The reason this country continues its drift toward socialism and big nanny government is because too many people vote in the expectation of getting something for nothing, not because they have a concern for what is good for the country.
Freedom is our most precious commodity and if we are not eternally vigilant, government will take it all away. Individual freedom demands individual responsibility.
Government should work to insure the rights of the individual, not plot to take them away.
I believe you can divide the people in to two basic groups, those who believe government is a necessary good and those who believe it is a necessary evil, those who want government to take care of them, those who want government to leave them alone.
The executive branch has grown too strong, the judicial branch too arrogant and the legislative branch too stupid.
I'm not a social friend of the Reagans. That's by their choice and by mine. They don't drink enough.
When you have a gutless Congress a lawless president can do pretty much what he chooses.
The trouble with celebrating Independence Day is that we tend to look back at what made this the great nation that it is and give little thought to a future that threatens that which free men hold dearest, namely freedom.
One other thing I think a conservative believes is that the parents, not government, are and should be responsible for the upbringing and behavior of their children.
...guns do more than protect us from criminals; more importantly, they protect us from the ongoing threat of government.
To me, conservative means believing in a minimum amount of government and a maximum amount of freedom - and keeping government out of people's lives and business - and leaving people alone.
The reason this country continues its drift toward socialism and big nanny government is because too many people vote in the expectation of getting something for nothing, not because they have a concern for what is good for the country. A better educated electorate might change the reason many persons vote. If children were forced to learn about the Constitution, about how government works, about how this nation came into being, about taxes and about how government forever threatens the cause of liberty perhaps we wouldn't see so many foolish ideas coming out of the mouths of silly old men.
That foreign trade should be fair rather than free.
The concerted effort to minimize Christmas has resulted in it being our national Happy Holiday holiday. The Christmas season is now the holiday season. Christmas parties are now holiday parties. Christmas is a time for giving and receiving presents and in many homes, nothing more. Who is this fellow, Jesus Christ, anyway?
I sometimes lie awake at night trying to think of something funny that Richard Nixon said.
There are many things in America worth conserving. But I am one of those conservatives who believes the most important of those things is liberty. Without liberty, without individual freedom, what is left to conserve isn't worth all that much.
I think the American people have become more reliant upon government and less reliant upon themselves and that they now tend to put security ahead of freedom, but I think freedom is the most important aspect of our lives.
That government is not a necessary good but an unavoidable evil.
Slowly but without question - and Presidents' Day is only one example - Americans are forgetting and ignoring the men and events that have made this nation great.
As I watch government at all levels daily eat away at our freedom, I keep thinking how prosperity and government largesse have combined to make most of us fat and lazy and indifferent to, or actually in favor of, the limits being placed on that freedom.
As long as there are two nations, two parties, two sexes or even two people there are going to be divisions. And all the talk in the world isn't going to change that. Thank goodness!
One of the things that bothers me most is the growing belief in the country that security is more important than freedom. It ain't.
There are some things that you can always bet on. One is that when Congress comes up with a new program it never works right over the long haul. Another is, when Congress goes to fix the mess it has made the mess only gets worse.
If George W. Bush really has the courage of his convictions the United States very soon will either wind up dominating the United Nations (as it should) or rendering it impotent (which would probably be even better).
Reagan's half a disciple of Benjamin Franklin. He believes in early to bed.
