We’ve all seen the bumper stickers. They pop up after every election. “Don’t blame me, I voted for ‘the other guy.’” In this case, of course, the “other guy” is John McCain (with respect to the delusional members of the Green Party, the Ron Paul bots, Ralph Nader’s folks, et al). Now, although begrudgingly, I did vote for McCain; however, I am not sporting a “don’t blame me” bumper sticker on my car. Don’t get me wrong; it would probably feel pretty nice to proclaim to the world (or at least to the other drivers on my daily commute) that I hold no responsibility whatsoever for the current problems facing our nation. “Hey, fellow citizens, I’m sensible; I’m wise; it’s you morons who are destroying the country, and I just want to make sure that fact is abundantly clear so that I don’t get mistakenly associated with one of you idiots.” That’s what I’d be saying, and honestly, after watching millions of Americans “unite” behind an unqualified, radical, empty suit this past November, that’s what I feel like saying sometimes. If I did, though, I’d be wrong to do so. I’d be wrong because here’s the thing… and this statement is going to be quite a shocker coming from me… Barack Obama is not the problem.

I will now pause to allow ample time for you to pull yourself off of the floor.

I will now hold that pause to give you an additional minute to gather yourself after getting up off the floor, re-realizing what I just said, and most likely collapsing again.

I will now extend my pause even longer to let you to cool down after you surely followed up your second fall by immediately bursting into a barely discernible, profanity laced, tirade aimed at me and what must have been an obvious mental lapse on my part or perhaps some sort of temporary demon possession to which I succumbed that would have driven me to physically type the words, “Barack Obama is not the problem.”

I know, I know. Take all the time you need.

Just do me a favor and put the bat down. Please.

Thanks.

Are we good?

Cool. Now here me out on this.

No, Obama is not the problem. We are. Barack Obama is exactly who we asked for. Oh, don’t misunderstand; he is a disaster for sure. He is destroying our economy. His presidency could already be filed under the “freaking train wreck” category, and that description may be a tad too complimentary. In fact, I don’t even think it premature to label Mr. Obama as the worst president of at least the last hundred years. And if you’re scoring at home, please note that 1976 was within the last hundred years. I just wanted to point that out for those of you confused right now wondering how anyone could ever be more incompetent than Jimmy Carter. Ladies and gentleman, the Barack Obama era!

God help us all.

For real, though, here’s the point. Yes, Obama is a catastrophe, and yes, he is wreaking havoc on our nation. However, his rise to power…really the rise to power of any leader with a similar political agenda…is, unfortunately, inevitable in any society with as little understanding about proper government roles as we now have in the United States, and in any society that has unquestionably bought the victim message across the board the way we have.

I was sitting around with some family members shortly after the election, and we got to talking politics. No one in the room voted for Obama, and no one was particularly fond of him either. However, one person made the comment, “I don’t really like Obama, but if he can fix this economy, I’ll be happy.” Now, that seems like a pretty sensible statement, right? It’s objective, non-partisan, and it offers a new president a fair shot. Who can harp on that kind of attitude? Well, I’m about to. Right smack dab in the middle of that innocent remark lays the mentality that got us into this mess. Somewhere along the line we determined as a people that the government is where we should look when there is a problem that needs fixing.

Well, as Ronald Reagan so famously once said, “Government isn’t the solution. Government is the problem.”

Yet, if not for a scant few members of Congress still clinging to the small government principles of which our founding fathers fought and died, and if not for a small segment of our population tirelessly sounding the alarm as the Democrats push us further and further towards socialism, the vast majority of Americans have either totally forgotten this simple truth or worse yet, never knew it to begin with.

The political battles in America today have boiled down to nothing more than fights for control of the government with the intent to exercise that control as means to muscle through one’s agenda. When President Bush used federal dollars and federal clout to mandate faith based initiatives early in his term, we on the right all cheered. When President Obama talks now about nationalizing the health care industry, we on the right boo him incessantly.

News flash…our founding fathers would have booed in both instances.

Shocked that I would say that? Well, then that is only further proof as to how far we’ve strayed. Understand this. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone more in favor of injecting our society with the type of faith based initiatives that President Bush passed than I. It’s not the content that I object to but rather the method of implementation. The government, quite frankly, should not be involved in that arena, and that really is the crux of the matter. This has nothing whatsoever to do with faith based initiatives specifically; they are simply one example of how the federal government today has become far too entrenched in every aspect of private society, and they’re there because we’ve let them.

