Bottom Up Politics

Freedom, and a Weekend for Reflection 

Freedom is what Jim DeMint in an address to the Conservative Party of NY said the poles of the Republican big tent should be made of.

* (1)
—–quote—–
Republicans need a big tent, but big tents need strong poles to hold them up. And to win back our majority, we must once again make freedom the center pole of our party. It must be the one overriding principle that we can all rally around. Freedom must define our entire agenda, including our political, economic and social agenda.
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Freedom is not a mushy soft and cuddly thing.  It is hard.  It must be fought for to be had.  Sacrifice must be made to understand its value and to laminate our experience to it, to make it harder.  At its core however is a slender and brittle thread easily broken through neglect.

 By paying attention to that slender thread through our sacrifices we add layers of strength to it.  Over time we have in America built up a pretty strong support for our tent.  The Romans had a saying describing that strength; “Union is strength”.  A single stick will break easily but put together 50 sticks and no one can break them. 

To build and keep our freedom, we must also be hard. 

Freedom flourishes when we use it; when we sacrifice for it.  Freedom becomes real and not a cliché when we make it personal.  Without the effort to keep it Freedom doesn’t exist.  The originators of our government knew we had the right to the pursuit of happiness; I think they would agree we had the right also to the pursuit of freedom.  I would say that is what the Bill of Rights is all about. 

Just an example of what I mean at a local level. 

Pursuing freedom is not using government money through a bureau of the government to pay people to “volunteer” to work in a soup line.  Pursuing freedom is donating your time from your work or your family or your personal time to work in a soup line – for free. The only reward you get from the second way is that you add another layer of strength to your personal freedom and take one away from government. 

I recently read an interesting article about the psychology of the ups and downs of the artistic temperament; and whether it would be good to regulate those highs and lows.  The article was by Jeanette Winterson entitled “In Praise of The Crack-Up”

*(2).  She started by saying this.   
—–quote—–
 Although I knew I had plenty of personal failings, and that my mental states were unreliable, I also knew that I could do the work. I have never taken antidepressants because I couldn’t face the flatness. I preferred the highs and the crashes, even though it meant the rages and the withdrawals, and anyway, I’d rather have my own suffering than someone else’s solution.  
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Jeanette Winterson’s interesting article seemed to point to the common sense conclusion that the artistic breakthroughs and highs artists received was paid for by the cost of the lows.  Whether artists can achieve those highs without suffering the lows may be in question, but the idea that “the flatness” whether from medication of over government regulation will stop the highs and creativeness seems to be valid.

Throughout the article I kept drawing conclusion of a political nature in regards to using ones own flawed abilities to their fullest and learning from that.  To think that effort could produce something less flawed and closer to perfection is the leap of faith that all artists are willing to take.

Perhaps Conservatives and their faith are more akin to artists than the liberals that claim to be really are.

“In Praise of The Crack-Up” is indeed a weighty article; an article I keep thinking about.  It wasn’t written on a whim, but rather from close inspection of her life.  She goes on to say that the wounds of childhood that psychiatry is made of are actually blessing that we can learn or gain from.  She explains how the word blessing comes from bloodletting and wounds; and from which can come good things.

—–quote—–
The happening that common sense and animal instinct would have us avoid—after all, who wants to be wounded?—is also the event that brings unexpected gains.
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So next time when you think you can’t “afford” the two hours to volunteer for a candidate you believe in do some door to door or making some calls – think of the sacrifice George Washington’s troops made, even though they had been repeatedly defeated, disheartened, and weakened by desertions.  Think of the freezing and bloody trail they left as they fought through their own demons to surprise and capture a German troop to turn the Revolutionary war around.  Newt Gingrich I recently heard in a speech in DC at the Defending the American Dream Summit paint that heroic sacrifice in colors I could understand.  Below is a video of that part of the speech.  If you just want the part about George Washington, go to the 3 minute mark of the video.

—–video link—–
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LeiksSMDAM
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“What Can I Do Today?”  Well – probably a little more than I am.

Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative

*(1)
 http://www.cpnys.org/05-28%20transcript%20-%20cpnys.pdf  Demint transcript to Conservative Party in NY.

*(2) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704322004574475654003711242.html Winterson, “In Praise of The Crack-Up”  

PS.  What would you think of starting a Conservative Party or group in the Five Counties ?????

Look at the Michelle Malkin link below to see what brought all this up.

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/10/16/an-acorn-friendly-big-labor-backing-tax-and-spend-radical-in-gop-clothing/

This website of mine is to help the Republican Parties of the Five Counties, I wonder is forcing the issue with a Conservative Party might get more republicans acting like Republicans what do you think?  This would not have to be antagonistic to Republicans maybe an offshoot or a “Conservative Republican Group”.  Like the “Republican Study Group” in the US House which is made up of Conservative Republican House members.