent more energy than we produce. When we import oil we are also importing inflation plus unemployment."

"We've got to use what we have. The Middle East has only five percent of the world's energy, but the United States has 24 percent."

And this is one of the most vivid statements: "Our neck is stretched over the fence and OPEC has a knife."

"There will be other cartels and other shortages. American wisdom and courage right now can set a path to follow in the future."

This was a good one: "Be bold, Mr. President. We may make mistakes, but we are ready to experiment."

And this one from a labor leader got to the heart of it: "The real issue is freedom. We must deal with the energy problem on a war footing."

And the last that I'll read: "When we enter the moral equivalent of war, Mr. President, don't issue us BB guns."

These ten days confirmed my belief in the decency and the strength and the wisdom of the American people, but it also bore out some of my long-standing concerns about our nation's underlying problems.

I know, of course, being president, that government actions and legislation can be very important. That's why I've worked hard to put my campaign promises into law -- and I have to admit, with just mixed success. But after listening to the American people I have been reminded again that all the legislation in the world can't fix what's wrong with America. So, I want to speak to you first tonight about a subject even more serious than energy or inflation. I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy.

I do not mean our political and civil liberties. They will endure. And I do not refer to the outward strength of America, a nation that is at peace tonight everywhere in the world, with unmatched economic power and military might.

The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.

The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.

The confidence that we have always had as a people is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb in a dusty book that we read just on the Fourth of July.

It is the idea which founded our nation and has guided our development as a people. Confidence in the future has supported everything else -- public institutions and private enterprise, our own families, and the very Constitution of the United States. Confidence has defined our course and has served as a link between generations. We've always believed in something called progress. We've always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own.

Our people are losing that faith, not only in government itself but in the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and shapers of our democracy. As a people we know our past and we are proud of it. Our progress has been part of the living history of America, even the world. We always believed that we were part of a great movement of humanity itself called democracy, involved in the search for freedom, and that belief has always strengthened us in our purpose. But just as we are losing our confidence in the future, we are also beginning to close the door on our past.

In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We've learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.

The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us. For the first time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years. Two-thirds of our people do not even vote. The productivity of American workers is actually dropping, and the willingness of Americans to save for the future has fallen below that of all other people in the Western world.

As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions. This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning.

These changes did not happen overnight. They've come upon us gradually over the last generation, years that were filled with shocks and tragedy.

We were sure that ours was a nation of the ballot, not the bullet, until the murders of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. We were taught that our armies were always invincible and our causes were always just, only to suffer the agony of Vietnam. We respected the presidency as a place of honor until the shock of Watergate.

We remember when the phrase "sound as a dollar" was an expression of absolute dependability, until ten years of inflation began to shrink our dollar and our savings. We believed that our nation's resources were limitless until 1973, when we had to face a growing dependence on foreign oil.

These wounds are still very deep. They have never been healed. Looking for a way out of this crisis, our people have turned to the Federal government and found it isolated from the mainstream of our nation's life. Washington, D.C., has become an island. The gap between our citizens and our government has never been so wide. The people are looking for honest answers, not easy answers; clear leadership, not false claims and evasiveness and politics as usual.

What you see too often in Washington and elsewhere around the country is a system of government that seems incapable of action. You see a Congress twisted and pulled in every direction by hundreds of well-financed and powerful special interests. You see every extreme position defended to the last vote, almost to the last breath by one unyielding group or another. You often see a balanced and a fair approach that demands sacrifice, a little sacrifice from everyone, abandoned like an orphan without support and without friends.

Often you see paralysis and stagnation and drift. You don't like it, and neither do I. What can we do?

First of all, we must face the truth, and then we can change our course. We simply must have faith in each other, faith in our ability to govern ourselves, and faith in the future of this nation. Restoring that faith and that confidence to America is now the most important task we face. It is a true challenge of this generation of Americans.

One of the visitors to Camp David last week put it this way: "We've got to stop crying and start sweating, stop talking and start walking, stop cursing and start praying. The strength we need will not come from the White House, but from every house in America."

We know the strength of America. We are strong. We can regain our unity. We can regain our confidence. We are the heirs of generations who survived threats much more powerful and awesome than those that challenge us now. Our fathers and mothers were strong men and women who shaped a new society during the Great Depression, who fought world wars, and who carved out a new charter of peace for the world.

We ourselves are the same Americans who just ten years ago put a man on the Moon. We are the generation that dedicated our society to the pursuit of human rights and equality. And we are the generation that will win the war on the energy problem and in that process rebuild the unity and confidence of America.

We are at a turning point in our history. There are two paths to choose. One is a path I've warned about tonight, the path that leads to fragmentation and self-interest. Down that road lies a mistaken idea of freedom, the right to grasp for ourselves some advantage over others. That path would be one of constant conflict between narrow interests ending in chaos and immobility. It is a certain route to failure.