Sitting in a semi-circle in Sunday school class as children, we all scoffed at the Israelites as they complained to Moses and opined that they might be better off enslaved to the Egyptians, where they at least had food. Who thinks like that…right? 21st century Americans, that’s who.

Bit by bit, year by year, we the people of the United States of America have traded in portions of our unsurpassed social and economic freedoms purchased with our forefather’s blood, and upheld with our father’s blood, for the temporary comfort offered to us by our Big Brother. When presented with the boundless opportunities only available in this place on earth, at this time in history, we saw nothing but uncertainty, and therefore, we ran right into the open and ever-assuring arms of government subsidized, guaranteed mediocrity. We continue down that path today. We lament the socio-economic inequalities in our society, those inherent in any capitalistic society, forgetting that even those on bottom rung of America’s totem pole enjoy a much higher standard of living than quite nearly every other single person in the rest of the world. We fail to comprehend that the definition of true equality is not that we all end up equal but that we were all given equal opportunity. Thus, we have become so selfish, so spoiled, so recklessly irresponsible, and so absolutely unaware of just how good we actually have it, that it has made us weak and needy, so much so that even the smallest level of discomfort is too much for us to bear on our own. So, in desperation we look for Uncle Sam to bail us out. Our forefathers, when beset with challenges, looked to the heavens. We can’t fathom that struggle might be natural or even good, or that perhaps its existence at all might be due to our own bad decisions. No, instead we fault others for our misfortunes. Our forefathers, when plagued with hardships, peered only in the mirror when placing blame. Then, they laced up their boots, straightened up, and headed out into the storm to change what needed to be changed in hope that they might taste the sweet fruit of a better life earned. Today, we seem only capable of listening to speeches about change, and our hope appears to be merely that the change is good change…and free.

We must understand, though, that the government is altogether incapable of fixing our problems, and is thoroughly inadequate to provide for us better than we can for ourselves…even if they’re more than willing to try. The government is almost always wrong…but never unsure. We have to know that the promised ease of socialism is deception, and that, as Thomas Jefferson once said, “a government big enough to give you everything you want is also strong enough to take everything you have.” We can be assured that if allowed…they will.

You see, power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and a government’s quest for control is insatiable. This is true of all governments. Our founders knew this, and so their aim in constructing America was to create a government for the people, by the people. This was their dream…a dream they also knew would be difficult to sustain, and one, after just losing their personal fortunes at the hands of tyranny, they knew first hand, as well, that we would have to fight to preserve. After emerging from the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, Benjamin Franklin was asked what kind of government we now had.

“A Republic,” he replied. “If you can keep it.”

It would be much to Ben’s chagrin, yet evidently not to his surprise, that we have been giving it away now, inch by inch, for years. The election of Barack Obama coupled with large Democratic majorities in both chambers of Congress has turned those inches into feet. This is evident primarily with matters of the economy.

In the words of Dr. Adrian Rogers, “You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”

And it was Abraham Lincoln (ironically the very man with whom Obama compares himself) who said, “You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift; strengthen the weak by weakening the strong; help strong men by tearing down big men; help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer; further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred; help the poor by destroying the rich; establish sound security on borrowed money; keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn; build character and courage by taking away man’s initiative; and help men permanently by doing for them what they could…do for themselves.”

It is my belief that most politicians know these things deep down…yes, even the liberals, and probably even Obama. It’s just that they don’t care. Prosperity isn’t their objective. Power is. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t our forefathers place the power in our hands? We the people…right? Well, we’ve been giving away that power for too long, and it’s time to take it back. It’s time to show these good-for-nothing imbeciles in Congress that we don’t want them to waste our money and tell us how to live anymore. It’s time to tell Obama that we don’t need his welfare plan, or his health care package, or his stimulus bill. It’s time to make it crystal clear to anyone and everyone with ears to hear and eyes to see that we can take care of ourselves in this country. It’s time to stop being the problem and start being the solution.

How so?

Well, as far as I know, we still have free elections in America. So, let us be sure to show up at our local designated areas the first Tuesday of every November with full intent to send a unmistakable message to every last one of our elected officials that they are just that…elected, and that if they don’t stay out of our lives from now on that they can and will be promptly unelected as well. It’s time to restore the pecking order in this country. We’re supposed to tell them what to do, not the other way around. There. Problem identified. Problem solved.

Power to the people, baby.

Put that on a bumper sticker.