FRANK SALVATO: THIS IS IT
http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/7348
The moment is fast approaching when you will be asked to cast your vote in the 2012 Presidential Election. And while most people don’t understand that the American electorate, in fact, elects “Electors” and not the President of the United States, the act of electing the Electors holds an equal weight and an equal responsibility. This election, that weight and responsibility couldn’t be more pronounced. This election, the choice you make will determine whether the United States of America remains the land of opportunity for all, or a country whose government is modeled after the failed aristocracies of Europe.
In the remaining days both of the viable candidates will go to great pains not to do any damage to their brands. That will be the game plan for both President Obama and GOP Republican Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney. They will stick to their carefully manufactured scripts, hoping that their surrogates do them no harm while trying to market their respective candidates; inundating the airwaves with “warm and fuzzies” about each. From here on out, it is all about marketing; the last days of “the sale.”
This is how the political campaigns see the demographic for which they vie in the final days. This is how they see the all-important “undecided” voters. Truth be told – and, of course, this is my personal opinion – the idea that the fate of the country comes down to a group of people who know more about the rules of American Idol, or what bra size “Snookie” is, makes me want to vomit. Additionally, that the campaigns of the two men vying for the most important job in the world – and at the most crucial time for our country – would be putting on a “dog and pony show” to acquire these voters, instead of making sure these voters truly understand their ideas for the future of our country, is equally as nauseating.
Yet here we are.
I have opined that this election, aside from truly being the most important election of your lifetimes, and aside from being an election that will serve to define the American philosophy in the 21st Century, is essentially about two specific questions and an additional question of general morality:
▪ Do you want larger and more intrusive government or a government that safeguards your rights so that you can embrace the opportunity that only liberty can afford?
▪ Do you want a government mandated and controlled economic “recovery” or a recovery fueled by the only economic engine to create a Middle Class; free market Capitalism?
▪ Are you okay with your elected leaders lying to your face about things that not only will eventually reach into your wallets, but extinguish an ever-increasing amount of your freedom?
If you honestly answer these three questions then you will honestly know which candidate you should vote for; which vote to cast to satisfy your conscience:
▪ If you want larger more intrusive government, vote for Barack Obama. If you believe – as the Framers did – that government should be limited to the enumerated powers set forth in the US Constitution, you should vote for Mitt Romney.
▪ If you believe that government is the proper authority to implement and steward an American economic recovery through currency manipulation, treasury infusions and stimulus legislation, vote for Barack Obama. If you believe that government should minimize its footprint on the private sector and allow the free market to work – the free market being the only economic model to ever have created a Middle Class, then vote for Mitt Romney.
▪ And if you believe that government knows best what to share with the American public regarding information; if you believe that sometimes it is in the best interest of the country to purposefully deceive the public, then vote for Barack Obama. If you believe that transparency and truth matter; if you believe that all elected officials should be held to serving the electorate, then vote for Mitt Romney.
After all of the issues are examined, all of the scandals uncovered and all of the marketing is peeled away, these are the three most important questions facing the American public this election; these are the three questions on which we all must make our choices.
Certainly, we could rehash the minutia of the issues. We could examine each of the broken promises (now a matter of record after Mr. Obama’s first term) and argue the feasibility of proposed initiatives, but each and every issue boils down to one of the aforementioned three questions.
On the economy, we could expose the fact that Mr. Obama’s singular plan for addressing debt and deficit reduction is to allow the crippling budget hacking of the sequestration to take place. Or we could point to the failed promise of Mr. Obama’s first campaign to slash the deficit in half by the end of his term. Of course, if we did that we would have to look at the truths that are the exploded budgets the Obama Administration produced each year – over a trillion dollars in each of Mr. Obama’s four years in office. The list goes on but when it all comes right down to it, the base questions remain: do you want more government or less; do you want government in control of our economic engine or the people; and does honesty matter?
On the issue of foreign policy and, in particular, the al Qaeda attack that killed four Americans, including a US ambassador, in Benghazi, we could ask questions about what Mr. Obama knew and when he knew it, and who was responsible for giving or not giving orders. We could explore the grotesque politically motivated data dump about the bin Laden get. We could examine the facts surrounding the treatment of our allies and the embrace of our foes. But once again, it all boils down to the three base questions: Do you want honesty and transparency in government; do you want a government that is limited in size so that there is a manageable line of communication from our embassies to the White House; do you want government that uses our private sector trade industries to “pick winners and losers” around the globe in an effort to advance a globalist ideology?