All the traditions of our past, all the lessons of our heritage, all the promises of our future point to another path, the path of common purpose and the restoration of American values. That path leads to true freedom for our nation and ourselves. We can take the first steps down that path as we begin to solve our energy problem.

Energy will be the immediate test of our ability to unite this nation, and it can also be the standard around which we rally. On the battlefield of energy we can win for our nation a new confidence, and we can seize control again of our common destiny.

In little more than two decades we've gone from a position of energy independence to one in which almost half the oil we use comes from foreign countries, at prices that are going through the roof. Our excessive dependence on OPEC has already taken a tremendous toll on our economy and our people. This is the direct cause of the long lines which have made millions of you spend aggravating hours waiting for gasoline. It's a cause of the increased inflation and unemployment that we now face. This intolerable dependence on foreign oil threatens our economic independence and the very security of our nation. The energy crisis is real. It is worldwide. It is a clear and present danger to our nation. These are facts and we simply must face them.

What I have to say to you now about energy is simple and vitally important.

Point one: I am tonight setting a clear goal for the energy policy of the United States. Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977 -- never. From now on, every new addition to our demand for energy will be met from our own production and our own conservation. The generation-long growth in our dependence on foreign oil will be stopped dead in its tracks right now and then reversed as we move through the 1980s, for I am tonight setting the further goal of cutting our dependence on foreign oil by one-half by the end of the next decade -- a saving of over 4-1/2 million barrels of imported oil per day.

Point two: To ensure that we meet these targets, I will use my presidential authority to set import quotas. I'm announcing tonight that for 1979 and 1980, I will forbid the entry into this country of one drop of foreign oil more than these goals allow. These quotas will ensure a reduction in imports even below the ambitious levels we set at the recent Tokyo summit.

Point three: To give us energy security, I am asking for the most massive peacetime commitment of funds and resources in our nation's history to develop America's own alternative sources of fuel -- from coal, from oil shale, from plant products for gasohol, from unconventional gas, from the sun.

I propose the creation of an energy security corporation to lead this effort to replace 2-1/2 million barrels of imported oil per day by 1990. The corporation I will issue up to $5 billion in energy bonds, and I especially want them to be in small denominations so that average Americans can invest directly in America's energy security.

Just as a similar synthetic rubber corporation helped us win World War II, so will we mobilize American determination and ability to win the energy war. Moreover, I will soon submit legislation to Congress calling for the creation of this nation's first solar bank, which will help us achieve the crucial goal of 20 percent of our energy coming from solar power by the year 2000.

These efforts will cost money, a lot of money, and that is why Congress must enact the windfall profits tax without delay. It will be money well spent. Unlike the billions of dollars that we ship to foreign countries to pay for foreign oil, these funds will be paid by Americans to Americans. These funds will go to fight, not to increase, inflation and unemployment.

Point four: I'm asking Congress to mandate, to require as a matter of law, that our nation's utility companies cut their massive use of oil by 50 percent within the next decade and switch to other fuels, especially coal, our most abundant energy source.

Point five: To make absolutely certain that nothing stands in the way of achieving these goals, I will urge Congress to create an energy mobilization board which, like the War Production Board in World War II, will have the responsibility and authority to cut through the red tape, the delays, and the endless roadblocks to completing key energy projects.

We will protect our environment. But when this nation critically needs a refinery or a pipeline, we will build it.

Point six: I'm proposing a bold conservation program to involve every state, county, and city and every average American in our energy battle. This effort will permit you to build conservation into your homes and your lives at a cost you can afford.

I ask Congress to give me authority for mandatory conservation and for standby gasoline rationing. To further conserve energy, I'm proposing tonight an extra $10 billion over the next decade to strengthen our public transportation systems. And I'm asking you for your good and for your nation's security to take no unnecessary trips, to use carpools or public transportation whenever you can, to park your car one extra day per week, to obey the speed limit, and to set your thermostats to save fuel. Every act of energy conservation like this is more than just common sense -- I tell you it is an act of patriotism.

Our nation must be fair to the poorest among us, so we will increase aid to needy Americans to cope with rising energy prices. We often think of conservation only in terms of sacrifice. In fact, it is the most painless and immediate way of rebuilding our nation's strength. Every gallon of oil each one of us saves is a new form of production. It gives us more freedom, more confidence, that much more control over our own lives.

So, the solution of our energy crisis can also help us to conquer the crisis of the spirit in our country. It can rekindle our sense of unity, our confidence in the future, and give our nation and all of us individually a new sense of purpose.

You know we can do it. We have the natural resources. We have more oil in our shale alone than several Saudi Arabias. We have more coal than any nation on Earth. We have the world's highest level of technology. We have the most skilled work force, with innovative genius, and I firmly believe that we have the national will to win this war.

