The Comfort Zone

I've been thinking about the differences between how liberal groups organize, as contrasted to conservative groups, so I Googled "liberal organizations" and learned that Wikipedia lists 17 of them, including MoveOn.org, Campus Progress, and 15 others. Impressive. Then I did the same thing, this time entering "conservative organizations," and I was astonished to see 140 listings! These 17 liberal groups (and I know there are more out there-- ACORN wasn't listed, of course, because they are "non-partisan." Seriously. Stop laughing,) do an impressive job in rallying their supporters on many issues, from Presidential candidates, to voter registration (sure, of dead people, but still...,) to health care reform. They even pay "supporters" to attend town hall meetings! Now THAT is capitalism! (Wait, don't they usually view capitalism as the source of all evil? I can't keep their rants straight.) Many of the organizations listed as Conservative are issue-specific, and they appear to serve more as resources for information than as inspiration-to-action kinds of groups.

During the 2008 election season, I noticed that polls almost unilaterally showed overwhelming support for liberal candidates, and at the time I believed that it was because most conservatives were working. "Got to feed my family, pay the bills...Sure wish I had time to take a survey!" It was the same thing I saw with the "Battle in Seattle" in 1999-- a bunch of unwashed, skanky college age kids who probably couldn't have told you what WTO stood for if you threatened to take their hacky-sack away. They were breaking windows of the NIKE store, while wearing NIKE shoes on their feet! But I digress... Still, they were brought out by King County AFL-CIO, Direct Action Network, and the Ruckus Society. We're seeing it now, with labor unions busing in attendees to Town Hall meetings, while condemning dissenters as being puppets of...something. Insurance? GOP? Anyway, we can't possibly be there on our own. And that brings me to my point....

Conservatives are at a disadvantage. We tend to go to work, come home to our families, mow the lawn, pay the bills, help kids with homework, take them to baseball practice or Campfire Girls, eat dinner together after saying some form of Grace, and going to bed so that we are rested for a repeat the next day. THIS IS OUR COMFORT ZONE. We are autonomous. We are individuals. We cherish those we love, and help those we can. We accept the responsibility that comes with freedom, and that is just fine with us, thank you very much. So while we don't have a MoveOn.org equivalent to organize us, what we do have is individual passion and collective love of America and liberty. We have principles, and that one fact alone makes us formidable.

Here's what I'm asking of you.... Step out of your comfort zone. Talk to your family, your neighbors, your co-workers, your friends. Find a 9-12 Group or a Tea Party Group in your local area and get involved. This is too important a time in our great country to cling to our self-sufficiency. We have to stand together, not as one voice, but as MANY voices, united by our convictions. Our comfort zones will one day cease to be, if we don't occasionally leave them behind.

The Lowest Common Denominator

When I was in college, I fell for a guy who was cute beyond measure. He worked in a snowboard shop, and was an avid skateboarder and snowboarder. He had sun-streaked hair, a bit long, a bit unruly, a lopsided smile on his sun-beiged face...Sigh.... On the surface, he was magic. Below the surface, however, there wasn't much there. He just wasn't very smart, and for a while, I was able to ignore the less erudite musings coming from his beautiful mouth, but not for long. I caught myself stopping in mid-sentence to change my words, essentially dumbing down my language for him. When I realized what I was doing, I knew I had to end the relationship. I was lowering my standards to accomodate his limitations, and it was clear to me that to continue down this path meant that we would BOTH be worse for it.

I was reminded of this time in my youth because it seems that our leadership in America is much more interested in altering our health care system to emulate far less exceptional systems in the world. Evidently, imposing mediocrity for the whole is far better than expecting excellence,and acknowledging that people have a least SOME responsibility in their current circumstances. Now, I am not holding up our current system as perfect, any more than I would hold myself up as perfect in comparison to cute boy. What I do know is this: reducing myself to the lowest common denominator would have diminished us both, and reducing our health care system to that same level of mediocrity will ultimately diminish us all.