During this period of what we can only hope is a substantive reawakening of the original American spirit, more and more career politicians are finding themselves being dumped, quite abruptly, on the unemployment lines that so many of their policies have gone such a long way to establishing in the first place.
Taking their places, in an attempt at realizing the sort of a change we all truly need (rather than the type that our president and his minions seek to continue to foist upon us), are so many earnest Americans who recognize we could be in the last days of an America that has any real connection to the principles upon which this country was founded. Some are high-profile, well-heeled citizens vying for some of the country’s most recognizable political offices, while others are just much more “average” folks whose inherent sense of duty to this nation compels them to do what they can for all of us in helping to see America get back to its philosophy of origin.
One of the latter is a guy named Bruce MacMahon. Bruce is running for state representative in New Hampshire this political season (www.bruceforstaterep.com). He’s running as a Republican, but that matters little in these days when Republicans and Democrats have each had far too heavy a hand in destroying traditional American ideals; what matters is what he stands for, and it’s primarily for something for which any sane person should stand: the belief that a government which governs least does indeed govern best.
Bruce is not the privileged scion of a patriarchal political family, nor a representative of vapid Hollywood pseudo-success who’s decided, whimsically, to dabble in politics. He’s one of us; a real American, who is on his own real American journey; a family man, a business owner, and a guy who has had to re-invent himself professionally in the wake of a global economic mess that occurred at the behest of an army of idiots whose paychecks always seem to come uninterrupted, no matter how many other lives they disrupt.
I first became acquainted with Bruce when I tripped over a blog he used to maintain as an avocation. Eventually, the passion that drove him to devotedly write his blog pieces ultimately served as the catalyst that prompted him to seek out a role in public service, and while he dropped the blog writing in the face of the demands posed by his campaign, you can still see what he had (has?) to say by visiting the blog at www.massbackwards.blogspot.com. It has a regional flavor, so you’ll get more out of it if you have some connection to New England, but the unapologetically-expressed ideas in support of personal liberty and small government are universal and transcendent. Conservative Christians won’t agree with all of his positions, but neither will they agree with mine all of the time, either; as I’ve said many times before about myself, when my conservative Christian values find themselves crossing swords with my libertarian ones with respect to the matter of public policy, I generally opt for my libertarian leanings; my personal spiritual feelings notwithstanding, I ultimately believe that all Americans should be, in the words of the late economist Milton Friedman, “free to choose.”
It is easy to be dismissive of political contests that take place outside of the precincts, districts, and/or states in which they are most directly relevant to us as voters, but I would propose we not be quite so hasty in our disregard; we, as citizens of the United States, will always be better served when one who represents the ideals of small, limited government is in a position to replace…anywhere…a politician who does not. I cite Bruce MacMahon here in his own right, but also as an example of the kind of person running this season to whom the rest of us should be indebted and of whom we should be supportive.
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Bob Yetman, Editor-at-Large at Christian Money.com (www.christianmoney.com), is an author of a variety of materials on personal finance and investing, as well as on topics of fitness and self defense, to include the recently-released book Investor's Passport to Hedge Fund Profits (John Wiley & Sons, Inc; www.investorspassport.com) and the new unarmed combat training DVD Thunderstrikes - How to Develop One Shot, One Kill Striking Power (Paladin Press; www.mikereevesonline.com).
The general population comprises between 31/2% - 4% lawyers while congress is made up of roughly 85% lawers; of that 85% less than 20% percent have ever practiced law. The President, First Lady and Vice President are not in that 20%.
Posted by: richard burnett | October 25, 2010 at 05:02 PM