I do not promise you that this struggle for freedom will be easy. I do not promise a quick way out of our nation's problems, when the truth is that the only way out is an all-out effort. What I do promise you is that I will lead our fight, and I will enforce fairness in our struggle, and I will ensure honesty. And above all, I will act. We can manage the short-term shortages more effectively and we will, but there are no short-term solutions to our long-range problems. There is simply no way to avoid sacrifice.

Twelve hours from now I will speak again in Kansas City, to expand and to explain further our energy program. Just as the search for solutions to our energy shortages has now led us to a new awareness of our Nation's deeper problems, so our willingness to work for those solutions in energy can strengthen us to attack those deeper problems.

I will continue to travel this country, to hear the people of America. You can help me to develop a national agenda for the 1980s. I will listen and I will act. We will act together. These were the promises I made three years ago, and I intend to keep them.

Little by little we can and we must rebuild our confidence. We can spend until we empty our treasuries, and we may summon all the wonders of science. But we can succeed only if we tap our greatest resources -- America's people, America's values, and America's confidence.

I have seen the strength of America in the inexhaustible resources of our people. In the days to come, let us renew that strength in the struggle for an energy secure nation.

In closing, let me say this: I will do my best, but I will not do it alone. Let your voice be heard. Whenever you have a chance, say something good about our country. With God's help and for the sake of our nation, it is time for us to join hands in America. Let us commit ourselves together to a rebirth of the American spirit. Working together with our common faith we cannot fail.

Thank you and good night.

- President Jimmy Carter July 15, 1979

This was called the malaise speech. Carter was roundly criticized for it. You can pick and choose elements to support a leadership view, but the overall sense that people felt was, the president is blaming the attitude of the American people, for all of the problems he describes (typical liberal). Of course he didn't listen, or act, or understand why his presidency was an insult to the concept of leadership. He quoted the observations of Americans, then proceeded to completely ignore them. Presidents cannot micro-manage national economic policy in energy or labor and expect us to be a free nation. Carter also completely missed the role of criminal MSM propaganda, in America's crisis of confidence.

Presidents cannot lead by concensus.

Presidents can lead with optimistic strength. This was successfully accomplished by his successor, Reagan, who went out and said he loved the country. He loved the freedom and potential of the American people.

The ultimate determinant in the struggle now going on for the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas - a trial of spiritual resolve: the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish and the ideals to which we are dedicated. - Reagan

He was optimistic about the power of the people to cleanse the face and the course of the nation. He actively persued, nourished and imbued his presidency with this attitude.

Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have. - Reagan

He told us to hold ourselves and our media to account.

We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions. - Reagan

What did this optimism do?

It revealed that the people of this nation, those who count, those who vote, those who participate, really do care about it. It revealed that the people of this nation will rally to its defense and interests, when roused. There may be a large component of of cynicism out there, often vented by your's truly. Here is the point:

Cynicism is not the ingrained, rooted and culturally entrenched phenomenon that Carter made it out to be. Cynicism can turn on a dime, instantly, when the passions of the people are roused to do so.

Take strong note about the side that Carter has now taken in his waning mode of retired or retarded statesmanship. He is now on the side of the liberal elites. He is now engaging in the same bashing of America's spirit, on the stage of the international press, that he derided his fellow citizens for in his malaise speech. Carter himself has become a vocal part of the destruction of American confidence, by rubbing elbows with Cuba hugging denizens like Michael Moore. Basically, he is the worst embodiment of a hypocrite politician; A redundant observation in today's climate. The man is a total disgrace.

On the immigration issue, Bush should have also revisted this speech from Carter; specifically the parts where people claim distrust of Washington elites and powerlessness to act. Bush should never have engaged in the blame America sound bites of addiction to cheap labor and the race card. The 'Grand Bargain' was a horrible concensus based amalgum of garbage, which has the sole purpose of creating a blanket excuse for several decades of gross federal incompetence in the political branches of the tree. Kennedy waddles out and decries our lack of action as a devastating tragedy. The real tragedy is the lack of action in Washington; The lack of enforcement, border security and respect for the Constitution. We refuse to accept a legislated pardon for this incompetence. We insist that the hard work be done and done right. We insist that Washington prove that they mean what they write, before we let them write away their obligations, with a pardon for themselves and amnesty for foreign invaders.

Unlike 1979, the people did not have to wait to toss the policies out of office, with the policy maker. Those who enjoyed the empowerment of a real leader, the conservative voices of Ronald Reagan, exercised that power, without delay, at the precise time it was needed.

That is American democracy and spirit, taking action to protect the American people from foreign invaders and the criminally arrogant and incompetent bureaucrats.