And, regarding the well-being of our nation, we could explore how the Obama Administration has presided over a widening division amongst the American people even though Mr. Obama ran on the idea that he – and he alone – was the candidate who could unite our country. We could explore how the Labor and Commerce Departments have been “cooking the books” on unemployment numbers for political purposes; manipulating the definition of “employed” to include part-time employment, while ignoring the maladies of under-employment and the demographic that has given up looking for work. We could examine how the Obama-friendly mainstream media manipulates the information chain by omitting critical information or how they weight polls using outdated data sets to portray the “will of the people” in a more favorable light for “their” candidate. But, yet again, it culminates in the answers to those three base questions: do you believe honesty and truth are important in government; do you want the government’s thumb on the scale that is the measurement of our economy; do you want a government so big that statistics become meaningless for their dual-meaning definitions?
No matter what the issue, what the opinion of the punditry; no matter the minutia of each of the candidate’s platform planks, this election boils down to the electorate safeguarding the country; safeguarding the Charters of Freedom; making an honest choice so that our children and grandchildren aren’t screwed out of opportunity; out of liberty; out of freedom to pursue their happiness, not our idea of happiness for them.
The truth of the matter is this. This election isn’t about Barack Obama or Mitt Romney even though their names will be on the ballot. It isn’t about whether you like them or dislike them. It isn’t about being a Democrat or a Republican. It is about the foundation on which our government is set. It is about our country’s heart and soul; our core principles and values. This foundation; these values, have been ignored for so long now that they are in a state of disrepair so decayed that if we do not act to mend the foundation our “house” will fall.
We must demand and expect that our government be accountable to our people and that means maintaining government at such a size and scope that it can be managed. Today our government is so big; so massive, that bureaucrats simply “hold their collective breaths” until “uncooperative” administrations are voted out of office. When a lifer bureaucrat holds more power than those elected to govern, government is too big. This is where we are today.
We must demand that an honestly and equitably regulated free market be the engine for our economic well-being, and especially our immediate economic recovery. When a government can manipulate the worth of its currency, without any oversight available to the people in the form of an audit or accounting of the chief fiscal house (read: The Federal Reserve) then government is executing social and economic engineering that will inevitably lead us to be distrusted by our allies and more despised by our foes. It will lead to the dollar being replaced as the global reserve currency, setting the stage for Greek-like chaos and anarchy in the United States. We are facing this moment today.
And we must – must – demand that our elected officials and those who serve in their administrations hold honesty and truth above political well-being. When an administration can make-up stories about events that take the lives of Americans, or manipulate employment numbers and definitions of variables so as to create a false reality to influence voters for political gain; when an administration that vowed to be the most transparent and ethical in American history crafts life-changing legislation behind closed doors or declares that they are for an all-of-the-above energy policy while unleashing a regulatory behemoth that destroys entire industries, when we elect an administration that does all of this we have literally pushed the plunger of lethal injection into the veins of the nation. We are at this point today.
So, my fellow countrymen, when you stand face to face with your ballots this election, please contemplate the answers to these three core philosophical questions before casting your vote. This election isn’t about personality or party; it isn’t about who’s “cool” and who’s not. It’s about our country. It’s about our country’s future. It’s about our children’s future.
Lastly, if those three questions aren’t enough to move you to dispense with the divided politics of the day, then ask yourself these questions: Will your children’s children forgive you when they find out you had a chance to do something that would have preserved freedom for their generation; preserved liberty and opportunity for them, but didn’t? And can you live with that?
Optional:
Frank Salvato is the Executive Director for BasicsProject.org a non-partisan, 501(c)(3) research and education initiative focusing on Constitutional Literacy and the threats of Islamic jihadism and Progressive neo-Marxism. His writing has been recognized by the US House International Relations Committee and the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention. His organization, BasicsProject.org, partnered in producing the original national symposium series addressing the root causes of radical Islamist terrorism. He is a member of the International Analyst Network and has been a featured guest on al Jazeera’s Listening Post, Radio Belgrade One and on Russia Today. He also serves as the managing editor for The New Media Journal. Mr. Salvato has appeared on The O’Reilly Factor on FOX News Channel, and was featured in the documentary, “Ezekiel and the MidEast ‘Piece’ Process: Israel’s Neighbor States.” He is the author of the series Understanding the Threat of Radical Islam, an educational pamphlet series. Mr. Salvato is a regular guest on talk radio including on The Captain’s America Radio Show, nationally syndicated by the Phoenix Broadcasting and ABC Starguide Satellite Networks, catering to the US Armed Forces around the world. He is also heard weekly on The Roth Show with Dr. Laurie Roth syndicated nationally on the IRN-USA Radio Network. Mr. Salvato has been interviewed on Radio Belgrade One. His opinion-editorials have been published by The American Enterprise Institute, The Washington Times, Accuracy in Media, Human Events, and are syndicated nationally. He is a featured political writer for EducationNews.org, BigGovernment.com and Examiner.com and is occasionally quoted in The Federalist. Mr. Salvato is available for public speaking engagements. He can be contacted at contact@newmediajournal.us.
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